When you spend as much time as we do here at Man Boobz scrutinizing the Men’s Rights movement, it’s easy to forget what a fringe phenomenon it is. So here are some charts from Google Trends – charting the frequency of certain search terms from 2004 until today — that help to put it all in perspective. (Thanks to Katz, Cloudiah and Cthulhu’s Intern in the comments for inspiring this post.)
That “rapidly growing” Men’s Rights movement that MRAs like to talk about? It may actually be stagnant or even shrinking, if searches for “men’s rights” are any indication. Despite a recent comeback, they’re still less than half of what they were at their height in 2004.
Now let’s put that in perspective.
No, there’s nothing wrong with that graph; it’s just that My Little Pony is so much more popular than Men’s Rights that the latter simply vanishes into the X axis.
But this graph is my favorite:
Well, nothing will top that, but here’s a graph showing that people are a lot more concerned about misogyny than misandry — and, I would add, for good reason.
Let’s see what other trends we can find!
(Oh, and sorry about the low quality pics; WordPress won’t let me embed the charts.)
So what encryption scheme is it using, O wise one?
I’m assuming, of course, that you have the manuscript itself in your hot little hands, since you would never stoop to working from pictures, much as you can’t do calligraphy on boring old paper.
(Now playing: Santa Claus is Coming to Town.)
@Kittehs – indeed.
OK I’m actually not able to see the graphs on the Google Trends links when I click. Do you have to download something to see those, or sign up or something? I have a Google account (I think I have at least 3 at this point) but I’m just getting a blank page. Help?
@kitteh. I thought it was common knowledge that they did it. I didn’t realise they only just admitted it. I haven’t watched commercial tv in a long time. If I am forced to go back to it I would be investing in a tivo. I’d rather just pay for my shows, than be interrupted by ads.
@drst. what browser are you using?
Firefox. I have AdBlock running, but I disabled it and that didn’t have an effect. Let me try IE.
The rules could be different now but it used to be that the commercials could not be louder than the loudest bit in the show. Doesn’t take but a sec to understand how they got around that.
Wow, I couldn’t believe this:
“Just consider me an unlicensed philosopher. I practice my trade throughout the internet bringing enlightenment where it’ll penetrate.”
Hey kiddo, just so you know, talking like this out in public, in mixed company, can get you shoved in a locker. Now, I don’t advocate that kind of behavior, but I’m just saying — be careful.
But congrats! You got many on this thread to pay attention to you! Go get yourself an ice-cream, pal. Don’t forget to wear your bib.
Kim – common knowledge, yes, they just never owned up!
I tend to watch the ABC or, rarely, a doco on SBS. The only currently airing show I’m watching is New Tricks. We did start watching the latest series of Wallander but I was at the point of wanting to yell at him to a) get out of the police and b) see a psychiatrist. Mostly we (Mum and me, that is) watch dvds of series we like – Morse, Lewis, Due South and Foyle’s War are the current ones. It’s worth buying them ’cause we watch everything umpteen times.
I don’t know how you’d fix the Google problem! I just clicked on the link to check, and it worked. 🙁
Still want to hear what the Voynich Manuscript actually is. Come on, people have been wondering for hundreds of years!
MRA Porn: Sad little man angry at broken sex machine? (He paid a lot of money to learn that DENNIS system and he’s been friendzoned).
LOL BuffySummers!
Whoo, a shout-out to Buffy Summers….’cause I love the way you slay, girl! 😉
And Kitteh, I used to love Due South. It ran the same time as The X-Files…ah, good times.
AHA! This is one of those stupid “I disabled AdBlock but it doesn’t care and is still blocking shit!” situations. Grrr. I can see all the pretty graphs now, though.
Actually a law was passed in the US in 2010 to limit the volume on commercials to require them to be no louder than the show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Loudness_Mitigation_Act
In other words, this was annoying enough to actually get Congress to pass a law, so, wow.
now to make up for my comments on my browser issues, I offer a “restoring a little faith in humanity” link to photos from the first day of gay marriage in WA: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/60-moments-that-gave-me-the-chills-during-seattle
I swear this software is gaslighting me. It left in shit that I had deleted before entering the post.
drst, try cleaning up the cache.
@katz, heres a rundown of facts:
-Was written in the 1500’s
-So far uncracked as it appears to not have similarity with any existing language.
-Written on Vellum (which is crazy expensive at the length this is)
-The plants depicted in it are nonexistent. The astronomical symbols are inaccurate
-Seems to have 2 “languages” inside of it.
My theory is that its sheet music, coded by its composer.
Vellum is too expensive to have been used in a hoax, so I doubt that thats it.
The illustrations in it aren’t all that great, and the plants were made up. A composer wouldn’t necessarily know about astronomical charts, which would explain why they are off. It would also explain why the plants look unnatural.
At around the time it was written, the Catholic Church banned “the devils music.” “Blue Notes” were developed to get around the banned style.
But if someone wanted to encode an entire lifes work and keep it in plain sight? Everyone up to now assumed it was language, but maybe if they just looked at it like it was information. It could very well be music, but I have more work to do on it.
Kim, that buzzfeed link is the BEST! Huge smile here looking at those photos!
*eyeroll*
@kitteh Buzzfeed? I am confused or forgetful.
Oh, it was drst with the buzzfeed.
Shiraz, I think I dislocated my eyeballs rolling them.
Diogenes, on the point of vellum being too expensive for a hoax, it mentions in the Wiki article that if it was to be passed as a Roger Bacon manuscript, it would have been worth a fortune. More “art fraud” than “hoax” in that sense. Seems most experts think it’s real, though. (BTW fifteenth century means 1400s, not 1500s.)
Kim – buzzfeed was where those wedding photos were posted. 🙂
Whoops, Kim, drst, my mistake!
This is my expression every time Diogenes posts:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/okay-gif