Men’s Rights activists and others in the manosphere often complain that it’s unfair to link their movement to killers like the virulent antifeminist mass murderers Marc Lepine and Anders Breivik, even though the antifeminist, anti-woman ideology of these killers is oftem indistinguishable from MRA thought.
But the plain fact is that they make the links themselves. Whenever there is some sort of mass killing by someone who is driven at least in part by the hatred of women, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before some MRA steps up to, if not explicitly endorse the killer, at least suggest some sort of sympathy or empathy with him and/or to suggest that the killing in some way is an understandable or justifiable or even praiseworthy reaction to the the alleged oppression of men.
This time it seems to have happened with record speed. Over on the A Voice for Men forum, one commenter, GregA, compares the mass killer in Newtown today — whose motives are still completely unknown — with oppressed people rising up against tyranny in the Middle East:
So far the only reply he’s gotten challenges this odious comparison, so that’s a tiny bit comforting.
Naturally, the MRAs will say that this commenter is some sort of feminist troll. But he’s made dozens of comments on the AVFM forums that are standard-issue MRA stuff – he seems to be a bit obsessed with the notion that feminist commenters online are being paid for commenting – and his comments in the past (at least those that I looked at) seem to have been generally well-received there.
EDITED TO ADD: If you would like to discuss the Newton shootings without having to think about this horrible comment of GregA’s, I’ve set up a separate no-trolls, no MRAs, thread for that.
EDITED TO ADD MORE: Meanwhile, over on A Voice for Men itself, one of the first commenters in a thread on the subject blames the shootings on, you guessed it, misandry:
Meanwhile, AVFM “managing editor” Dean Esmay complains that feminists “will find some way or other to blame us in specific for this.” In case Esmay is reading this, I am not blaming the Men’s Rights movement for this shooting, mainly because we have absolutely no idea what motivated the shooter. What I am doing is pointing out that someone on AVFM’s own forum, someone who has previously posted there extensively, is comparing this murderer of children to some kind of freedom fighter, and another in the very thread you are posting in has decided (based on absolutely nothing) that “misandry” is to blame.
You may also recall the numerous comments from MRAs justifying or at least excusing, the Seal Beach shooter.
Here are some more MRA comments on the Seal Beach murders which I chose not to post at the time. These are from A Voice for Men. (In the original thread they weren’t next to one another; there’s more horrible stuff in the thread besides these two comments.)
Are these guys “feminist trolls?” No. They are both long-time commenters at AVFM.
But again, pointing out these horrible comments is not the same as blaming the MRM for that shooting, or for the shooting today.
In the case of Lepine and Breivik, people linked them to MRAs because they had (or in the case of Breivik still has) virulently anti-feminist worldviews virtually identical with much of the stuff posted regularly on Men’s Rights sites, and other “manosphere” sties generally.
Presumably we will learn more about this shooter’s motivations, and then we can decide if anyone besides the shooter himself is to blame.
EDITED TO ADD ONCE MORE: Elam has now shut down the thread on A Voice for Men; as I write this the thread on the A Voice for Men forum is still up. I suggest you take a look at it and make screenshots. Elam says it’s because I’m “using comments from the thread in order to push his lies.” It’s not clear how quoting his followers (in full, without edits) is a “lie.” Apparently he’s unwilling to let his followers continue to post comments because, we can only assume, he knows they will say more horrific things, and people outside the AVFM cult might see what those inside it actually think.
Not, at this point, that there’s much doubt about what they think.
EDITED TO ADD STILL MORE: Meanwhile, over on The Spearhead:
As most of the readers here will know, the shooter was 20 years old, wasn’t a father and the shooting had nothing to do with any custody battle.
well that was quick.
Oh fuck. This is the first I’d heard of this shooting – for a moment I thought it meant the Portland murders – and I just looked at my local paper and saw what happened. Some scumbag murders his parents and other adults and LITTLE KIDS and these stinking shits try to defend that as “oppression”? Why don’t they just say they fantasise about murdering people and envy the murderers and be done with it? Gods, it’s not horrific enough that little kids are being murdered, but these creatures practically shrug it off. I hope none of the families see any of this filth.
Someone on r/mr invoked Paul Elam’s “How to Build a Male Bomb” video to explain why men commit the majority of these mass shootings.
Seconded.
I’m … just going to leave these here because I can’t anymore. I can’t. :.(
http://youtu.be/jJ4J-c1We-s
http://youtu.be/KLHw5g6J9hA
http://youtu.be/vGV1PYM4i70
http://youtu.be/ozdUE2l1_dM
This argument is familiar to me from my upbringing. These misogyinists believe that male violence is caused by women. According to this belief, males commit these acts of mass killing because women are driving them to it.
There’s an old saying that if you’ve holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I actually listened to Elam’s entire screed. Their worldview is colored by the lens of “men and boys are abused and oppressed by society; henceforth all bad things can be traced to this abuse and oppression.” So it would follow that GregA, feeding on this MRA worldview, would see a school shooting as a natural outgrowth of societal Bad Things to Men and Boys.
Ok, the actual shooter was a 24-year old man, not a troubled boy, but don’t let pesky details like facts get in the way of a good rant.
@Kamilla, I’m sorry. Nobody should have to grow up with that kind of thing.
There is a massive amount of mental illness that is not being addressed, coupled with a huge level of political ignorance. In the US, this combines with the gun culture–the belief that truly “free” people should be allowed to bear arms without any restrictions–to enable these events to happen more often than in other countries. Add mass unemployment, lack of decent health care or education, and we can expect more of the same.
Wtf?!
You do not strike back against oppression by murdering innoicent children in their schools! Who the fuck thinks that’s an approporiate response?
Seems the shooter was 20. His older brother who’s 24 was wrongly named at first, and questioned but released.
As a long-time domestic violence advocate, views close to these are not new to me. In MRA parlance it is also the fault of feminists, you see, when a man murders his partner and/or children. We’ve “oppressed” men with respect to them becoming “alienated” from the family and their kids; we’ve thrown their precious “sense of what a man is” in to question and this makes ’em snap, evidently. RESONSIBILITY-AVOIDANT PERPETRATOR-SUPPORTIVE DOUCHEFUCKS.
I’m putting this here because it’s more triggering, but the comments on AVfM are all kind of fail: http://www.avoiceformen.com/a-voice-for-men/mass-shooting-in-connecticut-school/
They give some lip service to feeling for the families and then segue immediately into how this is all really the fault of feminists and how the ebul feminazis are going to blame MRAs for this.
Asshats and chucklefuckers, every last one. I couldn’t even read all the comments. Between this and that r/mr thread on Jovan Belcher murdering his girlfriend I am in a state.
Yes, the MRM’s “personal responsibility” line is all about how women are, collectively and individually, responsible for everything bad done by anyone, and particularly for male violence. Men on the other hand just get to take credit for anything good done by anyone, ever.
I wonder if these douches think this murderer’s father was an evil oppressor, too? He was the first victim. And little primary school kids, yeah, they are SO oppressive.
Would I be right in remembering the racist MRMs as being fond of saying how the violence in Syria, for instance, shows how inferior and evil those brown Muslim people are? Yet they shrug it off when it’s an American white guy killing kids.
I find their immediate paranoia interesting. There’s an assumption over there that they (presumably the MRM) will be blamed for this crime. And yes, Kitteh, no mention of the father. They may not have heard that part yet.
Is there anything actually linking this dude to the MRM? Because so far I haven’t seen anyone here say he’s an MRA, only that he shares their hatred of anything with a uterus. The AVfM comments are bull.
“This is how oppressed people act out every where in the world”
I have yet to see Afghan women shoot up a school.
@whataboutthemoonz, I don’t think there’s even any evidence of misogyny. From early reports (take with salt) his first victim was his own father. There’s nothing (so far) to link him with any ideology or politics. Just a sad, horrible thing. It’s AVfM that’s making the link.
Just because the commenter provides an explanation for an act doesn’t mean they think it’s justifiable or are expressing sympathy. I don’t really think that’s fair to the commenter.
Yeah, for the record, I don’t think there’s any evidence that he was either a MRA or a misogynist. I do think that the response over on AVfM is all kinds of fucked up and horrible. You know, as usual.
“Well then AVfM is double plus un-smart.”
No argument there.
The MRAs abuser lobby justify everything any man does the same way as the highwayman in Lincolns Cooper Union speech. Stand and deliver or I will kill you and then you will be a murderer.
AVfM:
So when Paul Elam uses the tragedy to attack feminism that’s principled activism. When a feminist points that that, by linking these kinds of attacks to the “oppression” of men by feminists, MRAs really are justifying them — that’s the moral equivalent of murder. They are dug in so deep they can’t even spot the hypocrisy in that statement. Amazing.
from 100%cotton over in the AVFM comments.
WTF?