Our old friend over at the Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Technology blog is angry again. This time he’s mad at a legitimate target: National Rifle Association president Wayne LaPierre. But not because LaPierre is the head of an organization that has stood athwart every attempt at sensible gun control, making tragedies like the one in Newtown an all-too-predictable side effect of the easy availability of semiautomatic weaponry.
No, Mr. Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech is made at LaPierre because he thinks the NRA big gun has turned into a feminist. No, really. Noting that in the wake of the Newtown shootings LaPierre launched a transparently opportunistic attack on violent video games, Mr. PMAFT accuses him of doing the work of the grand feminist conspiracy against men and manhood:
The most important reason why LaPierre is wrong is because what he is doing is feminist. Video games are an activity predominately enjoyed by men. So are guns. Both activities are under attack from feminists (just like other predominately male activities like science fiction are) because men are interested in them and women are mostly not interested in them. LaPierre is shooting himself in the foot (pun intended) by alienating allies among the video game community and helping out feminists in their war on male activities.
Never mind that nearly half – 47% — of those playing video games these days are girls and women, according to the Entertainment Software Association. (I await the inevitable comment from a troll telling us all that whatever games these women are playing just don’t count because blah and blah.)
What LaPierre should have done is form an alliance with the video game community. While the Newtown shootings are being used against gun owners right now, the next target will be video games and other mostly male interests and activities. Both the video game community and the gun community are fighting the same enemy, feminism. They should be working together to point out facts like how the Newtown shooter was raised by a single mother and how homes where the father is kicked out lead to more violence.
Never mind that the shooter — like virtually all mass shooters — was a dude; a woman is always to blame.
The NRA is in a position of weakness now because they are attacking video games and not the real causes of the Newtown tragedy, single motherhood and feminism. The NRA is in the same boat as the Republican Party where it needs to become an explicitly anti-feminist and pro-mens rights organization to survive. (Lots of conservative and right wing organizations are in this situation.) Guns aren’t the problem here, but neither are video games. The NRA needs to realize this and realize that its only way forward is by fighting feminism. Anything else leads the NRA to irrelevance.
So one of the most powerful lobbies in American politics needs to team up with a Men’s Rights “movement” that can’t organize a single event that draws a crowd bigger than 8 people, or else it will fade into irrelevance?
I dearly hope the NRA fades into obscurity, and I am hopeful that public opinion about guns is beginning finally to shift in the right direction, but I’m not sure the NRA needs any pointers from MRAs on political relevance.
I don’t forget how “lucky” I am that my disability is 1: service connected, and 2: actually admitted by the VA. Even if I didn’t have a job I’ve got what used to be called a “competence”. So long as I’m not too picky about where I live, I will never be unable to find room/cover board.
I recall the days when my income was a lot lower (in the 2-400 a month range), and I didn’t have anything like the hurdles of mental illness, or physical debilitation. With a part time job and my compensation I am, if not middle class, at least able to maintain the poverty level.
With partners, and friends, I am even comfortable.
Hugs to one and all.
“I may break out the whiskey after all, can I interest you in a (virtual) shot?”
If you could just put some in my coffee, that would be great.
Argenti, I’m feeling your pain right now. 🙁
Atomicgrizzly — assuming you still want that shot, you should consider your coffee Jameson’s-ified
Pecunium — thanks
Whataboutthemoonz — thanks, but hey, at least the reason I’m going to Boston is to see EA — I’ll have to report back on the new costume (you must be seeing the tour somewhere though huh?) …tell me you’ve seen “how to oatmeal”? XD
How to oatmeal
My mother insists that should be “how not to oatmeal”
RE: Argenti, Pecunium, and katz
Yeah. I just got lucky; my friends had a very large attic closet for me to hastily move into, and were willing to give me an air purifier once I discovered that the fluffy pink shit was SPLINTERS IN MY SKIN AND LUNGS AUUUUGH. Then I became acquainted with sheet plastic and a staplegun. (Nothing makes you handy like the pressing threat of homelessness!)
Things’ll get better. I’m saving up money now, courtesy of the ‘money for low-income people while they decide whether disability is a go,’ and waiting for the disability to reject me so I can appeal. I just went through my hearing, which was less painful than expected. (Though I could tell the shrink thought I was a white-hot dissociative mess.)
But I have food, and I have shelter. I’m safe, and I don’t have to move in with my family. I could do far far worse.
I’m actually not seeing her this time around.
Last time I saw her I did a VIP, though, so I don’t feel like I’m missing much 😛
Whataboutthemoonz — *jealous* I wish I could afford VIP! And I guess I will have to report back on any substantial changes from last tour (no Contessa! S there must be some)
My disability exam was one of the most traumatic days of my life. Four hours with a doctor: two spent going over every aspect of how I move/function, a short break, and then two more going over every inch of me, and seeing how all the history related to how my body actually moves/feels.
The first two hours were the worst. Having to look at all I don’t do as well as I still thought I did… the level of reduced function, painful. and emotionally exhausting.
Pecunium — as bad as I’ve heard that to be, they’re sending me to hearing without one. They denied me based on the file of a psych I’d seen like four times (and Dx’ed me depressive disorder -nos, gave me one of the many “contraindications: bipolar” and was all “oops, sorry” when it made me completely fucking nuts)
I’d rather do the exam than a fucking hearing without one. This has been such bullshit, and if I didn’t have an anxiety disorder before! (Two actually…)
Argenti: For all the things the VA is slammed about, that seems to be a thing they do fairly well. So long as someone, somewhere; in the military medical system, has treated you for something, they will examine you.
That exam was my hearing. The next thing I heard was five months later when they made the decision.
My former roommate too — he went for the half a day exam with SSI, got approved ~6 weeks later (there’s a bit of a complex legal matter involved there that got it rushed through, lawyers don’t like having questions like that hanging open regarding their star witness)
Me? First level denied because I didn’t get paperwork in in time, but wait! Yes I did! Appeal denied because they used just the aforementioned records, and now I’m waiting for an actual hearing.
Can you see why I’m a mess about this? I’m smart enough to know when I’m being toyed with.
Where were we talking about cheese? One of my partners and I were talking about it just now, and among other things we decided French is weird.
My theory that it fromage, and laine, etc. were gaulish/gaelic/celitc holdovers, fails. There is a gaulish word which is used for cheese, but it’s really specialised, and has come to mean a specific cheese (the word is blochon and apparently means, “to squeeze, to milk) family.
Though English is also weird, because the Old English (pre-Norman) word for cheese is hwaþerian (to foam, to surge). So how did they get cheese, instead of some form of fromage(Old Norman furmage to ferment)
The cheese thread — http://manboobz.com/2013/01/10/the-stuff-i-ban-part-2-cant-stop-wont-stop/
That oatmeal video was odd. But I agree with your mother, that is now not to oatmeal… she used rolled oats.
Pecunium — that part doesn’t surprise me, I’m pretty sure that’s EA’s vegan kitchen, and I’ve seen some of her recipes, not remotely surprised that quick oats don’t make the cut. It’s the utter failure of “oh no, oh no, OH NO” that pushes it into how not to oatmeal. (And I would not be surprised if Captain Maggots were drunk!)
RE: pecunium and argenti
My exam was draining, but less painful than I expected. It was humiliating to have to expose just how much a wreck I was to a perfect stranger, and exhausting, especially since I expect to have to appeal all this and go through it possibly again. The examiner was much nicer than I expected.
And then I got to go take a long walk, eat some frozen yogurt, and go to a friend’s house to discuss the golem mythos, ancient Carthage, and Tanith Lee, and I felt better.
Glad yours went well enough, I’m appealing without one because they denied me based on a brand new (and incompetent) psych.
RE: Argenti
I seem fairly lucky. I have a pretty strong paper trail, and so far, I’ve had no trouble with anybody. (Aside from keeping the multi stuff to myself–though in the end, it came out anyway.) We’ll see what happens.
Yeah, apparently my history of shitty psychs and thus avoiding them is a Bad Thing, in completely the wrong sense >.<
Yeah, I’ve been lucky. Two psychs ever, and two programs, one of which was really helpful and the other I was out of fairly quickly and still managed to get stuff out of. I don’t know how we lucked out so.
Cuz Sneak is awesome? I don’t actually know, but congrats all the same!
Interestingly, my psych told the state welfare dept that disability began in 2003, my SSI claim is dated a year ago (um, shouldn’t that default to having been disabled at least a year?!)
argenti: I was appalled that she didn’t use cut oats. Rolled oats (we do not mention “quick”) are, “an abomination in the sight of god and all right-thinking men.”