Today is an auspicious day. For the Men’s Rights Subreddit, which we often write about here on Man Boobz, has won the prestigious World’s Greatest Shitlord Award. Oh, sorry, I mean it won the Subreddit of the Day award on Reddit. Which is, in this case, pretty much the same thing.
Here are some highlights from the official announcement , which I am totally not making up. No, really, you can go look. Someone – that being XavierMendel, one of the mods of r/subredditoftheday — actually wrote these things. And meant them. I AM NOT BEING SARCASTIC THIS IS REAL HOLY SHIT.
The topic at hand today takes a generous turn from our amusing and lighthearted articles of the month. On this, the last day of January, we look at something a bit more worthy to be called an article. /r/MensRights comes up a lot across reddit and, indeed, across the world as being one of the few centers for men’s help. It’s often attacked, and is always the center of one controversy or the other. My questions reflect that. MensRights is, undoubtedly, the home of great activists.
Again. I am not making this up.
There were some people close to me that suggested I not run this article. That the repercussions of doing so would be unreasonably bad. Well, here you go, people. This is my way of saying that a good reporter doesn’t care. A good reporter reports. It’s not in my job to care about consequences.
I’m not sure that Mr. Mendel quite understands the difference between “reporting” and “asskissing.”
/r/MensRights. Never in our society could the uninitiated imagine such a place. A place where feminism is questioned, and our culture is deconstructed to find what it’s really up to.
Hahaha, what? I was not aware that feminism wasn’t ever questioned on the internet, or anywhere else in “our society.” I mean, it’s not like I run a blog that features nearly 500 posts detailing people attacking feminism on the internet, most of them nastily and ignorantly and sometimes using the word “cunt,” and the vast majority of them not on Reddit. And it’s not like this only barely scratches the surface of the subject.
/r/MensRights is one of the last fortifications of free thought to exist on Reddit.
Yeah, that’s why I was banned – not for trolling or harassing or calling anyone names, but for politely if persistently disagreeing with the denizens until then-moderator ignatiusloyola threw a fit.
“Surely you jest,” one might tell me, “when you mean they’re alone in this regard?” No, hypothetical 19th century British gentleman, I do not. I truly mean it when I say that. What other subreddit openly questions feminism? None spring to mind, and I make it my duty to catalog various subreddits. Most end up banned or run down within a month. Only /r/MensRights remains.
Reddit: Bastion of Internet Feminism.
Nobody can say for sure whether or not they’re correct in any single regard. It’s certain that, due to the laws of probability, they’re not correct in every regard. However, it’s also certain that they’re correct in most of them. Occasionally a wackjob or two will suggest that feminism is behind Cinnamon Toast Crunch (The taste you can see!™). The accuser latches onto those wackjobs to denounce the whole movement.
Yeah, it’s not as if comments suggesting that a man allegedly wronged in divorce court should turn to murder got literally dozens of upvotes in r/mensrights, or anything.
Oh wait, they did.
Yeah, it’s not as if Men’s Rights Redditors gave literally hundreds of upvotes to a post about a t-shirt suggesting that men could be convicted of rape simply for being in a room alone with a woman.
Oh wait, they did.
It’s not as if Men’s Rights Redditors regularly give dozens if not hundreds of upvotes to posts from unhinged hate sites like A Voice for Men or Angry Harry,or fall all over themselves praising an internet-famous female MRA who thinks that many abused women “demand” their abuse.
It’s not as if they think “spermjacking” is a real thing in the world that should make all men think twice about ejaculating in the general vicinity of women.
It’s not like … oh, you can find many, many more examples for yourself.
After claiming that “people have died” after being called misogynists, while “nobody ever dies after being called a misandrist,” Mr. Mendel winds up his speech with this stirring conclusion:
I support the struggles of people who are in bad positions. I respect it, in a way, for I have also seen great struggle. My struggle is not over, nor will it end until my death. For I struggle with something that will not go away through legislation or social change. The Men’s Rights Movement, however, struggles with something very changeable. Very malleable, able to be fixed within a generation if so desired. So I will support them, for they have a fighting chance. …
/r/MensRights is controversial for a reason. In the same sense as Jews of the 1890s, Irish of the 1850s, Hispanics of the 1350s, and many more. Each generation has their controversial improvement in society. We’ve gotten off easy so far, but we have to make it happen eventually. As far back as anyone living can remember, the table has been imbalanced in one way or another, favoring men or women. It’s time the table stays level for once. We need equality.
And that’s what /r/MensRights is trying to do.
Oy yoy yoy. There’s so much ridiculousness to unpack there that it makes me tired. I think I’ll go take a nap.
Mr. Mendel followed his stirring introduction with some questions for the denizens of r/mensrights. And there was some discussion. I can’t even. Not right now. I’ll get to all that in a future post.
In the meantime, Skepchick’s Rebecca Watson – who has been on the receiving end of r/menrights’ heroic activism more than once — has her own reaction to the Men’s Rights is the Subreddit of the Day announcement.
One. Just one. Someone you’ve met who seemed cool. You don’t even have to do this from memory; you can go check.
Anything I’m putting in coffee is being put in there to counter the acidity, which my stomach doesn’t react well to. I can drink really good espresso straight sometimes, but that’s mostly because it’s such a small quantity.
You should see DadFantastic! He is a meat eater who puts salt on all his food – including curry* and BACON SANDWICHES. In his ‘defence’ he’s smoked for 40 years so can’t really taste anything but yeah I’m basically bracing myself for having to rush up to visit him in hospital.
(*He lives in the curry capital of England. Any curry he gets is proper home-style Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Indian food)
Sorry I have turned this thread into a rant about my parents’ eating habits.
New troll is rapidly slipping into lulz troll getting frustrated territory, I wonder how long it will be until meltdown.
@ nat
I have an uncle who puts ketchup on everything. I feel your pain. He puts it in soup! He also drinks Irn Bru with his whiskey, and adds soy sauce to all Chinese food before even tasting it.
“New troll is rapidly slipping into lulz troll getting frustrated territory, I wonder how long it will be until meltdown.”
Depends on how long you guys can keep up “you should remember every random person you met on the internet” with a straight face.
What, that’s the best comeback you can manage? 1/10, needs to go back to troll school.
So you don’t go on MRA sites but you’re telling us what MRAs are like?
“Make note” can refer to mental notes too. For example, if you enjoyed reading Neverwhere then you would make note of the author and look for other Neil Gaiman books.
@cloudiah
Kitteh’s said upthread:
So that’s where he got it from.
“What, that’s the best comeback you can manage? 1/10, needs to go back to troll school.”
Hey if you’re not going to put in any effort why should I?
Yep, we are all going to drop whatever we were doing to talk to someone who can’t be bothered to back up his claims about people who he can’t reference, whose sites he doesn’t visit.
And now back to talking about cheese.
@CassandraSays
I went to a diabetic camp once. Met a girl who put ketchup on everything. Including corn flakes. With milk.
It was a miracle no-one hypo’d, everyone on that table was put off their breakfast. (Thank goodness for chocolate smuggling!)
“So you don’t go on MRA sites but you’re telling us what MRAs are like?”
Yes, they can use the rest of the internet too.
@Cassandra
I have an uncle who keeps a tiny bottle of ketchup in his car because he can’t eat a meal without it. He went to Italy about three years ago, when he was about 45, and took the goddamn bottle with him. Also he hadn’t eaten pasta, ever, until that trip, because I forced him to. And he didn’t like it because he couldn’t have ketchup on it.
I’ve come to the conclusion that my uncle’s taste buds are broken. The ketchup is bad enough, but Irn Bru as a mixer for booze?
I’m not sure how much more cheese talk I have in me. Although, I have a nice aged cheddar right now that almost tastes like Parmesan. Got it at TJ’s.
I think Father Time encounters most of his favorite reasonable MRAs making comments on YouTube videos.
@thenatfantastic
I’d much rather hear about your parents’ eating habits than that one time that he barely remembers, the troll met a reasonable MRA somewhere on this vast internet.
My mother might be anorexic. She has something small for breakfast, almost never eats lunch and used to eat pretty much nothing but tomatoes or beans on a tortilla with cheese for dinner. Now that my grandmother is gone, she and my sister eat most of their dinners with my grandfather so it seems she is eating a bit healthier, but they still could use more veggies! (My mother’s response to my telling her about my eating disorder was basically “so what? I lived on nothing but lettuce and diet coke for a year”!!)
“Yep, we are all going to drop whatever we were doing to talk to someone who can’t be bothered to back up his claims ”
Well you took the time to pretend it’s weird that I can’t remember the names of strangers I talked to on the internet.
Disappointed that you aren’t going to keep up the trolling.
@CWS When my middle sister was little, she used to refuse to dip anything until it had been dipped in yoghurt. Including pizza and chips.
Parmesan vs. pecorino romano vs. asiago. Opinions?
I’ll go for asiago unless the dish calls for something really sharp.
Dude, go back to wherever you’re hanging out with these oh-so-reasonable MRAs and bring us some quotes. Or tell us where to go and we’ll look for ourselves.
You are the laziest troll ever!
<blockquote Irn Bru as a mixer for booze?
You have not lived.
@SomeGal I’m sorry to hear about your mum. i know how she feels though. I ate like that for years.
*last post ‘dip anything should be “eat anything”‘.
@ katz
I’m not wild about asiago, would rather have either of the other too. Both of them smell better than the sock.
That’s kind of like someone coming here to learn about the works of Terry Pratchett. I mean, we have plenty of Pratchett fans here, and we even talk about them sometimes, but if you actually want to find lots of good, concrete info about Terry Pratchett and his works you’re probably best off looking at websites dedicated to Terry Pratchett. (Or reading Discworld. That is also a good place to start.)
What you’re doing is reading a few odd comments about Terry Pratchett that crop up on websites not dedicated to books and/or Terry Pratchett, and then declaring yourself highly knowledgeable about this subject.