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.
@Some girl, apparently not one of the *42* MRA sites listed under the Boob Roll in the right-hand column of this website.
But clearly one comment, in one random website somewhere, out-weights those 42 sites. And that’s a representation sample! /rolls eyes
Didn’t we have a troll here a few months back that did this contradict myself constantly routine or am I misremembering?
AND they’d make him sit on HARD CHAIRS.
“Anyone who isn’t all that invested in the MRA “cause” wouldn’t care enough to argue about our perspective on them this much.”
I got linked here, and I’m bored. I do have a nasty habit of not letting online arguments die, unless I get a last word or it just seems to reach some conclusion.
Maybe I’ll just go off to redtube like one of the other posters so kindly suggested.
Or this:
http://mbh-ilp.proboards.com/index.cgi
We have a lot of trolls like this. Either they only come here when they’re drunk or being an angry sexist is associated with some sort of cognitive difficulty that interferes with coherency and/or causes memory loss.
That forum is exquisite! Here is a sample sentence: “By means of this approach, you can be extremely much certain of your national infrastructure getting increased very effectively devoid of you to definitely face just about any troubles by using it in any situations.”
I think that sentence should be preserved for posterity.
Then go. You’re not going to get the last word here. Trolls don’t, even when they’re boring and have a strong smell of sock or deja vu about them. You can’t answer questions, you’re just a tosser. Go watch some porn and make your wanking worthwhile, sonny.
Or here:
http://mlpforums.com/
“And that’s a representation sample! ”
I never said it does, or that it was one comment. Although you guys only asked for one example, and that’s all I need to contradict a blanket statement.
This argument has reached a conclusion. Everyone here thinks you’re ridiculous and is laughing at you.
It may not be a satisfying conclusion for you, but such is life.
@cloudiah
Well, I got 0 results for both “MRA” and “men’s rights,” so it very well could be. 🙂
Was dead baby guy also the designer of GOB tampons?
http://www.hulu.com/watch/404167
Let’s start with a definition!
Straw man – an argument based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position
In plain English — laying out wtf you think (or want to pretend) your opponent is saying, so you can prove that, irrelevant, argument wrong.
Guess what? We were, before you turned this into the All About You show, discussing their own words.
“I already told you why I don’t have any concrete records of my experience with MRA’s.”
Aw, isn’t that just dandy, you think you can defend your argument by saying you have no proof so you must be correct. And more, that you’d have to be psycho to have proof! *dies*
*revives self with a dash of ergot* (for those unaware, ergot is basically natural LSD, and fathertime seems to have been indulging…and hey, a little’s fun, but Put Down The Internet)
“You’re not proving this with the entire damn blog.”
We really do need that 101 section, or, you know, the FUCKING HEADER! Look up, we’re mocking misogyny, not trying to proof shit, but hey, you come waltzing in here claiming not all MRAs hold these views, you’ve seen otherwise, but can’t proof it, so we have to prove that all MRAs are like that / that we aren’t cherry picking. But we’ll get back to that!
“And hey you know reddit allows anyone to upvote a post and 50-150 upvotes is hardly a representative sample of MRA’s. So no you haven’t proven shit.”
Remember when you started this little All About You show? Back when you said David shouldn’t be surprised he was banned? Wtf makes you think the men’s rights subreddit wouldn’t ban the rest of us? Or, for that matter, Occam’s razor time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor — “It states that among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected.”
Hypothesis 1 — people who agree up vote
Hypothesis 2 — people who want to make someone look bad up vote to claim that people support the view
Hmmm…
“Anyone can make a blog chronicling all the horrible things people of group X say or do.”
Have fun with that? They generally get relegated to the corners of the internet if not continuously relevant.
I give you the paragons of reason:
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/811054
I can’t get that video to play here, katz (it’s US only) – what do they say?
::asked with some trepidation::
Not really, trollboy. Now scoot.
This one has just advertised that he’ll be coming back to this thread to necromance it and think he’s getting the last word. How tired.
“You can’t answer questions, you’re just a tosser.”
I have answered questions, you just don’t like answers and so you make shit up.
LAST WORD
Are we done now? Because the food conversation was a lot more interesting.
I’m having surgery on Wednesday. Maybe instead of fibroids, my surgeon will find out that my uterus is full of these. Embedded, of course.
“Aw, isn’t that just dandy, you think you can defend your argument by saying you have no proof so you must be correct.”
No. I’m telling you I don’t have any proof and that’s it. Why is that so fucking difficult to understand?
“I give you the paragons of reason:”
Wow, you found a single idiot in a forum. What an amazing task. And you wonder why you get accused of cherry picking.
@fathertime
I’m checking into newgrounds now, but so far not only in the threads talking about men’s rights has no one id’d as an MRA, they’ve all been misogynists!
*slaps fathertime with a decorative cotton fish*
“This one has just advertised that he’ll be coming back to this thread to necromance it ”
Don’t kid yourself you’re not that damn important.
You haven’t answered any questions, trollboy. Repeated assertions =/= answering questions (as in, “Can you provide evidence of your claim?”). If anyone here is making shit up, it’s you.
Food!
Here’s a food question: why do toasters always toast so unevenly? Why, why, why?