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.
“Don’t be coy, I’m all ears.”
To be frank, I’d rather not have that conversation with a bunch of assholes who label anyone who disagrees with them a troll.
“This is what you look like right now.”
Honestly why do you keep this shit up? Do you really need to stroke your ego every 5 seconds or is it really that fun to watch someone put up with jerks?
@argenti
Hugs if wanted.
And may I suggest that there probably is a pill to help tolerate arseholes, but it’s best administered to the arsehole?
Awesome, now he’s trying to add false teaming!
The sock smell is getting stronger.
~75 comments away from a 1K thread.
Challenge accepted?
@drst:
“I know you think you’ve making a brilliant logical attack on this space and your ego is puffed up with glee right now…”
Know what? I think he knows his posts are crap. He barely has any fight in him. The pauses in between questions are long, and when he comes back, he feigns amnesia, like Leonard from “Memento.” No, not brave enough to readily engage. Bored now.
In terms of tolerating assholes, loud music delivered via headphones might help? Since he won’t shut up maybe the only option left is to make sure you can’t hear him.
No self awareness at all. Amazing.
You are the effing party crasher trollbboy. We are just barely tolerating you and your asshattery. Not likely for much longer though if you don’t put a bit more effort into your routine.
I’m not sure my psych is trying to be antagonist, she’s outright said that since I can’t change him, should we work on changing my reaction? To which I very directly said that tolerating assholes is not a Good Thing and no, I will not work to improve this.
That was last session, so we’ll see.
fathertime — you’d rather not have a conversation you started? You’re welcome, and encouraged, to leave.
And the sock award goes to..?
“To be frank, I’d rather not have that conversation with a bunch of assholes who label anyone who disagrees with them a troll.”
It’s because you’ve got shit to say, sparky. Say something! You’re a troll, owe up to being a troll. You came into Dave’s place and started calling people assholes. Explain yourself. You can’t bother to give answers but you keep coming back to post absolute horseshit. What the hell is your objective? Why come back here if we’re just a bunch of assholes? You’re weak, dude, totally weak.
Maybe we should try the old pube warding spell?
“No self awareness at all”
No I get it, it’s trolling for fun.
Boring troll is boring, but African music is fun!
“And may I suggest that there probably is a pill to help tolerate arseholes, but it’s best administered to the arsehole?”
Lol but he thinks psych pills are dangerous and just out to give the gov’n control and yada yada needs an anti-psychotic.
Loud music through headphones was the goal, but apparently Garbage isn’t on my iPad and I’m now stuck correcting that. It is not my night >.< (since my violin is electric, I have really good sound canceling headphones, so I will be more or less deaf to the outside world once this is solved)
@shiraz: “Bored now.”
Sort of like this kitty?
http://youtu.be/On3bw0f8Ydc
Well, there is a place which lists the most popular subreddits: http://redditlist.com/
A string search shows “men’srights” to be #165 for total subscribers (41,474 at the time of posting, not 60K) and #113 for active subscribers. Given that standupshots is ranked higher for active subscribers, with a mere subscriber base of 6,826 I’m going to guess that there is a buttload fewer than 41K MRAs to men’srights.
Investigative journalism with statistics, you saw it here in this comment folks!
“when he comes back, he feigns amnesia, like Leonard from “Memento.””
What are you talking about? If it’s me saying I can’t remember the names I’ve been saying that since the start.
My kitty used to shred paper like that. Thankfully she seems to have grown out of it.
And that should be “MensRights” because no punctuation in subreddit names, apparently, although capitalisation is clearly allowed.
My kitties will shred t.p. if I let them. Little furry butts.
@The Kittehs’
That kitty is so cute although I must remember to thank my cat for never liking to play with toilet paper. I’ve had to clean up lots of tiny pieces of chewed real paper, but never anything that looked like that floor!
My cat likes money. I have to make sure not to leave bills around or she steals them and hides them under the bed. Misandry!
Yep, kitteh, just like that cat. “Bored now” is also a catch phrase the character Willow used a lot on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On one occassion, she used it right before she killed someone.
@Argenti, ah, now I see. It’s the horrible can’t live like this, can’t leave dilemma. I think she’s trying to help your psychological resilience.
ALL THE IRONY
“‘when he comes back, he feigns amnesia, like Leonard from “Memento.”’
What are you talking about?”