
UPDATE: Elam has retracted his original story. See the end of this post for more details.
Men’s Rights Activists often insist that false accusations of rape are literally as bad as rape itself, and that false accusers of rape should spend as much time in prison as actual rapists.
Presumably they feel the same way about false accusers of other crimes, from murder to check kiting.
So in the wake of Paul Elam’s reckless false accusations against recent Georgetown graduate Arianna Pattek, one would expect other MRAs to rise up en masse to demand that Elam turn himself in.
Elam, you may recall, accused Pattek of serious violations of civil rights laws, claiming that she, as an employee of Georgetown’s admissions office, showed clear bias against white men. Indeed, Elam didn’t even qualify his accusations with an “alleged,” as journalists routinely do when writing about those accused but not convicted of crimes. Here’s what he wrote about her:
Pattek, who clearly has issues with sexual and racial bigotry, decided she would not only trash the applications of white males on sight, she also decided to blog about her activities under what she assumed was anonymous conditions. Writing for a web blog called The Feminist Conservative, Pattek laid out precisely what she was doing in very clear terms. …
Clearly this is a person not only warped by ideology, but who also holds deep seated prejudices that guided her unscrupulous actions. Her targets were selected by sex, race, political beliefs and perhaps even religion. Her identity was traced after she referenced the subject of her master’s thesis at Georgetown in some of her writing, including the “about” page at the Feminist Conservative.
The trouble is that absolutely none of this is true. There’s nothing linking Pattek to the blog, which seems to be a hoax, and numerous things suggesting that she is NOT the author of the blog any more than Paul Elam is.
As Georgetown has made clear, Pattek never worked for the school’s admissions office. She never wrote a Master’s thesis; she graduated from Georgetown in 2012 with a bachelors degree, not a masters (as Elam claims) or a doctorate (as the FeministConservative blogger claimed about herself, if she is even a she). Pattek’s thesis was a Senior thesis required for her minor in Justice and Peace, which a program for undergraduates. The topic(s) of her senior thesis only bear a slight resemblance to the topic(s) of the alleged doctoral thesis of the FeministConservative blogger. Even a quick perusal of the “evidence” posted on A Voice for Men will reveal numerous other discrepancies.
Indeed, the falsity and recklessness of Elam’s charges against Pattek are so patently obvious that even some MRAs have begun to doubt. On the Men’s Rights subreddit, for example, the mods have added “May be fake” to the title of the thread discussing the feministconservative blog controversy.
In the comments, someone called isktamin offers this take:
I’ve been on another forum with a couple other people, and this is absolutely a fake. [Pattek’s] thesis states that she is of Jewish descent and identifies wholly as Jewish, while the blog states that she is Christian and not of Jewish descent.
Pattek seems to be a pretty good person. Someone’s been deleting all traces of her from the GU website, likely another student. Google archives are telling us that she has multiple awards, she helped children in need in Kenya. Her thesis is of pretty good quality, too. The blog is of shit quality without effort to spell things correctly. It’s quite the blatant online defamation campaign, and I haven’t the slightest idea why.
Incidentally, he’s right about the difference in religion, the awards, the work Pattek did in Kenya, the difference in quality between the blog and Pattek’s thesis. He’s wrong about who deleted the information: as we learned yesterday, it was the current director of the Justice and Peace program, in response to harassment from white supremacists.
Meanwhile, alt right Manosphere blogger Chuck Ross of Gucci Little Piggy has also cast serious doubt on Elam’s accusations.
Even on A Voice for Men a few Men’s Rights Activists have challenged Elam’s case, most notably Chris Deslone, the founder of the Men’s Rights subreddit and a contributor to AVFM.
So where is the upswelling of outrage amongst MRAs at Elam’s false accusations? Where are the calls for him to be charged with crimes as serious as the civil rights violations he has accused Pattek of? Where are the calls for him to turn himself in – or at the very least, to apologize for his misdeeds and step down from his position at A Voice for Men?
I haven’t seen any.
For MRAs, sorry seems to be the hardest word.
You might expect Pierce Harlan of the so-called Community of the Wrongly Accused to have some sympathy for the wrongly accused Pattek. But he’s said nothing on his site (or anywhere else, as far as I know) about Elam’s false and reckless accusations, and Elam is still listed in the Community of the Wrongly Accused sidebar as a “False rape activist,” whatever that is.
Over on the Men’s Rights subreddit, meanwhile, the mods actually deleted a post asking “So, when does the woman you guys falsely accused get an apology?” (You can still find it here, but you can no longer reach it from the Men’s Rights subreddit itself.) The comments, naturally, are full of denial, and many have been deleted, making for a surreal discussion indeed. “I don’t recall having falsely accused anyone of anything,” real-boethius wrote indignantly. “Even AVFM had the story up as “Georgetown University Coverup?” – note the question mark, and they state that the evidence is inconclusive.”
Uh, Did. You. Actually. Read. Elam’s. Post?
Elam, for his part, after adamantly attacking all those who challenged his accusations in any way, may now realize that he’s made a huge mistake. He hasn’t admitted this, of course, but he has awkwardly appended to his post some of the information gathered by Chris Deslone that clearly shows that his accusations are completely bogus. So now we have the strange spectacle of a post that accuses Pattek of various civil rights violations, without even an “allegedly” to qualify the accusations, which ends with links to official statements from Georgetown that undercut everything Elam has said:
Here, here and here are the Twitter links in that screenshot.
All of this is surreal enough, but perhaps the most surreal response to the whole thing comes from the Reno, Nevada MRA known as Scarecrow, a former-but-now-banned Man Boobz commenter, in a comment on Reddit:
Apparently nothing is ever the fault of MRAs ever, including the things they do.
UPDATE: Elam has now retracted his original story naming Pattek as a civil rights violator. Here are the key bits of his retraction:
In hindsight it is apparent that I was too fast on the trigger in establishing a connection between the blogger who claimed to have sabotaged the applications and that of a former student at Georgetown. While there is circumstantial evidence that does connect the two, and many unanswered questions, there is nothing that makes that connection a verifiable certainty.
It was a mistake on my part for which I apologize to the woman in question, and to any readers who felt they were misled. The original article naming her has been updated with a link to this retraction and her name has been redacted from the article. I am also removing all comments to the article and closing them to make sure no references to her are made.
I think this somewhat mealymouthed mea culpa is about as close to an admission of wrongdoing as we’re ever likely to get from Elam on anything.
Elam continues to cast vague aspersions on Georgetown itself, however:
I also want to make it clear that this retraction does not mean that AVFM is abandoning its investigation into the validity of the claims made about trashing university applications based on sex and race. Additionally, we are not done with concerns about the university itself, whose unusual and somewhat cryptic manner of responding to this story leaves more questions than answers.
Actually, I think Georgetown was fairly direct in responding to most of the questions on its official Twitter account. Elam also brings up his conspiracy theory, saying that
we did not take an interest in it until it became apparent that Georgetown University was moving, without explanation, to remove all references to her from their websites.
In fact, the director of the Justice and Peace program at Georgetown, Mark Lance, provided an explanation of this to my readers yesterday, as I pointed out in this post. But I’ll recap: according to Lance, the past director of the Justice and Peace program took her information down in response to harassment from white supremacists. There’s nothing particularly mysterious about that.
I’m honestly surprised to see Elam admit to being wrong about anything. I suspect — though I have no proof, and this is simply speculation — that he may have spoken to a lawyer — either his own, or someone else’s.
Normally I’d say that writing an editorial in your college newspaper about women ought to be grateful that they used to be barred from working doesn’t count as “activism,” but it’s closer to activism than teaming up with white supremacists to harass a randomly selected woman in a plan even David Duke hurries to distance himself from, so good work, douchebag business major at Rutgers!
The problem with NWO as an attorney is the first thing he would do is check the flag for fringe. He might even ask if the judge believed money which says, “Federal Reserve” is legitimate.
and yet MRAs and other manosphere bigots are the ones who shriek the loudest about MANLY FACTS AND RATIONALITY….apparently those do not apply at all when it comes to feminists and, most of the time, any topic about women.
Hypocritical turds. Even the forced apologies and weak skepticism isn’t much solace, though I guess it’s deserves a tiny bit of positive recognition…tiny like a single poppyseed tiny.
*reads article*
I am so goddamn sick of these assholes pretending women are not affected by war. What are the houses they are sitting in bomb and bullet proof? it is so dismissive and a complete lie.
They also never bring up the fact that war and the military was a test of manhood…by other men. So what they are saying then is that men are oppressing themselves? Or did every single man in the military and army, from the general to the soldiers, have a feminist brain slug attached to their heads.
“The problem with NWO as an attorney is the first thing he would do is check the flag for fringe. He might even ask if the judge believed money which says, “Federal Reserve” is legitimate.”
::dies::
@Quackers: I just got to the paragraph which is essentially, “And women can get dates easier!” and I just- flames, on the side of my face.
Quackers: Oh, no, war was all women’s fault, too. See, there was a campaign, in WWI Britain (dreamed up by a man) to get women to pass out white feathers to men who had not gone to war, as a shaming tactic. Ergo, by the Chronotransitive Misandrist Quantum Principle, all wars throughout all time and space, including alternate realities, were also caused exclusively by women.
It’s apparently quite self-evident, once you’ve shoved your head so far between your bum-cheeks that you’ve become an Asshat Ouroborus. (Disclosure: I’ve used that term before this. I like it, though.)
“Chronotransitive Misandrist Quantum Principle”
How’m I supposed to choose a band name from all these possibilities?
@gelar
most of the time with MRAs, them not getting dates or sex is brought up as an example of oppression. If that’s not entitlement I don’t know what is.
Furthermore to use the real death of soldiers as one example of oppression, then use not getting dates as easy as another….not only is it disgustingly callous to soldiers, but it’s just so damn stupid. I can’t believe this guy actually graduated University
I want to speak in favor of having the phrase “asshat ouroborus” in heavy rotation here. Didn’t katz post an image for it?
See, women never ever die in war, because the only people who ever die in war are conscripted soldiers. Science!
I just let through a comment from Greg Canning that shows pretty clearly that he didn’t even bother to read the headline of this post all the way through before commenting.
Oh yes, good ol’ Admiral Fitzgerald…I am shocked! so SHOCKED, that MRAs never mention him up when bringing up the white feather stuff. No it was all those cackling suffragettes who thought it up because they just loved the thought of men dying! the bitches.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Cooper_Penrose_Fitzgerald
I’m not gonna deny the suffragettes were being hypocritical, but as MRAs always criticize feminists for looking at things through a modern lense, is it really that surprising that women at the time believed they were weak and incapable to fight?
and yeah…never mind every other war out there, somehow that was all our fault too! therefore men go to war so shut up about your lady rights! that’s pretty much their entire argument.
David, there are 21 words in that headline. You can’t expect a person to read all that.
Hi Greg! So glad you could make it to our Easter get-together! But, um, Greg, it’s April 22. Yeah, yeah, you’re a little late buddy. I’m sure you’ll understand why we’re not going to let you in. But there’s always next year!
Also, also, he posted something that basically says “yeah, Paul Elam got everything wrong in that post of his that you called out and that for several days he adamantly insisted was correct but now he admits he was wrong — GOTCHA MANBOOBZ!!!!!”
Turns out you were right all along, manboobz — GOTCHA!!!!!!!
Ah, he’s playing the Long Con. By stating that you being right is all part of the plan, he’s trying to make you doubt yourself and eventually make you stop literally posting and screen capping what they say, because if you do, and take their words at face value and investigate their false allegations, you’ll be doing just what they want! Proving yourself right in your own statements!
You’re not the hero the Spearhead needs, but the hero it deserves!
Why do they mock you? They mock you so you can chase them!
Don’t fall for it, Futrelle! Don’t be right and reasonable and entertaining and investigative and fun.. Don’t you see, you’re just playing right into the MRA’s hands. Oh, the devious bastards.
Reblogged this on woosterlang87.
Reblogged this on auguries14.
Apropos of nothing, but I think Mark Mintner (The Minty”) has lost his mind. Please check out my latest post (via Roosh The Douche’s twitter feed). Did we push him over the edge last night?
The comments that follow are equally bizarre…
Aww, Minty, don’t listen to these harpies! WE know that “Five o’clock”, “moderation”, “cirrhosis”, and “delirium tremens” are all just LIBERAL LIES designed to prevent a man from doing an honest day’s labor while drinking an honest man’s lunch: an entire handle of vodka. Shine on, you crazy day-drunk diamond!
@La Strega
Unless I read wrong, Minty shops for food in the middle of the night? I didn’t realize that the supermarket is where we evil western women were supposed to do all the horrible things we apparently do to men. I’ve been going about it all wrong! just going about my business trying to avoid all the unhealthy yet yummy food.
Ah well. *hands in feminist card*
I’m a bit late here but I just went through the comments and you guys just don’t realize. Wake up!
The apology is just a diversion from avfm to make us stop informing the world that Paul Elam is made of bees. Now, while we have empirical evidence that bees cannot type on a keyboard (winkwink, he is swarming bees: why would he fuck muffins otherwise?), I feel that he didn’t reply adequately to our questions. So I’m not denying his beehood, but I want to make sure that he doesn’t hire Donald Trumps lawyer and sue me of libel for hinting at his insect DNA.
Again, just asking questions (I’m sure there’s a question somewhere).
I don’t want my cat to get stung, so I suggest we now send an army of platypus to harass him. Being a bee MRA is just not acceptable.