This just in: Men’s Rights Activists are some of the most gullible nincompoops in the history of ever.
The latest evidence of this? The regulars on the Men’s Rights subreddit were fooled by an obviously fake “screenshot” of an article from Jezebel that had been altered to make it look like a Jezebel staff writer thinks that paternity fraud is justifiable as a way to fight patriarchy.
No, seriously, the Reddit MRAs actually thought that Anna North of Jezebel had written that “the ability to lie about your children’s parentage is one way to break the rule of fathers.”
Here’s the “screenshot.” And here’s the original thread, which has been deleted from the Men’s Rights subreddit but which is still up, just not reachable from the subreddit.
The irony in many of the comments is off the charts. “It’s Jezebel, of course they think this way,” writes Riesea. “Wow,” says actorsspace. “If Jezebel had a sense of humor, I would suspect them of trolling.”
Blueoak9 — what happened to the original eight? — is stunned that even the evil feminists would sink so low:
There are, of course, a few teensy clues that North’s supposed quote about “break[ing] the rule of fathers” is a big fat fake (as are some of the others in that “screenshot”).
One is that nobody at Jezebel writes or thinks like that.
And second, there’s the tiny fact THAT THE REAL ARTICLE IS UP ON JEZEBEL AND IT DOESN’T SAY ANY OF THAT SHIT AND ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GO READ IT FOR FUCK’S SAKE IT’S RIGHT HERE.
In fact, Anna North, the author of the Jezebel article, makes an argument that’s the exact opposite of the one attributed to her in the “screenshot.” Challenging a writer in the London Times who had argued that “the ability to pass a child off on a man was a potent female weapon,” North countered that such a stance was not only morally questionable but also pretty antifeminist:
I’d rather “make male claims to omnipotence absurd” by, say, being economically and politically equal to men — not by making them raise babies that aren’t theirs.
Now, you might wonder why exactly the Men’s Rights crowd on Reddit was reading a screenshot of a Jezebel article and not an actual Jezebel article. Well, that’s because the Men’s Rights subreddit has banned all direct links to Jezebel and other Gawker media sites because the MRAs are still mad about that Violentacrez thing.
Yes, the subreddit that links in its sidebar to a site — A Voice for Men — that not only has offered thousand dollar bounties for the personal information of its feminist enemies but that also carries an open call to firebomb courthouses and police stations in its “activism section” is still pig-biting mad about Gawker’s “doxing” of the man who helped to ruin the lives of countless teenage girls by founding and protecting Reddit’s Jailbait subreddit and dozens of other noxious subreddits.
And so someone was able to use this fact to exploit MRA ignorance and paranoia about feminism and make the inhabitants of the Men’s Rights subreddit look like fools.
Again.
Or some MRA with zero ethics wanted to make feminists look bad and failed utterly. I think this is less likely, but with MRAs, anything is possible.
When you’re done reading the original discussion of the fake article on the Men’s Rights subreddit, you can read the discussion there about how they were trolled. Including the comments from this person who thinks that “even if it’s a troll… so what? It’s still presenting an opinion that many a feminist has held.” Straw feminism is REAL! And this person (with dozens of upvotes) who thinks they should just ban all links to all feminist blogs because, hey, what’s the point in knowing anything at all about something you talk about constantly?
EDIT: Thanks to the AgainstMensRights subreddit, I was able to find the link to the original banned post, and so I’ve put the link (and some comments from the discussion) into the post above.
This reminds me of the MRA shiboleth that feminists hate the idea of male birth control when it was feminist websites that first introduced me to the idea (which appropriate links to possible methods). I’ve never seen a feminist say anything against male birth control (besides “That method might not work” and “There isn’t a market for it” which are analyses of the practical method.)
Guys: we really don’t care about paternity tests. We don’t want them to be mandatory, because that’s stupid and expensive, and we don’t believe a man gets to abandon children he helped raise because they turned out not to be his (not to mention plenty of men wouldn’t want their parental rights eliminated in that case).
MRAs are not the brightest bulbs on the tree, are they?
Ah, Anna. She’s the one who starred me over there.
She’s also not an idiot, and would not have said the things they’re attributing to her, which they would already know if they did not suffer from the confirmation bias of doom.
Someone’s having a fine time winding these simpletons up.
In a week or two this hoax will be a known true fact and get added to… The List!
Oh dear lord. If trolls show up arguing that feminists want to perform paternity fraud to fight patriarchy, we’ll have created a stable Manboobz loop.
Like a mobious loop! But with more shouting and cries of rapetard.
Well, we all know that the article is fake… but what if all the responses were fake too? Nay, the ENTIRE subreddit is an elaborate performance art of trolling!
Hey, I can dream.
Which reminds me: good news, everyone! My road trip seems to be back on, which saves my housing situation! Who wants Internet chili chocolate cookies in celebration?
@KathleenB I prefer “a couple McNuggets short of a Happy meal” myself, but either way…
Can someone with the time and wherewithal please create a The Onion-esque Feminist Strawman publication? Then some day when we are bored, we can take it live to troll the MRAs, maybe use it as a vehicle for some fun prop bets. If the MRAs are going to exist and be obnoxious, we can at least exploit their vulnerabilities (gullibility) for some harmless entertainment.
@Fibinachi I think you may be best suited to create the aforementioned content.
Hah! Owned!
[gif of man kicking woman removed by DF, and now PEMRA here is banned.]
pemra, what the heck are you even talking about now?
PEMRA: that gif sums you up perfectly. SO much for you being a moderate, you utter toad.
Welp, we all better pack it in and go home. PEMRA clearly just won that and every argument with that brilliant, topical contribution.
@PEMRA:
Why would you think that gif was in any way appropriate or funny? Inquisitive minds want to know.
@LBT:
Haven’t you heard? Manboobz itself is fake! As is the entire MRM. Every article you’ve ever seen about MRAs has been planted as a false flag operation to ensure the femdominion! All MRAs are either imaginary or in on the game. Hell, I’m not even real. I’m just a sentient AI designed to populate a fake blog with fake comments.
This is so fake that, in a bizarre twist, it has become real. People have actually been convinced by the fake MRAs, who are forced to continue ranting and raving on forums so as not to give the game away. And Feminism has been forced to fight the monster it has created in reality, rather than in staged interviews and articles.
PEMRA got sick of arguing about whether he supported violence against women.
So he decided to remove all doubt by POSTING A GIF OF VIOLENCE AGAINST A WOMAN.
RE: kirbywarp
My god. THE INTERNET IS THE MATRIX! Now where’s Laurence Fishburne to pull me outta this…
RE: peMRA
That’s nice. Now go back to your off-topic thread where you belong before I start posting cute animal pictures, as per Manboobz tradition.
On the bright side, PEMRA just bought himself a ticket to bansville.
Eh, he’ll be back with a new nym tomorrow.
Cynicism, it’s what’s for breakfast.
Katz: we can only hope.
Is anyone else reminded of the time Al came here drunk, and constantly kept posting that one .gif of ‘deal with it’? Because I sure am!
It’s the fingersnap of the unhappy troll who hates his life.
If ever there was ever an argument in favor if of human cloning, this is it. A man’s home should be his castle but cuckoldry, cursed fate worse than death, breaks the line of kings, spawning bastards in a world already too full of them. Ah, forever have men been plagued by the lies and betrayals of liars and traitors. As a line from Tekken 3 goes, “Will Mokujin (i.e. Mankind) ever be free?” Sigh…
Manboobz isn’t a hoax, but David is a group of women.
MRAs, once again, so very happy to dig beyond the bottom of the barrel!
RE: katz
I KNEW IT!
And also, I have been lying to you guys all this time. I am, in fact… A MUTANT TALKING GERMAN SHEPARD!
I’m really a collection of cats.
I’m sorry but this means we can’t be friends any more, since those are the only dogs that I’m scared of.
Quick, someone tell Joe so he can come gloat!
And it wasn’t even a gif–it was a link to a store selling a sticker!
RE: CassandraSays
NOOOOOOOO! But, but… what about the glorious gyno-hive mind? We’re supposed to all be ONE!
RE: katz
Wow, it’s sad when my brain freaking remade that scenario to be slightly less dumb.
@BabyLawyer http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=311
^straw feminists in action 😀
@katz
I thought we’d established that David was a tribe of feral cats with an internet connection.
LBT:
Great, now I’m reading everything you write in Professor Farnsworth’s voice. Which works surprisingly well for phrases like “glorious gyno-hive mind”.
I had to look it up, but here it is: a golden oldie from the previous site.
hellkell:
That’s actually a character-creation option in the most recent edition of the Gamma World RPG. (You roll two ‘types’ for your character, and make them into a gestalt. One option is “Feline”; another is “Swarm”. So if you happen to roll just right [or the GameMaster lets you pick one or both], you can be an amalgam of kittens.)
Now there’s a plot Philip K. Dick would love.
RE: quantumscale
Great, now I’m reading everything you write in Professor Farnsworth’s voice.
I am totally okay with that. (Especially since my normal voice sounds constantly annoyed or sarcastic. I’ll take flakey old scientist over that!)
Fun fact: The technical term for a group of cats is “clowder.”
Nonsense, the technical term for a group of cats is a “cuddle”
OH LORD now I hear it too, especially the chili chocolate cookies!
Now I’m hearing everything in Professor Farnsworth’s voice, even my own words! What have you done, quantumscale, what have you done?!?
They must have forgotten to close the Farnsworth tag!
Quick, get out the smell-o-scope, so we can sniff out that unclosed tag!
@kirbywarp, sometimes I really wish the entire MRM was fake…
*maniacal laughter* Yes! Now everybody shall hear my voice, and they shall know that I am the PEDOZOMBIE!
Wait, no, wrong site…
S, PeMRA, you think SRS is a hate group for talking about male privilege and white privilege, and yet you think that little gif of yours is hilarious and not at all hateful? That’s interesting because I’ve never seen anyone at SRS make light of elder abuse.
*So, not S
Sorry everyone, I forgot how contagious that is. I’ll go quarantine myself over here now.
This looks like the GNL school of logic.
MRAs are fake as shit, yo.
(This pointless reference brought to you by the fact that I have nothing better to do.)
What I see isn’t stupidity, but someone ran up against Poe’s Law.