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.
RE: genderneutrallanguage
You realize they could have googled very easily and found the real article saying the exact opposite, right? It’s not like the truth was SO hard to find out.
Now tell me what color your eyes are, and whether you prefer epee or rapier. I need to get the pirate AU right.
Dude, that’s like how if you wear red glasses you can’t see red.
Just a note to let you all know that our dear friend PEMRA is now banned for posting that gif.
It’s really not hard to stay unbanned on Man Boobz. Posting gifs of violence against women will put you over into the “banned” column, though. Well, violent gifs in general will.
Gifs of adorable kitties, bunnies, seals, etc behaving adorably = ok.
Gifs of gratuitous violence = not ok.
I thought David was a bunch of cats in a suit?
Gifs of adorable kittens or puppies attacking each other = ?
Farnsworth voice seems to be just that much more powerful than Zoidberg voice.
So the fake screenshot from Jezebel about paternity fraud shows that people need cloning. Being cuckolded is worse than death. Also, the world has too many “bastards”, because children are bad if they don’t know their fathers. What in the world are you on about, Abnoy?
Guess what? I agree it is wrong to lie and tell someone he is the father of a child when he isn’t. Not all of those cases are intentional lies, though. Sometimes it is an honest mistake. But if you’re that paranoid that a child might not be yours, you can go to one of those quick labs and have a DNA test done. I think some pharmacies might sell home testing kits over the counter, too, around where the condoms and pregnancy tests are.
If it wasn’t for the Tekken reference I’d think they’d lifted that dialogue from Game of Thrones. No wonder they feel so at sea in modern society – apparently they just arrived from the Dark Ages.
No, no–David is a group of women; the women are all actually cuddles* of cats in suits.
*: I have adopted this as my plural-grouping term of choice for cats, following the excellent suggestion of it by another Manboobz’er.
Freemage: that’s pretty cool that collection of cats can be a character.
See, I was thinking “group of HEINOUS GIRLCATS.”
Wordsp1nner: I’m actually a feminist that’s fully in favor of mandatory paternity tests at birth. Not only would it eliminate the stigma a man would face when asking for one (“you don’t trust me?”) but it would also help people be sure of their family history for diseases and such. And iirc they aren’t *that* expensive.
Thanks, David! I move that from now on, banning is known as pemra-banning.
I’m totally ok with being a group of HEINOUS GIRLCATS.
@Abnoy:
Kozma Prutkov
Heh, I went to grad school with Anna. This is all very funny.
Also, people should read her book. It’s a literary/sf blend about post-civilization-decline dystopia. http://www.amazon.com/America-Pacifica-Novel-Anna-North/dp/B00A19YDJY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367970739&sr=8-1&keywords=anna+north
katz – “Manboobz isn’t a hoax, but David is a group of
womencats in a suit.”ftfy
“Wordsp1nner: I’m actually a feminist that’s fully in favor of mandatory paternity tests at birth. Not only would it eliminate the stigma a man would face when asking for one (“you don’t trust me?”) but it would also help people be sure of their family history for diseases and such. And iirc they aren’t *that* expensive.”
Pardon me if I say fuck that idea. Why not just say “all women are cheating unless proven otherwise” and be done with it?
Ah… I am doomed. PEMRA(L?) has left us. Who will there be to let me know I have entered conversational waters beyond my comprehensive scope?
You’ll just have to train up another troll now … or, more likely, wait till Perma Al turns up again.
I have every confidence that someone will be here to remind you to check your depth charges from time to time, pecunium.
THANK GOD
Kittehserf: then you have your opinion, and I have mine. I object to the assertion that was given that “we” (feminists) don’t think it should be mandatory. Some women are capable of such serious transgressions (obviously, as are some men) and an innocent party’s medical history being on the line, I see no reason a test shouldn’t be done.
Any mandatory medical test is freaking creepy. Why the hell should it be done? You kind of need a reason to spend all of this money/ whatever resources do the tests, and mra paranoia doesn’t cut it.
It’s the idea that it should be mandatory that is disgusting. You’re talking as if the situation was normal – very much an MRA attitude – and that women (or others with uteri) are by default not to be trusted. You are essentially telling everyone here who has or could or would want to give birth that we’re suddenly on the “might have committed adultery*” list. What next – false rape accusations are a huge problem too?
Fuck that, and fuck anyone who dares tell me or imply I might have cheated on the only person I would ever have sex with. Fuck them for suggesting my husband and millions of others are some sort of insecure, paranoid, possessive losers. Fuck them for assuming every relationship is so fragile and the uterus-haver in it a lying liar trying to pass of some OTHER MAN’S CHILD (oh noes!) on some poor unsuspecting schlub.
*I’m using adultery for the strength of the word, not in the literal sense of the partners having gone through the legal marriage business.