So, that tempest in a teacup involving MRA London, A Voice for Men’s British satellite group, that I wrote about last night? Well, it’s gotten even sillier.
The tl;dr is that MRA London has split up, with accusations and counter-accusations flying. AVFM staffer Andy Thomas has appointed himself CEO of the group after apparently tossing out most of its members. (Or “accepting their resignations,” or something; who knows?) As far as I can tell, this means that the group may now be down to literally two people.
Now AVFM’s Maximum Leader Paul Elam has posted a very long statement on the subject, saying very little indeed. The gist of it? He really doesn’t know what happened in the “very British coup” or who was right, but he’s sticking with Thomas because he knows the dude better than the dudes who are no longer part of the group. No, really, that’s his explanation.
Not only that, but Elam admits flatly that doesn’t really even care who was right, at least not enough to bother to try to figure out the basic facts of the case:
I am not in the least interested in trying to ascertain who was more or less at fault in MRA London’s internal conflicts. It is not that I am indifferent to right and wrong in this case, but simply as a pragmatic matter I cannot and won’t try to wade through several weeks/months of infighting, insinuation and accusations between people in conflict 8,000 miles from here and even pretend that I can come up with an informed judgment.
Really? Because most political organizations, when faced with issues like this, like to at least pretend to gather the facts before making their decisions.
Elam also alludes vaguely to
other factors, having to do with the best interests of AVFM and the MHRM, that lend more support to our decision to maintain the historical relationship we have had with Andy Thomas of MRA London. I am not at liberty to discuss them, but they are compelling.
Oh, so there were some SUPER SEEEKRET reasons too! Having to do with the “best interests” of the world historical force that is the Men’s Human Rights Human Movement of Men (But Not Those Dudes We Just Threw Under The Bus for Super SEEEKRET Reasons).
Come to think of it, no one has actually explained straightforwardly the non-super seekret reasons either. Ah well.
Elam also makes clear that any dissent to this decision will be confined to the comments of this one thread.
ALL HAIL ELAM AND HIS INFALLIBLE WISDOM OF MAKING DECISIONS BASED ON NOT KNOWING SHIT ABOUT WHAT HE’S MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT.
PS In my haste to write this post I neglected to include my regular reminder that AVFM, while claiming to be a “human rights” group, continues to post a literal call to firebomb courthouses and police stations in its activism section.
I had said they should change the slogan of “Compassion for men and boys” to be “Compassion for the tiny number of white cis heterosexual men who agree with all of the MRA talking points”. Now I would say it is “Compassion for the tiny number of white cis heterosexual men who agree with all of the MRA talking points and whom Paul Elam is friends with because they never disagree with him”. All right, this newest slogan is the catchiest of all.
I hope you saw El Bastardo’s comment about you on that thread. I thought they were ignoring you these days? 😀
The Murray Pearson comment and replies are interesting. Why are they so obsessed with PTSD?
I’m shocked at the infighting. You’d think that a bunch of rageaholics would get along better.
Yeah, I saw imnotanmrabut telling Murray Pearson
So I guess the MRM is NOT about showing compassion to men with PTSD either. They are not interested in helping those men.
Perhaps MRA London is really just the new People Who Hate People Party?
Mmm… I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning!
Nothn’ left to do, but sit back, maybe nudge them a bit, and let the hilarity ensue.
This confirms my growing opinion that none of this MRM/PUA stuff is about women at all. Women are pretty much peripheral to their real concern, which is to engage emotionally with other men. It’s all a big circle jerk. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Trolling MRAs doesn’t take much, I’ve noticed. It’s like bumping* a cage filled with budgies, half of them will flip out and screech, wake the others which then start to screech, and then there’s this hilarious clusterfuck of pissy parakeets.
Except instead of adorable squeaking from tiny birds, it’s creepy misogynists who cry “FEMINAZI” and try to defend pedophilia or something.
*This happens on accident, when I walk too close to a cage. I’m not a parakeet torturer.
Comedy gold.
That is all.
This is hilarious.
Not knowing basic facts has never been an impediment to PaulE’s bloviating.
Also hilarious (totally unrelated):
I needed that LOL, cloudiah.
That should totally be an Olympic event.
Also totally OT, has anyone read this article about the delays in the current session of the Cat Congress? These senators will let anything delay debating vital reforms!
The Cat Congress was pretty funny.
This part:
Reminded me of this cartoon.
Vindicated!
I guess if all you know how to do is fling shit it’s hard to get out of the habit.
http://aidanmoher.com/blog/featured-article/2013/05/we-have-always-fought-challenging-the-women-cattle-and-slaves-narrative-by-kameron-hurley/ This is a magnificent article, folks, and contains some very handy links and such for those times when you just gotta beat someone with the Fact Stick.
And as a bonus, in the comments, there’s an incredibly lame drive-by anti-feminist who posts a one-line snark that has nothing to do with the article, gets completely ignored and never returns. It’s beautiful.
I love the cat congress!
That Kameron Hurley piece is sharp and clear and painfully accurate.
At some point the rest of those guys are going to get tired of catering to Paulie’s ego, and the resulting wank will be worthy of much popcorn.
Completely OT, but I need some advice. I’m flat hunting at the moment and trying to find a mostly polite way of asking potential fatties “How are you with the queers? Cos I am one of those gays your mum warned you about and I don’t want to live with anyone who makes tranny jokes neither.” cos that’s like ground rule number 1 so I should get it out of the way.
>http://aidanmoher.com/blog/featured-article/2013/05/we-have-always-fought-challenging-the-women-cattle-and-slaves-narrative-by-kameron-hurley/ This is a magnificent article, folks, and contains some very handy links and such for those times when you just gotta beat someone with the Fact Stick.
This page does not work on Firefox though. Text and images disappear at random upon scrolling.
Briznecko: great video! totally entertaining.
I don’t understand what the MRA’s are currently fundraising for. I was saddened to hear a man in Ontario who was running some kind of safe house (not government sanctioned) committed suicide.
That being said though, what was supposed to be a memorial video turned into a list of accusations toward the government, women and feminists. It was, to put it politely, inappropriate to remember his efforts in that way, I feel. 🙁
I was unaware there was a presence in London save the effort in Europe to sue the gender studies department of a university.
“I was unaware there was a presence in London save the effort in Europe to sue the gender studies department of a university.”
If the five guys who turned up to their grand launch could be called a presence …