The MRA hissy fit over Facebook continues. Over on A Voice for (Human) Men, our old friend John “The Other” Hembling offers up his take on the whole controversy, which has roused the usually torpid MRAs to “activism,” and somehow manages to be even more overheated and incoherent than even Paul Elam before him — and at times nearly as ponderous as the legendarily ponderous Fidelbogen as well.
His argument, if it can be called that, is as follows: by demanding that Facebook remove violent images of rape and abuse posted as “jokes,” the coalition of feminists who recently got Facebook to agree to ban violently misogynistic images are therefore endorsing what Hembling has decided is the “strongest signifier of fascism” — censorship.
Now, censorship is not actually the “strongest signifier” of fascism, merely one of many ingredients in the fascist souffle — alongside such things as, you know, authoritarian rule under a powerful dictator, nationalism, racism, etc. (Also they tend to have a thing about uniforms.)
And Facebook’s removal of rape “meme” pictures and the like is not exactly akin to a one-party dictatorship taking over the media and orchestrating massive book burnings. (Heck, I’m not exactly sure what exactly is supposed to make Facebook’s “censorship” any different from A Voice for Men’s recent announcement that it was clamping down on comments that Paul Elam thinks are too “distracting.”)
But even setting all this aside, Hembling’s charges against “Laura Bates, Soraya Chemaly, Jaclyn Friedman, and every their [sic] signatory to their open letter” don’t make a lot of sense. Here’s his grand summing-up of his would-be indictment:
It is a letter calling on the largest social networking site in the world to institute a program of demographically selective censorship; to institute the practice that is the strongest signifier of fascism.
Bates, Chemaly, and Friedman are not merely endorsing violence against those most impacted by it.
Um, how exactly does asking Facebook to take down pictures depicting violence make someone a proponent of violence?
Hembling doesn’t bother to explain this, and blathers on ahead to his melodramatic conclusion:
They are not merely ignorant or indifferent to the foundational nature of free speech to the establishment of all other human rights. They are not merely content to propagate false, fraudulent models of domestic violence which continue the conditions and causes of domestic violence. They are not simply adherents of an ideology of hatred and violence, wrapping itself in the increasingly transparent veneer of false and pious humanism.
Dude, you’re sounding like a stuck record here. You’ve already accused them of promoting hatred and violence — heck, you accused them of promoting violence at the start of this very paragraph!
Hembling — recently hired on to a paid position as AVFM’s Editor in Chief — desperately needs an editor himself. (Not to mention a proofreader.)
Laura Bates, Soraya Chemaly, Jaclyn Friedman are successfully promoting the signifying feature of fascism. They are fascists, and if you support their cause, that of censorship, you may be a fascist as well.
*looks at self*
No, I’m good. Pretty sure I’m not a fascist.
Hembling ends with a surreal:
Thank you for your kind attention.
Dear readers: let me just ask you to ponder the question I find myself pondering every time I read something by Mr. Hembling: Can there really anyone who reads posts like this from him and says to themself, “this makes sense!” Because his posts all seem like histrionic grandstanding to me, filled with startling leaps of illogic I think would be even too much for dedicated MRAs to make.
I can only imagine that Hembling’s MRA fans really only pay attention to the invective, and don’t bother with the (lack of ) logic, and that for them this whole post basically comes down to: feminists are fascists, feminists support violence, feminists hate men, these three ladies are bad.
They certainly aren’t checking his facts — indeed, Hembling’s piece includes numbered footnotes in the text, but he left out the actual footnotes, and links, that were supposed to run at the end of the piece, as is AVFM custom; his post has been up for several days, and no one there seeems to have even noticed the missing footnotes.
Also, Mr. Hembling, if you’re reading this, here’s a little PROTIP for you: if you want to pretend that you guys are, you know, actually against violence, you might want to think about removing that terrorist manifesto from your “activism” section — you know, the one that calls on MRAs to literally firebomb courthouses and police stations. Not really good PR for an alleged “human rights” movement, that!
Hugs and beagle kisses to all
and to all a good night!
bedtime.
@sakurabelle
I know it doesn’t replace ‘real life’ encounters, but you should stick around with us. The people here are great and it’ll remind you you’re not alone. Plus, many of us had to deal with similar issues.
*more hugs*
This is real life. It’s just like the phone, or an epistolary correspondence. Darwin pretty much never left his home after he got married, but he knew hundreds of people (which is why Russell Wallace sent him the paper about evolution, he wanted Darwin’s opinion, because he was so well known/respected).
I too should like to meet more of you, in person, but never doubt this is real life.
Sorry, knew hundreds of people he never met face to face.
“And Facebook’s removal of rape “meme” pictures and the like is not exactly akin to a one-party dictatorship taking over the media and orchestrating massive book burnings. (Heck, I’m not exactly sure what exactly is supposed to make Facebook’s “censorship” any different from A Voice for Men’s recent announcement that it was clamping down on comments that Paul Elam thinks are too “distracting.”)”
1. Facebook is removing more than just rape meme pictures. Facebook seems to be removing anything critical of feminism itself and referring to it as hate speech. But feminism is opposed by many men and women of all faiths (or none) and all political viewpoints. It’s clearly a political philosophy and opposing feminism itself is no more hate speech than opposing republicanism. See the various AVFM posts for yourself.
2. AVFM does not purport to be a website for all of humanity, FB essentially does. Elam’s new policy annoys me, but it is not nearly the same as FB arbitrarily removing any post critical of Feminism from a site with an almost unique monopoly across the planet.
Why am I moderated?
Pecunium – same as Florence Nightingale, who was pretty much bedridden a lot of her later life. Seconding that this is real life. It may be very long distance, and damn but I’d love to meet my friends face to face more than every other year, but this is real.
snore –
Was the removal of sex ed drawings of female reproductive system (and the tons of other ridiculous things Facebook has been deleting over the years) a feminist plot too?
Will they delete the ‘feminism sucks balls’ group? I don’t know any feminist who gives a shit about removing such petty things, but according to you there’s a conspiracy going, and feminism is now protected territory.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/149278888567066/?ref=ts&fref=ts
Also, breathe in, we can read you, you’re not being censored of your inalienable right to comment on blogs.
Quick! FB police! https://www.facebook.com/groups/149278888567066/?ref=ts&fref=ts
Anti-feminists are being silenced!
What are you talking about? Everyone knows that we immediately label every new person a troll and are mean to them.
Don’t forget Emily Dickinson.
Welcome, sakurabelle, and I’m glad that this site has been able to counter the pain of discovering that MRAs exist a bit.
Meanwhile, snore may suck at reading comprehension and being a decent human being, but hir talent for picking appropriate nymes is impressive.
It was the same the only other time I recall snore posting – one dumb comment and then disappeared. Or possibly I fell asleep.
You are one of the groups of people which makes me wish I had teleportation technology. 8D
Mostly to meet your pets, though. >.>
The truth has come out: we want to see each other’s pets!
Or should that be “worship the Furry Great Ones”?
Hello, Sakurabelle!
I second the rest that the internet is real. I have people I consider my friends whom I’ve only met irl. When I’ve sometimes gotten to know someone over the internet and later met them irl it was obvious that we already knew each other. People who argue that knowing someone over the internet is VASTLY different from knowing them irl don’t know what they’re talking about.
(Actually, I’m not fond of “irl”, precisely because it implies that the internet isn’t real but some kind of fantasy world. “Afk” is more accurate, but people are so used to saying/writing “irl” that I don’t think “afk” will ever really catch on with the masses, so I continue to use “irl” myself.)
Yeah, it would be cool if I could meet your kitties and you’d meet my doggies. 😀
What does afk mean, Dvärghundspossen? I’d like a term other than irl or meatspace – can’t abide that one, it’s got all sorts of squick.
And for no more reason than kitty pics, a new shot of himself wearing *cough* his *cough* latest knitted cap.
I’ve no idea where the photo was taken but it’s quite similar to the woods near Home. We don’t have a St-Bernard, though. 🙂
How about “in the flesh” – ITF?
Afk=away from keyboard.
Well, it is true that my kittens are the most adorable cats on earth. These are facts. There is no denying it! That’s truth.
As a Linux user I take great glee in your comment. Carry on.
😀
I find it fascinating that these guys assume that rape and violence jokes are inherently male speech, and thus cracking down on them is necessarily misogynist.
If this is true than any place that monitors that speech would by misogynist. Chuck E. Cheese. Elementary Schools. My bank.
I mean there’s also the fact that Facebook isn’t the United States, so they don’t -have- to grant you free speech, just like the newspapers don’t have to publish your stories.
That’s both LOLworthy, and gives Facebook an awful lot of (possibly undeserved) credit. Y’know, it may be the biggest social media site on the globe, but it’s not exactly the only social media site on the globe.
I wish all of you could meet my cat Rory (I recently learned that Rory means “Red King” – this is wildly appropriate), although despite clearly believing that he’s king of his household, he’s shy around strangers. But he puts a smile on my face every day.