Our old nemesis Fidelbogen — the Would-Be Counter-Feminist Philosopher King — has taken on a dire, if altogether hypothetical, threat to the men’s rights movement as we know it today: the danger that actual activism that benefits men in the real world will get in the way of the feminist bashing that he thinks is job #1 for all good MRAs.
As he argues in a recent post:
Doing good things for men – opening DV shelters, men’s centers, passing male-friendly laws, and so on – is all very excellent and fine, but it does not attack the root of the problem.
This is kind of a remarkable statement for him to make, given that the Men’s Rights movement that Fidelbogen has attached himself to — or at least its very vocal online contingent — has so far succeeded in opening precisely zero DV shelters and/or men’s centers and has successfully lobbied for zero “male-friendly” laws.
Indeed, it’s only in recent months that any MRAs active online have managed to raise even a miniscule percentage of the money it will take to open much less operate a single shelter for men.
But apparently Fidey is worried that even these paltry efforts from MRAs will get in the way of the noble task of yelling about feminists. As he puts it, in LARGE BOLD TYPE so you know he’s extra serious:
Fidey, I don’t think you need to worry for a minute that MRAs are going to actually accomplish anything in the real world. And you can quote me on that,
Kittehs, I worked with (and did union work with) someone with a very similar temperament to Fidelbogen. He wasn’t anti-feminist; he had a different slant. Oddly, he was amazingly competent at his day-to-day job. People can compartmentalize amazingly well at times.
All of his co-workers knew he was a self-important asshat, however.
hometeampaper, If you’re an MRA asshat, being featured in David’s blog is how you know you’ve arrived. Arrived as an asshat, which is all some people can aspire to. XD
p.s. A grand total of FOUR people (two of them Fidelbogen himself) saw fit to comment on his post.
He is a very important personage in the MHRM. LOL.
cloudiah – hometeampaper’s not an MRA, zie’s commented here before and had a welcome package and everything, I think.
Hard to imagine Fiddlebogan being competent at anything, compartmentalising or not! 😛
Aaaaand whoops, I think I misread your comment, cloudiah! Apologies!
It’s pretty hilarious that he thinks he’s winning by “tricking” David into mocking him.
NO I DON’T THINK HOMETEAMPAPER IS AN MRA ASSHAT. SORRY IF THAT WASN’T CLEAR!!! <3 HOMETEAMPAPER!!! XD
<3 KITTEHS TOO!
Cloudiah, that was actually a superb example of a sentence with two drastically different meanings.
At work, I am all about disambiguation. Away from work, I am apparently all about ambiguation. 😀
Hah at the idea that he tricked David into falling for something that just happens to be the entirety of his Twitter presence and his “Anti-Feminist Academy” posts. His whole persona is bad psuedointellectual battling an ideology with words, words, words.
David, if you’ve never perused the teachings of the Academy, it’s amazing comedy. I mentioned before that he actually does declare himself a Philosopher King there…and they all obey and admire him. A civil-rights movement without a sole intelligent member has a serious problem.
<3 CLOUDIAH!
This makes me really angry. These men would literally let their supposed “comrades in arms” get beaten and abused than take some time out of their busy schedule of mocking feminists on the internet. They are not pro men. They are pro abusing women and being lazy, entitled, douchebags.
Also, they keep talking about attacking “the root of the problem.” You know how feminists have managed to change culture so much in the last 50 years? By picking pet causes and fighting for them until the change happened. On many different fronts, at once. The “root cause” of the patriarchy still exists, but within a patriarchal system we’ve made things leaps and bounds better for women.
They definitely have no concept of the work that needs be done for a “civil rights movement” to be a movement at all. They think they can impersonate one by yelling on the internet a lot. Protip, MRAs: no one will believe you are about the things you claim to be about because you don’t do anything approaching the very minimum of the work necessary to be a movement. You don’t even care to learn what “movement” entails. Like the entitled types you are, you just yell a lot and expect the world to change because it’s you yelling.
Kudos for trying to help them out, anyway.
It’s too bad the MRM can be so toxic, because I think there’s absolutely a place for groups that work to address men’s issues.
Yanno, I half understand him. Plenty of times I’ve written witless garbage on this very computer. Now we get to the bit I don’t understand.
Me? I hit delete and move on. Why does he hit Enter?!!1??1!!
Oh boy, so many emotions; on the one hand it feels good to have it reaffirmed that their “movement” can safely be shelved next to the KKK and the WBC, but on the other hand the actual suffering of men and these douches shitty attitudes towards that suffering are nauseating and endlessly depressing. The one thing I wish for the most in all the world is that all the hateful bigots on this planet one day have a moment of clarity and realize that they are the problem.
Also this link is pretty accurate in showing how people feel about feminists and MRAs:
http://www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net/compare/feminist-vs-mra
“I am all about ambiguation” would make a wonderful line for a hovercard. 😀
YoullNeverGuess, not sure if you’re aware of this already, but at least one such campaign already exists:
http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2011/04/20/stubborn/
http://www.ahrq.gov/news/newsroom/press-releases/2010/menshealth.html
http://www.ahrq.gov/patients-consumers/patient-involvement/healthy-men/index.html
Not sure about the billboard with the easily-missed small print, but I’ve seen the same ad at bus stops where you can read the explanation much more easily.
Of course it’s not organized by the MRM, but by the U.S. Department for Health & Human Services. Feminist-controlled Big Brother funding a campaign to protect the health of men? What is this madness?
Hey folks, the creator of the Hitler Kino pic has joined us on that thread!
He’s like the MRA’s that think shutting down women’s shelters is the best way to help abused men, rather than opening men’s shelters. As long as things are equally bad for everyone, then everyone “wins”.
Shutting down women’s shelters would be the bigger win for MRAs – it’d increase the chances of abusers regaining control over their victims.
I’m also dubious about whether their professed concern for male DV victims is real. What’s the odds there’s a streak of “Why didn’t you just [violent act] her?” in their thinking? After all that’s what real manly menz do.
If MRAs set up a men’s shelter, they would have to shelve their homophobia pretty quick as I believe a number of their clients would be young gay men fleeing abusive families.
And in things that will never happen. ..
Because the most important part of the Men’s Rights Movement is scoring points against the Bitchez.
The fastest way to score points is to make the Bitchez RAEG with your Mighty Manly Might And Awesomeness.
And the best sign of Bitchez RAEG is peals of laughter and exasperated facepalming.
Therefore, ipso facto quid pro quo Fidelbogen has WON FOREVER.
@WeeBoy- that is a good point… there’s a conspicuous lack of support for male GBT homeless teens in the movement. On a related note, for any MRAs who are actually INTERESTED in helping with male homelessness, the Ali Forney Center is now accepting donations!