So, I’ve written about the terrible “game” blogger LaidNYC several times already because the fellow is such a reliable purveyor of terrible what-the-fuckery — what with his weird fixation on the alleged value of his sperm, his creepy obsession with underage girls, and his overall awfulness as a human being. I have wondered, from time to time, if the fellow isn’t simply a troll, but I’ve kept on writing about him largely because his readers — and other manosphere bloggers — seem to take him utterly seriously.
Today, though, I just noticed a post from Matt Forney — a Manosphere blogger who is himself a deeply terrible person with a history of trollery and sockpuppeting — who seems to be dropping big hints that LaidNYC may not be who he seems. In a post reviewing an”ebook” by LaidNYC — insofar as a 13 page collection of platitudes obviously banged out in a few hours can be considered a book of any kind — Forney writes:
There are bloggers who take weeks, months, years to get into a groove, honing their talents to the point where their posts become must-reads. And then there are guys like LaidNYC who come exploding out of the gate, writing stuff so good you swear they’ve done this before. LaidNYC is on my top tier of bloggers because his writing is not only brutal and honest, brimming with verisimilitude, but his prose style is hilarious as well.
The fact that he so effortlessly sends feminists into shrieking hysterics is proof that he’s doing things right.
Emphasis mine.
He ends the “review” urging his readers to send LaidNYC some real money for his ridiculous “book.”
So is Forney — with that bit about “stuff so good you swear they’ve done it before” — basically admitting that he is LaidNYC? If so, this wouldn’t be the first time he’s written an enthusiastic review of one of his own, er, books under a different name.
I suppose we’ll find out.
In any case, I’m not sure if it matters much if LaidNYC is a genuine “game” blogger with deeply misogynistic views who writes horrendous shit because he believes every word of it, or a troll with deeply misogynistic views who writes horrendous shit because he wants to piss off women and feminists and maybe con a few gullible followers into sending him money while he’s at it.
And whether or not LaidNYC’s noxious “advice” is meant seriously, manosphere dudes are lapping it up regardless.
Matt Forney and LaidNYC — who may or may not be the same person — have learned that you can get attention by saying terrible things. Congratulations. What an amazing accomplishment.
EDITED TO ADD: Well, on Twitter, for what it’s worth, Forney denies it all.
I did manage to find an audio interview with LaidNYC here. You can compare it to Forney’s voice on his podcast here. At first I was thinking that while the voices are similar, it wasn’t a match: LaidNYC was a faster talker with a higher voice, etc. (It’s hard to tell, in part because LaidNYC’s voice in the interview is poor quality, over the phone.) But then I skipped ahead to about ten minutes into Forney’s podcast and now I’m not sure. The voices are awfully similar (and frankly, not terribly alpha-sounding). Any thoughts?
Matt Forney once remarked that I was “the cancer” blighting academia today, BTW. It still makes me chuckle as I heave my carcass to class every day.
He’s racist, sexist and ugly, and he wants people to think he’s getting laid? HAHAHHAHAHA. Such a class act as Forney is going to be dating his hand for a really long time.
Forney has a lisp? I’d never have known, because I’m never going to watch any of his videos.
I have a lisp. Sir used to stammer. I couldn’t care less if Forney lisps or not. Neither do I care whether he was teased about it at school, as I was. My compassion for shites like him is nonexistent.
We’re back to the “you need to get off my foot” thing again. Even if his desire to step on people’s feet is caused by deep emotional pain, that doesn’t mean that it’s OK for him to do so. He’s sad and that’s why he steps on people’s feet? Well, that’s a shame, but it doesn’t make their feet any less deserving of not being trod on. He’s insecure? Again, that’s a shame, but he still needs to get off of everyone else’s feet.
Yeah, i don’t give a fuck what kind of deep emotional pain Forney may or may not have. It’s what he chooses to with his not getting enough hugs that bothers me.
This “deep pain” shit shit seems to want to let a lot of egregious behavior off the hook.
Exactly. The “but they’re so sad/lonely/whatever” argument doesn’t work, because of all the people who’re sad, lonely or whatever and who are not racist, sexist, homophobic or bigotry-of-your-choice pieces of shit. It isn’t an excuse. Their behaviour and attitudes are not good enough.
They are choosing to behave this way. I don’t mean to Godwin the thread, but you don’t invade Poland and kill 6 million people because mommy didn’t love you–that’s a choice.
The example that always gets me: a certain person I know was whipped daily from when he was about 18 months (yes, months) old because his father was of the “I was beaten every day and it did me good” mentality. This meant beatings from his father, governess or anyone they deputed to do it, at least once a day.
This person did not do the same to his sons. He chose not to repeat the harm done to him.
I’d have thought it wasn’t impossible for an oh-so-enlightened 21st century dude to do at least as well as that.
Side note, back in June Laidnyc penned an overly dramatic post titled “The End Is Near”, in which he told readers something to the effect of “You won’t have me around for much longer, I’m shutting down the blog, adieu forever, goodbye cruel world.” (Translation: Please tell me how great I am and beg me to keep blogging so my inflated grandiosity and self importance will be validated.)
One guy posted in response, “You’re Matt Forney, aren’t you?”
kitteh – that’s awful. I’m glad your friend was self-aware enough to break the cycle. That takes an astounding level of maturity and forgiveness.
I can never figure out which of them are separate people, because they all sound so similar. It’s as if PUAs and MRAs only come in 3 or so different models each, and they make them in a factory.
Buttercup – not to mention that this happened some four hundred years ago (it’s Louis) and that there was what we’d call sexual abuse involved as well.
Yep, don’t care how sad and lonely they are. Hell, this is me not pondering how many of my friends would answer an email in under, oh, six hours? Pecunium, and the ex-fiancé’s brother, maybe, if they happen to be around…the former is text-able but yeah, see how I don’t go spouting sexist shit?
Sooo… yeah, the guy’s a massive… the only insult I can think of that isn’t horrifically gendered is MRA, and he wouldn’t take that as an insult – though any self respecting human being should take offence at the accusation. Anyway, he’s one o’ them, but yeah, irony and hypocrisy aside, it is a little low of us to poke at their looks. The guy has few enough redeeming features that we can tear him to shreds on philosophy alone… I dunno… I always feel like “the side of truth and justice and goodness” should be universally better. But then I find myself wanting to point out how good it is for my own ego to see what these guys who’re so full of themselves look like. (Damn, but I do feel sexy whenever I compare myself to them.)
Humans, huh? Watcha gonna do? I mean, other than harvest them for nutrient paste, come the invasion.
Even though I despise these people, I still wonder what the fuck in the world caused them to be like this. I like to understand, I get curious as to the reason. I feel like that’s a part of the reason why people say “Oh, he was this and that as a kid, ect ect”. Some people are very compassionate and able to empathise, I’m sometimes like that but I find it harder and harder to be charitable to MRAs, but I still wonder what caused them to be as hateful as they are.
If only to try to avoid having anyone I raise turn out like them…
I didn’t watch the video La Strega, the way you described it sounded like they were making fun of the lisp so I apologise for that misinterpretation. Totally my bad.
“At first I was thinking that while the voices are similar, it wasn’t a match: LaidNYC was a faster talker with a higher voice, etc. (It’s hard to tell, in part because LaidNYC’s voice in the interview is poor quality, over the phone.) But then I skipped ahead to about ten minutes into Forney’s podcast and now I’m not sure. The voices are awfully similar (and frankly, not terribly alpha-sounding). Any thoughts?”
They all hatch out of identical pods?
More seriously: maybe you could secure the services of an expert and find out in that way whether the stuff you mention has been written by one person or two. Programs and processes now exist which can pick out a writer’s individual quirks and and pin down the origin of anything he (or she) might have written, regardless of any efforts he (or she) might have made to obscure the truth. Of course this might take money, but possibly you could pass the hat via this blog or do something with Kickstarter. Just a suggestion.
Whether you’d be willing to go so far as to do that, though, would depend on how important you think the provenance of this junk is. Personally, I don’t think it’s very important: what difference does it make to anyone here whether what we’re witnessing is a smoochy-kissy lovefest between heart-plighted bros or one single guy wanking off? Either way, it’s mildly amusing, but either way, it’s a spectacle which fails to enthrall. (Though still I expect it would be kind of fun to find out for sure.)
So, short version: no. No thoughts.
Not being willing to accept “has had a hard life” as an excuse for behavior like Forney’s doesn’t necessarily indicate a lack of empathy.
Let’s also think about the way this stuff is gendered – women are expected to empathize with men who’re horrible to them, but is anyone asking him to try to empathize with the women he rants about?
Funny, isn’t it. The PUAs go on about how successful they are and how they’ve fucked every fuckable woman or girl in the world … yet they still have time (and energy!) to sit at their keyboards ranting about women in general and how terrible we are.
Seems like all that action they’re getting (yeahright) isn’t making them as happy as they claim.
Yikes! I knew my comment would trigger a load of “WTFs???” Neither I (nor Lindy West) is making a case that their sad lives are “excuses” or should be an appeal to our empathy. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy hating hateful people and hateful ideas as much as anyone, but at the same time, my morbid fascination with these guys (and more especially with their followers) is fed by a curiosity about what makes them tick. I want to know where this rage is coming from!
I teach at a community college, where every day I over-hear young men casually refer to women as “bitches,” and I am endlessly horrified by this. I assume that these are the “fodder” of the likes of Roosh and Matt Forney.
I don’t hate men, although God knows after 50 years on this planet impersonating a female I have reasons to. Why do they hate me? And I really worry about the influence these self-styled “gurus” exert on teenagers.
Pardon me for rambling… I guess what I’m saying is all of this (plus two martinis) makes me very sad and frustrated and befuddled sometimes.
Young men calling women “bitches” is such garden variety sexism, it’s part of the culture and I’d bet they’re not even thinking about what they’re doing. They should, and I’m not cutting the slack, but you’re giving Roosh and Forney way too much credit.
^them slack
Sort of like poking with a stick at some slimy thing that crawled out from under a rock. 😉
Yup, sorta.
If I had to guess, I’d say a dash of bitterness, a sprinkle of missed opportunity, and a large helping of zero self-reflection.
About four years ago I had the bitterness after a long term (by late teenage/early twenties reckoning) and deeply scarring relationship ended by her, after a year of literal screaming fits over her fear of me cheating on her, cheating on me. When I look at some MRAs, I see myself as I was inside back then. I took part in some what-about-teh-menzing, though I didn’t realise how disruptive it was at the time, how it turned the discussion away from who to deal with women’s issues into just a screaming match about who said what when about who. I think I would’ve caught myself eventually anyway, because I’ve always made a point of reflecting on what I’m doing and how I’m thinking, because humans are irrational monkeys who do stupid things for stupid reasons, and I’m one of them, but it took me a very long time to notice that I was doing anything or thinking the way I was thinking. I met my ex, and as we fell into a terminal orbit around each other and talked about nothing, everything, and the cats in the middle, I saw what I needed to fix… not all of it, obviously, or she wouldn’t be my ex, probably, but at least the bits that could’ve turned me into an MRA are fixed or well under my gaze. I sleep much better now, if not actually any more… I wonder if that’s related or just a coincidence?
So… yeah I think it’s bitterness over some slight, perceived or actual, and a lack of reflection.
Plus a heaping dose of entitlement, willfull ignorance of what feminism is about, and massive privilege-blindness.