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?
Mm… fair point there. That’s why I really failed to become an MRA – I had the most basic understanding of feminism possible, and so couldn’t be tricked into believing it was Satan’s fanclub. Also, I did well in history class, so, despite not knowing about privilege, I at least knew what it meant to be descended from a group of people who subjugated a sizeable chunk of the world. Also, I grew up in Yorkshire in the 80’s with Irish neighbours so… yeeeaaaah, I could never have fallen in with the “how dare you call me privileged!” brigade. Still have to deal with the entitlement though. :
A good friend of mine grew up in circumstances such that, to put it baldly, he’d have had a better childhood had he been adopted by Joan Crawford. He has taken responsibility for his own mental health, and spent most of his twenties and thirties working on the fucked-upped-ness his parents bequeathed to him.
Nothing he’s done in his life has approached the awfulness of LaidNYC/Forney. I know, everyone has their own path in life, et cetera, but past a certain point you are responsible for your own actions. I don’t care how much of LNYC’s dysfunction is due to looking like he does – you can be a decent human being despite such setbacks. But you have to WANT to be a decent human being, and that’s where he goes from pitiable to loathsome.
THIS, not to mention QFT.
I’ve reflected a lot lately about my path in life and what makes these guys tick. I’ve met some guys like these in real life, the “entitlement” type who are furious with women for not fitting their beauty standard. I was victim of some of that in years past, and it did affect me. But now I look back and realize that even though guys like that wanted me to believe that I had no value, I still have something to show for my life, and it’s not something ugly, like the kinds of things that these guys write in these blogs.
Thank you to the person who linked to the Lindy West (I think that’s her name?) video. She reveals that these guys are so low and so insecure and this is a way for them to try to compensate for that. She said that they were actually *pissed* at her for being happy! How messed up is that?
It reminds me of people I’ve known who’ve acted disappointed when someone else has some good news. That’s a big red flag and a major sign of loserville. If you’re so pathetic that other people living their lives, accomplishing things and being happy — if you’re so low that you can’t stand to see that, then you need to step away from the computer and work on fixing yourself! Yikes!
Isn’t the whole point of PUA that you can turn yourself alpha by Konami-coding women no matter what you look like?
So yeah, he’s a hypocrite for demanding double-standards of women but that’s pretty much at the centre of PUA-istry and not a specific failing of his because we don’t find him attractive.
So I’m all for saying that his opinions about what women should be like are ridiculous and hypocritical and pointing out that he’s not exactly a HB10 himself but going into specifics about what makes him ‘ugly’ just seems unnecessary.
As the great Roald Dahl said: “If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
Got this link from the againstmensrights sub:
http://mattforney.com/2013/09/16/the-case-against-female-self-esteem/
What a repulsive creature he is.
Funny, I only just noticed – Ser Forney over there not only censors, but edits comments posted to his page that disagree with him. Now, I don’t know where I heard this, but isn’t it an absolutely true fact that suppressing free speech on the internet is literally worse than Hitler?
Why the hell should these guys get so nasty to innocent people? There would have to be some bitterness in there. Definitely. But then there’s a reason one person would transfer that hatred and bully innocent people, while another person, who’s been through the same thing let’s say, would want to make sure that this would never happen to anyone else again.
I guess they’re probably unhappy (why the hell else attack people and rant?), and yet there are people who have been through abuse and/or all these other terrible things that don’t act like this necessarily.
People have these beliefs about themselves. For example ‘I am sociable’, ‘I am moody’, ‘I am good with computers’, ‘I am good with animals’, ‘I like animals’, or ‘I am clumsy’ or basically anything a person believes about themselves, can potentially become a part of their identity.
The dangerous thing about having a distorted self identity is that your mind always works to fulfill your self identity. So for example If someone saw themselves as unambitious, they wouldn’t try being ambitious. That self concept might hinder them from looking for a job, finishing all they’re work, and just not being real motivated.
Trying to be determined and ambitious without changing the self concept would never work, really. You would just feel like there is something artificial in your behavior.
And I guess you’re more likely to believe someone else than just yourself. I can try to convince myself that I am super smart or attractive or something else that’s good, but then It’s not the same as hearing it from someone else. I mean, unless you saw some obvious bias in the person you’re talking to (like they’re mad, or jealous, or maybe sucking up to you to get something) then I guess you might as well believe what they’re saying.
All of the cheesy stereotypes that we have of women so far is that they are ‘nurturing’, ‘overly sensitive’, and ‘nagging’ and ‘needy’ and whatever else. And so by contrast the stereotypes for men would have to be that they’re ‘tough’, ‘unfeeling’, or even ‘mean’, ‘cold’, and basically whatever the opposite of women’s are.
That’s why, I’m guessing It’s a combination of bitterness, and a twisted self-identity. And some guys have just bought into this crap it seems. Most people have grown out of this already, but they’ve actually accepted these stupid stereotypes somehow. Maybe because it gives them an identity. And since they seem to think being aggressive and without compassion is all a part of “being a man”, It’s like they’ve tied their egos to being this way as well. This is NOT an excuse, just a possible reason. But this is ONLY a theory. I could be wrong. Crap I didn’t mean to write so much.
Yeah, that’s what I meant. It’s one thing to point out that he’s no hottie by most people’s standards despite the stuff he writes, but writing that he’s got a weird head with lumps on the sides (as someone did further up the thread), that’s mean to people who read this site and might have a similar head.
There’s a difference between merely pointing out that someone is no hottie and going into details.
Don’t worry. It’s okay, because other people sometimes do the same thing.
Such an indepedent man of integrity!
I apologize for the phrenology comment.
For the record, I don’t find bald men, or men with bumpy heads, unattractive unless those heads are attached to people with repulsive personalities.
Heh, so I left a comment on his site. Granted, it did reference the fact that his position is incoherent and irrational, but it was polite and helpful. Edited down to the equivalent of “herperderperderr.” I didn’t exactly expect fair treatment or anything like that, but it’s interesting to see just how intellectually dishonest he is. Maybe it’s more that I didn’t “articulate an opposing viewpoint” so much as try to help him that got me censored? Can’t have the opposition look like they have compassion for men and boys, can we? Clearly he doesn’t understand the one valid use of censorship – allowing productive discussions to continue without constant dishonesty or abuse. Ah well, it’s his own mind he’s wasting.
Stephanie Zvan of Almost Diamonds did a masterful multi-part take-down of Forney’s vile “Self-Esteem BAD” post, and then did a Storify out of it and the reaction she got from his fanboys on Twitter. TW for just about everything you’d expect, though no rape-threats for once (just how low have we sunk that I have to look at this as the bright spot?):
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2013/10/08/this-is-supremacy/
Freemage: That is an awesome article!
Also, I apologize also for my comments about Forney’s appearance. It is unfair to those men out there who may bear a resemblance to him, but not be total assholes. So instead, I will use a metaphor from Forney’s own “The Case Against Female Self Esteem” to insult him: Matt Forney isn’t a nice juicy steak. He isn’t even hamburger, which even though isn’t as fancy as steak, when prepared correctly is totally delicious. Nope, Forney is tripe that’s been left outside in the hot sun for 3 days and is rotting and covered with flies (I’ve heard rumors that properly prepared tripe can be quite delicious, also, so yeah, he’s rotten tripe).
thenat’s Dahl quote summed it up.
Forney: ugly as sin because he’s a godawful horrible person.
Person who could be his twin brother physically but is a decent, caring human being: nothing unattractive there!
I think it was pretty clear in everyone’s comments that Forney’s hypocrisy and inner ugliness are what makes his collection of features gross. Him, not anyone who happens to look like him.
I actually think it’s those sunglasses and the lack of colour… every time I see the top of this page load up I go “GWAGH! Aliens are real!” It’s really starting to bother me…
I still like calling him rotten tripe. I think it really captures the nauseated feeling I get from reading anything he puts out. 🙂
Great hamburger recipe:
Take ground beef (if you can grind it yourself great, if not meh, oh well), lay it out on a cookie sheet or foil or something in tiny tiny pieces (you’ll have to pick it apart). Sprinkle salt and pour a little bit of melted and cooled butter over it. Form gently into patties and cook on the BBQ or the stovetop. Seriously, mostest delicious burgers EVER.
Terrible hamburger recipe:
Shape the hamburger meat into patties. Shake some pepper over them. Realize too late that the lid to the pepper is loose. Figure that you can just scrape all the extra pepper off and they’ll be OK.
Important thing to do while cooking hamburgers? Sear it. You have to have whatever you’re cooking on hot enough to sear a nice crust onto the hamburger and then turn it down to cook the rest, otherwise all the juices run out and it becomes dry. Same with letting it rest for like 5 mins after removing it from the heat – if you do, it’s a lot more moist.
Now I want hamburgers…
Dang it, those sound so good I want hamburgers now too. Even the peppery burger. I have this cookbook “Semi-Homemead with Sandra Lee: Grilling” that has a recipe for pepper crusted burgers: you mix onion soup mix and cognac in with the ground beef and then roll the patty in cracked pepper corns and serve with a cognac-mustard sauce. It comes out very good.
Too bad I’m already making chicken tonight for dinner.
That reminds me, I selflessly* bought Boy Fantastic a recipe book of 101 vegan burgers for his birthday and I haven’t had one yet 🙁
(*OK, maybe not entirely selflessly…)
I am suddenly wondering if quorn counts as a ground beef substitute? I’ve had that stuff in the freezer for several months now… it is probably starting to resent me. Seems like burgers would be a good way to test it?
Nat, if you find one that’s really good, please share the recipe!
, And I imagine most of us understand that, if you scratch the surface of a Matt Forney or a Roosh or a LaidNYC, you find a well of pain.
I don’t think that. It may be so, but I assume they are just assholes. I’ve known lots of people who were just assholes. I don’t see any need to patholgise assholery.
And, if they are, so what? Having a shitty parent, or an ex who was a raving shitstain and abused the fuck out of you; even if it still hurts 20 years later isn’t an excuse. Lots of people had that happen and do go around spouting the crap these fuckheads do.
I only care, on a concrete level, how someone got to be fucked up, when they are trying to fix it. So, accepting that these dudes have pain… they don’t want to fix it. They want to export it. So yeah, their pain (if any) is my problem only because of what they are doing with it.