One of the strangest things about doing this blog is all the things I ‘ve learned about myself in the process. I don’t mean all the insights into my inner being I’ve gained, though there’s been a bit of that. I mean all the completely untrue things I’ve learned from people who hate me.
For some reason, many of the people who most hate this blog– many of whom have never read it — aren’t satistfied with criticizing me for what I do and who I am; they find it necessary to make up many new and horrible and not-actually-true things to criticize me for: That I plant the things I quote on this blog to make Men’s Rightsers look bad, that I write all the comments myself (all the hundreds of thousands of them) to make Man Boobz look more popular.
Oh, and that I want all men cuckolded.
To those who hate me and this site, I and the Man Boobz commentariat have become what sociologist Stanley Cohen called “folk devils,” convenient scapegoats around which various urban legends — or in this case internet legends — have grown like mushrooms.
The ShitRedditSays empire on Reddit has developed a similar mythos of its own. ShitRedditSays started out as a subreddit to collect together and skewer the worst, most bigoted nonsense that regularly posted and upvoted on Reddit; it grew into a robust Reddit counterculture that’s really one of the only good things about the site.
But to most Redditors, it seems, the SRS folk devils really are akin to the devil, and they are accused of all sorts of preposterous things on a daily basis — many of which suggest that SRS wields vast and nefarious powers behind the scenes on Reddit and possibly even in the real world. There’s so much of this nonsense that the SRSers have started a whole subreddit devoted to the SRS Mythos.
Basically, all the preceding was sort of a long-winded preface to me saying that I just discovered SRSMythos and have been really enjoying reading it.
Here are some of the not-so-true facts about SRS catalogued there:
A claim that
my friend used to mod there [on SRS], he and his buddies from Stormfront.org started it as a joke to get people to hate politically correct liberals and black people.
The notion that SRS was secretly started as a joke by Nazis or other bigots is one of Reddit’s favorite conspiracy theories.
A claim from a Men’s Rights Redditor that one of the Men’s Rights subreddit mods is a secret SRS agent.
Another Redditor, familiar to anyone who reads the anti-SRS and/or Men’s Rights subreddits, offers a convoluted theory about how SRS is all part of a weird eugenics experiment.
Someone called againstSRS complains that “THEY’RE the ones who try to make fun of US for so-called “ridiculous” conspiracy theories? Our theories about SRS and women destroying society are more grounded in concrete facts than their entire sense of reality.”
Someone else asserts that SRS is a
horrible horrible subreddit full of Nazi Feminists that aren’t actually for equality. They hate all men, and think that every man is a rapist. I’ve seen people banned from it just for mentioning that they were a guy while commenting.
Actually, SRS did its own demographic surveys and found that most SRSers — -somewhere in the range of 57% to 59% — were dudes. Granted, that’s a low percentage of men for Reddit — which is overall 80% male — but not exactly evidence that SRSers are a bunch of man-hating feeeeemale separatists.
Check it out. There’s a lot of fascinating stuff there, whether you’re studying the sociology of scapegoating, or if you just like seeing Redditors post idiotic crap.
Gods, yes, do, Argenti! 😀
emilygoddess, LBT – there’s something about that idea that gives me a bit of the creeps, somehow, and I’m trying to figure out what it is. Like LBT says, otherkin aren’t hurting anyone; I can’t talk about the matter of fictitious multis, not being multi myself. Maybe it’s the idea of a separate person in headspace … appropriating that person? I guess for me it’s like imprisoning their soul, or the grossness that Mormons pull with their claims to baptise the dead, and even go around pestering people on the other side. What I don’t mean is that it feels anything like Louis’s and my situation; headspace isn’t involved, he’s a separate person.
Hmm …
I just…has Jammy even been here when the regulars get to discussing philosophy or theology or…anything? “Cloddish” and “anti-intellectual” are some of the last words I’d use to describe you people.
Watch the climate here, folks. Big clumps of earth just fall from the sky.
Could be worse. Could be meatballs.
Every so often in debate we get novice competitors who haven’t yet realized that they can’t use vocabulary as a stand-in for intelligence or argumentation. They always entertain me, especially when they don’t even use the words correctly, like our troll here.
RE: emilygoddess
…none of this is news to me. In fact, many of the people who’ve helped me get back on my feet the past few years are soulbonders. Hell, we used to be a soulbonder. My husband is, depending on your interpretation, fictional; we don’t mention it much, but it’s a thing. We also know folks who are multi for “trivial” reasons. Is this a problem?
Consequentially, the misuse of vocabulary terms by our latest competitor in the annual Troll of the Year contest has been quite amusing, to say the least. Unfortunately for said troll, fancy words do not an argument make, nor does it lend an aura of credibility. It just, to use a vulgar colloquialism, make one look like a fucking dumbass.
Damn. I have to go home and I just know I’m going to miss the most interesting part of today’s conversations!
Later, y’all. 🙂
My issue with things like otherkin and multiplicity is the people who are just tagging along because it makes them feel different or special. I met otherkin on the Pagan parts of the Internet over a decade ago, and back then they were mostly earnest people who felt a deep connection with this or that animal or mythical being; now, on Tumblr, they’re mostly teenagers rushing to out-snowflake each other with their pokemon-Elder God hybrid kintypes (yes, I’ve seen it), and it’s hard to believe they all really believe it. Throw in their latching on to SJ culture and claiming they’re oppressed and they’re just like transgender people and the rest of us have cisspecies privilege, and you just want to cover your ears and go “LA LA LA” until they grow out of it. From my outsider vantage point, it looks like a lot of the Tumblr Multiples are variants on the same theme: teenagers and young adults trying to seem cool and different by latching onto something that they don’t really understand. They’ve since moved on to what they call “tulpas”, which is where they invent imaginary friends and then try to convince themselves to believe they’re real, which is supposed to make them real, and anyone who says that making yourself believe in literal delusions might not be healthy is just a hater. I just can’t with Tumblr sometimes.
I do like a lot of the fandom on Tumblr, and there are some great humor blogs, and it was Tumblr that encouraged me to get excited about witchcraft and Paganism again, but there are things about Tumblr that range from ridiculous (see above) to toxic (callout culture and invented oppressions and the way one stupid post can blow up into a sitewide hatefest).
“None of those words are particularly arcane, and I see them used all the time. They allow me to say what I wish to say with greater precision. ”
OH! Fetch my smelling salts! ::swoons::
Dammit, first it was the blockquote monster, now it’s the copypaste monster!
Copypasta monster? WHERE??
HE LURKS BENEATH THE SHADOWS!
dun dun duunnnn
RE: emilygoddess
My issue with things like otherkin and multiplicity is the people who are just tagging along because it makes them feel different or special.
…how can you tell? DID is notorious for hitting folks early; I’m actually considered a bit of a freak for not going multi till the age of twelve. It’s pretty common for people to become cognizant of it in their teens; goodness knows we did. And even if these teenagers are wanting to feel special: so? I treat them the same, and if they decide they’re not multi anymore, well, chalk it up for a learning experience.
I’ve been in the multi subculture, including among teenagers, since 2007. I have a lot of complaints about it, and there’s a reason I left, but fakers and special snowflakes aren’t one of them. There are attention magnets in all subcultures; I generally am not affected by it because I just am not surprised by anything. I know folks with gods and Daleks and unicorns in their heads, and mostly, they seem RELIEVED that I don’t give a shit. *shrug* That’s why they’re my friends.
I mean, maybe tumblr is just way worse or something, but hell, I’m like Dear Abby for teenage multis on DA, and I just have never been all that worried about fakers or snowflakes at all.
Jammy is to precision as Burger King is to fine dining.
@LBT I guess I assumed it was a problem for the same reason self-diagnosing with Autism or any other condition is a problem, or claiming to be “triggered” whet you’re just upset. If you’re just doing it to be different or to shield yourself from criticism, it’s kind of insulting to people who actually have that condition, and can have real-world consequences for people already living with the stigma or struggling to find treatment. Just look at the backlash against trigger warnings.
I’m kind of extrapolating from my own mental illnesses here. if it doesn’t bother you, I’ll stop being bothered on your behalf, and apologize for overstepping.
RE: emilygoddess
*shrug* Seeing how I’m self-diagnosed (been multi since twelve, didn’t get a diag until… well, this year) and how frankly, multi is already covered with scientists claiming it doesn’t exist, I feel teenagers on the Internet are the least of my troubles. I’m sure there are folks using it shield themselves from criticism, but so does all sorts of subcultures. It’s easy; I treat them like I do anyone else, and if they desperately wanted to be treated like little gods, they won’t be in my company for long. But yeah, I’m not bothered, so no need to be worried on my behalf!
“Anti-intellectual” is a new one. Isn’t it usually that the feminist left are too absorbed in pointless non-STEM academics and trying to use words that aren’t real?
Also, as an additional note: getting diagnosed DID is an ASS AND A HALF. It’s expensive, there aren’t a lot of specialists (and those that are have… uh. Just google ‘Colin Ross’ and ‘malpractice’ for an example, because he’s who I almost ended up going to) and a lot of doctors don’t believe it exists at all, so ANYONE who claims to be multi is faking or highly suggestible and so on. Also, being diagnosed DID can really wreck a lot of things; I know a system who is forbidden from driving due to being DID. So I really can’t blame anyone for avoiding a diagnosis.
Forbidden to drive? Sh*t.
RE: Viscaria
Yeah. Involuntary switches, you know? And what if you get someone who can’t drive? Fortunately, that’s not an issue here, but yeah, it’s a thing that can happen. (Plus, there’s just getting lost; we knew one system who only managed to get around because they had a GPS with them at all times, so if they switched or zoned and found themselves God Knows Where, they could still get home.)
@marinaliteyears
Hi! Here’s your official Man Boobz welcome package: http://artistryforfeminismandkittens.wordpress.com/the-official-man-boobz-complimentary-welcome-package/
Sir Pecunium has been summoned. Sorry for the delay, I got kidnapped by a cat!
So someone already pointed out that Reddit has some cool nooks and crannies, and I just wanted to plug /r/badhistory. It’s not a feminist sub, but they do not suffer MRA fools gladly.
Also, one of the reasons I keep coming here is that regularly people say things that significantly expand my thinking, and this thread was no exception:
It’s funny cloudiah, because I was talking to hubby today, like, “Do you think I don’t give white men a fair shake?”
And he just stared at me like I’d asked his opinion on prehistoric economics or something, and was like, “First of all, you like plenty of white guys. Second, come on. We can take care of ourselves. We can handle ONE GUY not liking us.”