We’ve seen a lot of epic flip-floppery from Men’s Rightsers in the last few days on the subject of the Occidental College fiasco — that is, for those who haven’t been following it closely, the organized spamming of Occidental’s anonymous online rape reporting form with false reports by Reddit MRAs and 4channers. Notably, the Men’s Rights subreddit mod known as sillymod went from blaming the false reports on trolls one day to hailing them as necessary activism the next.
But a reader has alerted me to an even more epic flip-flop, this one from Pierce Harlan, a blogger obsessed with what he sees as an epidemic of false rape accusations.
Harlan started out as one of the voices of reason — at least by MRA standards — on the Occidental College spamming. Refraining from the hysteria of his fellow Men’s Rightsers about Occidental College’s anonymous form, he actually pointed out in one post that the form wasn’t being used to punish anyone and that anonymous reporting may be “a necessary evil” in order to get a true picture of the extent of rape.
On Friday, he went further, announcing in a post on his blog The Community of the Wrongly Accused that he was so disgusted with the behavior of his fellow Men’s Rightsers in the Occidental fiasco that he was planning to give up blogging entirely. The phony reports from MRAs, he sadly noted, “did no favors for the wrongly accused,” and this sort of “activism” only served to make MRAs look bad.
[T]he actions of the spammers were misguided at best, puerile and malicious at worst. They’ve given those of us who are trying to raise awareness about these issues in a serious way a black eye. I couldn’t care less how some radical feminist characterizes this incident, my concern is how it plays to middle America — and this can’t be spun in a positive way.
The incident, he wrote, was
the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. We’ve long sought to engage our readers, both here and via Reddit, to take certain actions that we felt could actually make a difference for the wrongly accused. These efforts invariably were met with either a lukewarm response or the sound of crickets chirping. …
Yet, now, someone suggests men’s righters spam a school’s rape reporting site, and for that they come out in droves. Hundreds of false rape reports. …
If we could have had this kind of support for the various initiatives we’ve tried to launch, I think we actually could have made a difference for the wrongly accused. We didn’t.
And so, he concluded in frustration,
the time has come to hand this blog over to others who will continue to raise awareness about the injustices to the wrongly accused. I will continue to follow the issue and offer my two cents on issues I think are important, but I’m not going to run this blog any longer.
Yep. That’s right. MRAs are such shitty “activists” that their most notable and attention-getting work of “activism” since I’ve started this blog drove the MRA most dedicated to that issue to such disgust and despair that he announced he was basically giving up the fight.
But Harlan’s retirement didn’t last long.
Apparently deciding that his camel’s back could handle a bit more straw after all, Harlan quickly took down the post announcing his retirement — though it’s still up, at least for now, in Google cache, and when that goes away, here’s a handy screenshot. (In case you’re not an ant, click to see it full size.)
On Saturday, Harlan came out with a new post suggesting that maybe he’d been wrong to challenge the hysteria of the false-report-submitting MRAs in the first place. Remember that bit from above in which Harlan said that the actions of the false-report spammers “can’t be spun in a positive way[?]” Well, Harlan decided he was going to give it the old college try:
Progressives are having a bona fide conniption over the Reddit Men’s Righters who spammed Occidental College’s anonymous rape reporting system with fake “rape” claims (from what we can tell, they were not really false rape claims, just snarky comments about the injustice of anonymous reporting). The righteous indignation from feminists is deafening. The spam attack, they tell us, is typical men’s rights hysteria, the result of an undeservedly privileged class being stripped of its power.
The men’s righters were out to prove that it’s too easy to abuse the college’s anonymous reporting system. We disagreed with the men’s righters and said we weren’t much concerned about the anonymous reporting system, but the more we read the progressive take on the incident, the more we wonder if we blew the call — maybe we should be concerned..
There was, of course, no reference to his post from the previous day, no acknowledgment that the “activism” he was now defending was the very same “activism” that had led him only one day earlier to decide to quit blogging altogether.
Down the memory hole it went. (But Google cache remembers.)
I guess when you’re a Men’s Rights activist, you have to take what you can get, and incredibly shitty slacktivism is about as good as it gets.
Creeping sharia, MRA style.
Memo to the troll: Eat shit, bro. You have NO idea what you’re talking about.
Jedi hugs, @Argenti.
::applauds auggziliary::
Auggz — and other genders, since I’m clearly too tender to deal with the lack of fun that is reporting sexual assault.
And thanks guys, he really pissed me off. But we went to the fish and reptile specific pet store and I got to squee at rare fish and baby cichlids and such. And got puff a turtle platform (so I can raise some decor up to his usual range) and a skull. I may not share that skull, but he is my baby 🙂
Also, mango lemonade with lunch. Cuz mangos. It was good, pecunium got texted this, but no reply (utterly not surprised, I already knew he was busy today)
What is with these trolls conflating a college’s attempt to gather data about sexual assaults on campus with the criminal justice system? There’s been, like, 3 or 4 (or more) so far. Do they really, really not get that this has absolutely nothing to do with the police? Are they really that stupid? Or that disingenuous?
There aren’t.
How very telling that you find no contact orders – a type of protection order – bizarre. What’s so bizarre about attempts by the criminal justice system to keep victims of stalking and abuse safe?
Oh yeah, and, cool story, bro. ::roll::
Hi, blockquote monster.
I’m gonna throw some cute animals into that big ol’ barrel of hugs, also some contact and non-contact hugs, good vibes and general support:
http://www.okeanosgroup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Happy-Puffer-Fish-Resized.jpg
http://funnyasduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/funny-pleases-cute-baby-owl-pics.jpg
http://funnyasduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/funny-let-dad-reaching-unit-sink-cute-kitten-cat-pics.jpg
http://forum.xcitefun.net/chihuahua-dog-pictures-cute-pet-dog-t64020.html
cloudiah: I hope your mom gets out of the hospital soon. I hope she’s doing okay. It’s always rough on everyone, and sometimes the medical personnel don’t understand that illness and hospital stays are rough on the family as well as the patient. 🙁
Argenti: I’m sorry that happened. That is awful. I don’t know what else to say, other than that’s horrible and awful and they shouldn’t have done that and rapist ex is a total asshole. 🙁
Heaven forfend that a 20-year-old woman, away from home for the first extended period of her life, should feeel safe on campus. The horror. The HORROR. Yeah, taking measures to prevent harassment, assault and rape is SO Star Chamber-y.
*feel. Hey Typo Monster, would you like a piece of the action, too?
In related news, it is now also unethical for stores to evaluate the best ways to reduce shoplifting.
Theft prevention is misandry!
“Walk/Do not walk” lights and crossing gaurds are a serious human rights violation. They assume that all drivers are dangerous. And pedestrians should just be more careful. And besides, if a pedestrian is hit by a car, it should be reported to the police instead of relying on an anonymous street light.
Blockquote monster’s frisky today!
Motorcycle helmets are misandry!
Cynic here, but you know why I think guys like Scribbly want to make the small violations and women’s right to put the brakes on there and then the hill they die on? Because they know that the larger violations almost always build on the small ones. Before rape happens, or psychological abuse happens, groping happens, and crossing of verbal boundaries in a way that always falls just short of actionable happens. If women are able to put on the brakes as soon as they feel their boundaries being crossed, and society/institutions back the women up, then guys who depend on creeping, gradual boundary violations to get away with the big stuff won’t be able to escalate to the big stuff, because their social license to operate will have been removed.
That’s why stuff like colleges standing behind the right of their female students not to be verbally harassed and to have their “go away and leave me alone” respected is a big deal. When societies start seeing the idea that women and girls have a right to say “stop” and have their wishes taken seriously, the framework that these guys rely upon is being pulled out from under them.
To paraphrase a meme making the rounds of Facebook lately: Trying to understand the mentality of MRAs is like trying to smell the color 9.
The Feminiazi Confiscation Corps, coming to steal your vinyl collection!
Dibs on all the 45s!
You’ll take my Mike Oldfield EP from my cold dead hands!
Weird!
What a sight
A trivial plight
Try as I might
I can’t quite decide
What could be the right
he’s trying to fight
Foooooooooorrrrrrrrr crack rrrrrrrrrrrghahsha ack ack cough arck.
The administrations ministrations aren’t law in nature or applied across the nation
but the 20 year old girl-woman who was “handed” power is somehow at fault… even if she was merely a tool by an inept administration (to give you the best possible reading of your presented case).
Awast scallywags, what a rapscallion dastardly blackguard, that! Being egged on by OTHERS to fill a form!
Do you want to hold taxpayers accountable for every drone death in the Iraq or every prison rape in a government prison too? Or does your moral righteousness only reach across the divide of responsibility when it’s women you can rage and rag about?
And, well, let’s be honest here, he did something to warrant the action that was taken against him – according to your friend he was a bit of a jerk and rude to her. And she was asked to fill out a no contact form, to avoid a rude jerk.
… What, was she supposed to just endure the presence of some rude jerk with no recourse? You tell me what the difference is between a fuck off phrase and a fuck off form, when neither is permanent or used later, but only applies to the one person who no longer wants your company.
But nooooo, heavens forbid we grant the people to associate with those they want to associate with. Free association is for fucking communists, it is! You better damn well just accept people being rude jerks to you, silently take it and nod and smile, because if you don’t want them around, you’re messing up their future! Other people might hear about someone being a rude jerk, and you’ll have totally ruined their reputation forever!
How come it’s only ever when something is written down people with the “They Shouldn’t!” come out of the woodwork? Is it, perhaps, and excuse my conjecture, that the written word in some form is more permanent and easier to bring up again when someone wants to cite it, while mere vibrations fade from memory quickly?
… Well gasp, we wouldn’t want someone to be able to enforce their boundaries by referencing specific written contracts, would we? That’d be… That’d be…. reasonable.
—-
@Argenti:
http://www.petshop-zoomania.com/CICHLIDS/Microgeophagus%20Ramirezi%20male.jpg
Oh yeah, that
Good point.
Say, Trollious, of Trollhome, from whence thou cometh to trolleth, why is it a power given to women if its gender neutral form? Lopsided priviledge granted to women, you say?
… ahem.
Excuse my vodka enfused ramble here (Turns out making skittles vodka in preperation of New Years is great, but you have to be sure it tastes right, and, well…. tihihihihi), but, if I can just squeeze in that your hetereonormative assumption that rape is a crime perpetrated upon women by men and that systems intended to engender a reduction of rape solely empowers women to strike back righteously at any and all sans oversight because any female of any age is just an asine, animal passive receptable for intrusion and penetration and men who are some hunted, haunted vigilant employer of power and passion who take things by force, rightfully and repeatedly, but who are now scrutinized by vehement witches for the slightest mistake because they’ve upturned the natural order and been given unnatural priviledges they will, of course, use to unleash retribution of malign, misguided and disproportionate kind kind of tells me more about your view of the world and the fear that runs through it than it does much anything about an online form.
Now excuse me, I have to come up with a name for a neon green drink.
Ectoplasmic Explosion?
Pretty Much Just Arsenic?
Orcblood?
Fibi — that fish is stunning!
Sparky — hope that picture didn’t use a flash, I think that puff is taking a nap, mine naps on the bottom like that (well, he naps in a nook atop a mini pantheon, but either way)
Thanks for the cuteness and hugs guys, as always, you rock.
Regarding that ex, looks like someone evaded a few more drug convictions (whatever, pot isn’t exactly a huge deal), got six months for violating probation and is facing charges again for larceny. Sooner or later something is going to stick.
Ahaha, but it’s not people, you see, it’s women. Who, of course, aren’t people, but fucktoys who should shut up and let whatever man wants to grace us with his swearing and harassment and all the other escalations he fancies. How dare we think we have the right to stop a man
abusingassociating with anyone he chooses!I would totally drink orcblood. In fact, could you ship me some?
If you provide a shipping address, that can be arranged.