So I had to re-ban a couple of long-banned trolls today, who had returned with new names and slightly different IP addresses but who gave themselves away with their behavior. And that got me thinking about the people — well, the MRAs and PUAs and other such charming folks — who regularly denounce me as an evil censor of FREE SPEECH.
In fact, when I ban people, I do so for good reasons: one of the two trolls I banned today was a longtime MRAish commenter here who eventually creeped everyone out by boasting about having sex with underage prostitutes; the other was a man of many sockpuppets known for angry, abusive meltdowns full of slurs.
Anyway, so I thought I’d give you all a glimpse into my “trash” folder. Here’s a sampling of comments from would-be first time commenters at Man Boobz that I felt would not add anything to the discourse here. But in the interests of FREE SPEECH I thought I’d give these “ideas” an airing today.
TRIGGER WARNING for violent and offensive language. (Sorry about the quality of the last two; you can click on them to see larger versions.)
Not all of the comments I trash are quite this awful. Some are only mildly violent or abusive. I tend to be a bit picky with people’s first comments, assuming that if someone posts a shitty first comment it’s not likely to get any better after that. There are a few banned commenters who stop by and try to post anyway, including one fellow who leaves endless comments trying to prove, as far as I can tell, that teenage girls are objectively hotter than women in their twenties and older.
And, of course, there are comments targeting individual women, whether these are giant cut-and-pasted rants about Anita Sarkeesian, vaguely threatening remarks aimed at other well-known internet feminists, or bizarre sexual comments about female MRAs from fans of theirs.
Once in a while I will get a comment from a feminist that resorts to violent language; I don’t let those comments through either.
And then there are the pictures people try to post in the comments. Below, one of the ones I actually let through, depicting me in a dress with some extremely tall dude. A quick Google image search reveals that it was originally posted online by regular A Voice for Men contributor Janet Bloomfield, in a blog post of hers from last year on Disney princesses. Stay classy, Men’s “Human Rights” Movement!
Anyway, the pictures I don’t let through are worse.
Lol, these were submitted by teen boys, right?…right?
Afraid not Xen
Sir Bodsworth,
LOL!
Wait, where was Dr. Pell? I’ve got to update the Book of Pell!
Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
katz – Pell was socking as “Maria” and was only here for a few comments. It was far from his finest hour. Poor Pell, peaked so early, burned out so young.
Next time anyone accuses you of limiting their free speech, you could just ask: So… you think I’m The Man?
You know, since freedom of speech is strictly to keep the government from doing the restricted expression/ideas thing… and hate speech, threats, and otherwise dangerous speech (like yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater) is totally not protected anyway.
David, Censorship-Cat is doing a fine job. Thanks so much for all your work moderating, tracking down nasty, and being so delightfully ironic. Man-boobz is a wonderful place, because of it.
And the regulars are amazing! Whenever things get too serious, suddenly there are adorkable videos of cats, photos of ferrets in berets, and other wondrous bits of mind-bleach. Also, the support the regulars give each-other… internet hugs, to all of you! For being fantastic!
In the thread, Sir Bodsworth:
You have a delightful way with dramatic imagery. May I dub you the Knight of Mangled Metaphors?
Censorship Cat, proof that the Furrinati really are the gummint! :O
I’ve often wondered why the ones that are “censored” by Mr. Futrelle keep coming back for more of it? If they were that upset about not being allowed to post you’d think they’d exercise their freedom of choice to go elsewhere and post where their posts would be posted. But no, they pick this particular blog and come back for more of. . .being consigned to the recycle bin of Windows.
You’d think the futility would grant them a clue after awhile. Not to mention the amazing amount of collateral damage they do to their various MRA causes by displaying their ableism and racism alongside their misogyny. Sigh. Hopefully they will be as easy to ignore in the future as a telemarketer once the phone is hung up.
Josorio. just so you know, I’m not obliged to post links to articles full of lies about me. Indeed, at this point, I’m not going to let through any comments of yours with links in them, and you’e pretty close to being banned altogether for your transphobic bullshit.
You vomit when you see people do things about their appearance that have no negative impact on anyone whatsoever? I wonder how you react to people who have tattoos.
Now I want to know what a “nightclub dress” is. Short bandage dress maybe?
*Waves tattoo in josorio300’s general direction in the hope of inducing nausea*
WTF is it with misogynists and tattoos anyway? I could see how some tattoos, like the ones my uncle got done in the Navy when he was young, could be considered unfeminine, but what about tattoos of flowers or dolphins or stuff like that? I’m struggling to see how, say, a pretty lotus on the back of someone’s shoulder could set off the omg a woman is failing to perform gender correctly sound the alarm panic.
Totally not fake story: I once saw a man wearing a fedora at a bus stop and I immediately vomited on the sidewalk.
This josorio sure is a sad, sorry excuse for a troll.
Is my one tattoo enough to repel misogynists or do I need to get more?
I have three, but am about to hit the start of year 4 of removing one of them. Unfortunately, it’s the largest with the most amount of ink. And because it was initially a home job (with converted pen nib and we have no idea what was used as ink), the initial tattoo contained a lot more ink that the professional jobs. A couple of years after I got it done, I got a professional tattoo artist to try to fix it up for me, so even more ink.
The IPL basically heats up the ink particles and they explode inside my skin, to create smaller particles that my body can then transport away (apart from the ink that literally forms ink scabs and then falls off). I have now had… ?15 treatments. Initially these were 8 weeks apart, but now they need to be 12 weeks apart to ensure that the post-treatment skin changes have stopped before the next treatment. And I’m pretty sure I’ll be scarred in the area too.
It also hurts like crap during the treatment, as there are something like 150 shots of IPL that I’m getting in each treatment (cheaper than the $1/shot that some clinics charge).
Get it professionally done, by a good artist with – and I can’t stress this enough – a steady hand. 🙂 I love my two completely professional jobs, but this one I have always hated.
I read this website daily, but haven’t commented before.
Comments such as the ones in the examples don’t seem like fun to wade through . Thank you so much David for moderating out the worst comments.
Thank you everyone else for the humor and supplies of brain bleach.
🙂
I don’t have any tattoos, but I’m OK. I’m invisible (being grandmother material).
And more thanks to David for doing this horrible hold-your-nose-with-a-peg job – because you wouldn’t want your rubber gloved hands transferring any of this fetid goop anywhere near your face.
Remember, if Censorship-Cat gets a bit tired or burnt out, there are plenty of Forbidding-Ferrets in that suit to take over.
Oh joy oh bliss. We’ve now matched Adelaide’s record for 40C+ days in the DecJanFeb summer period. With two more 42+ plus days in the works, it will qualify as the hottest summer ever here — without cracking the heatwave record.
I just can’t wait for March (when we had our worst ever heatwave a few years ago).
/ lying
Ugh, yuck, bloody rotten rotten summers. 🙁
GIMME WINTER (I’d say autumn but autumn seems to be giving up in this part of the world, dammit).
At least I can be sure it wasn’t Mr K whose fedora made you puke! 😉
That drawing is offensive. Everybody knows David is only subservient for very tall and imposing feminists. And that dress. He looks way better in a cropped pencil red skirt. *Maybe* with a green peplum dress.
Well her you are David, have a nice first comment from someone who doesn’t hate you for interfering with misogynists’ worldview, and who also knows how English works!
In all seriousness though, despite the fact I haven’t commented before, I appreciate this blog so much for restoring my faith in humanity and making me laugh.
P.S. Do I get banned for saying I prefer dogs to cats?
And this all comes back to… why on earth would I care what people wear (apart from fur, that shit’s cruel). The drawing presupposes that I give a damn about people dressing to stereotypes. LOL.
And now I am reminded of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and the costumes. Omigosh that jandal dress was freaking awesome.