If the Men’s Rights movement is looking for a celebrity endorser, I think I’ve found just the guy for them: the mixed martial arts fighter, and erstwhile porn actor, War Machine, currently sitting in jail on charges of brutally beating and attempting to kill his ex-girlfriend, porn star Christy Mack.
Men’s Rights activists should be able to look past these criminal charges; after all, as they remind us all the time, women are forever falsely accusing innocent men of all sorts of terrible things.
And in so many ways War Machine is perfect for them. An MMA fighter, he’s already only one letter away from being an MRA. A misogynistic asshole with rage issues, he’ll have no trouble fitting in with the Men’s Rights crowd. And, especialy important for a movement that has a lot of trouble getting any good PR, he’s a bit more comfortable on camera than the Paul Elams and Dean Esmays of the world, with experience on television (on the reality show The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra), and in seven films (albeit pornographic ones).
Best of all: he’ll need no ideological education from what A Voice for Men likes to call Fuck Shit Up University. War Machine – real name Jonathan Koppenhaver – is already an outspoken proponent of many of the Men’s Rights Movement’s core beliefs.
Consider these selections from a little Men’s Rights manifesto War Machine wrote a few years ago during a previous stint behind bars, serving time for felony assault after two bloody bar fights. His rant, which a friend posted to the internet, would fit right in with the sort of stuff we’ve seen regularly posted on the Men’s Rights subreddit, or The Spearhead, or A Voice for Men. I’ve bolded some of the Men’s Rightsiest bits:
The oppression of MEN is worse than oppression of Jews in Nazi germany, worse than the slavery of Blacks in early America…
There has always been the oppressor and always the oppressed. Before, it was blatant … NOW the oppressor has learned to disguise his evil. You can see man, but you can not see MEN. How easy it is to oppress a minority that is invisible to the eye! How genius of the oppressor! And what a better target too! …
Men challenge injustice from Government, MEN fight for their Constitutional rights, that are slowly being taken away every year. …
And they don’t just oppress us by making more laws and taking away more freedom, they are far more clever than that! Ask yourself what your REAL dream was?? If you gave up on this dream, why? Because of the brainwashing of the Government, that’s why! They taught you to “play it safe.” They told us a responsible man has ONE wife, a house, good credit, good job, and kids. How are you supposed to chase your dreams while maintaining all of that!?
Men are supposed to take risks and be aggressive! What accomplishments have ever come of a man scared to risk it all!? None!? Where would the world be? Still ‘flat!’ Still ‘Earth at the center of the universe!’
If any of you have your Men’s Rights Bingo cards out, I’m guessing you might already be close to scoring a bingo. We’ve got a comparison to slavery that could have come straight from the pages of A Voice for Men, a marriage-is-death-to-male-dreams rant that could have been borrowed from any MGTOW forum, and an evo-psych-esque argument that men are the true risk-takers and the world’s real innovators.
And I don’t think War Machine would have much trouble with Paul Elam’s “Bash a Violent Bitch Month,” either.
[I]t’s Christmas day and I’m laying in my bunk wondering “Why in the hell do American men get married!?” … If your wife is being a bitch you can’t slap her, if your wife is yelling at you, God forbid you yell back … Next thing you know it will be illegal to fuck your wife! LMAO! Maybe then, MEN in this country will get the fucking hint and MOVE! This country forces you to be a bitch!
In another online posting, War Machine touched on another Men’s Rights hobbyhorse, the notion that the justice system is stacked against men:
[L]ook at the prisons, they are FULL of MEN, not women. Are men “evil” and women not? Or do the laws target and attempt to restrict NATURAL MEN’S BEHAVIOR? How many of the HEROES in American history would avoid prison if they lived today? Davey Crockett? Thomas Jefferson? David Bowie? General Grant & General Lee? Shit, George Washington. … Laws target MEN and men’s behavior. Women want to bitch and cry about their rights and equality… LMAO! MEN are the ones locked away like animals, while women run free!
Someone might have to explain to War Machine that David Bowie is not actually a famous American HERO but a famously androgynous British musician who once recorded an album called “Heroes.” (Mr. Machine may be thinking of James Bowie, a well-known 19th century American frontiersman and slave trader, and the guy the Bowie Knife is named after.)
But other than that, he seems ready to go.
There is, of course, that whole attempted murder charge to deal with.
It’s true the Men’s Rights Movement has had few problems in the past rallying behind men with histories of violence. But War Machine might be a harder sell as a Men’s Rights hero. His alleged attack on Mack left her with a cracked rib, a ruptured liver, numerous broken bones, missing teeth and her eyes swollen shut. (See here for photos of her injuries; obviously this link is NSFW and could be triggering.)
While Mr. Machine denies attacking Mack, he joked to a TV host last year that if she were to leave him “I would just kill her” and get a tattoo saying “Rest In Peace” above the tattoo of her name he has on his neck.
And several hours after allegedly trying to murder her, War Machine tweeted this lovely message about his ex:
https://twitter.com/WarMachine170/statuses/497663075831787521
War Machine does seem to be at a low point in his life. Even aside from the charges he faces, and the time he seems likely to serve, his career in porn is almost certainly over. The “Alpha Male” clothing line he helped start wants nothing to do with him. Nobody but the prison system seems to want this guy.
In other words: Men’s Rights activists, this is your chance! War Machine may not be the, er, hero you want. But he’s certainly the hero you deserve.
I’m not onboard with the idea that scrotosphere (a comment coined on this very blog) should never be used again either, just for the record.
@ Bina
Eh, every profession has to have those members who just barely scraped their way in qualification-wise, right? Elam’s attempt at ass-covering might even work, in terms of a legal defense, it’s just a bit of a ridiculous policy to have if you say that the high suicide rate among men is one of your biggest concerns.
Given that no-one is prosecuted when actively encouraging a person to commit suicide, it’s quite a leap to conclude that providing concern and support would create a prima facie case.
Equating good mental health with self-beautification, but only for people who’re female, has a long and not so pretty history in the psych profession.
Counselors can have a bachelor’s in counseling, but I’m not sure that empowers them to practice therapy in all states.
Most states (I thought) want an MCSW (Master’s Clinical Social Work) or Master’s in clinical psychology before treating clients.
…Drug abuse counselors were kind of unregulated for a while, the idea being that they wanted to get people who’d beaten drug and alcohol abuse themselves into the field. Not sure how it is now.
The idea of Elam being a therapist is actively horrifying.
“Have you ever considered that maybe all of your issues could be caused by… say… a woman?”
I feel like AVFM’s sudden policy on forums is due to what they think is increased visibility. Now they’re getting nervous that what they say could actually be used against them, so they want to cover their asses.
I gotta wonder though… was there some incident that started the whole thing?
The psych profession has a long and sad history of trying to adjust clients to fit in with society’s norms rather than help them come to an appreciation of themselves as unique individuals.
It does seem like a reactive policy, now that you mention it.
I am wondering the exact same thing.
This is Paul Elam’s entire M.O. – make it abundantly clear that you think anybody who isn’t directly helping you and harming your enemies deserves every bad thing that happens to them ever, and encouraging escalation of aggression towards women in all areas of life, but always with a token ass covering “of course you shouldn’t do anything illegal”. You can almost hear the sleazy wink that goes with it when you read the words.
Also, shut up Woody.
You know, I have yet to tell Woody to shut up. I feel like I need to do that to feel like part of the in-group. Here goes: shut up Woody!
Here we are once again, piling on to someone who can’t defend himself because he can’t figure out how to use “sporkle” in a sentence. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Shut up, Woody. (Hey, that felt good. I am truly ashamed of myself.)
I’m waiting for the day when Woody finally completes his challenge and a comment to show up, only for a “Shut up, Woody!” comment to follow directly after.
Gotta say, I missed the sporkle thing so I know not what it means. Also, I highly doubt Woodward loses any sleep over us telling him to shut it. lol
Woody has yet to comprehend that “use sporkle in a comment” implicitly means “use sporkle in a sentence in your comment”. So I don’t think he’s going to complete his challenge anytime soon.
Ah, the schadenfreude.
And, since I need to keep in practice:
Shut up, Woody.
From what I remember, the Woody Challenge consists of: use the word “sporkle” in a sentence, then make 5 comments that are on topic and address another comment, because he seemed to be commenting without reading anything.
If he keeps this up and makes it past the challenge, maybe he’ll become the next NWOSlave and win troll of the year!
…The worst thing is? They encouraged me to do big hair, because Texas.
…I’m allergic to freaking hairspray. Constant runny nose resulted.
I think if a suicidal guy expressed suicidality on AVfM, he’d probably get made fun of and told to “act like a man…”
Didn’t David say he’d accept comments with sporkle just dropped at the top as long as the rest of the comment actually showed that Woody was reading the other comments and wasn’t an attempt to wedge his tongue as far up Elam’s ass as possible?
” an attempt to wedge his tongue as far up Elam’s ass as possible?”
Please, ck, I need to get some sleep tonight!
A bit off topic but I found some new Bootsy pics! Praise be to Bootsy!
http://imgur.com/a/WuZf0
redpoppy – David’s troll challenge for Woody was that he has to include sporkle in his comments before they’ll be let through. Except Woody’s so stupid he thinks putting the word at the top of the comment and then going on to his usual whining actually counts.
I’ll give him this, it adds a bit more fun to being a mod.
To be honest, I don’t remember. I just remember it being really, really trivial to complete even if you wanted to troll, so the fact that Woody keeps failing is extra hilarious. The fact that he keeps trying is even better.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED O_O Aahhhh!
Oh, did he?
There are only two comments from Pinocchio boy in the pending, and they’ve been there a while, so I presume David didn’t think they were worth letting through. They didn’t even mention St Elam the Holy, either!
Will he ever give up, or will he still be posting comments that nobody but the mods reads 6 months from now? Find out on next week’s edition of As The Blog Turns.
kittehserf- ah ok hahaha that’s funny. Sorry I started flipping out because I didn’t realize my link would post like that…..sorry all!