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.
@Cassandra
I would definitely love to keep in touch. I’ll ask Argenti or hellkell if they could pass my address on to you, like WWTH’s it’s my personal email with my name so I’d rather not post it here.
If we try to have this discussion in private that just creates a new problem, though, because then we’re excluding people, some of them just because they happen not to be around now, and that’s not OK either.
Ugh, this is so frustrating.
@ Shadow
Sure, either of those two can do it. I suck at keeping in touch too, once moved and forgot to tell anyone from high school my new address for months, but I’ll try.
If nothing else I’m glad I came back for long enough to a. get confirmation that there are other people feeling the same way, and b. establish some sort of contact with a few people I’m really going to miss if I’m out for good.
I only wish I thought that there were more people who’d miss me, but hey, I’m evil, not stupid.
I’ve removed myself from a couple of communities because I was angry and upset and I’m so sorry so many of you are going through that now. LBT has been silent and I hope he’s okay. (Is that the correct pronoun?)
I really hope there’s some way to resolve this. I’m having trouble saying good-bye to people because I can’t believe this is happening. All of you bring so much insight and laughter to this place and it’s hard to imagine it without you.
cassandrakitty, you are NOT evil! :bear:
Well, I’m going to sleep. Working early tomorrow. Please do continue discussing the matter wherever you can to whatever extent you can though and I’ll get caught up when I have the opportunity.
We just need a place we can have the discussion where, yes, everyone is welcome but if you’re particularly concerned about being triggered by criticism it’s your responsibility to stay clear of it, not everyone else’s to keep silent about their concerns. It of course wouldn’t be an abusive discussion but there would be robust criticism of other’s conduct and ideas.
Auntie Alias has teddy!
Would it be worth making a new version of the Secret Room for this? There’s stuff I really don’t think we should be posting in public, because – and I’m not exaggerating – it might compromise people’s safety.
While we’re venting, marinerachel, I feel like I wasn’t nearly as much help to you as I’d have liked to have been when you were hitting your lowest point, and I’m sorry about that too. I’m way more tough love and practical support than talking people through a crisis, unfortunately, and you can’t really do either of those from far away with a person you don’t know well. I still wish I’d been able to help more and tried harder to do so, though. If you want to keep in touch, hellkell or David can give you my email.
Would it make a difference? Would we be permitted to air our concerns even if someone might be triggered by them? Because if not, there’s no value.
I agree, kitteh.
Didn’t go to bed, watched some BBC with David Attenborough. Now I’m going to bed.
Kittehs, I’m never lumping you and Cassandra on that team. I may not always agree with you, but the pair of you were the first to make me feel like this was a legit web-home. You’ve always been honest and forthright, with me, and you are also pretty genuinely caring.
I forget which thread it was, but you two were totally the first to make be believe (and not just “know”) that the creepy park kiss dude wasn’t my fault. You two also were the first people other than my parents I felt safe talking about that too, even if it was online for all the world to see with that conversation.
This whole fiasco reeks, and it might have been inevitable, or needed, or it might have been totally unneeded, and I really don’t know because I’m still kind of a naive kid, in so many ways.
If you were here, I’d hug the bejeepers out of both of you. I’m in AK till next spring, and who knows where after that for grad school, but I’d be more than honored to share coffee with either of you.
My address is my nym @hotmail, if you ever want to get in touch.
I think both approaches have value, cassandra, but thank you. If I hadn’t let that guy destroy my self worth I would have been able to pick myself up by my bootstraps. I still didn’t fucking deserve it. It was still his fault. I was still victimized. Regarding my own duty to self-care though I failed and I frightened a lot of people in the process. I regret those things and will do better in the future. I want to be someone who, when in crisis, can paddle themself to shore. Leaning on people when one needs to is important but not the the extent they topple over. I scared a lot of people needlessly. I will never allow myself to be so battered emotionally that I’m debilitated and others are frightened for me again.
Cassandrakitty, hellkell, you go way back. I know I’m an occasional poster, mostly lurker here and I only just realised this has kicked off today. It’s taken me an afternoon to catch up and I feel like crying. I totally get that you need to keep yourselves safe, as does Ally but I naively want everyone to stay together. No-one’s on Team Evil Bitch, I think every one has made good points and I’ve spent the afternoon yo-yo-ing between them, trying to understand the good arguments that you are all making and reflecting on myself. I hope this community can find a way to resolve this conflict, and I would seriously miss your voices in all that.
This is probably going to turn into “stop damselling!” by the time I wake up, but contrapangloss, aunty alias, and shadow, thank you so much for the kind words here. I’m not so fond of showing my soft underbelly in public spaces where vulnerability could be used against me (something which gets me into trouble sometimes, because it’s oh so not acceptable for women to be that way, and makes it oh so easy for people to assume that you really are fucking Maleficent with a hide made out of iron), but I’ve spent the last couple of days wondering if I’d have any friends at all left here other than Kittehs and hellkell by the time all this was over, so I really, really appreciate every little bit of kindness in this thread. And now I’m going to shut up before I get weepy, because nobody wants to see that.
I didn’t want to be on Team Evil Bitch but now that I am may I paste my face on Ursula?
I don’t quite know what that is, but I’d be down.
Cassandrakitty,
I don’t think anyone here considers you an evil bitch. I’d be your friend if you would have me. Not to sound needy, but nobody has replied to my last several posts so I’m worried that I’ve said something to offend people at some point. I really hope I haven’t. I’m still trying to understand the conflict so I’ve just stayed out of it.
@ WWTH
I think nobody has been responding to you just because you haven’t upset anyone, ironically enough. I’m not ignoring you because I’m offended, promise, I just don’t want to drag anyone else into this conflict who isn’t already involved.
Ally has written me to say that she will be leaving WHTM; that is, not reading or posting in the comments any more. Anyone who wants to keep in touch with her should email me, and I can pass your email along to her.
And that’s the case if you want to keep in touch with anyone who is leaving, just email me.
For the record, while I’m still sorting through all this, I don’t think anyone is on team evil bitch in this situation.
I wish I could fix this but I honestly don’t know how. Obviously I am very sad to see so many amazing people leaving — I hope that at least some of you reconsider or decide to make this a temporary thing — but I understand that people need to do whatever they need to do to feel safe.
If anyone has thoughts on how to rachet down the tensions and avoid this sort of situation from arising in the future I am more than happy to hear them, publicly or privately.
I’m conflict avoidant too. And I am only posting now because I don’t want people to think I put them on Team Evil Bitch.
I personally, selfishly, do not want anyone here to leave.I have loved reading the comments from all of you.
I understand that some people feel they need to leave for their emotional health, and though I personally hate the fact, you definately have to do what is needed to keep yourself safe.
I don’t know anyone who is leaving well enough to email them, so I’ll just say that I will miss you, and addresses of other blogs where they can be found would be welcome.
This is the only blog I have ever felt ok to comment on.
Sorry if you’re feeling like you’re contributing to the problem, weirwoodtreehugger. I don’t feel that way at all. I think any of us would be happy to discuss with you what we see as the conflict via email. Part of theconflictthough is we feel we’re not permitted to have a conversation about it here, regardless the damage we believe not having it is doing.
I obviously have a vested interest in this because I want y’all to remain a part of the community. I’m also of the opinion that you guys are a big reason for this community lasting as long and as strong as it has, and therefore are owed the opportunity to air your grievances and be heard. If you guys feel like a thread or forum post would be useful then I, for one, am fully for that.
It’s 4 am and I have to sleep now. I hope this won’t be the last time I talk to you guys on this blog, but should the worst happen I’m really glad I managed to catch you guys, and that this won’t be the last time I speak to y’all. Good night guys, and all my love.
Ugh. I fully expect a tirade of “LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE/YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF” directed at the evil bitchez shortly. Better take my leave.
WWTH, I’ve hardly been looking at the blog the last few days, but apologies if that’s contributed to you feeling ignored!
Anyone here’s free and welcome to email me, whether to chat generally or talk about this in particular or swap Furrinati pics or whatevs.
If we can talk about this in a safely private – ie. not open to public view – space here, I’m up for it, and I won’t leave the site.
I wish Ally well. Maybe she’s just too sensitive for the internet unless it’s a tightly regulated safe space. I wanted to accommodate her but I don’t want other regulars to be driven away by that either. Idk, I’m just sad a conflict happened at all and I hope people reconsider leaving.