While over on Reddit the regulars are highly offended that anyone would point out the striking similarities between their ideas and the crackpot “men’s oppression is worse than slavery” rants of War Machine, the mixed martial arts fighter and accused woman-beater is getting support from one prominent Indian MRA, Rajesh Kumar, known on Twitter as @MensMrm:
Every many will realize it- sooner than later- MMA Fighter : Men’s Oppression Is ‘Worse Than Slavery’http://t.co/qNWdc7mEZQ
— Mens Rights Movement (@MensMrm) August 23, 2014
Kumar’s Twitter account, with roughly 1600 followers including numerous well-known names in the MRM, looks to be the official account for the Men’s Rights Movement group on Facebook, a public group that boasts some 14,000 members, among them AVFM’s Paul Elam and British MRA/child prostitution apologist Tom Martin.
The link in his tweet is to a story that details the charges against War Machine, as well as his hyperbolic MRA-eqsue views, so there’s no question that Kumar knows just who he’s endorsing here.
I’m enjoying how Kumar’s facebook group has an article a few screenlengths down about how War Machine’s got nothing to do with the MRAs.
A poster on the reddit notes:
Methinks that horse is out of the barn already.
They also claim people are trying to blame MRA’s for the Zoe Quinn harassment. I wasn’t aware there was ant talk of attributing the harassment to the MRM…the 4chan butthole brigade’s a somewhat different demographic.
any…I have no idea what the ants are talking about.
His handle is “MensMRM?”
What does the other M stand for?
Mens. So he’s mensmens rights movement…he apparently only stands up for the rights of men’s men, you know, the real manly ones.
Betas who perform oral sex on women and have feelings deserve no rights.
Well, obviously the Zoe Quinn harassment didn’t start with the MRAs, but they have happily joined in:
http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/search?q=quinn&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all
Maybe he fancies himself a Quentin Tarantino character. Men’s motherfucking rights movement!
Ah, I see that AVFM has a ridiculous piece up complaining about how unfair it is to suggest that War Machine is like MRAs in any way
http://www.avoiceformen.com/just-plain-crazy/all-that-needs-to-be-said-about-warmachine-and-theyoungturks/
They do love their No True MRA “defence”. He walked their talk, and probably will in the future as well.
MRAs: still not “owning their shit”.
Shut up Woody.
David, I did a donotlink amendment to your link in your comment above: http://www.donotlink.com/ba8d
I just read it. It isn’t the “not an MRA” defence that people might think it is from the url. Quelle surprise.
It’s a defense by obfuscation, I thought.
However, I can’t load the video
“I know (person who did really bad things) sounds exactly like us, but they totally aren’t like us! You can tell by the bad things they do! We don’t do anything, so they can’t be part of our movement!”
The only movement Koppenhaver is spokesman for is the Violent Psychopaths of the World Movement. It’s a movement everyone needs to help stop.
@blahlistic
And GWW showing up in comment sections of anti-zoe YouTube videos with praise undermines any claim the MRA make about that. (She does realize that the nanosecond she screws up they’ll be on her like flies on shit right? Or does her need for ass kissing outweigh that? )
And the 4chan butthole brigade is just as connected to the mra as the redpillers
Ah, yes. “Because some terrorists sometimes use phrases that, out of context, appear similar to mainstream political thought, you cannot compare our extreme misogyny and weird-ass opinions on sexual politics to a violent abuser’s extreme misogyny and nearly identical weird-ass opinions on sexual politics, despite it being the defining feature of both our worldviews.” Because that totally isn’t a false analogy.
My favorite comment, though, is from Angry Harry:
Yes, I’m sure that’s why people quit talking to you when you say unsubstantiated bullshit like that. Sure. Whatever you say.
Weel shee-ut… So while they might not be the ones directly responsible, that’s one of their leading lights endorsing it.
… I think KS believes she won’t screw up. We’ll see if she’s right, yeah?
The Honey Badgers also did a video about Quinn, in which they apparently make the argument that she’s an evil feminist mean girl. I don’t know, I didnt; watch, I’m just going from their title and long history of making that argument about all women they don’t like.
>Ah, I see that AVFM has a ridiculous piece up complaining about how unfair it is to suggest that War Machine is like MRAs in any way
It’s telling that he doesn’t actually quote anything the MMA guy said in order to contrast it with their stance on the same topic. That’d be the usual strategy to refute any connection.
That article written by Dean Esmay was a rambling mess and that video: ugh. I hope that guy doesn’t think he’s another Russell Brand.
The cognitive dissonance is profound. They’re calling War Machine violent and crazy (or brain-damaged) but their very own Paul Elam talks like that. Then in the comments Elam calls Cenk Uygur “a fucking terrorist.” Look in the mirror, asshole.
It’s going to be hard to distance themselves from WM’s claims that men are oppressed like slaves and the Jews.
So I read the Esmay piece and one thought came to mind… quite the quote-miner.
Which is the real difference between the two pieces: the piece cited here is given in some length, and the context of it is fairly complete. That it matches, in tone and tenor, much MRA rhetoric, and the “refutation” requires snippets absent context, is telling.
If War Machine hadn’t assaulted anyone, his comments would probably be reposted to the MRA sites. To a certain extent, this is a fair distinction — MRAs at least understand that domestic violence is seen as wrong and would not want to link themselves to someone like that. It ain’t much, but it’s more than some people.
Where they are struggling is the fact that, while they might not advocate DV like what this guy committed (allegedly!!), their rhetoric is more or less the same. This is because MRAs — or at least the ones covered on this site — are filled with the same petulant hostility towards women and frustration with the world for not being given ‘their due’. They might not be as personally violent as this guy, and they might not be responsible for his actions, but they still have to deal with the fact that the same angry, poorly-thought out rationalizations that Koppenhaver spewed are identical in content to MRA screeds.
Yes, they know that it is seen as wrong, but they’ve given little to no indication that they think it is wrong. It’s not about morals to them, but about optics.
I would disagree with that. I prefer the KKK over the folks who believe what the KKK does but won’t say it out loud. At least with the KKK we know where everyone stands, and nobody has to waste time quibbling over whether the members are racists.
As usual, whenever someone commits some kind of violence, there are plenty of people willing to say that he must be A PSYCHOPATH, or in some way other than neurotypical. As though a neurotypical person is innately incapable of doing something like this. That is completely ahistorical and fact-free. Don’t tar mad people with this violent asshole’s brush.
Meh, they’re just mad because he’s stolen their Abusers’ Lobby spotlight.
Called it.
Also I’d like to know what their argument actually is. In the comments to the avfm piece someone says
So do they hold that all the things ‘Some violent psychotic’* wrote to be self evident? That of course men are worse off than slaves?
If so, how can they be upset at people pointing out the similarities? What he wrote is what they actually believe! That’s not nasty feminists trying to link them to ‘Some violent psychotic’* to try and make them look bad. They literally believe the same things. Perhaps if they don’t like sharing the views of a violent criminal they should sort themselves out.
*esmays words