A little realization hit me while I was watching videos about #GamerGate recently. MRAs and #GamerGaters really seem to enjoy depicting themselves as cartoon villains. Above, the skull-in-a-Koolaid-pitcher mascot of MRA videoblogger Bane666au.
Below, a screencap from a video by Mundane Matt, one of the movers and shakers behind the whole #GamerGate thing.
Once the smokey skull intro is over, here’s what you look at the rest of the time when you watch one of his videos:
And while we’re at it, the logo for his channel:
When they’re not depicting themselves as evil skulls with creepy eyes, MRAs and other antifeminists like to identify themselves with fictional villains:
That is, when they’re not posing as supervillains themselves:
Oh, hey, it’s our friend Davis Aurini, from earlier today, in an unphotoshopped screenshot from a video of his.
Oh, and here’s a screenshot from a more recent video of his. Note the skull. That’s right: he owns a freaking skull.
I hate to tell you guys, but I think YOU’RE THE BADDIES.
Yes, I know I’ve posted this video before, but once again it seemed very very apt.
Cool ableism, bro.
Seriously? Just cut it out. You are acting like an ass.
Yah….but when one insist that “moron” and “cretin” are no longer problematic, I’d say one has moved past ignorance to defense.
I… think hellkell meant special as in unique, without precedence, not harkening to a normal distribution, an outlier, a unikum, a statistical anomaly not special needs.
Anyhow, “cretin” and “defense” is a strange sentence structure when I can see, in this thread, literally only 3 people using it. Blahlistic (once), you Michael McG ( a bit) and GrumpyOldMan (twice, technically). So when GrumpyOldMan says “No one is defending the word cretin” I think he actually means the sentence no one is defending the word cretin in this thread
Or to put it in a different parlence: oi oi oi, what’s all this then?
Fibi: that’s exactly it, thanks.
I have no idea what’s going, but the absolute rudeness and trying to rules-lawyer (or whatever that shit with the comments policy was) to people posting in good faith has my hackles up.
You really are determined to be as unpleasant as possible, aren’t you? Your choice, but I really wouldn’t recommend continuing down this path.
Oh, I found an example of moron. Four days ago, three pages back, someone wrote “oxymoron”.
::snort:: Cool misgendering, Michael. /s
Can I put in a plead for taking things at face value?
Re: cretin
Most people seemed more, “wow! I didn’t know that was used for a condition involving iodine deficiency, thyroid shenanigans, and physical deformities!” and not so much “but, but, but I like that insult”
I have no idea what’s going on with bonkers. If bonkers is bad, might I use bananas? Or oranges? In order to express the following sentiment: “that line of thought is so lacking in understandability with respect to the conversation, that it’s really like you’re discussing fruits in a conversation about cats. And the cat conversation is NOT about cats and fruits… Although that would be interesting.”
Re: past conversations
In floor of national foot in mouth day (which isn’t today, but should be), can we leave it be?
Started this post 10 minutes ago, so I might be severely ninja’d. Also, not intending to be police-y, I’m just really confused by the malarkey happening here…
Also, totes not denying there is some severe toe-jam sammiches being eaten in this thread, and past threads.
Please, stop.
Toe-jam sammiches are not cool.
Cats and fruit …
Never mention bananas around Fribbie. She’s convinced we’re trying to poison her with them.
contrapangloss: I get that you want to leave it be, but I am in no mood to after recent events and one person who was determined to mold this board into what they wanted.
I don’t even care about not using the words, that’s not even the issue anymore.
No, let’s go back to past conversations. I’m perfect and blameless and have never made a mistake in my life, so I’m totally cool with—pfhahahahah I couldn’t even finish that.
Sure, that’s good with me. I was just confused is all, since we had the “the defense of cretin!” when I just…
A) couldn’t imagine anyone really defending it if it was pointed out others disagreed
and
B) couldn’t see the defense.
It confused me!
BTW, I was the one who objected to “bonkers” way back upthread, but that was because it was a dreadful troll, Tyler Owen, who used it, so I assumed no good faith. (That was Mr. “GamerGate is not anti-feminist” and “email me so we way discuss further!”)
Hmm…had forgotten about cretinism.
Yeah, that could be seen as very ableist, willing to forsake it.
Noting that since the advent of affordable thyroid hormone replacements that cretinism would only be seen in people without access to medical treatment.
Dunno, this is starting to strike me as Ally part 2. The thing is, it’s a fuzzy boundary
A REALLY fuzzy boundary…
FUZZY BOUNDARIES SUCK ASS.
Since this fecal matter of words we can and can’t use has hit the fan twice so far since I’ve been here, do y’all think it a good idea to create an official “too damn offensive” word list?
I mean, I wasn’t offended by “scrotosphere.” As it’s not about the possessors of scrotums so much as those who think said scrotum and penis gives them Divine Rights.
I’m not offended by bonkers, though I DO have big bad brain cooties.
I’m not offended by really graphic words referring to genitalia, poop, barf, and so forth.
As for “stupidity” and “moronic” I really wish there were a better word for willfully inane mindsets than that?
Evidence so far suggests that just backing off and keeping quiet when someone is behaving badly doesn’t tend to work out well here.
I don’t think we need a list of the big bad words.
I’ll drop cretin if that’s the consensus (ironically, in its probable Occitan origins it wasn’t an insult, rather the opposite – Christian, a reminder of the humanity of the person with the condition). Moron, stupid, idiot – nope, they stay. I’d have thought the “willful” part was implicit when it’s misogynists and racists and the like we’re talking about, or to, in the case of gobshite trolls. I like Robert’s “bad minded” phrase.
And yeah, no more Ally behaviour. Don’t need it. One person controlling the board to the extent where others thought they’d be jumped on or booted for disagreeing with their opinion is not a good thing. (Well, except the Dark Lord, of course.)
Well, I was trying to find a way to smooth things out, and in so doing, managed to use an uncool epithet myself…*mumbles some more around toes*
*sigh*
Whatever makes the boats float?
I just hate intra-group arguing with a passion, is all.
The group was getting along just fine until one person decided that it was time for Blog Drama: The Revenge.
I think there is a difference between pointing out inadvertent ableism and playing gotcha with it in an attempt to be more non-ableist than thou. I am mostly interested in not insulting people who are posting in good faith, either by using terms that are offensive to them or by nit-picking their choice of words unless they are well-established slurs. Dogg knows I have tortured my brains to come up with non-ableist ways of characterizing MRAs and their ilk, but I have made the sacrifice in the hope of keeping a certain degree of disorderly decorum here.
There is a fine line between saying that someone’s thinking ability is majorly screwed up and using ableist insults, but we just have to keep working at it. We are all (I think) honestly trying to introduce a little sensitivity into an insensitive world and we need to realize we are attempting something for which there are no clear established road-maps.
Fun fact: There is a street named Cretin in St Paul and the Ramones saw that when they played in the area and were inspired to write this song
Yo Michael, you are being a jerk.
It is possible that in your self righteous posturing you may not have noticed.
This. This gotcha thing is really fucking sleazy.
Wait, what? Which thread was this?