Paul Elam, the maximum leader of hate site A Voice for Men, has responded to the first wave of media coverage of his phony White Ribbon site with a truculent little rant.
Salon.com, Thinkprogress.org and the ever intellectually flatulent David Futrelle have rage-written on this issue barely 24 hours after we launched the site.
How does he know about the flatulence? In my defense, I’m still recovering from Dollar Taco Tuesday.
I was also just interviewed by Cosmopolitan Magazine, being asked such incisive questions as, “Do you think it is ever OK to hit a woman?”
I imagine that Cosmo was just trying to get a reaction from him, since it’s fairly well-known, at least among those who follow the Men’s Rights set, that Elam’s answer to the hitting women question is yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Indeed, Elam can barely restrain himself on the subject, having penned a short story, an allegedly “satirical” post and a serious, non-satirical post all laying out his case for punching women, and not only in self-defense.
Elam pauses his rant for a moment to make the whimsical assertion that his phony WhiteRibbon.org site is an “attempt to insert empiricism and genuine expertise into the discussion of violence in the home” before setting forth what he calls “a few facts” that he thinks will answer all questions.
One, White Ribbon Campaign is not trademarked by anyone. Deal with it.
Sorry, Paul. I don’t think this is the get out of jail card you think it is. The real White Ribbon campaign could assert common law trademark rights. It’s been around since 1991.
His other facts are kind of boring, so let’s just move on to the heart of the tantrum:
I have a message for Salon, ThinkProgress, Futrelle and anyone else bashing us for presenting valid research on a very real social problem. It is a message I will not use to sully the pages of WhiteRibbon.org.
This message is this: Go right straight to Hell you gang of bigoted, lying scumbags. That is, if Hell will even have you pieces of shit. …
That’s it. Write motherfuckers. Whine. Complain. Cry in your fucking Cheerios. The only thing you will ever accomplish is helping us spread the truth.
U mad bro?
I think he’s mad.
Oh, and one last thing. Send your lawyers. We will be happy to ride them for a while just for the fun of watching you pay the fucking bill.
Uh, who exactly are you talking to here? I’m pretty sure that neither I nor Salon nor ThinkProgress will be sending any lawyers. Someone else might, though. I guess we’ll have to see how that works out.
P.S. And while we’re talking about the spiteful immaturity of AVFMers, here’s an AVFM post from the YouTuber blabber “Mad Shangi” in which he actually boasts about acting like an obtuse diskhead in an, er, “debate” with me on Twitter.
More proof that it’s pointless to actually try to discuss anything with people who are either terminally thickheaded, or posting in bad faith, or, as seems to be the case with Mr. Shangi, a bit of both.
Scum. Simply scum. Not that there was any doubt before. Reprehensible.
It seems the universe has entered a new state.
I would have thought it was impossible for there to be so many bottomless barrels.
How long does it generally take you to bounce back from Dollar Taco Tuesday, David?
BTW: He is right about something when he said
This scumbag managed to make me aware of the REAL White Ribbon campaign. I donated last night. http://www.whiteribbon.ca for the Canadian organization. There are also organizations in Great Britain and New Zealand that I know of.
Is that the Streisand Effect, or the anti-Streisand Effect? It certainly is the opposite of what this cretin wanted. And that’s just fine by me.
“It’s not illegal” is the first excuse of every sociopath.
I like the possibly unintentional euphemism “diskhead” 🙂 It reminds me of a software forum I used to visit where someone tried to post a thread called “Help, I can’t find my disk!”, except… he didn’t.
such a shitwizard. always good to see him mad, though.
“Not trademarked” huh? Because my first google hit says
“The White Ribbon logo is trademarked in Australia under the Trade Marks Act
1995.”
http://www.whiteribbon.org.au/uploads/media/event_resources/Event_Guidelines_2014.pdf
I don’t know what happens to trademarks at international borders or if White Ribbon has trademarks in USA or CA but Elam’s case is one of the most egregious, the very first type of thing trademark law would work to prevent. He is intentionally confusing the market.
@saphy
Is he ever not mad? =P
(This also applies to all MRAs, all #GamerGaters and all right-wing assclowns in general.)
He mad.
@M. the Social Justice Ranger
Good point.
Maybe all of the anger will make him combust one day. POOF! Elam explodes in a puff of hot air and incredibly thin skin.
What a bunch of doofi! (I think that’s the plural form of doofus, but I only got a C in Latin, so, you know, culpa mea)
He so mad.
marinerachel, ok, I confess that was a joke. But a few weeks ago it did literally take me several days to recover from a mexican takeout binge that started on dollar taco tuesday.
He’s mad, he’s mad, he’s really really mad!
Oops… okay, the whole sceen is good, but here’s the bit I meant:
(Sorry for the double embed!)
From the actual WhiteRibbon.ca page, “What Makes a Man 2014”:
From Paul Elam:
Offered without further comment.
Elam: creates website that only someone wilfully obtuse would claim was not incendiary, gloats about how “foolish” the actual white ribbon campaign was for not protecting themselves from people like him, throws indignant temper tantrum when called out. For real, is he incapable of understanding cause and effect?
@Faint Praise – trademark protections are generally reciprocal, IIRC. In other words, even if the real White Ribbon campaign has not filed a specific trademark request in the US, the federal government recognizes trademarks protected in other countries and may treat that as binding. Trademark law is also significantly more rigid than copyright. Trademarks are heavily protected with very few openings for fair use. Elam is most likely going to be toast on that basis alone.
Regarding the part about the five foot tall woman – assuming the woman is unarmed, how much ‘threat’ could a six foot eight man two and a half times the woman’s weight possibly feel? I mean, I get defending yourself and not letting people hit you, but without her wielding some sort of weapon, how fearful or threatened could Elam reasonably be? Generally speaking, it would be the woman who would feel a threat and who might hit out of panic, especially if Elam was treating her the way he recommends treating women. Either way, if he hits her harder than he really needed to, he’d have a hard time flying the ‘I felt threatened and responded accordingly’ justification to anyone who saw him?
I’m genuinely stumped trying to imagine how he imagined this would go. David sinking into a profound existential malaise as a result of being finally and decisively outwitted? The directors of the white ribbon campaign falling at his feet and begging him to help them undo the damage of their heinous use of actual facts? Msm beating down his door to congratulate the courage and boldness and sheer cutting-edgeitude of his message?
Ooh, ooh, I know this one! Finally, three years of art history become relevant!
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“Choleric,” David Futrelle. 2014. Oil on canvas.
Dang it, it didn’t embed.
I would just like to point out that one year ago, Paul Elam had declared October to be “Bash a Violent Bitch Month.”
Clearly, he is the type of person who should be leading a campaign against domestic violence.
/sarcasm
I disagree. He is intentionally defrauding the market. Fraud. Scam. Theft. Con. Grift. Larceny.