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.
It appears that Zoe is dead, Gia and Shaylee are in the hospital along with Andrew and the Hale boy. Some kids said they argued and others said there were no words spoken. Some said the shooter was angry and frustrated while others said he was happy and popular and a good kid. Except for the homicide, I guess.
Smells like…CULT SHIT.
Should we start calling Paul Elam “The Dear Leader”? Now that Kim Jong-Il is dead, the title would seem to be available and the personalities are certainly somewhat similar.
If it were as simple as just not being an asshole, I’d be inclined to agree…but in that case we could pretty much do away with much of psychology and philosophy as well.
You are correct in that every easily-available definition for masculism or masculinism is rooted in an opposing reaction feminism, or some sort of advocacy for male dominance; I think that’s a terribly inappropriate constriction of the word(s). I think the very existence of toxic masculinity and phenomena like the MRM illuminate a real need for thoughtful, considered exploration, and *that’s* what the word(s) *ought* to define.
@Harlan
Why will you not provide a simple definition of how you are using it?
That’s actually not what I said, not even slightly, but I’m not going to go over that again until you give me a definition of how you are using the word. If you are unwilling to do this, I’m done with this conversation.