Roosh Valizadeh — the pickup artist and would-be video game media mogul — is still trying to convince gamers that even though he’s not one of them he’s on their side. Earlier this week, Roosh reached out to GamerGaters with a paid advertorial in The Ralph Retort, a GamerGate-centric internet tabloid, in which he tried to explain who he was and why gamers should trust him.
But he couldn’t even make it to the end of his little spiel without insulting the dudes his new video game website Reaxxion is trying to appeal to, contrasting the escapism of video games with the difficult but necessary work he and his followers do. By which he means the hard work they do trying to convince drunk women to have sex with them.
[A]ll guys devote a certain amount of time of their day to consuming entertainment that breaks up the drudgery of life. Meeting girls, make no doubt about it, is work. Approaching women and dating them is difficult and takes a serious devotion of energy and mental resources. Playing games, on the other hand, while tactically challenging, is more relaxing for men in that it’s a method to unwind from life’s stresses.
Also, if you’re trying to pick up women, you have to remember to clean out the boogers in your nose and wipe your ass. And we know how Roosh feels about that.
I guess I was asking for it by having a male professor as my advisor when I was in college. And a different male professor was the professor for my independent study and my senior thesis. Because I met with them in their offices every so often. I’m such a slut!
From the comments on Wordsp1nner’s link (I’m just going to rage into the wind here so I don’t get sealioned to death over there):
FUCK YOU, YOU DISINGENUOUS SHIT-EATING BULLSHIT FOUNTAIN OF AN ARSEWITTED ABLEIST JIZZ SOCK.
Argh. Sorry for the caps-tastic swear word salad, but I fucking hate that deliberately dehumanising “Word.” It’s like saying that you’re only looking out for the best interests of “R****ds” or “F****ts”… –#
And my pissed-off smilie face got cut off. Oh well. It’s a cyclops now.
Nobody from the mainstream has reached out to the “scared autists” of gamergate to tell them that their games aren’t sexist because a. they’re fictional and b. it’s not true.
“Autists”?
It sounds like it’s someone trying to do the “I’m an Ahhtist” thing for artist. Add pretentiousness to a load of shit about pretending autism is the reason for a man (let along a whole bunch of men) to be misogynistic scumweasels.
@kittehserf,
I’ve known Crissa for years (like, about 10 years). We’re not friends, but we’ve been regulars at 3 or 4 of the same websites. I can tell you with certainty that she’s not a troll or an 8channer. She’s a genuine feminist-identified lefty, sharing her real opinions and experiences.
(I’m not endorsing all of those opinions, just saying that she’s expressing them honestly)
edit: sorry, that post should have been @weirwood
Orion – she’s doing a pretty poor job of it, then, coming onto a feminist website and doing nothing but troll talk and trying to make drama. Complaining about stores refusing to stock misogynistic games, and pooh-poohing the experiences of women who’ve been harassed/assaulted on public transport, is more what I’d expect from the likes of CHS than anyone I’d call a feminist.
That’s okay, Orion, I wouldn’t have thought of the 8chan bit, but I do most certainly think Crissa’s doing nothing but drama-llama bullshit here.
I sort of wish we had separate words we had separate words for “posters who are disruptive and poorly behaved” and “posters who are deceitful and malicious”
The problem is that in the former case people usually start out with “you are being disruptive and poorly behaved”, and only move on to “stop trolling” when the behavior doesn’t stop and the person behaving poorly isn’t responding well to attempts to get them to rein it in.
Precisely. Crissa’s been told about her poor behaviour by several people already. Anyone can fuck up, but when someone makes no contributions but drama-llamaing and poor behaviour (never mind not apologising and not trying to amend that behaviour) then it becomes unreasonable to treat it as if they’re here in good faith.
@cassandrakitty
Yeah, I don’t really understand their logic. Since when did having autism mean that everyone was obligated to tell you your worldview was correct?
There are certainly ways we can help people who suffer difficulties because of their autism, but I don’t think “reassure them that they’re 100% correct where they’re not” has ever been one of them. Confidence-building is something that can be useful, but that doesn’t typically involve discouraging critical thinking on a topic.
I can’t speak for those with severe forms of autism, but I suffer Asperger’s (not exactly part of the spectrum anymore, but plenty of people on the various *chans claim to have it when the topic of autism comes up) and none of the help I’ve received for my social difficulties included letting me isolate myself in a hobby to ignore all the mean meanies who implied my hobby wasn’t the best thing ever.
Even in terms of building confidence and/or coping with being bullied over a hobby – and pointing out sexism is clearly NOT bullying these dudes – I always assumed it was less “this hobby is 100% perfect and everyone else is wrong” and more “you can like this even with its flaws, but not everyone will share the same opinion.”
In theory, they could just let feminists carry on pointing out sexism while they go play their favourite games. They don’t do that because it’s not about them feeling like they’re being attacked for enjoying games; it’s about them hating feminism, and that has nothing to do with autism as far as I know.
Kinda seems like they’re using autism as a shield, but we all know channers would never ever do that, right guys? It’s not like 4chan has ever been involved in actively doxxing and harassing an autistic man before or anything, either…
Sorry for the rant there, it really does annoy me how they throw around the “but we’re autists/aspies!” while simultaneously using those words as insults whenever it suits them.
Isn’t the chan culture fairly horrible to autistic people in general? It just seems like another iteration of not your shield to me, just without the stock photos.
And agreed, in cases where someone genuinely doesn’t pick up on social cues very well, “don’t ever point out that their behavior is alienating people” really doesn’t seem like it would be all that helpful in the long run.
“Aspie/autistic/sperglord” is to them what “retard” is to normal people. Since they attach “-tard” to so many words, it lost meaning for them.
Re: tea lifestyle:
I tried to find a funny pic – I really did – but I did manage to find evidence that you can, in fact, have a tea lifestyle:
http://www.pinterest.com/kate_gallagher/tea-lifestyle/
I’m sure there’s more out there, but my coffee’s gone and I may have to get up and pretend at productivity -_-
Yay! Another cup’s worth!
(Of coffee.)
Oh, and if not doing well at picking up on social cues is the main criterion for being on the autism spectrum, then add me to the rolls -_-
I’m pretty sure my Mom, my husband, and my kids are the only people who really like me.
Well, and my cats – though I’m pretty sure that the one in my lap’s only purring because I’m warm and she’s slightly arthritic. She’s much less loving in the summer. *snerk*
Public transport sex harassment is quite common in my home city, and it’s true that the options are generally to endure it silently or demand they stop loudly and be accused of crazy lady that shouts at people. But I’m certain I felt much better the few times I fought back.
I once yelled STOP TOUCHING ME CREEP at this man who was “subtly” pressing his hand against my crotch and while he stepped back and feigned innocence, I kept giving him an accusatory look until he stepped down at the next stop. Still felt bad because of all the stress involved but more relieving and empowering than the times I was too confused or frightened to react. The rest of the bus passengers didn’t blink an eye at the whole incident.
I *just* came over here from an internet argument I probably should have spared myself from getting involved in. It was a big post of “Tips to Prevent Rape” that were targeted — you guessed it — 100% at women. This would be super problematic even if it weren’t a decade-old email forward full of flat-out false information. (Tips 1 and 2 were about ponytails! and loose clothing!, which kinda tells you all you need to know.)
The number of Manospherians in the comments who were making it all about them was predictable and frustrating:
1) The “OMG you can’t just teach people not to rape; criminals don’t listen anyway, and no, this isn’t victim-blaming” crowd
2) The “OMG women rape men too” crowd
3) The “OMG woe is me if women are scared by me walking behind them #notallmen” crowd
I mean, on a garbage FW: Fw: fw: post, that was entirely victim-blamey against women and completely mischaracterizing rape as being committed 100% by violent men in dark alleys, the dudebros were *still* crying misandry.
There is literally no way to seriously talk about reducing sexual assault without incurring their wrath.
Indeed, my rage-hatred of the word “Autist” comes from the fact that 4Chan and similar shitholes made it up so that they wouldn’t have to call autistic people “People” anymore. Which I probably should have explained at some point during my little rant. My bad. =P
Roosh’s resistance to basic personal hygiene (even celibates keep clean Roosh!) certainly smacks of a depressive. His dedication to the PUA world view certainly would lead him in that direction. It is reassuring for other men who have blamed everyone else for their problems to have a ‘famous’ guy reassuring them, and even the insults are reassuring because they reinforce their low self esteem. I saw a man refer to himself as ‘genetic trash’ (he was short, bald, not handsome) on ‘Sluthate’. If they weren’t so unremittingly misogynist, and generally misanthropic I would feel sorry for some of these men. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.
Well, that’s for the best. You’d probably catch foot fungus.
One could consider that he’s using his Pick-Up skills on Gamers.
It is. This is the same bunch of guys that regularly uses “aspie” as an insult. Or references to other mental disabilities.
Aaaaand here is why they pick on the disabled. As long as someone else is lower on the totem pole than they are, they don’t feel like the lowest of the low. Reprehensible, but hey, that’s the manuresphere for you…