So while poking about the manosphere today I followed a link from an obscure Men’s Rights blog over to Alex Jones’ Infowars site — specifically to the comments on a news article about a study that claims internet porn is destroying marriage.
Jones, as you may know, is essentially the king of the world’s conspiracy theorists, so naturally I expected his commenters to be pretty unhinged. What I didn’t realize is that they would also all be Men’s Rights Activists.
Well, maybe they don’t all call themselves that, but they certainly think like MRAs; several even linked to a site for Men Going Their Own Way.
Most commenters agreed that porn was a better deal than a wife; after all, as numerous wits declared, porn won’t steal half your money in a divorce.
But alongside such familiar, indeed cliché, sentiments there were also some pretty inspired mini-rants. Here’s my favorite, which received several dozen upvotes from the regulars, making it one of the most popular comments in the 373-comment thread.
But there were other comments that were nearly as, er, inspired as this one. Take this righteous comment from one of Mr. EinNietzscheStein’s biggest fans:
And who could forget this fellow’s intriguing theories about female sexuality?
“Hanoi Jane.” Hadn’t heard that in a long time. Really brings you back, doesn’t it?
Khoshekh saying hi to Motley 🙂
http://res.cloudinary.com/indiegogo-media-prod-cld/image/upload/c_limit,w_620/v1419461603/djishzqxymopwor8nubw.jpg
<3 <3 <3 Motley and Khoshekh
I just want to say… one of my favorite things about the comments section at this blog is how they so often evolve into cuteness overloads. It’s wonderful. All that cats. All the kittehs. All the baby animals…
Y’all are awesome.
Nathan, that is Truth! It’s like we say, come for the mockery, stay for the kitties. They’re a great way of scaring off trolls, too. We are but the humble servants of our Furrinati overlords.
Have you seen the Holidaze thread? So. Many. Kitties.
During a drawing class a number of years ago, I went to a museum exhibit of art clothing. The goal was to practice sketching, and they provided wonderful material. Pun intended. Don’t know how well they would work as clothing, but they were fun to draw.
Regarding couples and finances – my husband has access to my checking account, which he uses for household expenses. I think of it like ‘table money’ – in some working class families, in which the husband would be paid in cash, he would hand over his pay envelope to his wife. She would take out what she’d need for the household, and leave the rest on the kitchen table for him. If I couldn’t trust him with my money, how could I trust him with anything else? He’s the sole beneficiary of my life insurance policy, and I fall asleep next to him every night. Curious, but it’s the same arrangement my dad had with my mom.
This seems to be a key thing that MRAs don’t understand about functional relationships – they require trust. If you really don’t trust someone then why are you with them?
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? There’s so much “What the fuck is wrong with these people?” in everything they do and say – and no, I don’t mean mental illness or anything remotely outside their control, I mean this willful stupidity and determination to be the most disgusting oxygen thieves around.
In nursing school, we just had to submit a receipt from the hospital cafeteria. The hard part was proving you hadn’t vomited after.
Regarding couples and finance, Mr.Grump and I have our own bank accounts, but we know each other’s PIN codes. Usually I cover rent, car payment, insurance payments, and utilities, and he covers groceries and gas. But, we don’t keep track of who paid what. Sounds like I pay more than he does? That’s just because I earn more than he does.
Hey, if we’re doing “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs”, does that make us Marxists? And if we both pay for a cultural event, are we Cultural Marxists? Take that, manosphere! 😛
grumpyoldnurse… you make more than your husband?!?
MISANDRY I SAY! MISANDRY!
…
…
…
…
…
I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Involuntary tick. 😀
————————————————
@kittehsurf
I will now be venturing over to the Holidaze thread.
(Save me.
…
…
…
On second though… don’t.)
That’s not an involuntary tick!
This is an involuntary tick! http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/The-Tick-comic-the-tick-96025_434_243.jpg
There is no saving you from the power of kitties, Nathan! Muahahahaha!
http://localsguidesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/544666_639743632710042_401839781_n.jpg
Rereading all the posts in this thread, I’m struck by how often a feminist relationship turns out to be not only egalitarian, but full of trust, especially around finances. Somehow, I can’t see those ‘wingers from the misanthroposphere being nearly so trusting. No wonder their relationships so often fail where those of feminists succeed. Money squabbling is THE #1 thing leading to divorce, last time I heard.
Update – my seed fell on the ground and I had to stop what I was doing in order to get it away from the cat.
(Kabocha seed. Not sure if those are OK for cats to eat, so better safe than sorry.)
@cassandrakitty
You got me curious. I’ve heard (though I don’t know how true it is) that pumpkin seeds can supposedly be good for cats. I know kabocha is known as Japanese pumpkin (though I don’t know exactly how closely related kabocha and pumpkin are). I shot off the question of whether they’re okay for cats to some of the “ask a pet nutritionist/vet” websites. Since it’s Christmas, I doubt I’ll get a response anytime soon, but I’ll update here if/when I do.
You’re right, though. It is indeed better to be safe than sorry. I’ve only recently started learning that things I thought were good for cats (like milk, for example) actually aren’t, since I’m doing research because, eventually, I want to get a cat (like… badly). So I’m learning myself.
Actually, cat nutrition interests me because I know that cats are obligate carnivores. I know someone who very very rarely feeds her cat steak… raw, I think (or at most blue; I don’t know). I’ve always wondered if that’s good or bad, although her cat is amazingly healthy and is already reaching the average life-span age of cats and looks to be on track to live a [i]lot[/i] longer, so… hmm….
@ Bina – Yeah, funny innit? It’s almost like feminists actually believe in all that equality stuff that we’re always blathering about. And, since equality breeds trust, IMHO, it only follows that feminists will form strong pair bonds.
You’re also right about how the denizens of the manureshpere would probably react to this kind of romantic/lifestyle arrangement. I’d like to see their heads asplode!
@ Nathan
Yeah, I tend to follow “if you don’t know if it’s poisonous, assume it might be” principle in terms of what I’ll let pets eat. Both cats and dogs can have bad reactions to all kinds of things that are fine for people.
Raw meat is fine for a cat, though you wouldn’t want to feed them that exclusively because they need the bones too to get all the required nutrients. People who feed their cats an exclusively raw diet either grind up the whole animal or add the missing nutrients as a powder.
Actually, I’m wondering… if I were to get a cat, would it be cheaper to get pet food or do it myself at home? I already know what to look for in pet food to get the right stuff, but the good stuff isn’t all that cheap. So would it be cheaper to do it at home myself?
Assuming I know what I’m doing, of course (and if I did do it at home, I would first do the research… I already am, because if I do get a cat, I want to be able to provide him or her the best home I can afford.)
Depends on what you mean by do it yourself. If you mean the raw food diet, for example, how do you feel about grinding up entire carcasses? It’s doable but involves a heavy duty meat grinder and someplace to store things.
I… erm… haven’t dug that deep, yet.
Grinding up animal carcasses… not sure if I could stomach that or not. I know that the smell of raw chicken makes me nauseous, but… I can honestly say I don’t know. At least for my food, I prefer “ready-to-cook”, but then I’m not a cat…
I’m mostly asking because I’m a recipe collector, and I often come across recipes for dog and cat treats and food, so I’m curious in a general sense.
Also, on a slightly related note, (warning: this is rather angering, at least to me) I’m currently listening to a commentary about “vegan cats”… the very idea makes me angry, but this guy’s claiming that female cats seem to have no trouble with vegan diets, and only some male cats do. I have always believed that acts were obligate carnivores. The dude is equivocating (“I don’t know for sure”; “I’m not a vet or pet nutritionist”;), but still. He’s trying to argue from a “moral” perspective.
But cats are obligate carnivores. I can’t imagine how any cat would “do well” on a vegan diet.
(I should note that I’m not trying to bash vegans in general… every single vegan I know who has a cat or multiple cats feed their cats the kind of diet an obligate carnivore would require… in fact, my friend who occasionally gives her cat raw meat is a vegetarian. And she’s also the one who told me that cats are obligate carnivores.)
@ Nathan Hevenstone – if one is truly an abolitionist, wouldn’t keeping an animal as a pet be unethical? Also, agreeing with you about cats being obligate carnivores (as far as I know)
Really? The gendering of food has reached a point where we’re arguing that female carnivores don’t need meat? FFS.
@grumpyoldnurse
This is the only “commentary” of his I’ve listened to, but he’s done another on pets, and he just said that the institution of pet ownership is problematic, so it sounds like he is indeed anti-pet (which, of course, invalidates any opinion he may have on feeding said pets).
@cassandrakitty
I know, right? It’s ridiculous. But then, I’ve noticed the gendering when looking at pet adoption centers. Some do indeed differentiate between male and female animals with blue and pink respectively.
A vegan diet’s basically “how to ensure your cat has a slow painful death oh and goes blind first, because they can’t process taurine from vegetables”. Nobody should be allowed to force that on a cat. If they can’t deal with the fact that cats are, as you say, obligate carnivores, they’ve no business owning one.
I’m with you on being angry about that.
I did see something that amused me the other day, linked somewhere: paraphrased, “I’m putting my cat on a vegan diet.” “You can’t, that’s terribly bad for them!” “No it’s not, it’s good for them. I’m only feeding them the finest vegans.”
Even if you put aside the “it’s OK, lady cats have different needs” nonsense I wouldn’t be keen on taking advice about my pet from someone who doesn’t think pets should exist. Keep the multiple cases of PETA killing pets in mind if you’re going to listen to this guy’s stuff – when it comes to this issue they really can’t be trusted at all.
http://i.giphy.com/Kh296M49Zr1Sg.gif