So the musician who goes by the name Pogo, best known for his magical audiovisual mashups using snippets of old Disney movies, is now declaring that the awful misogynistic nonsense he recently posted on his blog and on YouTube was “somewhat of an experiment for myself,” intended to rile up
the enormous breed of hyenas out there taking gender equality and feminism hostage, and bending it into a social status to validate their feeling that the world owes them everything because of their gender.
As Pogo (real name Nick Bertke) explains it in a new blog post today, his attacks on women were intended to expose these fake feminist “hyenas … as the self contradicting brats they are.” To do this, he says,
I uploaded videos and blog posts to draw this mentality out and see just how much of it plagues my own circles. I mashed together the most radical views I could find about women and feminism on the internet, doing my best to present it as my humble opinion and honest observations.
It wasn’t long before my Twitter, which I haven’t touched in months, was absolutely blazing with “equality seeking, compassionate and understanding people” putting every one of their ideals through the shredder and back again. A few people had excellent things to say, but watching the rest of them was like watching a bunch of vegetarians turn cannibal and tear apart a newborn.
Bertke gives zero examples of this.
Looking through Twitter’s list of “Top Tweets” mentioning Bertke’s now-deleted @PogoMix Twitter account, I didn’t find a lot of cannibals. I saw a bunch of Tweets like this:
https://twitter.com/Andie_Cox/status/560788383861981184
rip @PogoMix
Used to love your mixes a lot. No more. Please look into what feminism actually is, then we'll talk.— Cassie (@dinosaur_mug) January 30, 2015
https://twitter.com/rosstavo/status/560946547085811712
The harshest tweet of the bunch was this one:
https://twitter.com/dearmothica/status/560999015295483905
Looking through some of the rest of the Tweets referencing his account, I found more disappointed fans, a few more people asking if his antifeminist videos were poor attempts at satire, and a number of people (mostly dudes) challenging him to back up the various dubious assertions he’d made in his blog posts and videos.
The most abusive tweet of the bunch was the following one, from a self-described troll — seriously, the word “troll” is in his avatar.
@pogomix im gonna beat you up
— Speedcore Henry after EVO 🙁 (@FilmCritGRINCH) January 30, 2015
There were not a lot of cackling feminist “hyenas” to be found, unless you count this Tweet as a sort of hyena howl:
https://twitter.com/HELLOK1TTY4EVR/status/561006261572222977
There are a couple of obvious problems with Bertke’s claim that the whole thing was an “experiment.” For one thing, as I pointed out in my last post, he’s apparently had misogynistic eruptions before. For another, his “honest views on feminism and gender equality,” as he puts it, are still pretty shitty.
While avoiding overtly misogynistic statements — you know, like claiming that women are basically just children begging for discipline — Bertke’s post today is full of the same sort of ignorant and vaguely infantile attacks on feminism you see on Men’s Rights sites. In addition to calling his feminist opponents “hyenas,” he also suggests that many self-described feminists are “brats pocketing what they think is a ticket to a special club for getting special treatment.”
And in his earlier post Where Feminism Goes Wrong — which he hasn’t taken down, and which he says he stands by — he makes similarly ridiculous claims:
The irony of feminism is that, by focusing largely on one gender, it in inherently supports the segregation of genders and raises a breed of self victimizing gold diggers who think historical injustice to their sex makes them personally deserving of special treatment today.
So, yeah, not buying it. And if Twitter is any indication, there aren’t a lot of other people buying it either.
I guess we’ll have to see what he comes up with next.
EDIT: Reworded the sentemce starting “For another” which wasn’t quite right before.
@ParadoxicalIntention
Soon they will graduate to bits of fluff and stray butterflies, and then, when the hoomin child has grown tall enough and is trained in the ways of a Furry Warrior, Ernie will finally discover what the hell that thing is dangling from the ceiling fan. It will be a glorious day for catkind.
And on autism – one of my little brothers is on the spectrum, albeit toward the high-functioning end. He is a total sweetheart, and has empathy in spades. He just has a really hard time processing it, and communicating it when he doesn’t always understand what he’s feeling. But he’s a generous, loving boy. I miss him terribly.
lol. he writes misogynistic screeds, and then after being caught and widely denounced by his fan base, his explanation for this behaviour is that he is trying to flush out certain people “plaguing his inner circles” and find out who holds these terrible beliefs… but the people he’s trying to draw out with his misogynistic screeds aren’t the people who agree with it, but the people who *don’t*. huh. how exactly did he think this plan was going to redeem him in the eyes of his critics?
I love his work. His Mighty Boosh mash up is, for a fellow fan like me, tremendously fulfilling. And the Disney ones are wonderful too. I think he’s incredibly talented. And I agree with the comment that art comes from a place deeper than personality, thoughts, opinions… His beautiful work can sit alongside his troubled thoughts.
He seems frustrated about a lot of things – feminism being just one of his bugbears. I’m going to speculate that he’s had some ideals challenged and met obstacles he didn’t expect to meet as he’s grown older, and he’s become quite cynical as a result. I’m guessing as a younger man he wasn’t exceptionally popular (very smart, geniusy people often have a hard time finding their place growing up) and now, as a semi-famous producer, he’s possibly getting attention he didn’t get before, and he may not be good yet at managing it or accepting it – working with it, filtering it, sorting the good from the bad..
I’m not trying to excuse his ideas. I hope he rethinks them as time goes on. I hope he builds connections with people who can help him see positives and goodness around him. i hope he can find some peace and happiness and let some of his anger and frustration go.
Wah, waahhh, another weeping asshole who is SO ANGRY that feminism isn’t somehow totally about making life better for men. And of course he thinks human rights is “special treatment”. Fuck this piece of shit and everything about him.
This really reminds me of that Sam Pepper bullshit a couple months back.
“It may look like it’s some dudebro on YouTube being sexist, but oh no it’s really a ‘social experiment’! He’s not really a misogynist, you silly women, it just really looks that way because he’s physically harassing people on the street. Why get outraged when he’s just making a point about the poor mens? Fucking feminazis.”
Getting angry when people insult, demean, and dismiss you: just another form of entitlement. Where will these greedy feminists stop? Next they’ll be demanding the right to feel sad in public.
This “social experiment” is an age-old tactic, purposely designed to be a lose-lose situation for the victim. Either remain silent, thus reinforcing the social order and tacitly agreeing that you deserve the insults and abuse, or speak up and be branded difficult, demanding, greedy, and evil.
Whatever triggered this meltdown, Pogo was obviously hoping for confirmation that it’s still 1950 and he’s still king. He didn’t like the answer he got.
Well, if his definition of “fake feminist” is anyone who doesn’t agree with his views on “teh wimminez”, I’d say his “experiment” was a resounding success. Enjoy your newly winnowed circle of friends and fans, you asshat.
I really need to cut down on the number of pesky subscribers and commenters.
Lightbulb moment!! I’ll get rid of all the decent people and all the nice people. That’ll improve my life no end. Fewer to bother with, and I don’t have to sort out who’s nasty from who’s nice any more.
Win!
Shorter Pogo: “I pretended to be a jerk because I am a jerk.”
It’s super infantalising to portray autistic people as extremely anxious and worried about how potential social blunders will affect others. That’s a character trait some people have some of whom are autistic. Its not characteristic of autism. People with autism are as complex as those without. As our friend Tiege has learnt, some of them are assholes. Probably about the same proportion as there are assholes amongst people without a developmental disorder DX.
Yes, lack of demonstrated empathy is characteristic of AS. No, it doesn’t apply to bleating about hating women. Yes, some people with AS might hate that women.
Theres no link between the two though.
@Tiege:
As someone who has the name “Nick” and have been diagnosed with Asperger’s, I do take issue when people who use that to explain why someone acted like an asshole. Honestly? Didn’t even like bringing it up with people, due to the assumptions they’d make. Unfortunately that also meant getting into social situations I couldn’t handle due to others not being aware of it – but I don’t blame that on my Asperger’s, that was just bad decision-making on my part.
When I’ve had meltdowns or overreacted, at no point did I ever say “I got Asperger’s” as an excuse. I apologized and explained that I may’ve been having difficulty with certain personal issues, taking them out on others, but nonetheless acknowledging I was wrong and not thinking clearly. It also bothers me that people assume things like I am incapable of empathy to others, which is untrue because I do – the problem is the feelings that come from it are too much to handle at times. I do get easily stressed out and anxious when put in an environment I am simply not comfortable in.
If you’re familiar with the show Hannibal (yes, the one based on the Thomas Harris books), its version of Will Graham is a perfect example of such. He can be around people, even likes to be, but can be easily overwhelmed in ways that most neurotypical individuals aren’t by similar stimuli in social scenarios. It’s a great example of how fiction can be used to enlighten by deconstructing or subverting stereotypes in such a way.
As far as everything else you stated…I don’t want to make accusations, but it’s been a common experience of mine that people who talk about having “connections” and bringing up rumors and speculation – purely anecdotal – are dishonestly trying to back-pedal and make excuses on behalf of the offending party. Maybe you are being completely sincere and are just trying to give some insight, which is good, but it can be difficult to tell given the kind of trolls this blog has had in the past. It’s an almost constant conversational trope I see on Facebook, where there’s lots of talk about “hearing somewhere” about something and that it must be true yet become defensive when asked for some kind of source of information. Moreso when those same people are dismissive of evidence given by those they argue with, as if fact and opinion are in any way equal to one another.
And now you’ve moved on to misogynist insults. Oofta.
Gross, Tiege. Why on earth would you think using “pussy” as an insult here would ever, ever fly? Like, how do you read anything at all on any feminist blog without realizing that that’s fucked?
Gross.
… Is this GroundPetrel again?
Yeah, banging your head against the wall won’t accomplish anything. Just don’t use “pussy” outside the context of cats and you’re golden. I have no desire to see you self-flagellate or be made to feel unworthy or anything. Just don’t call people pussies or associate AS with misogyny or violence or any of that shit.
You’re probably right that this douche’s AS is a negligible factor in how he perceives women. You’ll find associated behaviors with AS but I STRONGLY doubt you’ll find any trend of hatred towards women associated with it. That theory doesn’t hold water.
And even then, if you do use it, you should be aware that just about everyone is going to assume you’re trying to be funny, and I at least will be giving you the “seriously, are you twelve?” side-eye. Not saying you can’t or shouldn’t, just…y’know, sayin’.
My profile picture on a social media site has my cat in it, and I get so many dudes going “you have a beautiful pussy baby” and expecting me to just fall all over myself laughing.
Unless you’re referring to cats, “pussy” is not a good word to just toss out around here. Especially not in reference to cowardice. Which, by the way, is quite uncatly — have you ever seen what cats can do to bears?
Or alligators?
So, yeah.
Whatever you need, Tiege. Seems a bit silly to me, but you do you.
Well, that was petulant. Are we supposed to feel guilty and beg Tiege to stay?
In Tiege’s defense every single one of you that jumped onto her, explaining that autism is not an excuse for asshole behavior, didn’t finish reading her comment that stated, “This isn’t an excuse for his behavior though.” Your anger got the better of you, just like what’s happened to Nick.
Tiege, you handled yourself well.
I’d say “that was different”, but it wasn’t really was it?
But I love how that gator was like “fuck this, it’s not worth it *splash*”
I could stretch and find a way to pretend this is relevant, but really, I just stumbled on it and laughed so much I literally choked. Scared the bananas out of my cats.
Every autism group I’ve been involved in as an adult (online as well as in person) is tainted by the presence of MRA types. It’s hard for me not to associate autism with being an MRA asshole, on some level, because of how sites like the wrong planet one have been completely overrun with MRAs. Then I remember that even in the groups exclusively for women on the spectrum there are similar views that come up, bitter rants about how women are just the goddamn worst because… misogyny is everywhere. There is literally a facebook group made up of people from the various autistic groups who dislike me for being a vocal feminist, and while the group is allegedly just anti-SJW, at least half the posts are about me specifically. Blunder of social blunders, one of the members accidentally added a friend of mine and it didn’t require admin approval so he added me to the group, thinking I would find it humorous. I thought it was funny until I realized there was this entire group of a couple dozen other autistic folks, some of whom I thought were my friends, and half of their posts were literally just about me and trying to dissect things I’d said, screen caps of my tweets, speculating that I’m *secretly* talking about them. They even made a parody account of me, with the last name “Whiteguilt” with my pictures and everything
I’ve definitely got a lot of internalized ableism to work through and it’s hard not to fall into the trap of being like “oh he’s autistic OK yeah I get it now” and that sucks so much because I get so sick of hearing the stereotypes of autistic people while I’m trying to make myself stop repeating them
Should’ve posted it on the toilet paper and wipes thread! It’d be relevant there!