The Washington Post recently ran a piece by Michele Goldberg about feminist women who’ve basically been run off the internet by rape threats and death threats and endless harassment.
Reactionary fantasy author and racist shithead Vox Day (a.k.a Theadore Beale) couldn’t be more pleased. After posting several quotes from the WaPo article on his Vox Popoli blog, he did a little victory lap:
#GamerGate has them on the run. They can’t take the heat. What they call “harassment” and “abuse” is seldom anything more than free speech answering free speech.
Uh, not so much. No matter how far you stretch and mangle the definition of “Free Speech,” bomb threats and death threats and SWATting isn’t free speech.
But in Vox Day’s mind, apparently, it’s all good, because the barbarians are at the gate.
Open up your hate and let it pour over them.
Yep. He really did write that.
NOTE TO IDEOLOGUES: When you find yourself excitedly rhapsodizing about the power of hatred, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re the baddies.
Don’t think for even one nanosecond that they don’t deserve it every bit of the criticism, of the contempt, of the disdainful dismissal that overwhelms them. They are trying to destroy Western civilization. They are trying to destroy marriage and civil society. They are advocates of child murder. They are advocates of a philosophy that makes National Socialism look merciful and Communism practical and Fascism coherent by comparison. Do not hold back. Speak back twice as hard. Speak back until they fall silent.
I think poor Vox is spending too much of his time reading and writing terrible fantasy novels. He may think he’s rallying the troops like Churchill or, I dunno, Hitler, but all I can think of is this guy.
Oh, but he’s not done:
Women are particularly susceptible to shame. So shame them relentlessly. Shame those who agree with them. Mock their white knights who rush in to save them. Above all, dignify their views and voices with all the respect you would show to a particularly noxious fart in an elevator.
I think Vox has inadvertently given us a perfect description of himself.
Actually, I take that back. He’s more like a shart, a shitstain on humanity.
You know, I’m starting to think these guys have something of an unhealthy view towards women.
Vox Day in all his true colours, ladies and gents. And while his followers see him as white and gold he is actually brown as shit. We have the working retinas here.
I can’t take a man who quotes angsty nu-metal lyrics as a rallying cry seriously.
Definitely part of the problem is that Vox Day has no shame or ability to self reflect, or he’d see what a comical vile twerp he is.
Whenever Vox opens his mouth to exercise his namesake, all I see is Happy Noodle Boy.
“Moo, moo, moo, I am VooDoo cursing you!”
In my country, Denmark, threats like his would be a iolation of the criminal code. I begin to think that these guys actually have some hate religion established, and that they belong in
an asylum for the mentally ill
Voxxy… is a writer, right? Like, he knows about narrative structure and character motivation, how nobody truly sees themselves as a villain, but evil actions are justified by claiming they’re for the greater good?
As the OP said, when you find yourself mimicking the Sith, maybe you should start wondering if maybe you’re the one justifying evil actions like a villain.
I mean hell… “hate?” That’s almost universally the sign of a baddy. Goodys would usually go for “outrage” as a descriptor. I know that “goody” traits can sometimes be perverted and turned into “baddy” motivations, but I don’t believe it’s ever the other way around. Hatred is an ugly emotion even when justified.
So, I went and read the Washington Post article and it really reinforced, to me, the need to have online anti-harassment laws or some what to fight back. What these trolls do and what Vox Day, Paul Elam, and their ilk do to roil up the trolls to harass people to the point of stalking, is horrible and wrong and there needs to be consequences.
I don’t understand how or why they can have so much hate bottled up/being spewed forth. You’d think they’d choke on their own poison.
Also, I have no sympathy for the troll turned target “Jace Connors” and think he should get charged for harassing Wu.
He’s managed to Godwin, sound like Pat Robertson, and sound like a murderer’s manifesto all in one single paragraph. Impressive!
But feminists are the evil and hateful ones because zombie Solanas. Sure.
@sunnysombera, did you make a reference to that viral dress thing? I only just read about that.
I wonder if Vox imagined claps of thunder as he wrote that, and does he keep a giant pipe organ in his basement? And what was that I heard about AVFM transferring their headquarters to an extinct volcano?
Jesus, this guy is a professional writer? This is some video game fan fiction level skill, right here.
Don’t you think it’s particularly comforting, though, that Theodore Beale is a washout? He’s a has-been musician, a has-been games creator, and a writer and publisher of schlock that doesn’t sell? From the way he writes, it’s clear he could have pursued some sort of profession if he’d tried earlier on, but now it’s too late. So what’s he got? A little fan club of mostly middle-aged, mostly divorced men, who hang off his every hate-filled word?
If he didn’t have his hate, he’d have nothing.
“Women are particularly susceptible to shame.”
HAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAHAAA!!!! 😀
Oh man, that”s a good one.
I think we should be careful referencing that dress too much, the whole white V black/brown thing sounds a bit off to anyone reading it without context. Don’t want anyone to pick up a racist vibe where none was intended.
@Spindrift:
Sure, when you put it that way. But it’s usually “white and gold” vs “blue and black”. I think people will know we’re talking about colors, even if they don’t know what those colors are about.
“They are advocates of child murder. ”
Says the guy who is an advocate of raping wives, because it’s _not_ rape if you’re married.
That’s a thing he really said.
There are sci-fi writers in the “Sad Puppies” movement – people who think the Hugos are too left-wing and are going to ‘rock the vote’ in the most obnoxious way possible – who have thundered that maybe Vox Day says uncomfortable things, but FREE SPEECH and it’s BAD to ostracise people. Dudes, he says it’s not rape if you’re married. Got any friends or relatives who are married women? He means THEM. He is talking about YOUR friends and relatives. (He also thinks any of YOUR non-white friends are mentally inferior)
Why is it bad to ostracise the guy again?
@kirbywarp
Yeah, just thought I’d give people a friendly heads up to keep it in mind to be careful with their wording.
Oh Teddy, what a funny little man you are.
//paraphrased from Lord Alfred Douglas
“Women are particularly susceptible to shame.”
Whereas Vox has proven repeatedly that he has no shame. What a contemptible… thing he is. He’s so disgusting I can’t even put it into words right now.
Oh, and I keep forgetting to tell Woody to shut up. So, shut up, Woody!
While they’ve definitely got some seriously flawed thinking going on, please don’t lump them in with the mentally ill. They are choosing to be like this, not suffering from some psychological or neurological damage that’s preventing them from perceiving reality. Though I’ll give you one thing–it’d be nice if we could isolate them someplace where they can’t harm others.
If by “susceptible to shame” he means; susceptible to get scared by repeated death and rape threats made by creeps who missed that the dark ages went out of style – then I suppose he’s right.
It’s quite rare to see a sci-fi writer who considers the possibility of horrible dystopias with tyrannically bigoted, racist and sexist regimes to be a *good* thing – a writer who likely considers the relatively hopeful human futures of Star Trek and Mass Effect (minus the Reapers) to be something we should *avoid*.
@Spindrift I think it would sound that way to anyone who didn’t get what I was referencing but like Kirby said, it’s a case of “white and gold” vs “blue and black”. We talked about the dress in a previous thread so I assumed most Mammotheers here would be on board, and I did say “brown as shit” as in, Vox is shitty (which is also what David called him – a shitstain).
I can see how it could be an issue though, I guess we can just drop the reference if it comes to it.
Haven’t read the post or any comments, but the first thought I had when I read the title was, “This is some bullSith right here.”
Not sure if that sounded more defensive than I intended. Also why the hell does the plumbing in my bathroom keep making that noise. o_o
@Falconer *Ba dum tsssh* Nice job, lol.
Christ on a stick, I am sick of hearing about that “male tears” thing. They hold that up against daily torrents of death and rape threats, doxxing, and all manner of real viciousness as if ONE joke at their hypersensitive expense is anywhere near as bad. Who are the delicate flowers again? Not following this narrative they’ve laid out.
I re-read the week of Twitter abuse Sarkeesian posted, and a common theme (besides inciting her to kill herself or bragging about how they would rape her…y’know, the classy stuff that proves the gamer culture is totally not as toxic as she claims it to be) was “The gaming community doesn’t need to change, we get/give death and rape threats all the time!” Yeah, totally nothing can stand to change there.
@sunnysombrera I could just be overly cautious. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Oh my glob, I spend a light internet day enjoying the multiple inches of snowfall (we built a snowman!) and feverishly writing some D&D (it’s going to be crap and no one will like it ever) and I get on Tumblr yesterday evening and everybody’s flipping their shit about some stupid dress.
I got off the Internet and played some Metroid Prime instead.
@Falconer maybe you can work a dress colour puzzle into your D&D, bring it all together 🙂
“They are advocates of child murder.”
I.. Je. Bu.. What the crap?
Vox Day You’ve said you think the Taliban was right to shoot Malala Yousafzai, is saying we support child murder. That isn’t the pot calling the kettle black, it’s a vat of tar calling the pure driven snow black.
Why is this guy even against Nazism, communism and fascism for? What the hell is the difference between his general worldview and that of Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini’s?
Oh and the viral dress picture–was I the only one who saw purple and some kind of taupe? My partner saw white and gold, which seems to be common, but I have heard not one other person say purple and taupe-ish.
Vox Day is basically admitting that feminists are right. The only way assholes like Vox can “win” is to pour hate and rape and death threats over feminist women in the hopes that they’ll be intimidated into silence. That’s not a tactic used by people who have strong, rational counter-arguments based on facts. That’s a tactic used by bullies.
They have no reason or substance, only hate.
I am a little scared of Vox. I’m not ashamed to admit it. There’s something frightening about a man who has no morality, no standards or integrity and actually manages to sell himself as a good guy; no matter how small and bitter his audience might be.
Well, one good thing about all this is that evil can only thrive in darkness.
Based on the way VD defines those words then all of those things probably should be dismantled.
cue grumpy cat “good”
I think you’d have to be living under a rock to not realize that comment was a dress reference and not a racist comment. If anyone didn’t know, they could just ask for clarification. There’s no need to do tumblr levels of nitpicking of other’s language. This is supposed to be a fun place where we can snark.
@WWTH my bad, sorry.
Is he channeling the Delgados with that hate comment?
Oh, and: feminists are worse than a Nazi Stalin feeding babies into a woodchipper… but they’re particularly susceptible to shame? Whuh?
I guess when all you have is hate this is the only strategy possible.
At some point they’ll have to admit that they have done everything other than actually physically attack a woman to silence her. They frequently threaten to do just that. Pox wants MORE. The current level of hate is not enough for him because all the uppity women have not been silenced. He doesn’t want to see any mercy from men. He wants men to treat us as if we are the greatest threat the world has ever known. He needs more men to hate us as much as he does. Women are not afraid enough until their voices are all erased.
That’s hate speech. That’s an attempt to incite violence against people already being terrorized.
Given that VD is an active creationist and Christian apologist, and both he and his father were involved with WorldNetDaily, this is almost certainly an anti-abortion shot.
Vox day says it was ok for the Taliban to shoot Malala, but we are the child muder advocates? We are fascists that is destroying western civilization but to him harassment and threats are free speech? We are destroying marriage but he says it’s ok to rape your wife?
Everything Vox day said is proof on why we need Feminism he is nothing more than what David said: “He’s more like a shart, a shitstain on humanity.”
Dan
“There’s something frightening about a man who has no morality, no standards or integrity and actually manages to sell himself as a good guy; no matter how small and bitter his audience might be”
Thats the Manosphere: the nice guys, mras, puas and mgtow, right there.
Everyone is particularly susceptible to shame, because we are a social species. Vox might think of himself as beyond all that gooey human-interactiony nonsense, but that’s just because his ego is currently bigger than his loneliness. If he suddenly started losing fans en masse, to the point where he couldn’t just wave them off with a snide “I’ll be better off without you losers anyway,” he’d figure out quite quickly that shame hurts, and he’d be doing anything and everything to either get them back or find new ones.
When it comes from people you care about, anyway. All the MRAs and dork enlightenmenters in the world shaming me for my feminism wouldn’t hurt me in the slightest. If anything, I’d take it as a sign that I was doing alright. (Unless that shame turned to harassment, but that’s a different story)
I need brain bleach
http://youtu.be/wDRLa4AjbsU
No person is an island.
Yo, Vox, speech that threatens and/or incites violence is not protected under US law. Hate speech is, as long as it does not actively encourage or aid violence against a specific person or people. However, much of what is being said extends beyond forms of hate speech that would be protected. In short, even the most generous interpretations of free speech condemn death threats and the leaking of someone’s personal information while inciting hate against them.
@Kirby That’s what I don’t get about asshole narcissists who “don’t care” if they push others away. We are social, and we need social groups to survive. For all the evo psych blathering they do about gender roles and what women want they never cover the fact that if you alienate yourself from general society, you’re kinda screwed. Moreso, if you keep rubbing society the wrong way, being a dick, and upsetting others, sooner or later you’re gonna get kicked in the teeth. You can’t continuously piss people of or display yourself as a threat without consequences. Adapt or die.
That was not a wish for death upon Vox.
“Open up your hate and let it pour over them.” I just can’t get over that. How could/do people read that and think ” this guy sounds very rational and makes a lot of sense ” ?
Oooh, thanks for the reminder, Vox! I haven’t checked my feminist progress in a while. Let’s see where I am:
Destroy Western Civilization: Made whimsical sheep cookies with my kids so that we could learn about Chinese New Year and the lunisolar calendar behind it.
Destroy Civil Society: Put out garbage can the afternoon before pickup, when HOA clearly states that all rubbish must not go out until 6 pm at the earliest.
Destroy Marriage: Rolled husband’s clean socks in military manner when it is well known that he prefers them folded.
So I’m on track, but it looks like there’s plenty of room for improvement. I’ll have to work in some more great societal institution subverting around my daily schedule of scented candle burning, hard chair sitting, and wearing of shorts. A woman’s work is truly never done.
Sad news, sort of related: Leonard Nimoy, an important figure in sci-fi and also pro-feminist, has died. 🙁