Oh dear. Roosh V’s rebranding campaign isn’t going well at all.
The increasingly reactionary pickup guru, who seems deathly afraid of being universally recognized as the creepy old guy at the club that he so obviously has become, is earnestly trying to transform himself into a philosopher of sorts, and a sort of manosphere elder. He recently gave his highly unoriginal philosophy a name — “Neomasculinity” — and proclaimed himself the headmaster of this “new” school of thought.
I put “new” in scare quotes because there is nothing whatsoever new about his “ideas,” such as they are; his philosophy is little more than a warmed-over version of Red Pill dogma, with some extra helpings of racism, homophobia, and good-old-fashioned patriarchy.
In an attempt to convince the world that he is indeed selling something new and improved, Roosh has launched an attack on his former Red Pill allies. In a post on Friday, he declared that the Red Pill was over:
The red pill term has served its use in the past five years, but a quick perusal of the red pill subreddit or related blogs show that it’s too focused on sex at sacrifice of greater political and cultural issues. It has become an entry-level group for men in their 20’s who just started getting laid, but this can only serve as a transitory stage.
Once a man has gotten his fill of casual sex, and is looking for deeper meaning in his relationships or satisfaction with life, the red pill has few answers besides running “dread game” on your wife, maintaining “good style” to attract young females when older, or the ever vague “work on yourself.” Neomasculinity will aim to fill in these gaps by serving men regardless of their age or involvement in the game.
He went on to complain that the Red Pill “has no council of elders to guide the ideology” and that it has failed to stop women from “declin[ing] in their virtue” and getting fat. (Yeah, he’s a bit obsessed with that.)
In a followup video yesterday, Roosh made very clear just who he thinks should be the chairman of the manosphere’s council of elders. SPOILER ALERT: It’s him. Indeed, in the video, Roosh claims that he invented the Red Pill philosophy, with some help from other reactionary “game” bloggers like Roissy/Heartiste and Rollo Tomassi.
He also declared that there would be no “homosexuals” allowed into his Neomasculinity club, because the idea of men using Red Pill techniques to get “buttsex” strikes him as inherently ridiculous.
It’s not hard to guess at what Roosh’s real motivations here are. He seems to have burned himself out as a pickup artist; apparently the years he’s spent trying to cajole or coerce drunken Eastern European women he hates into sex haven’t provided him with much lasting satisfaction.
He ran out of things to say on the subject a long time ago, and traffic at his personal blog has stagnated, at least according to Alexa’s far-from-foolproof estimates. His more broadly reactionary group blog Return of Kings is far more popular, but Alexa reports that its traffic has been down much of the year.
Not surprisingly, Roosh’s attempt to declare himself king of the manosphere did not go over terribly well on the Red Pill subreddit. Most saw it as a moneygrab, and a rather desperate attempt to hang on to relevance in a scene that’s moving on from him.
As BurgundyCarpet wrote,
The problem with Neomasculinity is that its synonymous with “Roosh V.” He’s trying to create an alternative to the Red Pill. Yet the only significant practical differences between TRP and Neomasculinity are:
Roosh has complete control
Roosh stands to profitI respected Roosh until he pulled this lame bullshit move. He’s trying to monetize TRP by changing the name of TRP. I like the guy and I like his work but this entire “Neomasculinity” thing is the most transparently self-serving bullshit ive ever seen.
Others were even less kind. Elatusa dug the knife in deep, and twisted it:
He was always a beta PUA who, once he got some pussy, decided to try monetize every tip anyone in the community ever shared. …
I have 0 respect for him as a man, especially now that he’s trying to sell TRP theories under his own brand.
“Fuck him, I never liked him anyway,” DOCTORxTEETH added. “His eyes stick out too fucking far.”
Red Pill clowner GayLubeOil, meanwhile, dropped the ultimate Red Pill dis, declaring that “Roosh doesn’t even lift.”
Roosh’s response to all this was to indignantly deny that he was trying to cash in on his lingering celebrity. And to attack thee Red Pillers for posting on Reddit, which Roosh has somehow convinced himself is a “virulent matriarchy” run by radical feminists. No, really.
Here’s the rant he posted on his own forums, which is so jaw-droppingly divorced from reality that it’s worth quoting in full. I’ve bolded a few highlights.
Speaking of profit, The Red Pill members make a big show about information being free, but they seem to forget that they regularly post on a for-profit platform owned by the most die hard feminists in Silicon Valley, perhaps the world, and led by a litigious feminist itself (Ellen Pao) that is on the verge of passing more oppressive rules. TRP subreddit exists because the feminists who own the site have allowed them to post. For men who are obsessed with being “alpha” and maintaining “frame,” they have volunteered to position themselves on a lower hierarchy compared to these elite feminists.
Every single page view they give reddit, they aid feminists. Every single comment they post, they increase the profit of this anti-man corporation, and even if ads are not always directly on TRP, the huge amount of page views that the subreddit gives reddit overall is definitely used to sell ads sitewide through their advertising spec sheets.
So either indirect or directly, everyone who regularly posts on that site is increasing the money that feminists make, improving the popularity of their platform to better bring SJW and far left thought to the masses, and improving the financial support that Silicon Valley feminists receive. How they can reconcile that fact by critiquing me for selling books shows how confused these men are, and how they are merely parroting red pill ideas and not living in the spirit of them.
I wish no ill will on these men, but I told them from day one to go forth and build their own platform. They did not listen to my advice, and are now being overseen by the enemy—a virulent matriarchy—whom they so despise, and who can shutdown their so-called “frame” with only a few clicks. When that happens, they are welcome here in this community where they can finally learn from men who live more truly to masculine ideals.
Amazing.
So far the biggest winners in this little manosphere war are those watching on the sidelines, and laughing. It’s reminiscent of the embarrassing spectacle that ensued when Paul Elam tried to declare himself King of the MGTOWs. Expect much more hilarity ahead.
@guest
Yup, I couldn’t make sense of that sentence either.
It takes a special kind of ignorant scumbag to live abroad, in multiple countries, with exposure to a wide variety of cultures, and yet become more bigoted and intolerant as the years go by.
It’s hilarious that Roosh believes he’s now a Deep Thinker in his sexual dotage, and only he can lead the bitter, disaffected college kids out of the wilderness. First of all, good luck getting self-absorbed TeRPers to care about anything other than their own boners. Second of all, good luck monetizing racism when you don’t have anything new or original to say. Rush Limbaugh is far better at whipping up outrage than Roosh, and his radio show has been losing advertisers and market share left and right. Third of all, redefining masculinity in terms of hating a larger cross-section of humanity doesn’t exactly represent a leap forward in consciousness.
I think you’ve got this backwards. Anyone departing the Manosphere for something better is good news. It’s not quite on par with Mark getting married, but Roosh’s departure is cause to celebrate.
I whistled past that one.
Two or three minutes, two or three hours, two or three days.
Somewhere in there.
Though it very well could be the first with someone as apparently only concerned with his own quick orgasm as Roosh.
He’s not departing the manosphere; he’s dropping the red pill label for his own offshoot with an even stronger neo-Nazi flavour. His former far-right sect is now too liberal for him, so he’s heading farther right. How is that good news?
Slow posting. That was a response to the feMRA.
Kate – I don’t think he is, though. He seems to be simply staking out a paternalistic domain in it.
He is hardly leaving the Manosphere. I just see Roosh marketing himself as some elder statesman of the racist douchebags.
He has carved his Mount Rooshmore and is now insulted at the largely negative response from inside the groups he looks to for approval.
I understand both your points. I consider him by his past actions to have been an untrustworthy child, but I still think this is a positive move. If a child stops throwing temper tantrums and decides to start picking up his mess, that is progress. Progress must be encouraged. Major change does not happen overnight until enough minor change adds up. Ninety-nine pennies do not become a dollar until the last penny is added.
If Roosh is going to try to re-establish a new ideology (I’m aware this is an oxymoron ;)), one that supports marriage and the nuclear family, he is going to have to marry and have a family. Otherwise, he is blindly leading his followers…nowhere. I suppose sites like this one will point that out and hold his feet to the fire. I encourage him to put himself to that ultimate test. I think he made a huge mistake in trying to destroy Mark, who could have been a mentor to him in this next step. As it is, I guess he’s stuck with a only a woman (cross eyes) to encourage him.
David, that is such a magnificent title. I was laughing before I even got off the main page this morning. Bravo!
But who’s going to keep us real with false equivalencies and faux hand-wringing?
Come back, YoullNeverGuess! You dropped your pet skull!
From brooked’s glorious forum reports:
Well, Roosh does have similar anti-semitism going for him. But since Luther was calling for a theological debate with the most powerful organization in Europe and Roosh is dissing Redditors in an attempt to gain converts to his cult of personality, I think the likeness ends with that.
Thank providence for this, BTW. News from the manosphere has been so grim recently. It’s nice to have some ridiculous infighting to watch.
Stupid is as stupid does. And Roosh is all kinds of stupid.
@EJ
True. I think most of the reason why people do the “X did something good/that I agree with so they are incapable of being evil, Y did something bad/that I disagree with so they are clearly a monster and have nothing in common with normal people” stems from the belief that you personally are a fundamentally good person who would never do something evil on purpose, and thus people who share your traits are also fundamentally good. And people who are “bad” clearly share no traits with you at all and are the Other. Because if people who do bad things also do the things you define as good, that might mean that you are also capable of doing harmful things. And that’s an uncomfortable thought for a lot of folks.
Being aware that yes, you are capable of harmful things and that doing those things doesn’t necessarily make you irredeemable, provided you make a commitment to do better and fix what you can, is a very important step in self realization and in better understanding the world as a whole.
Ahh, geez this made me laugh out loud,
“Roosh doesn’t even lift.”
He’s a rapist. Fuck off.
I see nothing here but paleomasculinity; there is not even a fresh coat of paint. If anything is “neomasculinity” it’s when men develop a secure sense of masculinity that doesn’t need to shit all over women and LGBT people and people of different ethnicities and people who have less money or people who don’t lift as much to feel “sufficiently masculine.” (my apologies if someone beat me to the sentiment, but I don’t have time to read the whole comments thread at the moment)
Okay, Roosh again sounds like he thinks he is on some great mission, to save the world, to start some great enlightenment. Such a delusion of grandeur. His whole life and “career” is predicated on picking up women in bars and having sex with them (and if they don’t consent, rape them)–and teaching other guys to do the same. This isn’t some high purpose. At best, it’s about sleeping around. At worst, he is a teacher in the how-tos of sexual assault.
And his hypocrisy just about makes me crazy. He sits there and preaches from his internet pulpit about tradition, nuclear family, old fashioned gender roles, a Leave it to Beaver fantasy land–yet his lifestyle is completely diametrically opposed to all of that. Except for the gender roles part, where they benefit him and keep him in the position of privilege(like women just shutting up and doing what they’re told and never challenging or questioning him and being virgins who are also up for sex at any time). Not that I’m encouraging him to get married and have kids–Heavens no! (Hey you! Roosh! Get out of the gene pool! And stay out!) It’s just that he doesn’t make any sense at all–hang out in bars and get laid (or rape) and also be a traditional family man.
As for “neomasculinity”….whatever that means…sounds a lot like “paleomasculinity.” Which sucks, is abusive, inhumane, and toxic to everyone.
Roosh getting married is not progress. He believes that marital rape should be allowed. If anyone married him she would have an awful life.
I read the original MANifesto. Unfortunately, some of it makes a little bit of sense. Taken as a whole piece, it’s BS, of course. But little bits and pieces kinda make sense. Women are fallible and act foolishly. But not because they are lesser humans, but because they are humans. These guy who for whatever reason need this placation can nod along, bringing to bear anecdotal evidence of the stupidity of women and then nod along when Roosh tells them men aren’t that way – that men are the enduring and unchanging ones who don’t react to their environments. And that, of course, is utter bullshit. This is the madness of someone who does no reflection and no real observation. This isn’t just misogyny, it’s male supremacism. And supremacism may feel good for a while, but it never ends well for anyone.
“Women are fallible and act foolishly.”
No, people are fallible and act foolishly.
Neoreactionaries (a/k/a Dark Enlightenment) supporters have always skeeved me out. The mention of ‘natural slaves’ doesn’t help. I really wonder at how massively self-infatuated these men* are to believe that their relative financial success in a highly organized, technologically advanced, socially complex society translates to “Me am Superior!” They’re like Goreans who never read the books (because who needs literature?)
*Normally I’d use gender neutral language, but it’s almost always men promoting these unwholesome ideologies.
It’s many things, but it isn’t madness. And your continued insistence that ableism is fine and that you can use ableist words without inflicting consequences on other people is not okay.
I just saw something on River Monsters, where Jeremy Wade is putting together some bait for fishing. He said “this festering concoction of chicken guts…” I immediately thought of Roosh V, and decided that I will start calling manospherians a “festering concoction of chicken guts.”
“…I’m sure part of the next presidential election will be shaped by soundbites and ideas being battled over in publications, twitter, reddit and forums like this.”
“The hand that pulls the joystick rules the world.”
It’s okay…you guys can have that for free. (I’m not an intellectual-property fanatic.)
On second thought, I really don’t want to insult festering concoctions of chicken guts…as I would rather being in their company than the manosphere douchebags.
Doosh is still angry that fat people exist?
Good. Anything I can do to peeve that p.o.s. makes me happy.
Fat shaming is just so stupid.
I’m getting a vitamin deficiency sorted out and easing off of meds that weren’t helping me and guess what? I’m suddenly hungrier. Much hungrier and for different foods. I’m eating more and dropping weight. Food tastes so much better that I actually moaned while eating a salad a couple days ago. (Sweet Cheebus, feta cheese on spinach is a gift from the heavens above. And pine nuts? To die for.)
I’m not in as much physical pain. So, I can get out and do all the stuff I like again. My body will find it”s own “normal” and it won”t be everyone else’s normal because I’m not everyone else. The claim that shaming me is motivational is bullshit. I cannot will my body to do what it can’t or be what it is not. That’s not how bodies work. That’s like telling me to to cheer up when I’m depressed.
Even if I did have complete control over my body, I have the right to like books and pizza more than sit-ups and lunges. It’s nobody’s business but my own. Just like I do not have to like accounting or country western music (no matter how many people think I’d be a better person if I did) I don’t have want to be thin. I know too many people who have made themselves miserable trying to force themselves to be someone they ain’t. Not for me.