Even though I run a blog with the deliberately ironic title “We Hunted the Mammoth,” I’m still regularly amazed by how eager men who’ve accomplished nothing of value in their entire lives are to claim a kind of vicarious credit, by virtue of being men, for everything good that we humans have accomplished here on planet earth.
Consider this astoundingly un-self-aware bit of almost literal we-hunted-the-mammothing from a recent A Voice for Men post, written (very, very badly) by Peter Wright and Paul Elam:
Harnessing men’s utility can be witnessed from the erection of Stonehenge to the Roman Empire to the moon landings. Cures for diseases and vaccines to prevent them happened from the intensely intelligent actions of the human male. Exploring new territories and engineering the transport to send people to new places has changed the world, almost all of it through risk and hardship borne by men. Men have driven civilization forward since we first walked away from the African savannah. Men’s blood, sweat, tears and sacrifices are the fuel rods that have always driven the big machine of our society.
So much passive voice! So many mixed metaphors! Can anyone explain to me how blood, sweat and tears (liquids) can be fuel rods (solids, specifically “long, slender, zirconium metal tube[s] containing pellets of fissionable material”)? Or how “sacrifices” (an abstract concept) fit into the mix?
I will give an official We Hunted the Mammoth Award of Artistry to anyone who can draw me a picture — or make a diagram — of Wright and Elam’s terrible paragraph.
Oh, in case anyone is wondering, the ultimate point of that Wright and Elam post is to try to convince troubled men not to go to therapists unless the therapists are wise to the alleged evils of “gynocentrism.” You know, the evil force that made men do all that hard work for the lazy women of the world, who apparently spent all of human history watching soap operas and complaining about the men who were doing all that exploring and engineering and utility-ing and intensely intelligent actioning for them.
If you are searching for a therapist make sure and ask one question: “Have you heard of gynocentrism?” If they haven’t walk away and don’t hire them. In fact be prepared to do so much walking away that your steps will number enough to walk around the entire planet three times.
Well, that last bit, however cringeworthy the prose, is probably true. Because blaming men’s problems on “gynocentrism” is not just psychological quackery, it’s a highly obscure form of psychological quackery.
What a strange way the folks at AVFM have of demonstrating “compassion for men and boys,” as their old slogan had it.
Also, I’m pretty sure that at some point in the development of human civilization, and possibly even before it, women did some things too.
Sage really sells the second phone call as well.
https://youtu.be/bW7Op86ox9g
Meh, I refuse to be excited about Fallout 4 unless they return to turn-based gameplay. An FPS is an FPS, as far as I’m concerned.
Has anyone tried to claim the pub owner is violating their freedom of speech by not hosting the event? Because I can totally seeing someone doing that.
Gerard comes across as such a slime in those phone conversations. All deferentially promising to do everything the manager asks while totally obviously not planning to do any of it. The manager is so wise to him.
I’m just thankful that so many people have correctly identified gamergate as an anti-woman hategroup.
And I can say that Nor Cal has no shortage of trees now.
Although, I’m rewatching the trailer and there looks to be a LOT of trees, but they don’t have leaves and a lot of the plant life is brown.
IDK, maybe they’ll surprise us with something. I mean, even if they aren’t green, they’re still trees and plants that have grown. I know they did plan to have weather and seasons in Skyrim but that never happened (which is why Riften looks autumny, Winterhold wintery, Whiterun summery, Markarth springy, etc.).
Although this is all speculation, which I love to do with games, so, yeah.
Gerard is an unctuous passive aggressive baby whose whined at length about this unfolding controversy on his own Zen Men LLC website, Twitter, a Reddit thread he calls an AMA since the demand for further info is so huge, and an AVfM article.
Mind you this controversy is over a private party reservation Gerard hadn’t even made yet because he wasn’t sure he could even get eight suckers to overpay* for a meet-up in a Georgia brewpub. I’m impressed that Gerard is a big enough asshole that he managed to get himself and Zen Men LLC (aka also himself) banned from bar after getting a price quote over the phone. Usually you have to step into a bar before you mess with manager enough to get banned for your shitty behavior.
AVfM may want to change it’s motto from FTSU to FOSU, because they do really excel at fucking their own shit up.
*Gerard needed to add $30 to $60 per head the restaurant charges because of labor and expenses, most of which seems color flyer (fancy!) related.
I don’t see how an aggressive flyer campaign would help him find actual flesh and blood Gamergators in the Atlanta area willing to spend $90 dollars for two drink tickets, a buffet and a chance to play video games with aggrieved strangers on a Saturday night.
Also, it’s not 1992, basic color flyers aren’t expensive.
https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/37yen8/new_gamergate_meetup_at_georgian_video_game/crqwutf
I wouldn’t expect Sage Gerard to be good at that sort of thing. So far the only skills he’s demonstrated are Professor Harassment and Non-Consensual Hugging.
Good on that pub manager. I’d buy him a drink.
Wasn’t Paul thinking about monetizing that exact concept? Like, you can pay for a few minutes of Skype time with Big Man and he’ll counsel you? Or is that what Palmatier does? Anyway, I could see delusion-sympathetic amateur video chat therapy becoming an income source for some crafty MRA.
If I couldn’t so much as organize a third grade picnic, wasn’t remotely honest or bright but wanted to believe I was superior I guess I’d try to appropriate all human accomplishments ever too.
I guess. I wouldn’t know. I’m not an MRA.
“Erection of Stone Henge”
Oh, where to start. How bout just snickering at the phrase like a 12 year old: hehehe, erection.
Good ol sarcasm: thank heavens for stone henge! How it advanced society! It’s not just giant positioned boulders that have made men scratch their heads for centuries, it’s evidence of our future vaccine making abilities! No women involved, nope, nosiree!
Rubyyogi, you inspired me to make a meme! May I filch your excellent words for a blog post?
http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/files/2015/06/Woolly_mammoth.jpg
As an anti-capitalist, I look at this stuff, and I just think, “Goddammit, they’re so close yet so far away. But it’s not the feminists you should be angry at. It’s your boss who outsourced your job, cut your benefits, busted the unions, and maintained arbitrary hierarchies such as race/gender/sexuality/ability in order to break up the working class in a cruel game of divide and conquer.”
Instead of “We have harnessed the male utility to feed you,” they should be saying “We have fed you all for a thousand years, and you hail us still unfed.”