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.
Yeppers! Her name was Madge Blake and she played some ditsy dames, but she was brilliant. Check her out on Wikipedia!
@Paradox – the whining of people on YouTube never ceases to amaze me. I like pretty pictures as much as the next person, but stories are why I play RPGs.
http://i.imgur.com/Af2RABc.gif
Bethesda? Buggy?
http://i.imgur.com/GOOCB2S.gif
Pfft, never.
(Sorry, Bethesda. I love you, but come on.)
I really don’t see the point of pre-ordering a digital version of something. Generally pre-orders in the past happened because there was a limited supply of things to buy, so reserving one was a good idea. Now, there’s no such thing as out of stock, and there’s almost no reason to not wait until the thing comes out and maybe hear if it’s any good before buying it. (admittedly, pre-order packages do tend to come with extras, but I rarely see that as worth the bother. Your mileage may vary)
There is a persistent dead-reptile problem in Winterhold in my game. As in, a dead dragon, complete, not dissolved, always spawns and falls on the courtyard of the College.
Also there’s a dead beggar on the steps of the tavern, and the Jarl has been known to stop, bend down to look at the corpse, and wonder what happened, then continue on into the tavern.
Aw, sad face.
I was kinda hoping it was true. Though, it’d be a kind of Faustian deal if it were. :/
I couldn’t remember the exact number. Though, I did do a little digging, and apparently the vaults were supposed to last for 900 years under optimal conditions (save for the ones that Vault-Tec deliberately fucked with because science, or the ones that eventually fell into disrepair for other reasons).
My Skyrim game, as of last time I had the chance to check (need new rig), is still suffering from Giant extinction. Which wouldn’t bug me so much but it makes the Giant-murdering quests kind of moot, y’know? I can’t murder what’s already dead!
On the topic of dumbasses on youtube. I’m currently arguing with a troll who seems to think that women don’t play elder scrolls or fallout XD.
The irony is delicious. XD
@Moocow
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/blrg.gif
Someone needs to get out more often.
@Moocow – Best of luck to you in correcting the troll. I don’t do Elder Scrolls but I have been playing Fallout since it was a brand new IP. Often when these guys tell me I haven’t REALLY played all those games since I was little, I wonder if I was married before they were a thought. Sigh… Now I feel really old.
I didn’t think that was even controversial? New Vegas kicks ass. Fallout 3 did the heavy lifting for building the engine, the art assets and the worldbuilding tools (because Bethesda can do that really well) which meant New Vegas didn’t need to do as much technological stuff and could focus on the story and characters (which is what Obsidian do well.)
On the subject of trees, I’m torn. On the one hand woodland tends to restore itself pretty quickly and can cope with high radiation levels (witness the Red Forest in Chernobyl), so it would strain credibility not to have forests restored. On the other hand, Fallout’s aesthetic is very defined by now. Fallout is a dust-brown wasteland. Anything else just wouldn’t feel right.
@EJ
No, it’s not controversial, I’m just pissed that we have this awesome New Vegas but everyone talks about Fallout 3. :/ It’s, like, since Bethesda announced they were going to E3, everyone has been talking about how awesome Fallout 3 was but never a peep about New Vegas.
Also, New Vegas was what Fallout 3 should have been in the first place. New Vegas took 11 months to make using Fallout 3 assets. So, I mean, really.
Also, it’s a wasteland in desert regions. All Fallout games other than Fallout 3 have been set in the Mojave desert region, so it makes sense that they’re still desert because it’s only been a couple of centuries. Not a long enough time for the climate to change super dramatically.
Plus, like, I said, Harold made Oasis. He’s bringing trees back. There should be highly mutated trees on the east coast if Harold canonically survives.
Moo cow
“I’m currently arguing with a troll who seems to think that women don’t play elder scrolls or fallout XD.”
http://media1.giphy.com/media/NZFcFQ5C0yh1e/giphy.gif
http://weknowgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/shaq-laughing-gif.gif
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131106114924/scratchpad/images/0/0f/Laughing_together.gif
Also, not to mention large body of clean water the east coast has, and has hopefully been repeated in other bodies of water. That should help a lot of things grow.
Haha, thanks, he’s a pretty boring troll. “Anita is a liar because i saw a video out of context …..BLABLABLA….. hitman strippers …RABBLERABBLE… women don’t play XYZ”
Wow, that sounds boring. You must have the attention span of a saint, Moocow.
Thinking about it, Fallout 2 opens in the densely forested mountain country of southern Oregon / northern California. They had trees there in abundance.
In other confusing AVFM drama, Sage Gerard apparently tried to get a Gamergate meetup at a gaming-themed brewpub, but the manager backed out, and he’s pissed.
He also claims that Gamergate supporters are apolitical, and that the brewpub is apolitical, and that’s why he wanted to host it there.
http://www.donotlink.com/framed?718321
I didn’t quite get what was going on, but nobody who writes for AVFM will ever get an award for coherent writing.
Because I had some free time and needed a laugh, I read the emails Gerard posted and listened to the phone conversations he recorded with the brewpub manager (!!!). It’s about what you’d expect:
1. Gerard reserves a space at the gaming pub for a meetup, then calls the manager to warn him that it’s a Gamergate meeting so the pub will probably be attacked by hordes of violent Social Justice Warriors. The manager tells him that a) he doubts that’s going to happen, and b) they can come to play video games, but it’s really not an appropriate venue for political debates. Gerard promises they’ll just play games.
2. Gerard immediately brags to Reddit about how the pub and its manager support Gamergate and have vowed to protect them from the SJWs.
3. The manager sees the Reddit post, gets pissed off, and cancels Gerard’s reservation. He orders Gerard to take down the thread, telling him the pub is not political and he doesn’t want to be associated with “a hatemonger group.” Gerard apologizes profusely and says he’s taken down the Reddit thread.
4. Gerard does not take down the Reddit thread.
5. The manager is forced to email Gerard and spank him further until he takes the damn thread down. Among other things, he writes at length about how important women have been in his life and how much it angers him to be associated with an anti-woman group.
6. Gerard complains about it on AVfM, throwing in some tough talk calling out the manager now that said manager is almost certainly not paying attention to him anymore.
7. Another victory against social justice!
The second phone call is pretty entertaining if you want 15 minutes of an adult not having time for any MRA bullshit. My favorite exchange:
Gerard: If you don’t want to do the event that’s your right, I’m not going to pressure you.
Manager: No, I fully understand that. That’s how running a business works. I can do what I want in my own building. You don’t have to make that clear.
http://www.mediafire.com/listen/lp17il9m303p5y0/Sage+Gerard+and+Nate+Sanders+dispute.mp3
Incidentally, the call begins with the manager asking Gerard to get off Skype and talk to him on a phone, which Gerard refuses to do. I’m guessing the manager had figured out this skeevy kid was recording him for further online shenanigans.
*pops in from the Nexus*
I tried to google a picture of a Skyrim character laughing, but then I found this, so I’m going to post it instead.
http://7770647a14b0867efc75-b939f832d8cd9c860ce8909163419528.r92.cf2.rackcdn.com/436667.jpg
*mod download is complete*
Off to play Skyrim!
Much appreciated, I’m masochistic and I love to argue far too much for my own good XD. He amused me at first because I posted the full “anita declares she is not a fan of intense subcutlres” and he went through this absurd mental gymnastics routine to try and insist that the full video was STILL proof that anita is ‘not a fan’ of all video games. Sadly, he jumped the shark shortly thereafter.
@fromafar
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwfcq5qSMc1qzeqslo1_500.jpg
@ SFHC
http://www.mindlesspixie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/4449751+_993b289a35b4b7634e8c5afa94bc2267.png
@Shaenon
I jump into WHTM rabbit holes way too often but it’s hard to pass up the side show and the laughs, the many many laughs.
I bet you weren’t going to listen to the phone conversations until you read this plea.