MRA huckster Paul Elam is asking for donations so he can charge dudes money to talk to him

More signs of desperation over at A Voice for Men, the Men’s Rights/Lady Disparagement site that has apparently ceased to be the cash cow for its founder, the unlovely and untalented Paul Elam, that it once was:

1) Turgid articles on … Ethanol, and “Future trends in eyewear technology”

Get prepared to have your world shattered, people! Now, in addition to the traditional lady-hating posts, AVFM is now opening its pages to articles on “men’s interests” as well!

So far, this has consisted of a handful of posts on a seemingly random assortment of topics ranging from Ethanol to fishing mishaps, all of them badly written and all of them reprinted from Examiner.com, a site where pretty much anyone can post pretty much anything they want. (The post on “eyewear technology” smells an awful lot like a press release for “Eyeglass World, a leading retailer of affordable prescription eyewear.”)

While this might look on the surface like an effort on Elam’s part to pump up traffic to his site without doing any actual work, he’s selling it, hard, as a proof of a GIANT VICTORY FOR MEN’S RIGHTS. Then again Elam could probably convince his supremely gullible followers that a fart at a dinner party was a trumpet blast announcing the imminent fall of feminism.

AVFM is changing. Allow me to explain.

While we are still light years from some needed social changes and actual, measurable improvements to men’s rights are still lacking, we have accomplished one thing. Namely our job.

AVFM’s core mission has been to change the public narrative about sexual politics; to force a critique of feminism into the cultural consciousness and to chip away at the empathy gap when it comes to the sexes. We are starting to see that happen …

The growth of our message throughout the mainstream is now unstoppable because of you. …

The worm is turning. That opens a door for us and insists on ushering us through it.

That’s right: a worm is opening the door for them, like some kind of freaking worm butler. Which raises the question: How many worm butlers will there be? (One at first, but he’ll train others.)

This is the future for how AVFM pushes the counter-theory. It is fitting with what we have been saying for years. We ARE the media. We have proven it. The day when we can say we ARE the mainstream may or may not come, at least in my life.

But you can bet your ass I will keep swinging to the last breath.

Swing away Paul. Paul, swing away!

2) Elam is now soliciting donations so that he can charge people to talk to him

Last month, you may recall, Elam announced the launch of an exciting new venture: A Near for Men.

Sorry, I meant “An Ear for Men,” a “service” whereby Mr. Elam, a board-uncertified mental health unprofessional, hopes to charge dudes $90 an hour to talk about their problems with him on Skype.

I say “hopes to” because he’s having a bit of trouble getting dudes to agree to this particular proposition. Indeed, if you look at the appointments page on his site, you will see a vast sea of open slots. It’s not clear if he’s gotten even a single person to sign up, as what looks like a possible weekly appointment at 1:30 every Tuesday could just be Elam deciding to take a break from his gruelling schedule of doing absolutely nothing for men other than himself.

So Elam has added a “donation” page to his site (archived here) so dudes who can’t afford an appointment with AVFM’s chief snake-oil salesman can help support his failing business of charging other dudes $90 an hour to talk to him about how much they hate their exes.

I guess I’ll give him points for sheer chutzpah.

H/T — to the anonymous internetter who pointed out Elam’s donations page to me. Also, I stole the “A Near for Men” joke from someone, but I can’t remember whom.