The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam celebrates the simple pleasures of
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread-and Thou
Reddit’s MGTOW contingent has a somewhat different notion of what constitutes the good life. It involves a motorcycle in one’s bedroom.
Last week, one Man Going His Own Way proudly posted the photo above to the MGTOW subreddit, where it received more than 80 upvotes and pretty much universal acclaim.
“People always ask when I would leave this ‘narcissistic immature lifestyle’ behind and just man up and get married already,” he wrote. “Why would I want to wake up to anything other than this in my bedroom???”
Replacing the wine, bread, and poetry of Omar Khayyam’s little scene we have:
- An air mattress
- A motorcycle
- A bigass flat-screen TV
- A Playstation 4
- Two video games
Replacing the tree, a Minecraft poster tacked to the wall.
Replacing “thou?” Whatever … that is on the bed, I guess.
You go, boy.
Wow! The MGTOWs are funny. I never read that subreddit before. They really know how to lose all sense of proportion. And waste my time at work.
There’s a recent thread about an Amazon.com program called “Amazon Mom” that gives members a 20% discount on diapers. And, yeah, calling it “Amazon Mom” instead of “Amazon Parent” reinforces outdated gender stereotypes. And it probably does slightly annoy some dads who have to become a “mom” just to get a discount for their baby’s nappies.
But, dudes, it’s not WWIII. It’s diapers. From a comment (bolding all his):
“Pricing determines your worth. Preferential pricing will make some groups worth less. As a mgtow and men’s rights activist, that’s not something I’m willing to accept. It’s degrades the value of men at a systematic level, and restricts their liberties.
“I will not accept this pricing, even if I don’t plan on using it. Until then, I WILL be going my own way.
“(And if I happen to know anyone who’s interested in buying this, I will encourage them to contact a lawyer, because what they’re doing is discriminatory pricing, which is illegal!)”
I honestly want to send this guy a virtual Xanax. And I do understand the filter through which David was looking at the MGTOWs a little better now. The probability of misogyny and other forms of hate is like 99% at all times.
I get that people are saying one shouldn’t make fun of him for being poor, or not wanting a lot of stuff in his life. I’ve been there. I’ve literally wanted to throw everything away and just live on what I need (usually related to having to move, and/or clean up all the crap for someone! heh).
But I don’t think that’s what irks people. Nor I think, does anyone care about his desire to be alone. It’s how he’s wrapped it up, in a tight little bow with “i wake up next to that every morning” that seems so. very. isolated.
To each his own, I guess.
@PI
All my PS4 games are in blue cases. I’m halfway guessing that’s what led David to label the machine a PS4 in the first place. Granted, the blue does make them hard to distinguish from blue-ray.
Of course, the migtoe might have some off-screen real estate where he has more video games. Or maybe he accidentally ran over them all when he was riding his motorcycle in.
@Paradoxical
I haven’t played it, but I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO IVY AND FUCK EVERYTHING.
?w=474&h=273
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/fmc.gif
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/fbsmsh.gif
http://blog.pluralsight.com//wp-content/uploads/2013/07/why.gif
FUCK WHOEVER WROTE THAT SHIT.
I’m not judging him for his choice of furniture and lifestyle, but I am judging him for parking his motorcycle in his room (seems dirty to me, but I don’t even wear shoes that have been outside into my room) and placing his TV on a small stand in the middle of the room. That seems like a precarious place for it. It doesn’t seem stable, and the placement suggests it could be easily knocked over.
I’m glad he’s trying to live his life away from women; we all win. Now, he just needs to stop griping about women.
Oh holy hell. FURNITURE SHAMING is a thing now, huh?
I agree that it is pointless to disagree with the dude’s idea of happiness; if he’s happy waking up to that picture, then he’s technically living his life right. A friend of mine used to have a studio apartment in which the only furniture was a pile of two mattresses (one to be pulled out for guests), a night table and some boxes for her cats to climb on. It wasn’t sad, because it suited her. I kind of admire the simplicity, tbh. I’d live that way if I didn’t have so much shit I’m arbitrarily unwilling to get rid of.
On the other hand, David’s tone is so minimally caustic that we’re a long way from needing to coin new buzzwords to describe it.
Yeah, I watched a bit of gameplay and seeing Ivy being reduced to a power-up for Batman after he “rescues” her from Scarecrow within the first fifteen minutes turned me off of the whole game.
To me, the goofiness isn’t about the cheap mattress with an expensive TV, or even the motorcycle in the room (not very practical but kind of cool, IMO), but the fact that he’s all like, “Look! Why would I want a woman when I can have these things?” as if women are things, or at least as if women are evil harpies who frown on all things fun (like bedroom motorcycles). THAT part is eyeroll-worthy.
Well, to be fair, I frown on bedroom motorcycles. Because carbon monoxide poisoning. =P
@Panda and PI
Hmm? What happened to Ivy? It’s not available on Wii U and the PC version works about as well as… Something that doesn’t work at all… *total metaphor systems failure* So I’m probably not going to have a chance to play it for a long time yet. Spoil away, I’m curious.
@SFHC
She fucking sacrifices herself to make an antidote for Crane’s fear gas or some shit.
Like, seriously. I can GET behind her being good but they fucking KILLED HER OFF FOR IT.
THE. FUCK.
This, quoted above from the mgtow. subreddit –
Well, it’s my third comment here and hello blockquote mammoth. My text starts with the second paragraph.
@SFHC:
“Just a small note, please don’t call them “Sociopaths” or “Sons of bitches” here. Those are ableist and sexist slurs. “Assholes” works perfectly well.”
Forgive me for asking, but how is calling somebody a sociopath when they have all the signs of one ableist, let alone a slur? I’m willing to give you the “sons of bitches” thing, but the people I mentioned were sociopaths.
Arkham Knight also goes through the frigging Killing Joke thing AGAIN.
All I can think about while reading through these comments even though it’s very not the point:
I thought we’d gotten past the point where we were saying “they’re not poor; they have [x],” as if it’s not possible to become poor after already owning x, or to receive x as a gift, or to acquire x on sale as a splurge you’ve saved up for over time because being poor BLOWS and sometimes you spend money on frivolous things for the sake of relative sanity.
This guy’s CLEARLY a misogynist based on his other activity and the sentiment of “why would anyone want human companionship when you could have ALL THIS?” totally inspires a head tilt, but whether or not he’s poor isn’t something I’m comfortable determining based on the apparent ownership of a very small number of items. =/
@A Wolverine
It last a long time, too, doesn’t it?
@wyvery
To be honest, I imagined that he was poor because a) MGTOWs like to publicly moan about how much money they’d have for themselves if “they weren’t forced to spent it on a woman (including child support)” and I also imagine that if he DID have that money, he’d splash it on stuff to prove himself to the bros. 2) It’s not uncommon for MGTOWs to argue that MGTOWs should stop working and live on benefits, because work means taxes and taxes means they’re helping fuel the feminazi gynocracy or whatever. Hence, poverty.
Because you cannot diagnose someone over the fucking Internet? Why is this such a hard concept?
It also pretty much blames being a shitty person on mental illness. So fuck off.
Can I just put in another vote for futons?
I love them, even my actual bed has a futon instead of a mattress. Real beds are just too soft. I spend a lot of time booking into expensive hotels then sleeping on the floor.
As to airbeds, an old girlfriend and I had to use one once staying with some friends. I weigh about 200lbs, she’s about 7 stone dripping wet. With hindsight I should have got in first. As it was I just plonked onto the bed and she was thrown into the radiator.
@Flint
Because it blames being a bad person on having a mental illness.
SFHC – No worries! I was thinking of a motorcycle there more as a decoration, which appeals to my sense of absurdity. But if he’s actually using it, there’s probably a more practical place to put it.
Now, I don’t have much experience with living in varied places (only moved twice in my life), but you’re pretty much forced to store a bicycle somewhere in your living space when you’re in an apartment and the landlords/owners don’t let you put it in the basement or parking garage, or if you’re in a place where locking it outside risks it getting stolen. Still, I’ve never heard people having such problems with a motorcycle, since it’s a licensed vehicle that can (usually) be parked where cars are.
It would be just gorgeous if we could get through one post without this happening.
Well. Fuck everything. I heard it was a complete clusterfuck on Steam too.
I was going to mention this, too. You can’t tell whether he’s poor or not from the photo, and it’s irrelevant anyway. I’d rather keep the focus on the gross stuff they say.
Sociopathy isn’t a mental illness, FWIW, it’s a personality disorder. I mean I get the whole not diagnosing over the internet thing. But what up with people using someone else’s alleged ableism as an excuse to be extremely nasty and telling that person to “fuck off” and whatnot? Also I don’t really get the whole idea that ableism is bad because then the perpetrator of whatever can’t be held responsible. Aka “waaa, that means I have to feel bad about ridiculing this person on the internet!” I’m pretty sure that’s not the thing that’s bad about ableism.