So over the weekend some enterprising 4channer decided to try to create some mayhem and make a few quick bucks by concocting a fake feminist conference, and selling tickets to it.
He — I’m pretty sure it was a he — headed to /b/ to round up some accomplices.
The co-conspirators assembled in a TinyChat to work out the details of this brilliant scheme.
BE SURE TO SPELL FEMINIST CORRECTLY OR NOBODY WILL BELIEVE YOU.
Alas! Someone must have spelled feminist incorrectly, because as it turns out, no one did believe them, and word quickly spread on Twitter that FEMCON2015 was indeed a CON.
It didn’t exactly help that, their entire knowledge of feminism seemingly derived from antifeminist memess, none of the FEMCON2015 promoters had any idea what real feminists sound like, and the fake feminist Twitter accounts they set up were about as believable as Steve Buscemi’s undercover teenager on 30 Rock.
Here are some of the highlights from the would-be FEMCON artists’ brief careers on Twitter.
“Veronica” tweeted “her” first TOTALLY REAL HUGE FEMINIST comment at 2:12 (my time) Sunday afternoon.
Hey girls, I'm a huge feminist, and I can't believe I didn't have a twitter! I'm assisting in the creation of FemCon2015 in NY atm
— Veronica Hanson (@FeminsitVeronic) July 26, 2015
Literally one minute later, “Jessica” here tweeted HER first TOTALLY REAL feminist comment.
Just to let you know: You don't need to do whatever your boyfriend tells you to. You're independent! #bestrong #feminism #feminist @femfreq
— Jessica Alice (@Jessikacie) July 26, 2015
Two minutes later, she tweeted about the TOTALLY REAL conference.
ANYONE ELSE AS EXCITED FOR #FemCon2015 AS I AM?! Just bought my tickets today! Flying down in a few!! @Femcon2015 #feminism
— Jessica Alice (@Jessikacie) July 26, 2015
This TOTALLY REAL liberal showed how liberal “she” was with TOTALLY REAL liberal tweets like these:
https://twitter.com/ProgFembo/status/624684086720897024
https://twitter.com/ProgFembo/status/625034891491545088
Then followed up with a plug for FEMCON2015.
https://twitter.com/ProgFembo/status/625487206090715136
The OFFICIAL fake account of the fake conference — which has now apparently been banned — tried to whip up fake enthusiasm for the fake conference:
Looking at @Femcon2015’s tweets last night, before the account vanished, I noticed “she” had 85 followers, pretty good for a brand-new non-celebrity account. Let’s see what some of these followers had to say!
@Femcon2015 Emma Watson
— Joe Cockx (@Generic_nam3) July 26, 2015
This was Mr. Cockx’s only Tweet.
But some of @Femcon2015’s other followers tweet a bit more regularly. Like Claudia here:
This seems to be a popular topic amongst @Femcon2015’s followers.
I crossed out the info, BTW.
There are more like this, but I think you get the idea.
SPECTACULAR SUCCESS, FELLAS!
H/T — r/GamerGhazi, Sari’s Whimsy, and @srhbutts
Wow. How the hell did they expect ANYONE to fall for that one? O.O
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/719/509/0ad.png
And no-one did. Imagine my surprise, or total lack there of.
PS
And what the hell is wrong with gay bars? Why would that be upsetting? I mean, why?! I just don’t get it.
@ej: It’s projection. If they thought they were going to a 4chan meetup or convention, they’d see it as some horrible insult, as if they were being called gay. Considering how they use gayness as an insult constantly in their chat, I imagine they couldn’t think of a much bigger hit to their egos. So they assume feminists are the same.
The tweet from “Jessica Alice” telling women they don’t have to listen to their boyfriends is the most amusing thing in that post. It captures their perception of feminism perfectly. That and the whoke chat log make it clear they have no idea what feminism even is. It’s sad.
Maybe it was meant to be upsetting for the gay bar? You know, a lot of new customers suddenly turning up and spending money, some of whom are not gay! How mortifying!
I’m looking at their sad little Tumblr, which only has three posts, one of which is a reblog of their first post. One of the tags they used is #DownWithMales. They also used #WomansRights. So only one woman gets rights? Who is she, and what makes her so special?
I sometimes comment on how awful these people are, but I don’t give them enough credit for how amazingly stupid and incompetent they are. This is just mindboggling.
One thing though: I always assumed their little rants/tantrums about “SJW feminazis just want to hate men and not wear a bra while swallowing a million birth control pills” was deliberate strawmanning. This leads me to believe maybe the actually think this is an accurate description of the average feminist woman. That’s even more mindboggling.
Off topic: Last night my country won the Under 19 Women’s Soccer European Championships, which is sort of a big deal. Sadly, the comment section of every news article I could find about this seemingly good news had been immediately derailed by dudebros whining about women playing sports. I just can’t understand what’s going on in their heads. It’s depressing.
I’m not any kind of a lawyer or anything but isn’t this technically conspiracy to commit fraud (albeit inept conspiracy to commit fraud)?
I’m pretty sure trying to sell something that you have no means or intention of actually delivering is a crime here in Europe, but I suppose things may be different in 4chan-manland?
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/992/526/601.gif
@Rei Malebario
Expecting manbabies not to break the law is misandry.
I literally can’t get enough of that Anita gif.
But my new Mexican trans woman friend says the conference will be really good…
Maybe this obvious fraud is intended to be laughable as a distraction, and few slightly more competent 4chan “activists”, who have watched the odd heist movie, are working on a more convincing scam?
F – that’s for fucking
R – that’s for reckless
A – that’s for abominable
U – that’s for unethical
D – that’s for dipshits
What’s that make?
Yeah, honestly I think that if they were trying to convince other channer/anti-feminist types that this was a real thing, they’d have had no problem. The problems come when they try and actually convince people outside their chan-bubble.
God those tweets were about as convincing as a fake moustache disguise. Did they seriously think they could fool anyone?
No way. #GamerGate’s proven that this is the most they’re capable of; they worked their fedoras off on that one and still only convinced people who wanted to be convinced.
From the dudes who brought us ethics in video games journalism, comes freshly scented conspiracy to commit fraud. Is anyone surprised that dudes who lack intellectual integrity also fail in the general integrity category as well?
[quote]The depressing thing out of this is that these are the same idiots who pretty much incited #GamerGate. Kind of depressing so many MRAs and anti-feminists are even dumber than this. [/quote]
Honestly, my reaction regarding their general ineptitude is more akin to relief.
I’m like a totally real feminist. And I totally like feministing with my girl friends. And we are like empowered because we have uteruses and those other tubey bits, you know, Philippians tubes. So I am so going to FemCon. Down with men!
@dhag85
It’s probably a bit of both. The “ringleaders”, so to speak, likely deliberately strawman for the sake of pandering to their audience, and said audience doesn’t care about the actual facts so for them that becomes an accurate description of the average feminist woman.
I mean, what are they going to do, talk to an actual feminist woman to get the truth? Pfft.
I have to wonder if #DownWithMales was really meant to convince anyone or if it was just some half-witted gotcha attempt to expose MISANDRY. Failed on both fronts either way.
And holy shit, a commenter on the Buzzfeed report actually thinks the only reason this amazing plan failed was because the original post was spotted on /b/. x’D Where’s a Scooby-Doo villain meme when you need one?
Yep. xD
http://global3.memecdn.com/meddling-kids_o_1805745.jpg
… I refuse to believe they honestly thought this would work.
Someone in r/GamerGhazi said that they announced Vivian James as a speaker, and I refuse to believe anyone is that incredibly stupid. I find it more likely that they would try to make everyone think they were really trying and are just really bad at everything (and then… profit?) than that they would name a fictional character created by gaters as a speaker in a feminist conference, in all seriousness, and expect anyone to buy that.
If people like that existed, reality should’ve been broken into tiny little pieces in ground it into dust. A thousand times.
Also, Hello everyone! And shut up, Woody.
Yes, real convention planners put out the word just three weeks before the actual date. Feminists will impulsively drop everything and book expensive last-minute flights/hotels as soon as the tampon bat-signal goes up. It’s not like they have meaningful careers or families that are hard to take time off from. Just fake office jobs and ninety cats.
This really points up how badly they overestimate their own intelligence, and disrespect the intelligence of feminists. They’re not even putting in the slightest effort to make it look real. Half-assed graphics, a handful of sockpuppet Twitter accounts, and lazy copypasta stolen from NOW: all good enough, because feminists are stoopid, amiright? They think feminists have the brains of fish, and easily mistake shiny objects for food.
Even misspelling “feminist” is a not-so-subtle form of disrespect, akin to the Republicans’ irritating tactic of referring to the “Democrat” party in public discourse. It ends up backfiring and making them look stupid, petulant, and lazy, instead of superior. If you can’t even manage to get your opponents’ name right, tell me again why you should be entrusted with running anything?
Have these guys ever attended a conference? One which doesn’t involve dressing up as your favourite fictional character? One where you’d want a list of speakers and sessions before committing?