I‘m going to do something I’ve never done before and that I likely won’t do ever again. That is, recommend that you watch a video by Thunderf00t. That one, up there.
Because, bless his terrible little heart, he has pulled together a hilarious and informative mini-documentary on what you might call the Unmaking of The Sarkeesian Effect, filled with clips that remind us all just what complete fuckups and hypocrites would-be filmmakers Jordan Owen and Davis Auini really are. Especially Aurini.
The section in which Thunderf00t rips apart Aurini’s claims to be a brilliant bloody editor (who knows all the keyboard shortcuts) is particularly delicious.
Just ignore the bits where he actually goes after Sarkeesian herself; they’re fairly brief, in any case.
If you feel bad about giving Thunderf00t views, you might be able to assuage some of that guilt by giving me money. (How’s that for a segue!) Just another reminder that the We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive is (still) on! Please consider donating through the PayPal button below. Thanks!
Or you could donate money to Ms. Sarkeesian. It’s all good.
I tried watching the video, but I couldn’t stop laughing every time Aurini opened his mouth, so I gave up about three minutes in.
This entire debacle is reminding me of so many failed high school projects.
Wow, I think we’ve got a trend starting here. Futrelle’s sparring partner on Twitter about rape culture, Woolybumblebee, has also gone after Owen and Aurini — again, particularly after Aurini. The ex-Elamospherian and a self-avowed feminist hater’s blog has been about nothing else lately:
The epic battle of Matt Forney for the damsel Aurini’s heart
The Sarkeesian Effect – Following the Dramz
Who is The Sarkeesian Effect’s ‘Mediator’ Michael Whiteacre, AKA Ari Bass and his wife Christina Parreira?
Why The Sarkeesian Effect is Wonderful News for SJWs and Feminists
Meanwhile, the feminist vlogger known as Laughing Witch, has been drolly observing Aurini’s spitefest with Thunderf00t since 8/22, so T’f00t’s video slam certainly hasn’t come out of nowhere:
Davis Aurini and Thunderf00t Tweet Battle
Davis Aurini: Ad Hominem attack on Thunderf00t
(I’m trying to just link to Laughing Witch’s videos, not embed them, but I’m not sure what WordPress will do here. Apologies if I’ve messed it up.)
Yeah, when it comes to Sarkeesian or feminist topics in general, thunderf00t presents his arguments through disinformation, ignorance (or at least, the ignoring of key points), and what looks an awful lot like just plain obliviousness (he has that video where he shows footage from the game Watch Dogs – with women being sold at auction like literal objects – and says “How can you possibly portray that as objectifying women?”; at first I thought he was being sarcastic…).
The thing that’s really troubling about thunderf00t (among others) is that he presents this stuff as if it’s the end result of rational, objective, enlightened thinking – I mean, hey, he’s a professional scientist, right? Of course, his views are as biased and subjective as anybody’s, but the veneer of scientific rationality can lead people to accept this stuff as if it’s a matter of incontrovertible fact rather than just regular old opinion.
@Alan
I think the definition is missing a key element: mansplaining is not just condescending, it’s condescending to someone without regard (due to sexist assumptions) that she may actually have superior knowledge or expertise about the subject than you do.
This tool gets zero credit from me for acknowledging what was obvious to anyone with any sense from the start. As C.S.Strowbridge points out, if the film was a success, you can bet he’d be all over it with approval regardless of Aurini’s slimeballery.
I think Thunderf00t gets a bad rap. After all, thanks to those dastardly SJWs and FTBullies he can no longer eat women’s feet at conferences. 🙁
@tguerrant
Yeah, I’ve seen some of WBB’s videos. They’re amusing but I just can’t get on board with anything that she does because she’s such a horrid person. I wish she’d just go back to having meltdowns over blue jean companies donating $1 to girls’ (WHY NOT BOYS TOO?!?!ELEVENTY1one!!!111) education in poor countries.
@ Ibis
This is why the OED flags up potential new entries and invites comments.
The OED uses a “common usage” test. It’s not necessarily the most popular usage; there can be multiple definitions of a word. There’s also no actual numerical definition of ‘common’ either; there may for instance be word used in a highly technical field like quantum mechanics that only a handful of people use, but it can still qualify for entry.
The OED team look at al sorts of things to decide the ‘common’ usages. References to written use is an obvious one but, especially where words are used in the vernacular, they might look at transcripts of speech or social media, or just the work of social anthropologists and the like.
If you can show evidence as to a particular definition, maybe by reference to the original article it appeared in and subsequent commentary on that article, then they’ll look into it.
The OED takes a ‘death of the author’ approach though. It will try to identify the first known use of a word and will record that meaning with the tag ‘orig’ but if people now use the word in a different way it will record that meaning as the main one.
I find all this quite interesting and I think Paradoxy does too; hence the shout-out to her.
But he missed the opportunity to call his video “The Sarkeesian Effect Effect.”
On the one hand I’m pleased to see tf00t/ Phil Mason directing his energies towards actual charlatans and incompetent MRA dumbasses.
On the other, I know he’s doing it just to distance himself from a project that he once supported.
Basically it’s a nice video and I like it, but it seems tf00t made it to whitewash his brand.
I also love the note at the top where he encourages re-uploading, lest the manospherians get his video taken down. Tf00t writes it as if he himself was not functionally indistinguishable from people in the MRA universe. Maybe in his own mind he’s a moderate but looking at his videos, there’s very little that separates him from other manosphere/dark enlightenment types.
@ Mike Well said! I barely interact online anymore but when I have, Ive seen stuff like a guy arguing that feminists literally want to take away the male right to vote (yes really!) tell me feminism is a cult and Holocaust deniers talking about their superior “logick”. I went through a phase of thinking that surely actual facts and logic could convince people of reality. I had no idea how deeply, purposely self-deluded so many people are. I just dont understand it.
@Cerberus – having been harassed by a hate mob, just wanted to say Im really sorry that happened to you.
Another of my patented random derailments
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/27/dating-men-paying-bill-gender-equality
Some interesting MRA undercurrents though.
btw: did anybody else already notice/mention that that Aurini Charakter reads Iain M. Banks, Surface Detail ?
Nice to now that even people like that enjoy a good utopia although I would have thought there would be a culture clash there.
@theladyzombie
Getting on board with Wooly would be a little like getting on board with John Wayne Gacy. Well, sans talents for (a) applying clown makeup and (b) fooling others into not recognizing clear and present danger, that is. I present the Wooly bullies, not as friends of ours, but as companions of one another in excluding Aurini, and to a lesser extent Owen, from the company of ordinary indecent asshats.
I used to enjoy his Why Do People Laugh At Creationists videos, but most of that was done before he soiled the bed at FreeThoughtBlogs.
—
He took delight in making fun of people. People I find endlessly annoying and full of crap, but still, people. Anytime someone posts a vid laughing at someone, I wonder about their motives, and if they woudl laugh at me, when I said something they didn’t like.
Heh, and now I just want to see their pile of garbage of a documentary even more.
That was the intended effect, wasn’t it?
Sorry, but I really can’t bring myself to watching a Phil Mason video. He was always a fucking jackass, and I was rolling my eyes at him even before his misogyny bubbled up to the surface. He’s just one of those people who seems to be terrible at everything he tries to do. TF is the only atheist who’s lost a debate to Ray Bananaman Comfort – that’s how fucking stupid this dude is. I’m actually happy that he had his meltdown over at FTB, or people would still be celebrating his inane little anti-creationist video series. Blech.
I don’t think I’ll watch, simply for fear of what YouTube will start recommending.
@idledillettante
So, I’m kinda willing to grant a second chance if he ever actually acknowledges his own mistakes.
Vetarnias,
What are you 12? If you want to waste your time watching a tedious and poorly made documentary just to piss us off, you do you. What a stupid way to troll.
@tguerrant
Hah! I didn’t know Christina Parreira was married to their ‘mediator’, but it makes so much sense. I knew Aurini and Owen couldn’t just randomly have a female friend. That piece of info cracked me up.
@Vetarnias
Go ahead! 🙂 You’ll be one of literally a handful of people who’ve seen it. Nobody really cares about which movies you watch.
@ Hexren
I’m pretty sure that Aurini just feeds off of the hyper-rational anarcho-libertarianism of the Culture, while pretending that its extreme gender equality and tendency towards brown skin are signs of inner decay? Who knows, sci-fi attracts all sorts, but I can’t believe that Banks wouldn’t despise any part of his own novels that would appeal to someone like that.