UPDATE 10/25/16: If you’ve come here after reading about a petition to cancel screenings of The Red Pill, I ask you to NOT sign any such petitions. It’s just free publicity for them. Read more of my thoughts on the matter here.
Dear Cassie Jaye,
Congratulations. You surpassed your Kickstarter fundraising goal yesterday, more than two weeks before the Kickstarter campaign was scheduled to come to a close. You’ve funded the postproduction work on your long-delayed documentary on Men’s Rights activists, and then some.
But I’m not sure that the person I should be congratulating is you. Last night Paul Elam of A Voice for Men – the central subject of your film – was doing his own victory lap online. And no wonder, because he seems to be the real victor here.
In a post on his site that managed to be giddy and vindictive at once, he offered his congratulations to you, then, well, to himself. “Even though the victory goes to Ms. Jaye,” he wrote, in an awkward attempt at modesty, “I have the need to offer up some thanks.”
And then he spelled out why he thinks your “victory” is really a victory for him.
For the past six years AVFM has had mud kicked in its face by a corrupt, left-wing media. Bottom feeders like Adam Serwer, Jeff Sharlet and Mariah Blake have performed endless unscrupulous acts, directly lying to their readers in order to attack AVFM, this movement and me personally.
Their work was not just to harm me, or to damage a website but to make sure if they could that the message we carry never found its way to the larger public. Their intent was and is to paint an indelible stain on all of us so hideous that we would never be taken seriously by enough people to matter.
They have failed, and I can now predict that they have failed miserably.
In other words, Paul Elam thinks he and his friends in what he ludicrously calls the “Men’s Human Rights Movement” have bought and paid for a feature-length advertisement for them.
And it’s not hard to see why Elam – and the other manospherians who’ve rallied around your film in recent days — think this. After all, they are the ones who have rescued your film from oblivion by pouring tens of thousands of dollars into your Kickstarter.
And all it took for you to unleash this torrent of money was an interview with one of the sleaziest figures in right-wing journalism, Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart.
In the interview, posted on Monday, you complained that “I won’t be getting support from feminists. They want a hit piece and I won’t do that.”
There was more than a little bit of irony in the fact that you were saying this to a man infamous for his many hit pieces on so-called “Social Justice Warriors.”
You also complained about an intern on your film who, you said, “had a lot of crying attacks and emotional experiences. She claimed everything I was showing her was triggering her.”
A young feminist “triggered” and crying. This is red meat to the Breitbart crowd, and I have to assume you knew this when you told Milo this story.
To an outside observer like me, this shameful pandering looks a lot like a Hail Mary play on your part. Having failed to convince most potential funders of the film that you would present anything close to an accurate picture of the Men’s Rights movement, you told Breitbart what its readers – and the broader manosphere – wanted to hear.
And it worked. Men’s Rights activists, self-professed “Red Pillers” and other assorted antifeminists rallied around your film, and the money started flowing.
On Reddit, the moderators of the Men’s Rights subreddit “stickied” an appeal to donate to your Kickstarter to the top of their front page, urging MRAs to open their wallets in order to show skeptics that “we can take part in some actual activism and not just post stuff in here.”
Even the regulars in the violently misogynistic Red Pill subreddit agreed to help bankroll your film.
And it wasn’t just Men’s Rights and “Red Pill” Redditors who organized support for your film. One right-wing Red Pill blogger, notorious for his harassment of ideological enemies, pledged to match donations up to $10,000, describing your documentary as “the Movie SJWs Do Not Want You to See.”
Meanwhile, on her blog, AVFM’s “social media director” Andrea Hardie (an internet bully better known under her pseudonyms Janet Bloomfield and “Judgy Bitch”) not only rallied her readers around your Kickstarter but also set up a gofundme of her own, raising money in hopes that it would buy Breitbart’s Yiannopoulos a producer credit in your film. (I hope that is out of the question, even if she raises more than the paltry amount she’s raised for this purpose so far.)
And then there was Elam himself, on Twitter, calling on his followers to, in his words, “Help fund #RedPillMovie because fuck feminists!”
https://twitter.com/AVoiceForMen/status/658700057311506432
Accepting money from these people would seem to be a pretty clear violation of the principles you set forth in your own Kickstarter video, in which you declared that
in order to keep this film non-partisan, and respectfully show all sides to this debate, we won’t accept funding from organizations that inevitably have biased agendas.
Instead, you have chosen to take money from people who see your film as a chance to say “fuck you” to feminists. You have chosen to take money from the actual subjects of your film.
You are making a film about Men’s Rights Activists, funded to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars by Men’s Rights Activists. You are making a film about A Voice for Men funded in part by A Voice for Men.
Does that not trouble you at all? It should. In your interview with Breitbart, you noted that “films that support one side and act as propaganda do better than those that try to have an honest look.”
You said this, presumably, to set yourself apart from such propagandists. Now you seem to have cast your lot in with them.
Which I suppose makes sense, since the clips of your film that you’ve posted online so far look a lot more like propaganda than they do like any sort of honest look at the Men’s Rights movement,
I felt uneasy about your project from the start, concerned that you had been pulled in by the soothing but misleading rhetoric that MRAs spout when they are trying to sound more respectable than they really are, rather than on what MRAs actually say and do when the cameras are off of them.
But I knew you had a good reputation as a filmmaker, and heard good things from several feminists who knew you better than I did. So I held my tongue and tried my best to give you the benefit of the doubt, even when you posted clips from your film that portrayed AVFMers as heroic underdogs rather than the misogynists and malicious harassers that they really are.
When I wrote you a little over a week ago with some of my concerns, you assured me in the phone call that followed that the clips you had posted were only part of the story, that you were well aware that the MRAs you had interviewed were on their best behavior when talking to you, and that the real story of the Men’s Rights movement is far less rosy-hued. Against my better judgement, I continued to hold on to some kind of hope that you would live up to your reputation in the end.
And now, frankly, I feel like I’ve been played.
Unfortunately, it looks like you have been played too, much more spectacularly than I have. I suspect you are doing far more damage to your reputation than you even know.
One thing I have learned in five years of watching, and writing about, and dealing with, the Men’s Rights movement, is that if Paul Elam is happy about something, that thing is almost certainly terrible.
I suspect, sadly, that you will ultimately learn this lesson yourself, the hard way.
PS: In our phone conversation, you suggested that if you were able to fund your film, you might be able to finally film the interview with me that we originally had planned to do, but which fell through due to financial and other practical obstacles during the original filming of The Red Pill. At this point, I am sorry to say, that is completely out of the question.
@ shapman
What would you require? If you’d be so kind as to state the evidence thar would satisfy you, that will avoid any goalpost shifting and further diversions.
BWS isn’t a defence. It’s a term used to describe a particular form of learned helplessness experienced by some abused women.
I think this is one of those cases where the tedious-troll banhammer needs to come down. Shapman already violated the commenting policy by issuing threats, there’s no need to indulge his hate-boner further.
Oh gods. One troll leaves. Another arrives.
Oh, well. It gives me an excuse to pose a cute kitty whack a mole gif.
I believe he was summarizing, not directly quoting.
In any case, one would expect a documentary filmmaker covering a controversial subject would do a little research into their subjects.
Either she did less research than a junior high school student would do for a history paper or she knew how misogynistic Elam is and didn’t care. Neither option makes her look too good.
You know you’ve lost the argument when you continue having to use ignorance as a defense both for yourself and for Cassie Jaye.
She pretends to be a journalist. She should know her subjects. She shouldn’t walk wide-eyed into an interview knowing jack-all.
Do you normally try to evade responsibility for your bullshit for days and days on end?
Forgot to address this part.
Since you disapprove of doxxing websites, will you leave us and instead go to the comments of A Voice For Men to tell them of your disapproval?
@John Devalle
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2017/07/30/yes-cassie-jaye-paul-elams-register-her-site-was-intended-to-vilify-and-intimidate-women/
Google and other tech-co’s often poach guys before they finish their courses if their scores are high. But the problem Google has is that its getting eaten alive by competition from China. It needs the best guys who are typically Jewish males, or Asian males. so the diversity managers job is to prefer minorities with lower abilities…This is the classic clash between meritocracy and ideologically driven political correctness. Making them even more uncompetitive.
Yes the Google guy did exactly what Galileo did, three female tech commentators in the media have said they believe at least part of what he has said as he has shown evidence.
The quotes endlessly used of Paul Elam are from a vid he did parodying a bigoted feminist vid…he spelt out at the beginning and end that it was satire and parody but the feminist usual dishonesty continue to use it anyway. I think Warren Farrel and Norman Mailer were very naive thinking they could ever be part of the feminist movement……. Most of the leaders of the anti-feminist movement are female, including a philosophy and an English professor. Milo Yiannopoulas, a small gay Jewish guy whos boyfriends are black and who called his tour the dangerous faggot tour…has laughably been characterised as an antisemite a homophobe white supremacist because the left just throw out any epithet in a shotgun effect hoping something will stick….The most obvious thing about the Marxist left is their incredibly limited intellects. They just find a trick that works and use it till it doesn’t. All Cassie did was leave the mind control cult long enough to realise that the “other” were human and suffering, and showed their story. That is not a crime (except to a feminist).
For the thousandth time, the Israeli woman is not a neuroscientist and spelling out her goals and methodology on the Ted talk.. it was laughable…she was far more interested in feminist theory than science.
@ John
As we say in court (when someone’s come up with a better argument) “I adopt the submissions of my learned friend”
(in this case WWTH, POM, and Makroth)
@Scildfreja
You aren’t responsible for their actions. However, you’re standing by them by supporting the MRM. You need to educate yourself about your movement, and when you encounter things you find reprehensible you need to distance yourself from them when they are associated with you. Otherwise, you lend them silent support.
We do this with some of the worst expressions of Feminism when they show up. You need to learn the bad actors in your own movement and do the same. Otherwise, we’re more than justified in casting you in with them, just as we’re justified in saying that in the US Federal Election, a vote for anyone but Clinton was a vote for Trump. Because that’s how associations work.
I sincerely hope you can do that! Spend a little time digging through the site and reading some of the things Elam et. al. have said from a perspective that isn’t your own, and try to digest it. I won’t hold my breath for a change, but I hope you’re able to.
I don’t think I expressed support for a particular MRM movement, such as Mr Ellam’s. I’m learning about him, and the AVFM site. Anyway, some here will not forgive me for my sin of not agreeing 99% with them, and for being critical of Hilary Clinton. They’ve made that clear.
As regards Paul Ellam, David quotes him out context, in what looks like a calculated effort to portray him unfairly. If he’s that bad, a true picture of him will tell it. I’ve checked links to Mr Ellam here, and seen more of his thoughts elsewhere. He’s got an abrasive style I don’t like, sure, but his expressions of anger are concerning matters that deserve anger, though he goes OTT. Let’s remember many here have expressed their hope that those who didn’t vote for Clinton lose their jobs, their homes, their health care. That’s hate.
On that point, some have wished that fate on those who didn’t vote, which I think is near on half the adult population of America. And think of this. Trump is pure evil, yet millions voted for him. Why? How likely is it that there all fascists, or something similar-lily unpleasant? If you want to stop him being re-elected in 2020 you need to address that, and slagging off any who didn’t vote for Clinton isn’t the way to do it.
Here’s a sample of women who voted for Trump, stating their reasons for doing so,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/us/women-voters-trump.html
You will think them misguided, so do I, but they aren’t extremists. I’ve seen many examples of people, of both sexes, who’d voted for Obama, but for Trump this time. I believe Obama won because he promised change, but he didn’t deliver. So last year Trump portrayed himself, in a well crafted deceit, that he would, to use his words, take power from the elite and give it back to the people. He got away with it because of the establishments failures.
Do provide the context that will make RegisterHer look reasonable. I won’t hold my breath, though, because I think you’ll provide that around the same time you get around to addressing your deceptive re-interpretation of your untrue statement about civil rights leaders and banks.
@WWTH
The guy who called date rape exciting? The guy who compared paying for a woman’s drinks and not getting laid as compensation to rape? The guy who put a picture of a woman’s butt on the newer edition of Myth of Male Power because men are oppressed by women looking sexy? The guy who said that sexual abuse wasn’t all that traumatizing? That Warren Farrell? Reasonable?
As is so often asked here, got a link?
Forkrissakes….Didn’t everyone one get the diaper thing was clearly a joke, as with the patrician thing (got to remember to spell out to humour challenged feminists)
Females are much better at having babies and breast feeding but much worse at everything after that…..there is every body happy now?
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2013/05/03/putting-warren-farrells-notorious-comments-on-exciting-date-rape-in-context/
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/19000000/Little-Green-Men-ferengi-19047658-692-530.jpg
Why is it acceptable for Paul Elam (not Ellam) to express anger but when we express a little sarcasm you whinge about it for days on end?
I had you pegged from the start as a misogynist. Not a well meaning fellow who’s a little clueless about the issues. Thanks for removing all doubt in anyone’s mind that you just think women are supposed to shut up, smile and defer to men.
Seriously. Please do go to AVFM and criticize Paul Elam’s tone. I’d love to see that. If you think we’re mean…
@Jerry “Don’t read a thing” Donohue
http://www.businessinsider.com/james-damore-removes-phd-studies-linkedin-2017-8
Shut up Jerry and read the thread.
Jerry. For fuck’s sake. Put your comments in the comment in the comment box instead of replying by email so your comments don’t drift to the bottom of the page.
I thought you had a superior male STEM brain? Why is it that you cannot grasp a simple task like commenting on a blog post?
So, spell it out. Where’s the humor in this? All you were doing is repeating a stereotype. And you weren’t doing it in a way that sounded like you were even attempting a joke.
And no, we’re not all happy now. As has been pointed out earlier, not everyone with the bits to give birth to a baby identifies as female.
What about the methodology was incorrect? You keep dodging this.
1666 was the year of the Great Fire of London.
I think Jerry needs a ban, too, just for fucking up the wordpress commenting code.
No, he didn’t, and saying he did is being seriously unfair to Galileo. Galileo had evidence. Galileo had observations. Galileo had historical precedents who agreed with him. So much of what Galileo did has NO bearing whatsoever with what the google guy did, that bringing Galileo into the argument again is just dumb at this point. Galileo took on the Catholic Church, which was much much more of a big deal than taking on even a large corporation. The Church arrested Galileo.
Google guy? He just got fired from what is to all accounts a good paying job. No comparison. He’s already got job offers. I’m certain that Julian Assange wasn’t kidding.
One’s a historical scientist, the other’s an idiot who doesn’t understand employment law.
This is easily the largest False Equivalence I’ve come across here recently.
ETA: You’re an idiot, too, for failing to understand how to use a commenting system without screwing up the threading. Comment ON THE WEBSITE, use the website form. Stop whatever it is you’re using (email? broken system clock? I didn’t even know that it was possible to screw up this site’s comment system, but you’re still dumb.)
Alan, I think your post at 1.49pm, that you addressed to me, was actually intended as a reply to Shapman.
Yeah. Overdone the Earl Grey again. Makes my eyesight go fuzzy. Sorry.
John wants to call Alan out on a minuscule oopsie, but can’t be fucked to address his own massive cock-up. Matthew 7 anyone?
@Jerry Pretty much done even trying to be reasonable with you. I could spend time hunting down the links to refute you but I think my time would be better spent playing chess with an actual pigeon.
@John You know I can’t understand it either? If someone voted for someone who promised to enact policies that would LITERALLY KILL ME (I know at least 2 friends who would be actually dead this year if not for Obamacare and in the first case also gay marriage) It would be entirely mean of me to wish that the consequences of that stupid, reckless, hateful decision would hit the person who made them too.
Also John feet to the fire. You never told me your 2016 vote. Show us what your political wisdom would do. Clinton, Trump, Stein, Johnson or write in and what you think it will do. Show us how clever you are John and stop dancing around those goalposts.
John can’t vote in US elections so any vote he might have made is entirely hypothetical and, happily for him, consequence-free.
☝️????