In yet another stunning victory for their cause, Men’s Rights Activists have successfully infiltrated the comments of yet another article critical of them, leading possibly dozens of comment readers to mutter to themselves “Jesus Christ these guys again, honestly do they do anything else besides post this crap?”
This time, the target of the Men’s Rights raiders was an article on the website of GQ’s British Edition with the self-explanatory title “Men’s Rights Activists are cave dwelling idiots.”
Naturally, the comments from the MRA invaders tended to rather prove the author’s point, with regard to cave-dwelling idiocy.
There were accusations of gender treason:
Bog-standard predictions of feminism’s impending demise:
Unique takes on women’s history:
Tampon jokes:
“Retard” used as an insult:
Awkward turkey-related metaphors:
And of course, Paul Elam:
I should note that GQ seems to be moderating the comments fairly strictly; several I was intending to quote vanished before I grabbed a screenshot. I can only imagine what the rest of the moderated comments look like.
I should also note that Mr. Elam was so offended by the GQ article that he went and made a video about it.
In it the angry Elam, occasionally sounding like one of the storytellers on Drunk History, denounces the article as “lickspittle journalism,” describes its author, Rupert Myers, as looking “kinda like Alfred E. Neuman with liver disease,” defends the infamous AVFM article in which he referred to Bill Cosby’s accusers as “a bunch of drug whoring star [expletive deleted]” and makes the preposterous charge that it is Myers who is the true misogynist for criticizing his Cosby article because this means that Myers thinks that, as Elam puts it,
talking honestly about the reality of drug whoring star [expletive deleted]s is hostile to all women.
You may have to run that through your head a few times until it makes any kind of sense, because it really doesn’t.
Elam then declares Myers to be a “misogynist little [expletive deleted].“
WINNING!
H/T — @idlediletante
We’ve learned, so can you. But you need to work at it, like we have, and are. And it’s not something you can ever finish–god knows after all these years not a week goes by that I don’t learn more about feminism and other social issues.
“I don’t want to feel superior! I just want to point out that feminists just as bad as misogynists who threaten to rape and kill women for existing and not behaving in ways they see fit!”
Really, dude?
Say what you want about feminism, but I’ve never heard of a feminist murdering or threatening someone for being an MRA. I’ve seen quite a bit of the opposite, though.
Nor is there a power imbalance that favors women when it comes to gender. Misandry is not a thing. Sexism against men isn’t a thing, because there’s a power imbalance with sexism that just doesn’t exist with cis men.
You can be prejudiced against cis men, but you can’t be sexist towards them because society as a whole is built to favor them, whether they want it or not.
So stop doing the false equivalence bullshit. You’re wrong, you won’t make fetch happen.
And no, we are not here to convince anyone to join our cause. You are not entitled to our time or our niceness. If someone wants to give you their time and niceness, more power to them. But you are not entitled to it from everyone here.
And no, we don’t have to believe you’re sincere because you insist you are. If you’re acting like a troll, you’re going to get called out for troll behavior. If you want us to believe you’re not a troll, stop doing the things you’re being called out for. Don’t double down and insist that you’re simply JAQing off and we should somehow accommodate you.
Wow. You took “people who haven’t studied have a lot to learn and tend to ask the same questions’ as ‘all men are the same’.
But you’re sincere and not a troll. Riiiiiight.
“The whole issue is too polarised!”
That’s a common situation in issues where one side is right and the other side is wrong. Do you go onto medical forums and accuse them of being polarised over the issue of whether the theory of humours deserves equal time or not? Do you go onto engineering forums and accuse people of bias and polarisation over their refusal to substitute steel for balsa wood?
No?
Then please stop doing it here. Consensus is a false god and the insistence upon it may lead you astray, because sometimes things are true.
Nope. A troll is defined by whether or not their goal is to derail and annoy with their bad-faith wharrgarbl, not whether or not they actually believe said wharrgarbl.
Of course, that’s irrelevant, because there’s nothing sincere about “I’m not an MRA, but…” Or original.
@Kat:
Hmmm this is the link where I got it from, maybe that’s better?:
http://imgur.com/gallery/S9TjqP0
@Nicholas Mann and what if Africans had forced white Europeans into slavery WHAT THEN FOR ACCUSATIONS OF RACISM
what if I took your comments and changed a few words around so that you were saying that gay people are all the same ooooooh I bet you would look homophobic think about that
but seriously can you find any comment in this comment section that attributes Paul Elam’s… dysfunction to his being male? Because that would be equivalent to your hypothetical scenario of a bunch of dudes sneering about Paula Elamef being on her period.
Wait how can a zero-sum game have a canard? And… why? It’s almost like he doesn’t know what any of these words mean…
I’ve run into this personality type before, but it baffles me every time…how do people think other people know stuff they don’t happen to know? If I know something you don’t, it’s not because I’m magic, or utterly amazing, or better than you, or even smarter than you–it’s because I happen to have had the opportunity to learn it before you did. Big whoop. It’s not really an astounding accomplishment; it just boils down to having had the interest, opportunity, or sheer luck to have run across an argument or piece of information sooner than you did–sometimes due to the simple fact that I’m older, and have thus had more time to learn things (my response to people who ask ‘how have you managed to read all those books?’ ‘I’ve had a few more years than you to have read them’). And if you’re lucky I’m now taking the time and making the effort to share that argument or information with you, which means you now know it too! Win-win. Why people get weird and surly about this I have no idea.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/GkzO7ro.gif
Just…google shit?
As a drug counsellor/therapist (my official job title is: substance misuse recovery worker) I am super happy to discover that I am considered to be a doctor.
I trained for years for this position – five years as an addict, 9 years of being in recovery of which I spent 4 years in college learning psychology and counselling.
The actual doctors at my work might not be amused if all the recovery workers declare ourselves to be doctors but I’ll assure them that an online MRA has bestowed the title upon us.
In fact I’m going to change my screen name to include my new qualification!
“He’s not a doctor of anything, nor I have I seen any evidence that he was ever well-respected as a drug counselor. ”
Well, therapists are usually thought of as doctor-like. They are health professionals. So it still wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
“therapists are usually thought of as doctor-like.”
By whom?
Styne, “doctor-like” does not equal “doctor”.
Neither does “health professional”. They are not synonyms.
Words mean things.
English, unlike French and German, doesn’t distinguish between people who have earned medical and non-medical PhDs and, like ‘counselor’, it isn’t a protected term in UK law (I don’t know the situation in other countries). This means that it can be claimed on any basis and allows for equivocation; however, calling someone a doctor when they haven’t earned it (and it is something you absolutely have to earn) at the very least raises eyebrows and devalues any point that you or they make. If Paul Elam hasn’t done the hard work required for a PhD, particularly a medical PhD, don’t call him ‘doctor’ or ‘doctor-like’. It’s borrowed power. Please don’t do it.
@Leda Atomica
Adopting my dog was quite possibly the best $37 I ever spent in my life. Your puppy has a great home with you, regardless of the specific circumstances of how that came to be! 🙂 I plan to go down and look at some of the older kittens available for adoption at my local county shelter when they’re open again on the 26th, they no longer allow commitment to adopt holds to be placed over the phone, but all cats are free*.
*All adoption costs including the spay/neuter, shots, and microchip are being covered by a grant.
@Styne
I guess that you’re not aware that you can’t call yourself a doctor unless you are one (PhD or MD). To do so would get you into big legal trouble.
And if you call yourself “doctorlike,” people would laugh.
But, you say, Paul Elam doesn’t call himself “doctorlike.” I do.
People are laughing.
@Tyra Lith
Thanks, it’s so funny and much more readable now. I could read it before, but it took effort.
@Steyn
I have no idea why readers of We Hunted the Mammoth are your target audience for the idea of Paul Elam being “at one time…well-respected” and “doctor-like” in a health profession.
Should you not have more concern that his target audience hasn’t bothered filling his appointment calendar for therapy sessions through An Ear for Men? Or that after six months of patreon content, his patron count under that title is four (yes, 4) and earns him a whopping $7.26 per video from them?
I mean…really…do yourself a favor.
I am sorry, Styne, for misspelling your nym.
Does Styne think Dr. Laura is really a doctor too?
@Nicholas Mann,
Hi! Welcome to WHTM! (Sincerely, too – if you’re looking for honest and deep critique of the MRM, here’s the place)
Above, you mention that we in the comments are too critical of Elam’s appearance and are shallow on meaningful commentary, in the same way as sexist men reduce women. Such as this line here:
I have two replies to this! I will keep them short.
Reply the first! Search “Paul Elam” on this site and you will quickly see that our commentary on this individual is in fact of the depth and breadth of scope normally reserved for classical plays! This discussion on The Elam malE ranges from the furious to the sorrowful to the absurd! You’re in an absurd corner. Keep reading and you’ll get to what you’d like to see. Hooray diversity!
Reply the second! Even if there were nothing but shallow arglebargle on his appearance here, it still wouldn’t be equivalent! Men control social power that women don’t, making male critique of female appearance and behaviour much more damaging than the opposite. Note, however, that pretty much any time the comment section focuses on someones’ appearance, anyone at all, there are always commenters who point out that this is a terrible thing what we shouldn’t do! Because it’s not substantive and we are all about interspersing discussions on kitties and doggies with words what have actual meanings! Hooray discussion!
There you go. I hope that helps clarify things, and merry christmas, or newtonmas, or hexmas, or solstice, or long-weekend to you!
– Scildfreja
My friend really is a well respected health professional – and as an actual trained nurse she is so doctor-like I can inform her that she can skip the years of arduous studying to become one. Oh, and that silly little board that’s so tight-fisted about those certifications that they require passing your education. Who needs that? Said friend is also off to be trained as an army medic so she is war veteran-like already. Ca-ching veteran discount on bus passes!