It’s not exactly news, at this point, that more and more online media outlets have given up on their comment sections, shutting them down because they don’t have the time or money or patience to deal with the cesspools of vitriol and hate they’ve become.
Popular Science kicked off the wave of comment section closing back in 2013. Since then, comments have been removed from the sites of media giants like CNN, Reuters and Bloomberg; from major newspapers like The Chicago Sun-Times and the Toronto Star; and from a wide assortment of online outlets including re/code, Mic, The Verge and Vice’s Motherboard. Most sites regard the decision to close comments as one that is both sad and necessary.
But one site is touting what seems to be the impending end of online comments — at least on sites unwilling or unable to moderate the hell out of them — as a huge victory.
In a recent fundraising appeal on his site A Voice for Men, Men’s Rights elder Paul Elam happily takes credit for making the comments sections of other sites so poisonous for so many people that those who run the sites are increasingly crying “uncle” and shutting them down.
Elam doesn’t phrase it quite so bluntly, of course. He sees the closing of comment sections as proof that feminists (and presumably everyone else disgusted by AVFM) just can’t handle the TRUTH.
“The free pass for feminists has been revoked,” he declares.
Many Major websites that continue to run misandric bullshit now often have two words in common at the end of their hateful posts.
Comments Closed. That is now a common reaction of the feminist media in the wake of average people clobbering them with dissent and ridicule.
Apparently calling women the c-word is a form of “dissent.”
Elam goes on to suggest that AVFM has led the way in making virtually everyone so disgusted by Men’s Rights activists and other, er, “dissenters” that they’ve given up on the possibility of civil discourse online.
Again, Elam doesn’t put it quite this way. He claims to be “changing the cultural narrative,” dontcha know?
I can say with certainty and pride that it was AVFM that kicked the door in on all of it. We took the daggers thrown at us by mainstream media across the western world and pushed back defiantly.
Don’t flatter yourself, dude. While AVFM and its flying monkey squad of comment-section-poisoners has definitely played a role in making the comment sections of a number of media sites even bigger cesspools than they already were, AVFM hasn’t singlehandedly ruined online comments forever.
Many other terrible people have played their part — white supremacists, GamerGaters, white-supremacist GamerGaters, the list goes on and on.
Here at We Hunted the Mammoth, of course, we know that you don’t have to shut down your comment sections to prevent them from being overrun by malignant jerkfaces. Instead, you can simply close your comments to malignant jerkfaces like Elam and his crew, inviting some of them in only as a source of amusement and banning them quickly when and if they start flinging poo.
Discuss. (Not you, MRA jerkfaces.)
EJ’s eyes traced the figure of Orion’s post, greedily lapping up the words. Hungry for more, he gently caressed the screen, thrusting his thumb upward.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/LOKI_approves.gif
This is a bit off topic, but I don’t want to necro the Donald Trump thread.
http://gawker.com/former-kkk-grand-wizard-donald-trump-is-maybe-a-little-1749960274
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this.
@WWTH
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/uhy.gif
Am I the only one uncomfortable with commenters posting joking slash scenes about other commenters without any clear knowledge of whether they have consented to the ficlet being posted?
I don’t want to sound like a prude but I don’t want us to end up in a situation where Orion and EJ (TOO) feel like they have to laugh it off and not protest.
I think the main goals of the Men’s Rights movement have always been to weaken alimony and child support laws and make it harder for women to get divorces. The more recent incarnations have been promoting the idea that men and women are equally likely to be domestic violence perpetrators (which is clearly false). So it’s basically a way for batterers to deny responsibility for their actions or blame the victim for provoking the abuse. They don’t care about intersectionality at all.
@Verily:
Firstly, thank you for saying that.
Secondly, I find it to be hilarious, and I hope the people here regard me as a friend and feel comfortable making jokes like that at my expense. As long as it doesn’t have rape elements or something else unethical in it, by all means write away.
This is similar to The Guardian and a few Aussie news sites – they’ve closed comments on all stories about rape, murdered women and of course feminism, but nothing else.
I’d say that particular outcome is a victory for MRAs. They’ve silenced those uppity victims without even having to give up commenting normally on their MANLY MAN articles! Win-win.
@Verily
Sorry for making you uncomfortable. I figured it would not be inappropriate to post about the reading of a message in the style of slash fic, but I realize now that was a big assumption on my part. I apologize.
David, if you find it inappropriate, please delete.
It’s a victory for them because they’ve prevented people from discussing feminism openly on news sites. Their views are completely outside the mainstream, so any type of inconvenience for feminists is a victory for them.
Wasn’t there another mini faux slash fic in another thread with Walter and Moocow not too long ago that was way more sexual? Isn’t the people insinuating that Walter must like Moocow because “big dick” more inapropriate than a not at all sexual, obviously not serious post about liking what someone wrote?
@SFHC
The Guardian? Wow, that sucks.
There are a few groups that started hotlines and shelters for male domestic violence victims. But most of them stopped using terms like “Men’s Rights Activists” or were never involved with MRA’s to begin with.
D’awwwww, shucks.
Me neither. It would be interesting to see how their comments platform operates, and if there is some way of blanket-banning those who can’t-stop-won’t-stop trolling while leaving everyone else alone. On my own blog, I just post their IP number and anything else they think nobody can see, and that usually stops them dead. They freak out! Never mind that those harmless bits of data alone won’t bring cops or danger to their door, and that it takes a lot more skills than I have to actually trace a trollpost all the way geographically to its source. Trolls are not only mean and bigoted, they’re not very bright. (Pretty sure there are studies out showing how those traits correlate, too.)
Wow, that’s…BIZARRE. What Canadian criminal courts take for granted, no matter the accused’s social status, is something only the hyper-privileged can expect in the US? WTF???
Yeah, that’s pretty much how everything works here in the US now.
You wouldn’t think someone over the age of two would point to the shit smeared on the bathroom door and actually proudly admit to it.
Wow. That’s depressing.
Oh, what am I saying? Best justice system money can buy!
@Bina – Exactly.
We have a phenomenal justice system if you can afford phenomenal lawyers.
Similarly, we have the world’s best medical care if you can pay for it.
If you’re poor, working class, middle class, or – hell – even an upper-middle-class professional depending on the severity and/or complexity of your issue, good luck!
Well, that’s depressing. I’ve noticed some right-wing comments there lately (specifically, global warming denial), but nothing that awful. And never mind that I get angry reading racist comments – I imagine* it’s much worse reading them if you’re one of the actual groups targeted, even if it’s not a direct threat. Ugh.
*I don’t want to speak for others, but based on my own experience I imagine it’d be much worse. Last fall, I was helping out with a youth event and a teenage boy asked “what was wrong” with beating up gay people because “they stoned people for adultery in the Bible.” Maybe I have too thin a skin – I mean, if he knew I was bi/queer he’d probably just think “ew, gross, whatever” (in that order!) – but I was shocked and I didn’t feel like talking to the kid after that. I also thought some seriously uncharitable thoughts about Christians (which wasn’t fair, in retrospect).
@mockingbird – Hmm. I’m not that proud of my country, especially after reading that CBC notice. Racism is far from dead here, and there’s systemic injustice against aboriginal people that our government is still far, far, far from addressing. But I am selfishly glad I live in Canada because of the health care!
… As a person who’s been beaten up on the street for being gay, three fucking times, I’m just going to stop there before I say something I regret. Grr…
Apparently calling women the c-word is a form of “dissent.”
I see a really dismaying number of people who believe this. Including other feminists. I don’t mean in a reclaiming way, either. I mean as a way to demean and belittle other women who’ve themselves said or done awful things. 🙁
banned@4chan
You know, you could just email David Futrelle and inquire. Would that be too polite for you?
@Scented Fucking Hard Chairs
I’m so sorry that happened to you. You were betrayed by your fellow human beings, and that’s got to shake your faith in them.
I hope that you’re physically and emotionally okay now.
Wikipedia sez this:
The thing is, we’re not fictional. I know it’s done in the spirit of good fun, but the people involved might not care for the slashfic. Also, other readers might not care for it.