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Forbes Hails Success of Star Wars Boycott In World Where Words Mean Their Opposite

So this tweet happened:

RoKdelusin

Hmm. I hate to challenge Return of Kings’ legendary factcheckers, but they seem to have made a teensy little mistake here. Forbes actually thinks that the Star Wars “boycott” championed by assorted Internet reactionaries and racists didn’t cost Star Wars any money.

One clue here is the headline to the Forbes post stating that the boycott “Didn’t Cost Star Wars Any Money.”

In the post itself, Forbes contributor Erik Kain declares that RoK’s “claims about just how much of an impact their, ahem, “balanced, critical reporting” has had on the film’s financial success” were “even more ludicrous” than their claims that “The Force Awakens is little more than social-justice-warrior propaganda.”

Just a little heads up here, Roosh: Words mean what they mean, not the opposite of what they mean.

Unless the person saying these words is being sarcastic. For example, I was being sarcastic above when I mentioned “Return of Kings’ legendary factcheckers.” Kain was not being sarcastic.

H/T — @leyawn

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katz
8 years ago

SFHC: Maybe he’s saying that, by saying that the MRM didn’t do it, Forbes is conceding that RoK did do it?

Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard
8 years ago

I noticed the MRA labeling, too, and Return of Douches didn’t seem to bat an eye. When you get one, you really do get the other. Even THEY know that, unless they’re really obnoxiously pedantic about it like that one guy a while back.

Wow, not only are they bad at math, they are also bad at reading. They keep giving so much ammo to make fun of them. Never stop giving, manosphere.

Pallas Athena
Pallas Athena
8 years ago

The Rooshbag is at it again. I’m definitely starting to think he lacks reading comprehension.

Wetherby
Wetherby
8 years ago

Hm. David Garrett will now put in his CV that he was quoted by Forbes.

This reminds me of a blogger rather desperately trying to puff up his (complete lack of) significance by boasting that “The Spectator publishes stuff by me practically every day (and frequently several times per day)”.

Since The Spectator is a weekly publication, this was a bit of a giveaway in itself – and, sure enough, what he meant was that he made a comment on the mag’s website almost every day that managed to get through moderation. Needless to say, his byline had never appeared in the print version, which is how most people would interpret the phrase “The Spectator publishes stuff by me”.

EJ (The Other One)
EJ (The Other One)
8 years ago

Hello Frederic! Hello Bez! How’s the summer back in the old country?

@Paradoxy:

Or did Roosh just not read the article either? Do these guys read anything besides their own pitiful circle-jerking?

I really think this might be it (along with a certain amount of gaslighting of his followers by Valizadeh.) I’ve noticed for a while now that manospherians seem physically unable to reference sources outside their ideological bubble. They’ll quote Curtis “Mencius Moldbug” Yarvin on economics, Carl “Sargon of Akkad” Benjamin on history, or Derek Smart on law, despite those people not being respected in those fields. It’s not as if the internet isn’t flooded with information, but in the face of all of this knowledge they seem to prefer to retreat into a cocoon of ignorance and rely upon self-appointed gatekeepers to filter all the knowledge coming in.

If you remember orange tango drinker, he was a good example: he knew almost nothing except what Karen Straughan had told him. He trusted her completely and quoted her words as holy writ, even when she was rewriting her own history or saying things that he knew to be wrong. Living in a world full of knowledge which he could acquire and consider for himself seemed terrifying to him.

Knowledge sets one free, but freedom seems to be something that MRAs don’t want.

Here, we see Valizadeh claiming that Forbes says the opposite of what they say. Is there outcry at this? No, just further retrenchment away from the truth and a thankfulness to their abuser splainer for splaining it to them. Thank goodness that Valizadeh is here, they say. Otherwise we wouldn’t have realised that black is really white.

Lady Mondegreen
Lady Mondegreen
8 years ago

@Bina

They need to start a Men’s Reading Comprehension Movement

An MRCM is clearly desperately needed by these folks, so we can sure they won’t bother to create one. ‘Twould cut into their online “activism” (ie, complaining about feeemales) time.

Kat
Kat
8 years ago

I think that maybe these people just like to read someone who says mean things about women. What they read doesn’t have to make sense. And they don’t necessarily believe what they read. But it gives them a thrill because they’re so bitter about their own inadequacies. It’s fun for them to blame their inadequacies on women, whom they see as punching bags.

Paradoxical Intention
8 years ago

EJ (The Other One) | January 4, 2016 at 1:57 am
@Paradoxy:

Or did Roosh just not read the article either? Do these guys read anything besides their own pitiful circle-jerking?

I really think this might be it (along with a certain amount of gaslighting of his followers by Valizadeh.) I’ve noticed for a while now that manospherians seem physically unable to reference sources outside their ideological bubble. They’ll quote Curtis “Mencius Moldbug” Yarvin on economics, Carl “Sargon of Akkad” Benjamin on history, or Derek Smart on law, despite those people not being respected in those fields. It’s not as if the internet isn’t flooded with information, but in the face of all of this knowledge they seem to prefer to retreat into a cocoon of ignorance and rely upon self-appointed gatekeepers to filter all the knowledge coming in.

It’s almost scary, isn’t it? That there are people out there who would think like this. It’s almost like a cult. I know that comparison gets made on a regular basis, but that’s pretty much what it is.

Of course, no doubt that an MRA will march in here indignantly and accuse us of the same thing, but considering we’re on a blog that regularly quotes Manospherians of all stripes and (nasty) flavors, are willing to quote people who know more about things than we do, and considering the fact that we regularly admit (or at least I do) that we don’t know everything, I would think that’d be debunked almost immediately as projection, since we are willing to sit down and listen to other people’s opinions and “facts”, we just are capable of going “no thanks [insert manospherian here], we think you’re full of shit and we don’t think you’re right”.

Which isn’t to say we don’t disagree with them 100% of the time. I actually agree with a lot of manospherians that things like men not getting proper health care of both the physical and mental variety is a very important issue. Too bad they just aren’t willing to do anything about it besides glare at feminists and tap their collective foot indignantly.

Lady Mondegreen | January 4, 2016 at 2:25 am
@Bina

They need to start a Men’s Reading Comprehension Movement

An MRCM is clearly desperately needed by these folks, so we can sure they won’t bother to create one. ‘Twould cut into their online “activism” (ie, complaining about feeemales) time.

Isn’t that always the case though? Whenever men actually need something, the MRM is the last group to do anything about it.

Whatever happened to their “concerns” that men weren’t going to college as much as us feeemales anymore? What happened to their concerns about boys’ education?

Newt
Newt
8 years ago

Like how they use Fahrenheit degrees, or a weirdly bastardized version of Imperial measurements.

And their abbreviated version of “aluminium”.

Actually, we still have some headlines here in the UK reporting high temperatures in Fahrenheit, and the occasional stick-in-the-mud shunning Celsius because it was “made up by academics”.

lamuella
lamuella
8 years ago

And their abbreviated version of “aluminium”.

going to get nerdy for a second: in 1809 when Humphrey Davy first attempted to extract elemental metal from the mineral alumina he referred to what he was trying to produce as “alumium”. Three years later, in the book “Chemical Philosophy” he referred to the substance as “aluminum”, although an early reviewer of the book argued that “aluminium” would be the better term. So there’s an early precedent for using aluminum. (and in fact the -ium suffix is a lengthening rather than an abbreviation)

On the other hand, the first person to successfully and repeatably isolate the metal, (Friedrich Wöhler) called it “aluminium,” and the -ium suffix is common in most languages when referring to it.

Tessa
Tessa
8 years ago

Dangit, the first thing I thought when read this was how unsurprising this is because these are the guys who so often think “no” means “yes.” And then I see somebody already posted something to that effect. I went to bed too early. Oh well.

weirwoodtreehugger

That was what I found to be a real knee slapper too. But I also appreciated that his response was “don’t be mad.” Can manurespherians really not tell the difference between somebody being mad and somebody mocking them?

Along the same thread as above, these are also the guys who think women being angry at them is actually “giving her tingles” and that any attention is good attention. They obviously aren’t good at understanding other people’s tones.

occasional reader
occasional reader
8 years ago

Hello.

Well, for a group who is convinced that “no” means “yes”, i guess it is just another step and that “didn’t” means “did”. Is it not logical ?

Have a nice day.

Edit : Arg, writing slowly from job and no refreshing cause this aspect to have been already discussed. My bad.

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
8 years ago

@ Newt

Actually, we still have some headlines here in the UK reporting high temperatures in Fahrenheit

With newspapers its generally Fahrenheit in Summer and Celsius (or ‘centigrade’ in old money) in Winter.

EJ (The Other One)
EJ (The Other One)
8 years ago

It’s almost scary, isn’t it? That there are people out there who would think like this. It’s almost like a cult. I know that comparison gets made on a regular basis, but that’s pretty much what it is.

It’s very scary.

I think the word “cult” gets overused enough that it loses a lot of meaning; one could argue that the MRA mindset has religious overtones but given my position on religion I’m not going to touch that subject.

I think what Günter Grass said about extremism is very true: that the path to extremism begins when people reject a painful reality in favour of a pleasant fantasy, because at every step thereafter they must choose between abandoning that fantasy or letting it take over their life even further; and as it becomes more painful to face reality the further they have travelled from it, the ideology eventually comes to dominate entirely.

EJ (The Other One)
EJ (The Other One)
8 years ago

Also: is anyone but me furiously angry at that New Year episode of Sherlock?

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
8 years ago

@ EJ

I think what Günter Grass said about extremism is very true: that the path to extremism begins when people reject a painful reality in favour of a pleasant fantasy

Love that quote.

The MRA movement does share a lot of its radicalisation methodology with terrorist groups though (although that of itself is not dissimilar to how gangs recruit.) I’m seriously considering using MRA’s as my dissertation topic in a terrorism Masters.

WeirwoodTreeHugger
WeirwoodTreeHugger
8 years ago

I wouldn’t say I was angry at the Sherlock episode, but I didn’t really get what it was going for either.

The whole mind palace thing seemed like such a thin pretense for setting it in the past. It was entirely out of place for the show.

Although they probably weren’t trying to imply that suffragettes are bad, that’s how it came across.

Plus the whole fat Mycroft segment was very off putting. What’s remotely amusing or original about lol fat people always be eating humor?

Florkje
Florkje
8 years ago

I think that maybe these people just like to read someone who says mean things about women. What they read doesn’t have to make sense. And they don’t necessarily believe what they read. But it gives them a thrill because they’re so bitter about their own inadequacies. It’s fun for them to blame their inadequacies on women, whom they see as punching bags.

Kate, I think you’ve hit all the nails on all the heads here.

Really, in a way, this post should be the last and only post on WHTM, not because this isn’t an awesome blog (it is, thank you so much David), but because this post encapsulates the essence of the Manosphere so completely and beautifully, that all else seems pointless extra information.

Then again, I do like a good larf, and these clowns sure do keep on giving… 🙂

mockingbird
mockingbird
8 years ago

@EJ – Spoiler warnings, please!

In the US, anyway, it’s only aired/streamed once (Friday at 9pm) and isn’t available to buy or stream otherwise (I think) until after it has its theater run.

I was all set to watch it, but we had some friends visiting from Belgium who we hadn’t seen in like a year and a half and things ran over.

Dan Kasteray
Dan Kasteray
8 years ago

To Weirdwoodtreehugger

If Sherlock is still under creative control by Steve moffat then most certainly its not an accident the suffragettes look bad.

Bina
Bina
8 years ago

Whenever men actually need something, the MRM is the last group to do anything about it.

Whatever happened to their “concerns” that men weren’t going to college as much as us feeemales anymore? What happened to their concerns about boys’ education?

Oh, psssh. All that was just a front. They think that even the most cloddish and uneducated male should still count for more than the best-educated feeeeeeemale because PENIS. There is no “boy crisis”, unless one gets technical about it and counts the fact that sexism and peter privilege have literally made slackers of males. When a woman needs advanced degrees to earn what a blue-collar dude with a very average high school diploma does, that’s actually a girl crisis.

But, as our former (and unlamented) conservative PM once put it, thou shalt not commit sociology.

in 1809 when Humphrey Davy first attempted to extract elemental metal from the mineral alumina he referred to what he was trying to produce as “alumium”. Three years later, in the book “Chemical Philosophy” he referred to the substance as “aluminum”, although an early reviewer of the book argued that “aluminium” would be the better term. So there’s an early precedent for using aluminum. (and in fact the -ium suffix is a lengthening rather than an abbreviation)

One thing that never failed to amuse/baffle me as a high schooler was how we (Canadians) were taught to spell it “aluminium”, but pronounce it “aluminum”. But that was only in science class…everywhere else, the latter spelling (minus the extra i) had won out on account of brevity and pronunciation habits. Why the longer spelling had prevailed in science class, no one would say. To this day I still don’t understand it.

And I’m an English major.

Actually, we still have some headlines here in the UK reporting high temperatures in Fahrenheit, and the occasional stick-in-the-mud shunning Celsius because it was “made up by academics”.

That’s hilarious. ALL temperature scales are made up, by academics, as far as I can tell. The Celsius scale, at least, is sensible in that it’s based on the boiling and melting points of water. 0 degrees = freezing, 100 = boiling. Easy peasy! Water freezing at 32 degrees? Um, that’s a hot summer day, to me…

I was pretty much raised on metric, so I often find myself asking what a Fahrenheit temperature actually means, as it has no bearing on what water does. I have to bite my tongue and not say “But what is that in REAL degrees?”

PS: Howdy and welcome to all the new faces! Pull up a scented candle and misander with us, we’re friendly.

EJ (The Other One)
EJ (The Other One)
8 years ago

@Bina:
0F is actually useful if you’re a nineteenth-century sailor, since that’s the point at which the surface of the sea freezes. I don’t know about you but I am not a nineteenth-century sailor.

I snerked at that “what is it in REAL degrees” line though. Now I want to say it too.

Bina
Bina
8 years ago

Also, here’s a little ditty for Roosh & Co.:

Bina
Bina
8 years ago

@Bina:
0F is actually useful if you’re a nineteenth-century sailor, since that’s the point at which the surface of the sea freezes. I don’t know about you but I am not a nineteenth-century sailor.

Me neither…and I suspect that most nineteenth-century people weren’t sailors, either. Salt water does freeze at a lower temperature than fresh, ’tis true. But saltwater isn’t the kind that most people work with on a daily basis…