You may recall how Christina Hoff Sommers, right-wing think tanker and longtime pseudofeminist, was transformed into the idolized “Based Mom” after she cannily jumped aboard the #GamerGate train and started going to events with noted ethical journalist Milo Yiannopoulos?
Now GamerGaters and Anime Nazis and other elements of the Internet’s Trump-loving sh*tlord army are turning on the woman they thought was one of the cool girls.
Sommers’ crime?
She signed a petition in support of Michelle Fields, the former Breitbarter who lost her job after being manhandled by Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski at a Trump event.
Sommers’ fans — well, ex-fans, really — aren’t taking it well.
Those were some of the more polite reactions.
Others were a bit more, er, blunt.
But not everyone has deserted this Jewish agent of Lucifer. Sommers has managed to hold on to the endorsement of at least one influential Tweeter.
It’s almost touching.
@calmdown:
The language of trolls is a strange one and not easily understood by the uninitiated.
There was once a truly bizarre incident here at WHTM where a *chan thread started watching us and we started watching them, and both groups were mocking the other. Revealingly, their mockery was mostly “Oh god, normies!” and “they can’t understand us!” as if those were virtues.
Most political groups work hard to make their message understandable to outsiders.By contrast, these people seem to glory in their obscurantism.
I hope they don’t give her the full Zoe/Anita treatment. 🙁
Incidentally, I’ve actually had a reporter tell me it wasn’t that big of a deal and reporters should expect to be shoved around if they’re doing their jobs.
That reporter was wrong. In 10 years I’ve never been attacked physically on the job, and I don’t think we should have to expect that, especially at a major party’s political rally in the US. That’s not a war zone, it’s not even controversial; they ask us to be there to give them free publicity, for pete’s sake!
I’d also like to point out the double-bind here. On the one hand, there is strong pressure for women to be nurturing and caring, and to perform emotional labor whenever anyone is in pain or experiences even a slight nuisance. There is also pressure for feminists, in particular, to avoid saying bad things about other women.
On the other hand, there is a stereotype about feminists that they overreact to tiny things and want to wrap women in cotton so that they never get bruised, and there is pressure for feminists to “prove” this stereotype wrong.
Each of us needs to navigate this double-bind in a way that makes the most sense for that person. However, if you feel conflicted about this, you should be aware that there is a good reason for that. And if you need permission to navigate the double-bind in a way that doesn’t involve pouring out compassion for CHS, you have it. You also have permission to navigate it by pouring out your compassion for CHS. There is no way to win, which I choose to interpret that there is also no real way to lose.
Jarnsaxa.Yes! I like your comment very much. Who did you report for?
And yes, oh it’s not a , “war zone”… Even though that’s exactly what they would like to make it. Isn’t it?
This is the last gasp of the desperate. And I would like to wish them the best. They are people too after all. And yes, even if we do not agree with them politically.
@OoglyBoggles
That video is really not complying with the comments policy either.
Wait, the GamerGate crowd is attacking her to? I thought GamerGate was all for jounalism ethics? Breitbart threw one of their own reporters under the bus because they didn’t want to get on the bad side of Trump you’d think the GamerGate folks will be all over Brietbart for this guess not. This proves that their “It’s all about ethics in game journalism” line is full of shit.
Ugh. From that buzzfeed article about the fakeness of Milo:
His daddy issues are really creepy.
Now I imagine “think tanker” as a large tanker ship that constantly sails the ocean of communication, filled with mildly toxic status quo that’s been processed into moderate conservative philosophy.
A “tank thinker” would be a heavy assault machine that roams the culture war battlefield, trampling opposition, firing truth bombs, impervious to criticism.
What exactly was the problem with the video OoglyBoggles linked? I thought it was quite funny.
If you’re referring to the ableist word in the thumbnail, that’s actually a screenshot from the thunderf00t video that this guy is responding to. Maybe a bad decision to put that specific image as a thumbnail.
So this is not about video game journalism, and it’s not even about feminism, and GG still feels like they have been betrayed. Okay then.
It’s almost like they don’t care about anything but humiliating and silencing women.
Also, this is reminding me so much of the “equal rights, equal lefts” chestnut. No, it’s not about self-defense or domestic violence. It never has been. It’s about wanting to manhandle women without consequence.
An ad for this site appeared here and it seemed a bit off? “because this psychology can bypass a woman’s decision making process, it’s possible to implant anything you want. Using an experimental technology to make a woman become sexually addicted to you…” I mean, I know it’s BS but eww.
Went quickly to antisemitism. Interesting how unless you are White White White, you are subject to abuse even if you are on their side.
I’m sure that Sommers wouldn’t have signed a similar petition had the reporter been a Black female or liberal/progressive.
@calmdown
I don’t want to click on that link and read the whole thing but ewwwww. Not only is all that fucking Red Pill-esque psychology stuff bullshit, it always creeps me to the bone when certain sites aimed at men promote stuff like “trick her mind into desiring you!” instead of you know, actually working to become desirable. Their psuedo-science nonsense wouldn’t necessarily work in the first place, unless they’re promoting actual abusive tactics, but they still feel it’s OK to manipulate women into sex in a way they believe to be just short of hypnotism. Rape culture, people.
In other news, Murphy’s Law dictates that the day I finally get to see a doctor about a problem, the problem has gone down overnight and isn’t as bad. Gah. I’m sure it’ll flare up again by the end of the weekend though.
@calmdown
I’m getting actual shivers and nausea from reading that. “Three tips to bypass the female brain into having sex with you”, totally not some shady thing. Persecution complex too, yep sounds like a PUA article.
Oh no it’s 45 minutes long, to Niflheim to that. I’d rather watch something worth my time and won’t make me simmer in rage with the idea that someone, somewhere is using this on someone solely to get their rocks off, or worse think this is how a happy, healthy relationship is supposed to start off.
@SunnySombrera
Ouch I hope you get better with whatever you have, sounds like a pain.
To me, the worrying thing about that “trick women into sleeping with you” nonsense that there’s a market for it. People are willing to suspend their disbelief because they want it to be true.
Ack. I need a shower, and I need to have some stern words with certain members of my gender because they’ve got some deeply worrying unexamined attitudes.
@sunnysombrera:
I hope the problem doesn’t come back in an unpleasant way. I wish you good health.
@EJ (The Other One)
Yeah same here. That market is chock full of insecure men who want something other than rejection but either don’t know how or don’t want to change their ways, and straight up sociopaths/predators. It’s unnerving for me to imagine some guy on the street who thinks that, without any dissonance in his head, that women are this puzzle box and sex comes pouring out like a jackpot if you input the magic words.
You mean, like this
Based on how some people talk about women, it sure feels more like they think Hellraiser is a documentary.
@ sunnysombrera
I think thats actually a recognised phenomena (there may even be a name for it). Something to do with body chemistry changing when your mind realises that you’ll be getting treatment so your anxiety levels drop.
I hope all goes well regardless.
Up up down down left right left right B A
What do you mean, cheat codes don’t work on women? You must be hitting the wrong buttons!
For a while, I was getting spam promising this One Weird Trick which women are powerless to resist. How does anyone fall for that? You would need to have never spoken to a woman ever! Maybe if you were grown in a vat and raised by robots?
@Moggie
Simple all you do is consider your mom to be nice/older generation.
And believe your generation of women to be depraved sluts that crave the cock carousel.
Everything appears to be about power for MRAs. Who gets to complain, whose opinions and feelings matter, whose work contributes, who deserves empathy. Those in the tribe matter. Those outside? Depends solely on whether they are towing the line or not, and whether they are serving the interests of the tribe’s god-given right to control.
CHS was never a part of the tribe, nor was Fields. They were useful to support the tribe, and tolerated so long as they did so. Now that CHS and Fields have challenged the right of a politically powerful white male to physically abuse women at will, these two women no longer serve the tribe, and thus deserve all the scorn, loss of employment, gaslighting, physical abuse and intimidation they incur. They deserve everything and anything done to them that serves to enforce the tribe’s dominance of speech, of value, of safety, of income.
Thus, morality is not measured by the actions of a person, but rather by the membership of the person in the tribe. Acts done for the benefit of enforcing dominance are fine, no matter how brutal to those on the receiving end. The same act done by someone outside the tribe is immediately condemned as immoral, if that act is directed at a member of the tribe.
Enforcement of the power of the tribe is their only morality. That’s why they are so endlessly hypocritical and so consistently inconsistent.
It’s hard to watch fan girls of the boys club discover this harsh reality when they stray from their appointed roles.
The answer may shock you. One weird trick misogynists are powerless to resist.
Was it discovered by a mom (doctors hate her!)?
@calmdown:
Yeah, the Google ads that come up here are often kinda skeevy. That’s because the algorithm they use to select the ads (which I believe is based off the blog’s content) can’t distinguish between positive and negative commentary. So ripping apart PUAs and praising them are both read by the bots as “readers of this blog are interested in pick-up techniques”. We also periodically get the ads that at least try to imply that they’re pushing wardrobe malfunction shots of cheerleaders, models and other female celebrities.
To which I say “ew”.