Men’s Rights Activists learned a long time ago that the easiest way to win an argument with someone is by playing the old straw man game, ignoring what they actually believe and instead pretending that they believe something much less defensible — and much easier to rebut.
Trouble is, when you’re actually debating one of these people directly, they may point out to you that they don’t actually believe what you claim they believe. And this makes it oh so much harder to win the argument.
Luckily, MRAs have found a workaround for this little difficulty. Instead of debating real feminists who can argue back, they debate imaginary ones who say only what the MRAs allow them to say.
One quick visit to a stock photo repository and hey, presto! You’ve got yourself the following memes depicting Straw Feminists Confused About Everything.
Er, what? Feminists have the power to ban hot babes from going out in public? Do these hot babes have to make themselves less hot before they can get a walking around permit from the Department of Jealous Feminists Who Won’t Let You Go Out if You’re Too Hot?
I think I may have posted this one before, but I still don’t quite understand it. Hey MRA dudes, you’re supposed to confuse the imaginary women in your memes, not the rest of us!
This dumb little cartoon, drawn in 2003 by a dude hoping to sell a few t-shirts, has provided MRAs with thirteen years’ worth of cheap outrage so far. Congrats, MRA meme-maker, for squeezing a little bit more outrage from its desiccated corpse.
I ain’t saying she’s a golddigger but, yes, you are saying that. Again. That song is more than a decade old. Move on, dudes.
@Plaatsvervangende Schaamte
Cool! You’re German? Or Dutch?
I don’t think I’ve actually been to Örebro, other than passing through many times on my way to Stockholm. I grew up in a small town not far south of Örebro, but I guess there was just never any reason to go there. :p
Yeah, the fact that legal residents normally have he same rights as citizens is a great thing about this country. Sadly, it’s one of those things that they’re starting to strip away. Higher studies used to be free for foreign students, for example. The former right wing government changed that just a few years ago, which forced my partner to gain citizenship before she could finish her studies.
I’d also prefer that legal residents gain the right to vote in national elections, since becoming a citizen is getting increasingly difficult and time consuming. :/
@ Dustin
Indeed it is; which is why I wouldn’t do so. I was referring to donkeys.
Perhaps I should have said ‘ass’. That might be a word you’re more used to hearing.
Notice that Dustin simply ignored my comment in which I proved that his ideas about socialized health care are 100% false.
@EJ (The Other One) – I heartily second and third your nomination of Scildfreja to be Queen (despite being a republican myself, not that this means much in Australia, god-dammit).
But I think you, EJ, should be given a similar position, too, based on your recent contributions. Grand Vizier? Chief Advisor?
@IP –
I just finished up with a bunch of appointments and tests…it, uh…it was well over $130. Hell, people here pay over $130 for a month’s worth of medication, often even with insurance.
*speaks too loudly*
A FRAGMENTED, LIGHTLY REGULATED, FOR-PROFIT INSURANCE INDUSTRY / MEDICAL SYSTEM SURE IS FUN.
IT’S SUPER.
*cries in corner*
@Mish:
Awww, that’s very kind. Being a royalist myself I am unable to accept any sort of noble title as I am of common blood. The only title I could take would be something common like “Citizen.”
But grander. “Grand Citizen”, maybe. Hmmm. That has a ring to it.
@mockingbird
For the sake of clarity, the cost of medication is not included in the $130 ceiling I mentioned. However, medication is also quite cheap, and there’s a ceiling for how much money you will spend on prescription medication in a 12 month period. The medication also becomes progressively less expensive the more you need. This is how it works:
Adding up the full price of all your prescription medication in a 12 month period, you will pay full price for the first $136 worth of medication. After that, you will get 50% off on all additonal medication, until the total full price cost reaches $260. From that point, you will get 75% off on all additional medication, until the total full price cost reaches $482. After that, you will get 90% off on all additional medication, until the total full price cost reaches $668. If you still require more prescription medication after that point, it’s free.
Adding all this math together, it means that you will pay a maximum amount of $272 for prescription medication in a year.
So, the ceiling for how much money you will spend on health care related appointments, treatments, and medication, in any 12 month period, is approximately $400.
@EJ (The Other One) – how about “EJ, Grand Citoyen” ?
‘Cause everything sounds better in French :). Although I have no doubt mangled it.
Dustin has used just about every other right wing talking point. It’s no surprise he’s going with the assertion that noticing racism is the real racism. The pants around the ankles thing is a weirdly old fashioned dog whistle for someone who comes off so young too. Sagging was fashionable in the early to mid 90s. It’s not now. So I doubt the veracity of Dustin’s claim. I don’t think any teenagers of any race in his neighborhood were doing it.
Whenever I hear this one I think the speaker has based their entire understanding of Black teenage boys on repeated viewings of Save the Last Dance.
And actually this only applies to the “baggy pants” dog whistle, since (as you’ve said, WWTH) the actual sagging was well out of style by then.
In the late ’90s my (extremely white) school friends were all wearing baggy pants whilst listening to Limp Bizkit and The Offspring.
I’m not certain that this is the context he meant it in.
@IP,
Actually, I’m American. The handle is Dutch, however, one of those “way better in another language” words for the feeling of shame you experience for someone who is too oblivious to feel it themselves. It seemed germane for most of the places where I comment, and especially here with ol’ Dusty.
There wasn’t ever really a reason to visit Örebro, aside from maybe the giant mushroom water tower slash awesome hot dog stand, but it was a really nice place to settle in and grow accustomed to the culture. Sad to hear the reactionaries are tearing apart the protections and benefits for foreign nationals though… I don’t know that my family would have made the transition nearly so easily without all the support we received. Being able to hop right into the school system there especially made it so easy on my siblings and I to make friends and learn the language.
Ah, verguenza ajena ! I saw there was some shame in it somewhere, but no more than that. Fancy breaking it down into parts for us? (I can’t help it, I love seeing expressions in exploded-diagram form).
Haha it’s actually pretty straightforward, at least compared to some of the other wonderful compound words out there.
plaats – vervangende schaamte
place – replacement shame
(and I’m pretty sure plaatsvervangende itself as a compound word can mean either alternative or vicarious depending on the context)
I should note I don’t speak a word of Dutch… I stumbled across this on the internet god knows when, and I adopted it as a new online handle a few years ago.
WOW! that had to be your weakest dog whistle yet. You might as well just flat out said “Are you accusing me of poisoning the well? I didn’t think I was a Jew.” because we all know that’s what the big nose reference was about.
@IP – My family pays a little over $400/mo for coverage that has a (rounding) $3500 individual deductible, $7000 family (the amount that you pay out of pocket before any insurance kicks in). After that, insurance kicks in 80% for “covered” / approved procedures with varying amounts for other stuff (though you don’t necessarily know what’s going to be “covered” until after something’s done, especially in urgent care or emergency situations). This is a significant improvement over last year’s insurance.
In theory, there are out of pocket limits mandated by law:
But you don’t have to do much poking around to find accounts of how insurance companies get around that.
I also found this article when searching to find confirmation on the spending limits:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/01/middle-class-workers-struggle-to-pay-for-care-despite-insurance/19841235/
It’s old – costs have gone up since its writing – but is worth reading.
@wwth
I don’t know what the hell you are talking about; I am 22 and when I was growing up, pants were sagging EVERYWHERE. Sure, there were some obnoxious white kids roaming around with pastel-colored ball-busting tight-pants sagging down and hockey-pucks stuck in their ears, but when I was growing up, it was extremely common for black guys to sag; they used to hold their pants up with one hand everywhere they went, but you could still see their underpants. I have no idea what planet you are living on to say that sagging isn’t common anymore. They still do it where I live.
@masque d’etoiles
Do I have to specify what I mean when I say “criminals” as well, seeing as this site and its moderation process won’t let me say the words that I’m really thinking of? The criminals in other countries in the developed world aren’t quite like ours, I’m afraid.
This moderation system is slower than a pair of senescent turtles trying to fuck one another in a pool of molasses.
Hey, everyone, Dustin has a sad because he can’t use the n-word here! Oh, Dustin.
WOW. So I wouldn’t mind if Dustin was banned for being so unapologetically racist.
Actually the moderation system is quite swift, Its just that we haven’t grown bored with you or your rantings yet although I imagine we’re getting close .Once we do tier of you you’ll be removed leaving us to await the next troll or sock puppet.
Be fair, Lindsayirene. He could have wanted to say a slur pertaining to Mexicans or Arabs instead.
It’s fun when trolls pretend their dogwhistles are nothing of the sort one minute, then the next minute admit outright that they’re talking about black people in thin code.
Kind of like when they pretend to be divorced war vets for a while, and then later admit that they’re too young to drink legally.
Jebus what a fucking idiot.