On Return of Kings, the internet’s premier lady-hating garbage site, one of the regular contributors is trying his hand at philosophy again. It’s not going very well.
Max Roscoe, who describes himself as “an aspiring philosopher king,” has decided to take on what he sees as the evils of “modern liberal democracy.”
As he sees it, “the western culture today destroys everything it touches,” creating
weak men, shrill, out of shape, and damaged women, a decrepit culture, and declining values.
His number one complaint? That “western culture” has destroyed Asians. Not through cultural imperialism or anything like that. Roscoe thinks that Asians in Asia are fine. But the Asians he encounters in the west are something else entirely.
Asians are naturally thin, petite, and healthy—IN ASIA. … However, when Asians move to the west and adopt our culture, diet, and lifestyle, they become overweight, slutty, and often mutilate their bodies and experiment with gender fluidity.
That’s right. Western culture is evil because it makes hot Asian babes into genderqueer fatties.
It angers me every time I see a fat Asian, because I know how difficult it is for Asians to work against their biology to become fat.
ROSCOE ANGRY! ROSCOE SMASH!
Don’t worry, western women! Roscoe hates you gals too.
Roscoe makes his case against American women by contrasting a photo of sorority girls from the early 1970s, in which “all are smiling, thin, with long hair, in skirts or dresses with heels,” with a photo of an extremely obese woman wearing a stars-and-stripes bikini, which Roscoe seems to have taken from a YouTube video with the slightly awkward title “BEST FAT People Fail Compilation – Obese People Falling Down Fails.”
To aspiring philosopher-king Roscoe, this is all the evidence he needs to prove “that the quality of women offered today in the West is abysmal.”
Indeed, in Roscoe’s eyes, domestically produced women are made so badly that American men should probably seek out foreign imports.
If you haven’t been abroad within the last year, plan a trip now, if for no other reason than to see what is possible. We do not have to accept the low quality females we are being offered here.
Roscoe does not limit his critique of Western liberal democracy to the Fat Chick Problem. He is also critical of non-fat women who do things to their bodies (and minds) that Roscoe does not approve of.
[I]t angers me when I see a thin, kind, young woman who has pierced and mutilated her body with graffiti and shrapnel, and has taken up the cause for feminism. Without a strong, patriarchal system to guide her, she becomes an enemy of civilization itself.
Apparently Roosh requires all Return of Kings writers to refer to piercings as “shrapnel.”
But there is more wrong with modern Western culture than its tendency to produce fat chicks and tattooed feminists. Roscoe is also angry that:
- Westerners dance like Miley Cyrus and/or “Elaine Benice” [sic] from Seinfeld.
- “American Millennial men” have become “shallow, silly, weak, vapid, directionless, and boring.”
- The “the profit-at-all-costs fascist system” of modern capitalism makes most jobs pretty sucky.
- Young couples no longer litter or make out in public because they’re all “play[ing] on their smartphones.”
Ok, I admit I don’t quite get that last point. So let’s back up and try it again.
Complaining that smartphones have led to a world bereft of “physical and emotional intimacy, save for the actual moment of banging your partner,” Roscoe posts two pictures to show what has apparently gone wrong.
In the first, from 1967, young people make out on park benches in New York’s Tompkins Square Park, surrounded by litter.
In the second photo, meant to represent a “Millennial couple on a typical date, 2016,” a couple sitting on a patch of grass check their phones. No litter is visible. Smartphones bad, litter good!
CHECKMATE FEMINISTS!
I guess it’s kind of hard to work up a powerful critique of Western Liberal Democracy if the cornerstone of your philosophy is NO FAT CHICKS.
@Lady Mondegreen
Seconding. The ’70s were the era of unisex toys, clothes, haircuts, and “Free To Be You And Me”. None of this pink Disney princess/camoflauge skulls gender segregationist nonsense. What the hell happened?
The idea that one MRA’s uncatered-to boner = the downfall of all of Western Civilization will never stop being hilarious. Roscoe doesn’t offer any substantive evidence for this, just a gut conviction that women here and now aren’t as decorative and easily controlled as women then and there. He’s not smart or objective enough to mount any sustained critique of global capitalism or modern-day smart phone technology, and they don’t have anything to do with women dying their hair anyway. He treats it all as part of the same “the modern world isn’t designed for MEEEE!” complaint. (Also hilarious: Roscoe accusing women of narcissism because they aren’t PAYING ATTENTION to him)
If you step outside Roscoe’s bonercentric rantings and look at things that conservatives commonly cite as markers of a civilization’s decline (literacy rates, teenage pregnancies, infant mortality, education spending, ratio of acceptance of federal handouts to tax contributions), the conservative red states of the American South generally rank the worst in the country. Roscoe might want to ask himself why that is, and if his imaginary Handmaid’s Tale utopia would really be able to compete economically.
I have a feeling he wouldn’t care. Right-wing authoritarian self-proclaimed kings want everyone else to be down in the dirt. It’s the only chance they have to feel superior.
@NickNameNick
I honestly doubt it occurs to most of them that such men exist. There is a guy I follow on Twitter who, at one point, tweeted something to the effect of “Ladies, why do you get septum piercings? It’s not hot.”
I replied to him that maybe they weren’t doing it for him. His response? “Piercings are always about appearance.” So there’s basically 2 unexamined assumptions there: 1) all men have the same preferences and 2) “doing it for me” and “doing it for looks” are equivalent statements.
Now, this isn’t a guy I consider to be particularly sexist. He’s a well meaning guy with the standard compliment of cultural biases. And the possibility that a woman might get a septum piercing because she liked the way it looked on herself just hadn’t occurred to him. We just do that good a job as a culture of convincing men that women exist to be attractive for them.
FWIW I love tattoos and piercings on women; but more importantly the ‘it’s only about appearance’ attitude can only be held by someone who doesn’t have any friends who have body art.
Tattoos are possibly one of the most personal things you can have done. I’ve mentioned before my friend who’s response to the “Why does a pretty a pretty girl like you have tattoos? question is “Because they remind me of when my dad was alive and I was happy”. Other friends just have them because they like them.
Also, how do ‘appearance’ people explain tattoos that are hidden away?
Same with piercings. And in both cases there is sometimes that almost addictive aspect of just having them done.
Anecdote warning!
In my youth we did most piercings the traditional way. Dab some alcohol on the area, drink the rest yourself and then suture needle into cork (or thumb). For nose piercings though, the only place we could get that done was at Bombay Stores (basically a huge shop that sold just about everything from India/Pakistan). When I got my nose done the guys there picked the biggest jewelled stud they had just for the laugh. Cue lots of Indian Bride jokes and quips about dowries. I’m all for people expressing themselves however they want; but I must confess I did not wait the requisite 24 hours before replacing the stud with a sleeper.
“American Millennial men” have become “shallow, silly, weak, vapid, directionless, and boring.”
Every time I read the word “Millenial” my brain translates it to “kids these days” read in Grandpa Simpson’s voice. Tell us more about the onion you had tied to your belt, grandpa.
Oh noes, a FEMINIST in AI??? That means that EverPeach 1.0 (or whatever that ‘bot’s name in that awful cartoon was) will be thwarted by…FEMINIST GATEKEEPERS! Oh noes! Even sexbots won’t be sacred anymore! Western Civilization is DOOOOOOOMED!!!1111elebentyhundredeleben!!!
Re: less litter
It is true that people litter less today then they did mid-century, but even though a trash can is right there a lot of people still won’t bother. Remember that litter is forever unless someone picks it up. Please don’t erase the armies of workers who prowl the streets picking up literal tons of litter for you to keep it from offending your eyes. That litter doesn’t disappear by magic, and we’re not as precious about not littering as we apparently think we are.
Will we ever live in a world where people don’t litter condoms? That’s a biohazard, folks.
Since 70s fashions have been brought up, obligatory Plaid Stallions link.
I’m so baffled by people littering a few feet away from a garbage can. Are they just that lazy? Or is it an act of aggression? I suspect it’s the latter. The same goes for people who don’t flush the toilet in public/shared bathrooms.
I also think some smokers don’t consider cigarette butts litter for some reason.
One thing thats sad is that where I may mor may not live (in a big mystery northern/midwest city), things like how much litter gets picked up depends on your community (wards are very much drawn in terms of segregation, bc its deliberate & blatant) representative in local govt, & reps from literal ghettos where poor PoC live have a much harder time getting basic services provided. So of course, PoC being “lazy” or otherwise inferior gets blamed when they dont have garbage cans or garbage pick up or anything.
Oh & whats great is white racists know that its scientifically ignorant to say that there is some sort of inherent racial difference, but they will say it is “the culture”… then deny that years oppression could possibly affect that culture at all. & deny that poor oppressed people everywhere tend to have the same “culture” attributes like living in a ghetto, not having good services for their neighborhood, being desperate enough for money to turn to illegal means, being depressed enough to use drugs, and so on. “but white poor people dont do that!” because white poor people in the U.S. *arent as poor or oppressed right now*. Sorry/not sorry for veering off topic or w/e, /end rant.
“Having read your thoughts, you are no philosopher; and having done a quick Wikipedia check of all the reigning monarchs, you are no king. ”
He may aspire to be a potato king. In Québec, potato shacks are a very common type of local fast food, and every town has a potato king:
http://ville.mascouche.qc.ca/upload/images/repertoire-photos/thumbs/recherche/img_20051117101539-db3874e2fd5cd8ae654d986a99c443ca.jpg
It’s not a chain of restaurants either, it’s just that potato king is the most desirable potato shack name.
@Alan
After I got my tattoo I was enamored with the feeling of getting tattooed and would probably have gotten more if I didn’t make a rule for myself that I need to wait 1 year and if I’m still in love with the art I picked I’ll get it. But while the experience was still fresh in my mind I found an incense that smelled like tattoo ink and I would burn that all the time. It made me very happy.
@WWTH
Disney actually looked into how far people will walk before littering and apparently it’s 30 feet (which is how far apart the trash cans are placed in Disney parks). People are just lazy. 🙁
Man, are those MRAs in for a rude awakening if they think the Asian women from Asia are submissive, and thinner and shorter than average. My sister just came back to the U. S. from teaching English in South Korea, and many of those ladies there are taller than us (Chinese American women).
Some time during her travels back to the states, she encountered one Chinese couple in which the woman would have been an MRA nightmare. She made her boyfriend carry her countless shopping bags (apparently many Chinese people buy tons of duty-free stuff) while she just had her purse. While they were waiting she was yelling at him in public, saying how worthless he is and how she should just dump him for someone else. (My sister and I discussed how it seemed kinda abusive, and how that guy deserves better. But there is huge pressure to find a wife of the same race and nationality in many East Asian countries.) Yes, this is just one instance, but my sister brought this up because she had heard that this was a thing, and she didn’t believe it until she saw it first hand. It was also part of her account about how entitled, rude, and generally terrible Chinese (from China) tourists are. (I’m sure all countries have their terrible travelers, but it seems to be a larger trend among the Chinese. Maybe related to more recent disposable income for many people, and the government basically (and ironically) eradicating cultured people and culture in the Cultural Revolution.) With the East Asian countries these MRAs fetishize already so industrialized, the women are going to demand more from these dudebros. There is already way more (east) Asian guys in Asia than (east) Asian women, so they women already have the power to be really picky. I hear, at least in South Korea, that the women do date foreigners, but as a novelty and not as something serious. I wonder how the dudebros would feel used as they were planning to use others.
I’m glad that at least being a westernized Asian woman is repellent to some MRAs because I don’t have piercings, tattoos, or dyed hair (I’m too lazy and cheap) to keep them away. I’m lucky I haven’t met anyone like an MRA in real life though.
Now off to read the comments.
I suspect the Asian women who most closely match the personality stereotype these guys hold of Asian women are the least likely to be interested in foreign men.
I’ll take less litter, thanks.
Anita Sarkeesian put out a new video a few weeks back, about “Body Language & The Male Gaze”. She makes points about how female characters in video games walk, run, sit, otherwise move, and about camera angles, clothing, etc.
Today, Thunderf00t posted a “response” to Anitas video. His video is 13 minutes long and I watched about half, since he was starting to repeat himself at that point. Most of the first half of the video was dedicated to:
1. Whining about how much money Sarkeesian has raised.
2. Calling feminists stupid for donating money.
3. Making “jokes” about how feminists “used to burn their bras” and now they “burn their money” by donating to Sarkeesian.
4. Claiming women characters absolutely need to sway their hips in a ridiculously exaggerated fashion in all videogames, since women have wider hips. This “argument” is repeated many many many times.
5. Claiming feminists are as stupid as the people in the movie “Idiocracy”, and then playing long clips from said movie.
At that point I felt like I had seen enough.
And what’s the title of Thunderf00t’s video? It’s: “Anita Sarkeesian WANTS women to manspread!!!!½½!!”
Oh, Phil. What the fuck is going on in your head.
Way OT, but you guys always seem up for a drive-by catting:
http://i.imgur.com/V99oTsb.jpg
Sunday Happy Kitty, Soft Kitty
@mockingbird
Too cute! It’s that time of year when cats spend most of their time passed out in the sun on various tables, floors, etc.
@mockingbird
That is kitty laying a fiendish trap. Kitty looks fluffy and soft and invites you to pet … and then attacks!
Or, y’know, not. Maybe kitty isn’t even thinking about you when choosing a spot and position to nap. Maybe kitty looks soft and fluffy and pettable completely by accident and isn’t doing it at you at all. Maybe when you violate kitty’s boundaries, on the presumption that kitty doesn’t have any and isn’t entitled to any, kitty, who does not share that presumption, is justifiably unhappy.
Hold on, this somehow turn into an analogy for something, can’t really put my finger on what …
@Imaginary Petal
Bitching about Anita Sarkeesian has become a pretty lucrative cottage industry. She should probably get credit for creating jobs.
Thunderf00t has found that his childish rants about her garner him the most revenue, I’m sure.
I honestly don’t understand why he, Aurini, Owen, and GGers are still so very very angry with her. She’s done precisely what she promised to do when she solicited donations way back in, what was it, 2010? 2012? I know it was due to the furious backlash against her that I first became aware of the online “manosphere” community and their idiotic, contradictory tenets.
It has also led me to this site, to keep an eye on things, but it has also informed a lot of what I teach my (caucasian, presumably straight) son about his own behavior online and what kinds of things he needs to be aware of.
In a big way, the manospherian over-reaction to Anita Sarkeesian’s modest project way back when has done more to contribute to me becoming a far more involved and informed feminist than I was before. I was always a feminist, but I was not always outspoken about it, it was just part of my background personality. Not anymore.
@Men with long hair
Wait, you mean there is hope for me yet? That my clean shaven face and long hair are not “out of style” and could possibly be a sense of retro fashion? I feel so much better about myself!
@Imaginary Petal
One thing I can’t stand about most video game females is how they all appear to be built exactly the same. I actually made a comment once about League of Legends and how I would get female champions mixed up because they all virtually had the same body type, in which the only difference may be a cape or hairstyle that breaks up the silhouette. Frankly, many of the nerdy guys got butthurt about my observation, but apparently, as Anita and several other critics have pointed out, I’m not alone in that regard.
It’s not only sexist, it’s also rather nonsensical. How am I supposed to expect my warrior or huntress to break spines and swing heavy weapons when she’s built like a runway model?
http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/20th+Commonwealth+Games+Weightlifting+Lklz31g9GSJl.jpg
That weight lifter in the picture is more of what I expect such a warrior or huntress to be… But wait! I’m such a silly, magina dragon! She is fat (because raw power requires more fuel, also the core muscles are larger for function, thus no skinny waistline), she is not white (I found this on google when I searched for Olympic weight lifting), and she even has a tattoo! I clearly can’t have such things in most Triple A Studios! How stupid of me!
Digression: The sapient yeast infection that calls itself Vox Day has apparently published an enemies list. (If folks would prefer a DoNotLink URL I can supply one.)
It’s funny how misogynists will whine about men being expected to do the hard labor and fight the wars. But they also whine when women aren’t willow thin. Does anybody really think they want a female population that is big and strong and doing most of the work that is traditionally considered men’s work? They’d be so upset if women got themselves to look like that weight lifter so we could do manly heavy lifting work!
Apparently we’re supposed to starve ourselves skinny and still fill combat and manual labor type roles?
Nah.
They want to still to do “men’s work” and then guilt trip women for it. We’re supposed to be hungry, subservient, and supply them endless sex in gratitude.
Or, more accurately, they want to do nothing and take credit for other men’s hard work and still get rewarded with skinny, pretty, long haired virgins who can still fuck like a porn star and will perpetually remain 18 years old.
I live in California, where most of the ashtrays that were once everywhere for public use have disappeared. If there was a freaking ashtray I’d put my cigarette out in it. I do try to put the lit end out on my shoe so I can toss it into the nearest trash bin though.
@Buttercup Q. Skullpants
I ask myself this all the time. It seems like we were going in a sensible direction and then no, hard left turn into GIRLS PINK BOYS BLUE ALL THE TIME OR ELSE COMMUNISM. Compared to other times in even recent history (the past two or three hundred years), for the past thirty years or so, we’ve gendered kids so freaking hard.
Speaking of things being better in the past, I want every stupid fucking Rabid Puppy (remember them?) complaining about the SJW infiltration of sci-fi to watch the first season of Buck Rogers. I rewatched it a few years ago, and I was shocked by how progressive it was by today’s standards. Buck could teach these dudes a lesson in how to not be a dick.
And speaking of dicks, if I had a dollar for every internet armchair politician who claimed they were a philosopher-king without having read or understood Plato’s Republic…