When a college feminist decided, one cold night in 2014, to burn her personal copy of pseudofeminist Christina Hoff Sommers’ book The War Against Boys, the internet’s antifeminists responded as if Hitler himself had risen from the grave.
“Universities bring book-burning back, one page at a time,” declared a blogger at TheRebelMedia. After an extended comparison with the infamous book burning campaigns of the literal Nazis, he declared that “[t]he burning of Hoff Sommers’ book is a striking visual synecdoche for the malaise afflicting free expression across not only North American college campuses.” In a featured article, A Voice for Men described the burning as a “disturbing” example of “misandry in academia.”
On the Men’s Rights subreddit, meanwhile, one angry dude declared that
If you’re burning a book, you’re basically admitting to being not just a bigot, but one who doesn’t even have enough confidence in the strength of their own views to believe that they can stand up for themselves without needing to silence and censor those that oppose them.
If we set aside the fact that, unlike the Nazis, who confiscated the books they burned, a person burning their own copy of a book that is readily available to others is not actually censoring anything, he’s got a point.
So it’s interesting to see how many of the Internet’s antifeminsts and Anti-Social-Justice-Warrior-Warriors are embracing a proposal from one of their own to literally censor all academics who teach stuff they don’t like.
On Change.org, professional feminism-hater Carl Benjamin, known on YouTube as Sargon of Akkad, has started a petition demanding that “UNIVERSITIES” — presumably, every single one of them — immediately “Suspend Social Justice Courses” because he thinks that “social justice” professors are up to no good.
In vague but melodramatic language Benjamin proclaims that
Social justice has become scientifically illiterate, logically unsound, deeply bigoted and openly supremacist.
He doesn’t specify exactly what kind of supremacism he’s complaining about here; presumably not white.
Nor does he ever define exactly what courses count as “social justice courses.” There aren’t any departments of Social Justice that I’m aware of. [EDIT: Oops! Turns out there are.] Does Benjamin mean a tiny handful of, say, women’s studies courses taught by radical feminists? Or does he hope (at least in his wildest dreams) to take down the humanities and social sciences as a whole?
Social justice professors are indoctrinating young people into a pseudoscientific cult behind closed doors that is doing damage to their health, education and future.
Well, technically, I guess, virtually all college courses are taught “behind closed doors,” since the doors of lecture halls generally do get closed before class begins. Technically, I’m writing this post behind closed doors, because I don’t leave the doors of my apartment wide open. (People might wander in; the cats might wander out.) I suspect that Benjamin himself wrote up his petition behind closed doors!
Benjamin goes on to declare that
[s]ocial justice … has become another ideology fit only to pave the road to Hell, so it is time to turn around and choose another path that is concerned with reason, science and improving the lives of every human.
If only some evil Social Justice English professor has indoctrinated Benjamin in the devilish art of writing without resorting to hackneyed cliches.
But that’s pretty much all there is to Benjamin’s petition. Somehow, thought, the vagueness of Benjamin’s plan hasn’t stopped 9,878 people — so far — from signing the petition.
It is, however, possible that some of the signers are a little bit confused as to what exactly they’re signing.
Indeed, the top two most-liked comments on the petition, for example, were written by people who seem to think that Benjamin’s proposal to peremptorily censor all college courses that he thinks are excessively social-justicey is, somehow, a defense of free speech?
Benjamin has posted a video in which he explains his crusade in a little more detail. It’s possible that somewhere in it he answers the question of how exactly his plan to drive all professors he doesn’t like from all the college campuses in the world is actually a crusade for free speech.
Here’s the video in question:
Oops! Wrong video. Let me try again:
Huh. I don’t think that was it either.
No, that’s clearly not it.
Ok, ok. I found the real one here.
But it’s 40 minutes long. I sampled the first 2 seconds, and that was about all I could bring myself to watch. So I guess I’ll just have to resign myself to a life of servitude under the jackboots of the Social Justice warlords. Still, that’s a far better option than actually watching a Sargon of Akkad video all the way through.
@EpicurusHog
What’s really ironic about that “example” is that assuming that all mosquitoes bite is ignorant. They don’t. Only females bite, and only when they’re preparing to lay eggs. It is 100% possible for a mosquito to land on you without any intention of biting you at all.
But then, that’s one of the big problems with these people, isn’t it? They think their experiences count as valid knowledge and they never double check to see if they might be wrong.
Social justice courses?
http://media4.popsugar-assets.com/files/2015/12/15/132/n/1922398/bdb4d2ea2c5c1d40_giphy5E4cTN.xxxlarge/i/When-Donald-Trump-said-People-like-what-I-say-People-respect-what-I-say.gif
The rest of his sputterings is abject gibberish, but this bit finds me most perplexed. How does the great scientific mind of a 4300 year old royal zombie classify courses as ‘social justice’ or not? Is it like biological taxonomy and cladistics? F. misandricus for women’s studies, perhaps? More like the standard model particle chart? Is there a Marx boson? Can’t wait to find out
*reads the petition*
Oh, shame. He was just being vague to the point of meaninglessness. Ah well, never mind
What perfect timing! I kid you not, this very morning (and a fine morning it was), I was discussing this image with one of my Humanities classes:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–pTAnB5I6–/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/194x9q86mua4fjpg.jpg
Medieval misandry trees!
ah the Penis Trees of medieval manuscripts…they also wore pewter flying penis badges, and there’s an extant one from the Low Countries of a labia on pilgrimage. seriously.
@ mish
Ooh, if you don’t mind having a bit of a busman’s holiday I’d love to know a bit more about those pictures.
McCarthyism should have died out with the ‘Cold War’.
The Alt Right version now, Cultural Marxism is simply a rehash of what the Nazis called ‘Jewish Bolshevism’.
It acts on the basis that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a genuine manifesto and not an elaborate hoax designed to garner public support for the extradition and murder of Jews.
@Alan, are you referring to this by any chance?
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum
@ cat mara
Ah, that looks relevant; cheers. I should know a bit more about the witches’ hammer as I have a bit of an interest in that sort of thing.
I’m guessing there’s a few works on how ‘witch’ hunting was just an expression of misogyny; it’s such an obvious subject. I’ll have to have a delve.
He, I remember years ago one Samhain as we trudged up Pendle Hill in the pissing rain subjecting my friends to my grumbles about “Why are we doing this? The key injustice about the Pendle women was that they weren’t witches!”
@Alan, and @Cat Mara,
There’s no fixed consensus (that I know of, that is), but the good old Malleus Maleficarum could well have been the inspiration for this particular picture.
These ‘medieval marginalia’ are fascinating (and often hilarious and utterly baffling). They often seem to have little or no connection with the actual text that was being transcribed. Bums are a very popular topic. Rabbits and snails of the giant variety feature a lot.
Monty Python’s Killer Rabbit was inspired by some of these images, as was a great deal of Terry Gilliam’s animation in general.
The little notes that monks scribbled are also amazing. My absolute favourite has to be the plaintive “This parchment is hairy.”
I am enchanted that we looked at this in my class today, and then I come home and read this particular Mammoth post.
@ouraborus13
Like you, I had a long term interest in conspiracy stuff, still have, but I don’t like the nasty turn its taken. Alex Jones has gone waaay down in my opinion. He’s nothing but a shill. Even on David Icke forum, which was always metaphysical and spiritual there has been an influx of Stormfronters, Tea Baggers, Trump fans and MGTOWS. It’s a pity, it’s really not a place I feel welcome anymore, I’ve twice been banned because the mods ganged up on me.
Glenn Beck really made me feel ill when he said that thing about women having to pray for their periods, because it is a baby they didn’t have. That is completely sick, manipulative and lacks any understanding of biology.
Hey I’m sorry this is incredibly of topic but I honestly just want to discuss it a little. Do you guys think that the same sort of false equivalencey seen her, as brought on by as you said a failure to critically think, can be seen when people complain about the body positivity movement as seen here or that this is justified and the body positive movement really only focuses on a few particularly body types?
Again sorry for being a bother you can ignore this if you like.
Edit: and managed to link mammoth wonderful
The description in that video says “colleges and universities are literally teaching teenagers that every white person is racist,” but the “gotcha” tape at the very beginning very clearly refers to all “human beings” having implicit bias. Sargon, you’re being contradicted by your own fucking evidence, genius.
Boy, I am getting sick of antifeminists whose arguments consist of ad hominem distortions and proud denouncements of any research that contradicts them invoking “science” and “rationality.”
And two quick notes about anyone ever trying to discredit you by calling you “emotional:”
1. They’re being emotional too. If they didn’t have any emotions they wouldn’t bother to argue against you. And more often than not, they’re just angry at being implicated in your righteous anger. You have to specify why someone’s emotion is misdirected to have a point, not just accuse them of having feelings at all. But it’s much easier for female or feminist anger to be dismissed.
2. Casting emotion and logic as opposites is a completely bullshit false dichotomy. It’s like saying gasoline is the opposite of your grocery list. Emotion is why you do something, and whatever type of logic you use is the how. Science by definition would not exist without emotion. Computers are pretty logical, but they don’t give a shit about finding answers. They are tools.
lmao at the dick tree @Mish
@Virgin Mary omfg Glenn Beck. I’m surprised that I’m surprised.
@Pandapool
As a brony, I see this a lot. The problem is that a lot of people still assume that bronies are some kind of depraved bestiality-loving pedos and then view everything even vaguely related to MLP through that lens. You learn to ignore it after a while but it’s still annoying af
Re: the pony thing
I’ve only seen a few of the episodes but I do love them. I like the fact that they’re not just enjoyable in their own right but they also have an ‘adult’ level. By that I don’t mean hiding risqué material that hopefully kids won’t spot, just that they’re pretty interesting characters and plots with a lot of depth.
I have a soft spot for Fluttershy. She reminds me very much of someone very special in my life with that “friend to all living creatures” thing.
(Although, as far as I’m aware, Fluttershy has never punched a policeman on a veal transport demo or tried to ram a whaling ship.)
OverlyLongName:
A big NSFW warning would have been nice. But yeah, that is a huge strawman. Also… wow, they’re not even trying to sound body positive, and that kinda breaks what I thiiiink the strawman argument was supposed to be.
“An internet petition isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.” – some smart person who isn’t me.
McCarthyism should have died out with the ‘Cold War’.
The Alt Right version now, Cultural Marxism is simply a rehash of what the Nazis called ‘Jewish Bolshevism’.
I lost a lot of interest on conspiracy theories once I realized 90% of them (in a conservative estimate) are just antisemitism with a new coat of paint.
Seriously, the shadowy overlords of every darned conspiracy theory seem to be either the Jews, a code word for Jews, or a mutation of an older code word for Jews. It’s no wonder they keep resembling something out of Mein Kampf, because they all drink from the same fountain.
@vaiyt
Yes, like the idiots who say that ‘lizards’ is code for Joooze.
Icke has never said this in his seminars or books.
He is critical of Zionism, as a political movement, but so are a great many real Jews. It’s confusing how the Christian Right can be so anti Semitic, point to the evils of CultMarx, the “Gay Agenda ™” and Feminazi conspiracies, and still stand up for Israel as the homeland of God’s Chosen People. What a crazy mixed up world we live in. Maybe they think that if all the Jooooze are sent packing to Israel, they won’t be here destroying Western Civilisation with their crazy Communist plot?
@ Virgin Mary
Have you seen the Jon Ronson documentary about David Icke? Jon was pretty satisfied that whilst a lot of Icke’s followers are using lizard as a codeword for Jews, Icke himself is clearly talking about literal space lizards.
Personally I’m surprised the ‘World Jewish Conspiracy’ gets any work done what with the ‘World Feminist Conspiracy’ hogging the meeting room all the time.
@Virgin Mary
You see they need the Jesus bait to speed up the End Times where Jesus kill all the jews and they all go up in heaven.
@alan robertshaw
Yes I have. 🙂
I get the jist of Icke’s work, and yes, he is talking about actual space lizards, or ‘lower dimensional entities’. These are typified by the Gnostic concept of the Archons, fallen angels or demons who have enslaved humankind since time immaterial. So, the old Serpent in the Garden of Eden myth suddenly makes sense. The Archons represent total lack of empathy, “psychopathy” of a sort we witness from governments and corporations. It’s interesting to read Jon Ronson’s book ‘Them’, because, despite the extra terrestrial angle, this Archon consciousness is exactly the same thing Ronson discusses in his book ‘The Psychopath Test’.
@calmdown
Yup. Sales training is all about how to be a pushy asshole; I’ve been put through it more times than I care to recall.
ETA: Meant to mention this last time he came up, but I suspect that ovendice cheats at games of chance. His username appears to reference a technique of putting plastic dice into a warm oven with your favoured result upwards. The plastic will melt and settle, adding a subtle misbalance to the dice.
#ponies
I never really got into the “brony” community, but I do adore the pastel ponies. I was asked to describe why at one point, and all I could really come up with was that they are sincere. Realistic personalities with real flaws and real problems, as seen through the lens of a herd of marshmallow horses. They care about each other sincerely, despite difficulties and differences. It aired when I was in a really dark place in my life, and they were pretty much the only bright thing I could see. So, they’ll always have a place in my heart.
Then I saw the brony community, and while there were some with similar stories to mine, a lot of them enjoyed the show for its pop culture references and sophisticated humour. I thought that was fun, but really on the sidelines of why I enjoyed it. And then of course there was a lot of gross channer nonsense going on as well. So I stayed away from it.
My favourite is obvious, but to be honest I rather like them all. Fluttershy’s best aspects were who I was, once, and who I’d like to be again.
@Alan, she can be mean, though! I mean, just look at
Oh wait, she’s just giving him a massage.
http://i.imgur.com/etziD.gif
Anyways! that is my ramble on the ponies. I’ll stop myself before I canter on too much – I’ll go horse talking about it if you let me. And, hay, I wouldn’t want to saddle you with that sort of burden, so I’ll hoof it.
@ EpicurusHog
The thing that struck me in that comment was that it starts with “I once swatted a mosquito” and ends with the guy still talking outside. It kind of takes something from the anecdote’s reliability when even the writer doesn’t seem to know if it happened some time ago or just now.
Or has this man been giving his speech for weeks and weeks?
But I guess you’d remember the day he started, and wouldn’t have to start with “once”, you could just say “thursday two weeks ago”.
I like him better when he was conquering Sumeria.