A rare moment of candor on the Men’s Rights subreddit:
Yeah, we noticed that.
H/T — r/againstmensrights
Men’s Rights Activism, summed up in a single comment
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
We Hunted The MammothA rare moment of candor on the Men’s Rights subreddit:
Yeah, we noticed that.
H/T — r/againstmensrights
@EJ
Yep!
I think there was another post on this blog about how “blowing off steam” does not, in fact, relieve you of anger but reinforces it.
It’d be better to “blow off steam” by channeling all that frustration into something productive whether it’s simply cleaning your house, doing an art project, or exercise – just anything that you enjoy doing rather than making yourself more bitter.
Thanks for the links, Sinkable John and guest.
Trigger warning: mention of genocide.
On Stellaris:
I’ve been spending a lot of time on the Stellaris forums of late, trying to SJW up the place despite the hordes of EU4 players. It’s actually having a fairly good effect, I think. I have hopes that a strong SJW presence in the fanbase during its nascency might help shift it to be a nice game for nice people.
Those who have read the forums have probably seen my work.
What’s hilarious is that the GGers consistently do not understand that not everyone agrees with them. For example, Martin “Wiz” Anward (one of the devs) made a fedora joke at one point; an entire actually of GGers rose up to screech about how unfair he was being, not having noticed that if you go through Anward’s twitter history he’s very obviously a feminist* and they should not have been even remotely surprised.
Amongst other features, Stellaris allows one to “purge” unwanted xenominorities from conquered planets. Before the game launched there were loads of redditors who were eager to do this, gloating about how the game would be a “genocide simulator” which would let them live out their worst supremacist fantasies.
After launch, it quickly became apparent that this was a really weak strategy and that the strongest move was to get along with other species and give them equal citizenship rights if you conquer them. You should have heard the uproar. “WHY IS XENOPHOBIA BAD”, asked a hundred single-post threads, “I want to play optimally but also want to live out my genocide fantasies. Why have you prevented this? It’s literally unplayable.”
The response was usually silence, but now and then an answer filtered down: “We don’t like genocide, so we made it a weak choice. We want our game to encourage people to learn to value diversity.”
Not since Black September have I seen GGer rage like what followed. They simply couldn’t appreciate that a video game could be not aimed at them. Surely they’re gamers, and all games are aimed at them by default? More than one person has dubbed it “casual.” It’s hilarious.
It also broke sales records, so there’s that.
—–
* Although he has made ableist comments whilst trying to be funny. You are warned. Nobody’s perfect.
@EJ (the other one)
A perfect example of the hypocrisy of GG They talk about how developers should be free to make games how ever they want but once one does something gators don’t like they demand that it gets changed to the way they want.
@EJ
“I want to play optimally but also want to live out my genocide fantasies”
Okay, putting aside the cringe worth of “genocide fantasies”, that looks like a strong case of “optimal play vs roleplay”. Now I’m more into RPGs than strategy games, but if those True Gamers are worth anything, they should know that it’s a very old question that’s been answered a thousand + times. Why is a very old question that’s been answered a thousand + times suddenly put on the line again by the very people who claim to be rational etc (and thus would be the ones to answer said question in the first place, supposedly) ?
Moreover, manic genocidal roleplay should be encouraged and artificially made a viable optimal play strategy whereas every other form of roleplay should get the usual treatment ? THAT is SO fucked up. Get your shit together, boys.
@EJ, you are a hero for facing down the EU4 crowds. I should comment on the paradox plaza or something!
(Or, i would, if the forums there hadn’t screwed up my registration, eternally leaving me unconfirmed…)
I am playing a xenophobic, materialist, militant human empire in my playthrough (though I am not actually waging war!). I don’t do the “purging” or the like, and am trying to play it straight as a species that doesn’t like its neighbors but realizes how stupid it would be to wage the forever-war.
And I actually love how the game treats me! I get a penalty with other races with the description “Xenophobic bigots”, and that’s perfect! I really don’t know what they’re complaining about – your species literally dislikes everyone. Why would you be rewarded for that? Genocide is horrible and inefficient and wasteful, why would the game reward you for that?
I look forward to my next playthrough – probably going to do pacifistic spiritualists and pray myself to victory. Stellaris, so good!
All in favour of making this the official collective noun, say “Hell yes.”
For me personally, I find venting can be helpful. But only when it’s about a specific person’s specific behavior that I’m having trouble dealing with or a frustrating specific situation. It also only works if you let it go once you finish the complaining.
Spending day after day talking shit about women as a whole is not any kind of helpful and healthy venting. They’re neither letting their anger go or resolving anything.
@Scildfreja
That sounds like something that requires impressive skills in mental gymnastics to play as something you disagree with. A few months ago I tried to play Skyrim (which is soooo much more simplistic in those specific regards) as a bigoted male Nord warrior, being an ass to other races (and females) and going full Stormcloak (my usual playthroughs don’t involve the civil war at all). Well, turns out I just couldn’t. I reaaaally enjoyed bashing the shit out of anything and everything with an oversized sword (another thing that was so different from my usual playstyle) but I got bored pretty fast of my own attitude and it took the wind right out of my playthrough, which I never did complete at all.
I don’t do negative roleplay well. Although now I wanna play Stellaris even though it’s typically the kind of game I really, really suck at.
@Scented Fucking Hard Chairs
Hell yes.
Hell yes.
*snorfle*
As many of you have said already, “blowing off steam” is definitely a myth. It only makes people more violent: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/myths/myth_30.cfm
These MRAs frame their angry rants as a way to blow off steam in a safe way, when in reality it is much more likely to cause real violence.
They truly believe they are the most super-logical human beings, but I have never seen worse misinterpretation and complete fabrication of science and data than you see in those threads.
RE: Blowing off steam
One thing thing that perhaps confuses people is that exercise or other physical exertion os an excellent way to relieve stress or other negative emotions. The (one weird) trick is that you not obsessively focus on your troubles while doing it.
RE Paradox
I’m glad that they turned out well. I’m fairly certain they are same studio that used to be part of Target AB, which made one of my favorite tabletop gaming universes, Mutant Chronicles/Warzone.
I went to that article about the mod being pulled, and decided to play Comment-section Bingo. I mean, I know I’m gonna find lots of appeals for frozen peaches and such, but every once in awhile you get a real gem.
Sure enough, a commenter ‘nymed “1076” actually was complaining about ‘bigotry against bigots’.
If I understand the news articles correctly, it seems there will be a Cosby trial.
@W.W.T.H.:
The person or people who you vent to is an important factor as well.
Like, doing so with a therapist can actually help you by dealing with a problem and moving on (perhaps even ways to deal with it better or avoid it in the future) – but many of these MRAs, MGTOWs, etc. are all about enabling terrible behavior further. They’re toxic individuals who seek out other toxic individuals in order to become more entrenched in their toxicity.
Speaking of Stormcloaks, I once had a long running Oblivion character who stole everything that wasn’t nailed down, drank every bottle of alcohol she found (while still in the dungeon) and refused to save a single named Blade during the main quest, and yet in Skyrim I couldn’t bring myself to get past the Whiterun quest as a Stormcloak.
@Alan
Nope, still not feasible. Maybe when we can actually reliably spin longass carbon nanotubes or something (Pretty sure that’d be a lot easier in free fall though; yet another reason why putting at least some industry in orbit is a good idea, especially given the advances we’ve had in robotics and waldos these days). That’s on Earth, though, where among other things there’s only a marginal improvement in lift between H2 and vacuum. Jupiter’s atmospheric pressure at most altitudes is considerably lower than on Earth (as I understand, anyway), so you don’t need the skin to be as strong, on top of which the thermosphere is made up of hot hydrogen, so vacuum is the only kind of balloon that would work.
Is Stellaris as complicated and hard to learn as things like EU4 and CK2 appear to be?
I’m curious about it, but despite being totally able to enjoy pretty complex strategy games like your Civs and Endless Legends and such, those games look intimidating.
@ IP
Quite possibly. At this stage it’s just a preliminary hearing to see if there’s a prima facie case; but that’s a pretty low threshold, especially in that state.
Most of the relevant documents are on scribd if you want to see the evidence so far for yourself.
I tend to agree with weirwood-venting anger can be helpful, as long as you can catch it early and let it go afterward. Or at least that’s what holds true in my personal experience-if it doesn’t help you, find something else that does and do that instead.
@ dalillama
You mean Arthur C Clarke lied to me????
So MRAs aren’t real activists, they just want to complain about imaginary women. Just like how Gamergate is about the right for developers to be immune from criticism. I mean, we already knew all that, but it’s just so lovely to hear the unintentional admission.
Also, some more ‘gems’ from that thread
Here’s an oh so clever comment to refute the concept of privilege
Well jeez, what a surprise that the most priviledged would question whether ‘pointing out privilege’ is a worthwhile endeavor
I love how the question is asked as if this is some impossible-to-figure-out puzzle even though the answer is just ‘yes’ to the first and ‘she has white and straight privilege but he has male privilege’ to the second. It’s really not that difficult as you don’t seem to think that privilege = ‘all the hardships of life’.
Um, lots. Because the two are literally not the same. I have flat feet, putting me at a disadvantage for doing jobs barefoot. I’m still one of the most privileged persons to walk the earth.
Yet another dude who confuses “being told he is wrong by a woman” with “being silenced by evil feminists”.
Holy crap. What a perfect explanation of how privilege makes someone blind. A privileged person’s floor is an underprivileged person’s ceiling.
I don’t think that’s the metaphor he was going for but fuck it, it works so well! This dude is afraid of bringing down the ceiling because he is standing on top of it. He wants the floor raised (i.e. give more rights to priviledged groups), ignorant about how this will only make the ceiling higher. (i.e. make it harder for people who don’t have his privilege).
If I had artistic abilities, I’d draw some cartoon to represent this effect, it’s almost astonishing how well it demonstrates how privileged people are blind to the problems faced by underprivileged people and freak out when any attempt to break the ceiling will affect the floor upon which they stand.
Here’s a response for the request of “stop generalizing women”
Apprently, repeating a premise more than once counts as evidence amongst these incredibly ‘rational’ men.
When you consider that men commit, on average, more crime than women, his argument is the equivalent of a bully smacking a victim and then complaining how unfair it is that both don’t receive an equal punishment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_crime
Citation needed on that one, considering 20-50% of women worldwide are victims of domestic violence.
https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/digest6e.pdf
Do MRAs just pick jobs with high death-rates to spite feminists? Sometimes I really wonder.
Yeah, that doesn’t actually stop men from hitting women or doing far worse.
He says, without looking at laws or comparing statistics.
It’s so gross when MRAs dismiss actual sexism as ‘a female privilege’. Especially when that ‘privilege’ of getting harassed is used as justification for even worse things.
I hope MRAs continue to expose themselves as terrible people who are absurdly blind to their privilege.
@pitshade:
You have good taste in obscure Warhammer knockoffs! I really liked Warzone and still have some of the models somewhere. Thinking back, it was surprisingly mature compared to its alternatives.
@M:
Is it not already the collective noun for them? I didn’t think I was being original.
@Scildfreja:
Spiritualist is brokenly good. The only thing that stops it straight-up dominating is that materialist is also really good and you can’t have both.
I’m really enjoying how diverse the game is and how wide a variety of playstyles it supports.
@Alan
I was talking about this:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/24/bill-cosby-trial-sexual-assault-charges-pennsylvania-temple
You mean something like…oh gee, I dunno…A SAFE SPACE?!
You know, the same thing that you shit flingers are always whinging and crying and raging about? Oh, I forgot. It’s only a problem when women, PoC, trans folk, and other minority groups have them.
Also, since when did any of them need their own space? Their spaces are everywhere. And when that’s not enough, they invade others’ spaces to tell them that they shouldn’t be allowed to have safe spaces because reasons.
@ IP
^^^^^ Yeah, that’s what I’ve been looking at.
From a legal nerd point of view it’s interesting because Pennsylvania uses English style ‘committal’ proceedings rather than Grand Juries (which is what the current hearing is).
I think the prosecution will get over that hurdle. I’ve seen the statements and they do seem to establish a prima facie case. The test is “could a properly directed jury reasonably convict on the evidence as it stands?” (So, at this stage, they don’t consider any points the defence may raise and, unless there’s good reason not to do so, they assume all the evidence in any prosecution statements is true)