Men’s Rights Redditors came dangerously close to achieving a moment of self-awareness yesterday. But the crisis was averted, and the Men’s Rights subreddit was able to safely return to its habitual obliviousness, with all of its illusions intact.
Someone calling himself ffff1234 disturbed the universe of the Men’s Rights subreddit with a simple question yesterday: “Why is this subreddit frowned upon?”
Happily, the regulars were able to assure themselves that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it totally wasn’t their fault, nun-uh.
Their movement’s poor reputation in the wider world is, rather, the result of devious machinations by “feminazi overlords” who see the brave little Men’s Rights subreddit, and MRAs generally, as a threat to their continued hegemony.
“The people in power always hate the truth,” declared rg57.
“[W]e work against the plutocracy’s interests,” agreed the longtime MRA and terrible cartoon writer known as ThePigmanAgain. “That’s what it really comes down to.”
The plutocrats in question? Feminists. Or, rather, feminazis.
As Adanu0 put it
the feminazis hate it when you call out their bullsh*t, and this place does it all the time. We are the epitome of freedom of speech compared to them, and they want to keep their special snowflake narrative alive.
In a followup comment, he explained that
If you’re male, there is no existing with the feminazis, because their whole goal is the destruction of ‘the patriarchy’. This effectively means any form of male power is frowned upon and a target.
Anyone who thinks that is a good thing is ridiculous and belongs in that sub, slaving to the feminazi overlords.
I’m going to make this last bit my standard answer when anyone asks what I’m up to.
“Hey, David, what’s up?”
“Not much! Just SLAVING TO THE FEMINAZI OVERLORDS.”
K1NTOUN, meanwhile, warned his fellow MRAs not to underestimate their wily feminist foes.
They don’t give a damn about men or men’s rights. Equality means nothing to them. It’s merely a buzzword they use. Modern feminism is one group that can be completely generalized because they are all the same. There are no levels of feminism. You either accept the doctrine or you don’t.
Other commenters noted sadly that feminazi propaganda has infected much of society, leading many men to conclude that, contrary to MRA TRUTH, maybe women don’t actually run the world.
“Women are special creatures who are the peers of children when it suits them and the peers of men when it suits them,” lamented v573v.
Whatever women want – men must facilitate – including taking the blame for the demands that women place on men.
Either that, or women are capable human beings with an ability and power of their own, but if that was true – the victim card couldn’t be played; or perhaps the card is just another source of power which women can use as a path to power – a damsel in distress can inspire men to move mountains and under these rules women get the additional benefit of blaming men for anything bad that might of happened when the mountains were moved. Everybody wins! Except men, but they don’t count.
One bold fellow noted a parallel between the Men’s Rights movement and another movement that’s frequently frowned upon by polite society. The Men’s Rights subreddit is frowned upon, pazz explained,
For the same reason White Pride is. People always re-phrase it as a double negative and it changes the meaning. I am Pro-White and proud of my history is heard as I am Anti-Non-White and hate everything about you. Which is horrible.
Similar translations happen when you say I am Pro-Mens Rights. People hear I am Anti-Womens Rights. Which is horrible.
Like the rest of those I’ve quoted here, pazz was upvoted for his thoughtful stance.
Thus providing yet more evidence of some of the real reasons why people look down upon the Men’s Rights subreddit.
@IP
Ahh, Cubano! That makes sense. They still think everything to the ‘left’ of Reagan is a plot hatched by Castro. #NotallCubanxes, of course, but everytime someone talks about the Hispanic community here, someone has to put *except Cubans* in small print
I still don’t get why a cure for lung cancer being a dollar, is somehow a bad thing to some people, just because it comes from Cuba.
EDIT: Remember when I kept saying that he’s getting sloppy and off? Well aside from that massive fuck you he did to that Muslim family who are against him using their dead son in such ways.
A literal promise to ban pornography. This is real. This is on the GOP platform and he is for it.
One time I told a Republican that I believed somebody working full time shouldn’t still be living in poverty. He asked me “why?” with this baffled look on his face. It was fucking chilling. I don’t even remember what I said to that. Something along the lines of “because it’s wrong and I’m capable of empathy.” Like, not only did this man not have empathy himself, it had never occurred to him that someone else might.
@WWTH
I guess that bootstraps really don’t mean anything to the average GOP. “work harder”, they say, and when it’s shown that it isn’t helping, just more work, like it’s some magic word that’ll make everything better, instead of literally working people to death in perma poverty.
Seriously that’s just awful. Caring for other people, like Jesus? Nonsense.
Jesus Tap-dancing Christ.
What the actual fuck?
@WWTH
I remember having that same feeling a couple of years back, when I first realized how fucked up conservatism really is. I was in the car with my wife and her mom, discussing my health care costs for that year (~$130) and how much higher that number would be if I lived in the US. This conversation:
Me: I suppose I’m lucky I don’t live here.
MiL: Yeah I guess so.
Wife: I can’t understand how anyone can think our system is better, when that’s the outcome.
MiL: Well, you know, why should I have to wait in line for treatment when I can afford to pay for it?
Me: The lines aren’t long. Non-rich people need health care too.
MiL: People come to America from all over the world because they don’t have to wait in line here.
Me: The only ways to make waits shorter are to raise the capacity/efficiency of the system, or to remove certain people’s right to access health care.
MiL: See, I don’t think that’s a right. Getting health care is a privilege.
Wife: So if someone is sick and can’t afford treatment, what should happen then?
MiL: Well… tough luck. Life isn’t always fair.
(Stunned silence.)
Me: You know that I don’t come from a rich family, right? I would never be able to afford my treatment under this system.
MiL: Yeah, but you have us. We wouldn’t let you be without the treatment. So what’s the problem?
(Stunned silence.)
—
This was a huge wake-up call for me. It taught me that conservatives truly don’t give a fuck whether people live or die, unless they’re personal friends or family. It’s made me believe that people who are conservative seriously can’t understand the concept of empathy. They’re just terrible people.
@IP
If I may. Conservatives do understand and are capable of empathy. Your affines (in laws, new word I learned) are empathetic towards you. They don’t have an inability to empathize, they choose not to do so for people they don’t know or care about. There are certain psychological conditions which manifest as an inability to empathize. Conservatism isn’t that
Old racist conservatives generally got less racist when they met people of other ethnicities. Islamophobia is rarer in places with a lot of Muslims. Empathy isn’t a trait, it’s a skill. You probably learned it without knowing that you learned it. Your affines are unwilling to learn it, but they could if they wanted
That’s how I see it anyway…
I remember when I was a nanny for many years, I raised boys mostly. And they would sometimes have a tiffy moment. Like being annoyed with the world but expressing it in ludicrous concepts. And I would simply ask : “What do you want?” And the worst answer to that was… no intelligible answer.
Don’t know who you are?
Don’t know what you want?
Well then you are not qualified to pretend you know who other people are or what they want. At the very least you should shut up and look inward.
And this is why I am very puzzled with MRA sources, not necessarily the OPs but more the comments.
And how shall we defeat the plutocrats?
By vigorously defending our video games purchases!
@Axecalibur, someone said things about me? :O I did not read that comment! I hope they were nice things. Or at least not bad things. Or if they were bad things I hope they were true.
@IP, your in-laws are scary, but not too unusual I think. I recently found out that a dear friend of mine is actually very conservative (In a Canadian way at least), and it’s quite jarring. Compassion is certainly a skill, and a lot of people are taught that it’s a failing, too.
I think a lot of the mentality from people who don’t approve of government spending on social programs like health care comes from a place of feeling injustice. They feel like they’ve worked hard to earn what they have, and if someone else gets it for free, they feel it’s unfair. I’ve seen that mentality in people who are opposed to raising the minimum wage, too. For exampke, an EMT complaining that they make less than $15/hr, so why should a fast food employee get that much?
I, of course, don’t agree with that position, but that’s what I’ve found to be the motivation.
@Ooglyboggles – Trump promised to “ban pornography”? Like, all of it? Well, that’s just silly. Granted, you can make reasonable arguments that some forms of it are exploitative, but how does he propose to ban the whole thing? Build a wall to keep it out?!
But I’ve heard worse sex-related things from the Republican party! I remember Michele Bachmann, one of the 2012 candidates, being described as an “anti-masturbation activist” in the paper. Maybe that was just my surreal imagination, though. Maybe the phrase was anti-abortion activist. I mean, how could you be an anti-masturbation activist – do you go around tying people’s hands behind their backs? 🙂
(To get serious, she’s still around, saying Islamophobic things on Twitter and similar yuckiness.)
If strong, smart capable people cannot be oppressed, why are these racist misigynists convinced they are being oppressed?
@Axecalibur
You’re right, of course. The real takeaway is that I didn’t previously know just how little of a fuck conservatives give about people not in their in-group. The difference between them and me is that I want my in-group, in this sense, to contain everyone in the world. Obviously, this means accepting that rights are extended to many people who I strongly dislike, which is fine with me.
@kupo
Oh yes. Pitting low income people against one another has been a successful strategy.
Unrelated, interesting, and positive story from Sweden. The city of Säter has been using the official slogan “I’m crazy about Säter”. The slogan has just been disallowed due to ableism. The decision stated that the slogan exploits and ridicules mentally ill residents of Säter. Cool!
OT: Daisy Ridley has been chased off instagram. 🙁
http://thenerdybird.com/daisy-ridley-harassed-off-instagram-political-opinion/
@epitome of incomprehensibility
Hell, even more specifically, no one is going to buy that, since Trump is already on Playboy. This is meant to appease the conservatives who at this point are beyond hope, anyone else who still agrees with him have already drank so much of the punch they had to make more.
@Lea
Ur fascism. We’re superior and number one in everything. But the dirty feminists and beta orbiters are constantly eroding everything. But they are so worthless I can’t even remember my strawman points. They are taking our rightful jobs to fill some quota.
@IP
I can already see the people considering that Sweden is overreacting. That aside that’s a good job of Sweden.
@kupo
IF WE CAN’T DESTROY THE MOVIE’S ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE, OR THE MASSIVE PROFITS OF THE FORCE AWAKENS, WE’LL MAKE SURE THIS NON MALE NEVER FEELS SAFE.
I am disgusted yet I fully expected this. Another example of how mob rule is intended to silence others’ right to speak.
Lea with the logic bomb
I think you are thinking of Christine O’Donnell? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_O%27Donnell
Not that Michelle Bachmann isn’t plenty extremist. As a Minnesotan, I’d like to apologize for inflicting her on you all. I don’t live in her district, but I did campaign for her opponents to no avail.
In addition to having horrible opinions, according to my friend’s boss, who is her neighbor, she doesn’t clean up after her dog’s poop. Figures.
Lea wins, again. This is getting to be a habit.
@IP:
Ugh, that sounds awful. Hopefully your Otter had a decent childhood; I’m always really worried for the children of such people.
@Scildfreja:
You weren’t around and some people did some very very bad things with data visualisation, so we said “thank goodness Scildfreja isn’t around, otherwise she would be as horrified at their bad data practises as by their awful political views.”
Really bad. David McCandless is a saint in comparison. You would not be happy.
OT:As Caine mentions, wealthy Libertarian/Republican scumbag Peter Thiel sees great promise in the idea of parabiosis as a way to treat aging, which is just a little too on-the-nose for an overvalued parasite.
Heterochronic parabiosis is the new name for vampirism
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2016/08/02/heterochronic-parabiosis-is-the-new-name-for-vampirism/
This is taking the phrase “the old sucking the life out of the new generation” to very literal levels. I don’t even have words, it’s literally a method where the old and most likely rich take the lifeblood out of the youth to return their strength and vitality.
@Ooglyboggles
Conservatives don’t want ‘limited government’ and never have. What they want is ‘shitty infrastructure’*, which is a different thing entirely. They’re always happy to expand government for the purposes of killing/opressing nonwhites, here and abroad. Look at conservative support for more military, more police, more prisons; it’s amazing to me that anyone actually buys that ‘less government’ crap.
*And then they’ll turn right around and complain about how nothing the govrernment does works right.
WWTH
Fuck empathy. This is one of my bugbears, the idea that empathy should have anything to do with policy. Conservatives are a perfect example of why neither empathy nor morality have any place in policy decisions; you can’t rely on people not to have no empathy and shitty morals. Practicality should be the order of the day. The answer to ‘why not’ is, from a policy perspective, ‘because that makes you poorer too, and also more likely to get knifed for the $20 in your pocket’.
@Axecalibur
In other words, they’re terrible people.
@kupo
Justice hasn’t got any place in policy either (at least not economic policy). Deserve’s got nothing to do with it, and trying to parse who ‘deserves’ what has been the source of damn near every catastrophic economic decision the U.S. has ever made*.
*Specifically, what white folks think black folks ‘deserve’ has led to an endless succession of whites cutting their economic throats because it ensures blacks have it even worse.
Scildfreja- That’s alright. You are not the only one! I am a PhD student, so I don’t get much time for commenting. Also, I live in Australia and the time difference means that I am often late with Wehuntedthemammoth stuff. By the time I read it, there are already 100 plus comments and everything I wanted to say had already been said, often much more eloquently than I would have. So I tend to lurk most of the time.
@IP
🙂
@Dali
I don’t know them. I’ve never met them. I never said they weren’t terrible. Why would I? How could I be sure? Just, generally, the fuck?