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The reviews are in! Well, technically speaking, a review is in.
The Village Voice’s Alan Scherstuhl has posted his review of Cassie Jaye’s The Red Pill, her totally objective documentary about the Men’s Rights Movement that was funded in part by some of the people featured in it and that will be opening in theaters a theater Friday
Let’s just say he didn’t like it:
[F]or two agonizing hours, Jaye tumbles slowly down America’s stupidest rabbit hole, discovering that Men’s Rights Activists are actually just dudes who have been dicked over by a culture that punishes masculinity. …
Jaye acknowledges in the opening and closing minutes that MRAs sometimes spew nasty garbage online, but she never presses them on this in her many interviews. Instead, she lets them moan about how hard it is to be a dude in 2016, endorsing their anecdotal complaints about unfair family courts, incidents of men being tricked into being fathers and — I didn’t quite follow this one — one father’s conviction that the women who had custody of his son were systematically trying to make the boy fat.
One can only assume that they are fattening him up before they EAT HIM.
Confused MRAs, apparently unable to understand how anyone could possibly hate a film they’re pretty sure they’re going to just love, have responded to Scherstuhl’s review by crying “conspiracy.”
In a comment on the Village Voice, MRA David King (presumably the same David King who is the “Chief Information Officer” for A Voice for Men) suggests that “[s]omething definitely stinks, and it’s not the film under review.”
He submits these, er, facts to a candid world:
• September 29, Cassie Jaye tweeted “Events surrounding The Red Pill documentary are getting curiouser and curiouser”, the same day Scherstuhl tweeted that he’d “agreed to review” TRP, the same day Scherstuhl invited a well-known anti-male MRA antagonist to DM him via Twitter.
Just FYI, the “well-known anti-male MRA antagonist” in question is apparently little old me, though I’m pretty sure I am not actually anti-male. I didn’t DM Scherstuhl, though I think I retweeted a couple of his Tweets.
King continues:
• October 4, HP and Village Voice publish this hit piece using present-tense language (“this movie is playing in two American theaters”) strongly implying that the author has seen a film which doesn’t debut for another 3 days on October 7,
HOW ON EARTH DID A FILM REVIEWER SEE A FILM BEFORE IT WAS EVEN OUT oh wait that’s how film reviewing works.
• so Scherstuhl has not seen it at a theatre and cannot have seen it anywhere else unless either a) invited to by CJ (in which case HP and Village Voice, at which Scherstuhl is an editor, have violated the embargo such previews usually carry) or b) he has acquired a copy illegally.
Since both HP and VV have published this review already, since embargoes on unreleased films are the norm, and barring decent evidence of mismanagement on the part of CJ and her team, that rather heavily points at the latter. Whichever the case, violation of contract (best case) or breaking the law (worst case) doesn’t look good for either HP or Village Voice.
Yes, because films are NEVER reviewed before they hit theaters oh wait.
• If the author has not seen it, then he’s lying through his teeth both in the article’s content and about its provenance. He misrepresents the review as being based on an alleged viewing post public release but, owing to an editorial screw-up, the copy got released days before it should have been, proving that his article is a premeditated and contrived attack motivated by political animus.
• There are numerous tells in the language used in this article that strongly hint at an agenda and a prior conclusion (read: closed mind) so it almost doesn’t matter whether Scherstuhl did see it or not because the actual content of the film would make no difference to the content of the article.
King blathers on for a while along these lines, and even mentions me by name once! It’s good to be noticed.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, the lovable Dan Perrins seems to suggest that I might have actually paid Scherstuhl for his review.
A ? for the lawyers.
I'd also suspect some payola for the review as well.
Given @DavidFutrelle lack of integrity— Dan Perrins (@BlackBeard20096) October 4, 2016
Apparently Dan lives in an alternate universe in which men are oppressed and I am filthy rich.
Speaking of films, here is a short documentary about a capybara who jumps into a pool and plays with a pool noodle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=291Bry2FlsU
They’ve been the majority of rapist, spree killers and mass murderers. Clearly, white men need to be deported to protect us.
This idiot has no consistency, do they?
They’re consistently racist, which is… something.
I think it would be a good idea to only allow female immigration (Or at least to have less stringent requirements for females.)
Wouldn’t that be a good idea?
===
“Hey, Markov, you know what’s infinitely more common than Islamic terrorist attacks? Rape. In 2010, for example, four people died in attacks on US soil, while approximately 1.3 million women were raped. But you think that fearing men is “Irrational,” don’t you?”
No, I’m not especially afraid of women. It is young men that scare me.
===
“Well, you’ll be happy to know that they have done research, and the vast majority of crimes are committed against people who are in the same racial group”
“even though there is far more chance of being raped by a native that you personally know”
Well… yeah. There is more chance that I will be killed by a member of my family than by some random serial killer. I don’t find that a good argument for letting a serial killer move in with me. The reason why I’m less likely to be killed by a stranger is because I have less contact with them – again, not an argument for having *more* contact with potentially dangerous people.
===
“You can know group level information, but it is not reasonable to use it to make assumptions about individuals.”
The problem is, I don’t want to be shown what kind of person is by getting raped or murdered and then be like “well, I guess he was a bad guy”, I want to do whatever I can to reduce the possibility of those things happening to me and my family.
I really don’t think we can discard group level information like that. It doesn’t seem rational to me.
If we know that 1/10 of group x are a serial killer – you’d be crazy not to use that information. That doesn’t mean that you’d imprison all of group x – but it does mean you might be more cautious about them.
We do know that white men are most likely to be serial killers. Should we maybe be cautious and deport them? Or maybe just put them in internment camps?
@Rollo
No
Almost… Nah, the epiphany just ain’t gonna happen
Note, a variable is used for group identity but not for the actual number. Implication being that 1/10 isn’t exactly used as a random number here
Comments policy
“We do know that white men are most likely to be serial killers. Should we maybe be cautious and deport them? Or maybe just put them in internment camps?”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wicked-deeds/201412/serial-killer-myth-6-they-are-all-white
I don’t know. Serious question – if it turned out that men were more likely to be killers than women, would you be more cautious around men than women?
Or would you wait until you got to know the individual in question before making any assumptions?
Psychology Today, the National Enquirer of the medical world.
Here, the subject conflates personal caution with legal discrimination. Of course, this is the same muffuga thinks one’s feelings (so long as you’re an ordinary person) should be law of the land. Totes not sexist or racist tho
I didn’t say all, Roger. Read for comprehension.
Someone tell this idiot there’s no “ifs” about this. I’m just going to spam gifs at this fucker.
I am already more cautious around men than women. I’m not calling for them to be kicked out of the goddamn country.
Do you understand that these are people you’re talking about? Not data points, people. With families. Also, “female” is an adjective, not a noun.
@ Roger
Ironically what this thread is demonstrating is that women rightly fear men might kill them; but conversely you do have to worry about women laughing at you.
@Alan
That doesn’t really make much sense, but good try shoe-horning that one in there.
@Viscaria
“I am already more cautious around men than women. I’m not calling for them to be kicked out of the goddamn country.”
But if it is a proven fact that men are more likely to do all manner of terrible things… if the only information we have about someone is a man, we should be more cautious of them than women. If it is sensible for an individual to be cautious, why isn’t it also sensible for government institutions to be cautious.
It seems to be a bit strange to me – you’re basically saying that men may be more likely to get up to all kinds of mischief, but that it has to be the responsibility of the individual to avoid it, and to be individually cautious.
Well, not all people are able to avoid trouble. Shouldn’t government be looking out for them and reducing their risk too?
Which demographic group is 10% serial killers?
Again, with the “if” there.
Prisoners within five cells of a serial killer?
Death row inmates?
@Roger
Then you learn and look for evidence of rape, murder, rapist and murderer specifically. You learn what those things look like in people generally or your family is still under threat from a member of the category of people most likely to rape or murder them.
*holds up mirror*
You are very helpful to rapists and murderers.
For example people confusing trans people for sexual predators. That is not what predatory behavior in bathrooms looks like (and would not catch cis same genetalia predators anyway). It is best to look at what predatory behavior in bathrooms looks like so you actually catch predators, including the majority of of them who hide in the in-group. Bigotry is as suicidal in it’s irrationality as it is cruel.
I did not say we discard it.
No it means you are a bigoted person with no idea how to recognize a serial killer, is actually negligent and harmful to your self and others in your in-group on the matter you are concerned about, and deserve the flack you get from the other 90% and their friends.
I would publicly shame you IRL without any guilt. You make me and those I care about less safe.
@Roger
No, the government shouldn’t “look out” for its people by treating innocent people like criminals, regardless of what any statistics might show, since we’re talking about human individuals.
So close again. Honestly, this is the worst kinda wrongness. At least be entirely, completely, irredeemably bullshitting. It’s like these people see the real shit and decide to take a sharp ‘right’ turn just before they get there…
“No it means you are a bigoted person with no idea how to recognize a serial killer, is actually negligent and harmful to your self and others in your in-group on the matter you are concerned about, and deserve the flack you get from the other 90% and their friends.”
OK – I think we just have very different views about how things should be run.
Would it be ok by you if I live in an area where there is strict vetting of who gets to live there (let’s say by having very expensive property prices) and you guys can try and hunt out the serial killers?
Cause, I’m not really up for that. I’d rather someone else did it for me.
(By the way – if you want to have strict vetting of immigrants that’s fine with me – but if you’re not going to have strict vetting, then it makes sense to allow in those groups less likely to be dangerous (women and possibly non-muslims))
You don’t mean “possibly”. You’ve already decided Muslims are especially dangerous. Own up to your bigotry, yo
Wat?
I think you misspoke. Not “serial killers”. You mean brown guys. Common mistake among assholes
And we come full circle
@Roger Are you capable of understanding that statistics don’t apply to individuals?
Also, boring troll is boring. Can’t Dave ban him already?
@Roger
Serial killers can be wealthy, too.