Filmmaker Cassie Jaye seems to have developed a weird affinity for bigots.
First, she cozied up to some of the most hateful figures in the Men’s Rights movement during the filming of her documentary The Red Pill.
Then, when her funding for the film ran out, she happily accepted financial assistance not only from the actual subjects of the film but also from a motley assortment of far-right ideologues — among them a notorious quasi-journalist who was famously tossed off of Twitter after his fans barraged Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones with racist abuse, and a delusional Trump superfan who literally believes he gave Hillary Clinton the flu with his mind. (After a big donation to Jaye, he got himself an associate producer credit on her film.)
Now she’s trying her best to drum up interest in her film, which has barely drawn any notice at all outside the overlapping spheres of alt-right lady haters and MRAs since it premiered at a New York theater earlier this month.
While The Red Pill got a glowing, if rambling, “review” from new pal/volunteer fundraiser Milo Yiannopoulos at Breitbart, and a somewhat less-enthusiastic thumbs-up from Cathy Young at the right-wing internet tabloid Heat Street, the two real film reviewers who’ve bothered to give it a look have panned it.
Katie Walsh at the Los Angeles Times took issue with the film’s “uncritical, lopsided” argument, complaining that Jaye “twists herself in knots to justify the movement’s misogynist rhetoric.” The Village Voice’s Alan Scherstuhl dismissed Jaye as an inept “propagandist” and warned potential viewers that, as the headline to his piece put it, “You Can’t Unsee ‘The Red Pill,’ the Documentary About a Filmmaker Who Learns to Love MRAs.” (His review of what he described as an “agonizing” film caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the MRA crowd.)
With little hope of attracting positive attention from film critics, and apparently desperate for any publicity she could get, Jaye agreed to appear on the podcast of an internet-famous bigot who has been described by one critic, not without reason, as “THE MOST WARPED USELESS PEICE OF SH*T THAT I HAVE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE TO ENCOUNTER [on the] INTERNET OR ELSEWHERE.”
I am talking, of course, about the rape-excusing, abuse-encouraging, lady-hating, gay-baiting white supremacist Matt Forney — he’s the one on the left in the photo below.
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/787198238575120384
She didn’t just give Forney a couple of minutes of her time; she sat down with him for roughly three-quarters of an hour for his podcast “This Alt-Right Life.” It’s a singularly unedifying discussion. At one point she mentions that she used to get into arguments with her boyfriend every month about nothing, something she now jokingly blames not on PMS but on her (former) feminism.
Badump-tsssh!
She also expressed sympathy when Forney mentioned that he himself had been the victim of a “false” rape accusation. (Imagine that, the author of a blog post titled “Why Girls Rarely Mean No When They Say No” being accused of rape!)
Not that long ago, Jaye was by all appearances a staunch opponent of pretty much everything Forney and his alt-right pals stand for.
In 2012, she released a documentary titled “The Right to Love,” which, according to its description on IMDb, is the portrait of a “Californian married gay couple and their two adopted children,” fighting against the forces of “discrimination, ignorance and hate” who would deny them their right to marry and raise children.
Now she’s appearing on the podcast of a guy who is a virtual embodiment of this ignorance and hate.
It’s not as if evidence of Forney’s despicable views is hard to find, and not just in the WHTM archives. The name of his podcast contains the phrase “alt-right.” In the list of “popular posts” highlighted in the sidebar of his blog one finds such lovely titles as “How to Crush a Girl’s Self-Esteem” and “Why Fat Girls Don’t Deserve to Be Loved.” (Neither title is meant ironically.)
And then there is the endless stream of racist, misogynist and homophobic abuse that is his Twitter account. Some highlights from the last several days:
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/790064680907792386
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/790364983171354625
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/790367816360857601
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/790050589598162944
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/789976518596362240
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/789633067791122432
That last tweet — a reference to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s practice of murdering people by throwing them from helicopters — is technically a death threat, aimed at a National Review writer who has gotten many such threats from Forney’s colleagues in the alt-right, including photoshopped images of his 7-year-old daughter being gassed in a Nazi death camp.
Are these really the sorts of people Jaye wants to align herself with?
In his “review” of The Red Pill, Milo claimed, without evidence, that a virtual army of feminists was “scrambling to stop Cassie Jaye” and her film. In fact, feminists have mostly ignored The Red Pill. And the person who has done the most to damage Jaye’s credibility is, well, Jaye herself.
Sure, I never made it to end game because I’m a coward and get swarmed by frogs but I am all ears…eyes…whatever, for headcanons and stuff. The best part of fandoms are the headcanons and theories IMO.
I waited for so long to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack and it’s so good I am angry I didn’t listen to it sooner. Half of the reason I’m excited for Moana is for the soundtrack by gum. It’s gonna be the best, up there with Hunchback of Notre Dame.
@Ooglyboggles
I don’t know how much you know about Don’t Starve but you can make flower crowns. it was a fan suggestion.
@Axe
Same! Buuuuuuut I didn’t know his name back then. However, it was how one of my sisters introduced Hamilton to our dad.
(For Mom, it was more “sis was singing the songs out loud and some of the less kosher content hit Mom’s ears, but then sis explained the context and Mom thought it was brilliant.”)
I’m going to be going to bed soon, so unrelated: Halloween costumes! I went as Maxwell (DS, of course) last year. This year, I’m going as Uncle Jack from We Happy Few. Any addenda is appreciated; I’ll likely check once the sun rises.
@Handsome “Punkle Stan” Jack
Well then, I guess I should start saving up and wait for a sale of Don’t Starve and give that game a shot.
this is basically Don’t Starve.
I don’t have anything to contribute to the video game discussion, but I can contribute this creepy ass short horror film about a video game.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFi6Nqo93e0&w=1366&h=768%5D
Don’t know if the embed code will work, but the URL never embeds. If it doesn’t work, just look for Daywalt Horror Polydeus on Youtube. It’s a good film!
I do not think that word means what you think it means, and you have given this away in multiple spots in your comment.
You also don’t seem to know what “free speech” means, which is pretty consistent with not knowing what “liberal” means. Unless you’re claiming to be a “classical liberal,” which is another way of saying “right winger.”
Wow, Forney hates women so much that even standing next to one who has a weird obsession with pleasing and sucking up to guys like him, he still couldn’t look more miserable if he had electrified clamps on his nipples.
What, like the bomb and mass shooting threats against Anita’s talks?
@weirwoodtreehugger: communist bonobo
Thank you for the video, that was some very good camerawork and the monster makeup is top notch.
Derails aside.
@That_Susan
Assuming you are going to post more here than just a couple drive by posts, I would appreciate if you were to answer some of the commenters here. Just a sign of goodwill that you’re willing to converse.
Wait a second. “That” Susan, as in Driversuz the feMRA?
Hey, guess what, Jack Chick has died.
Per the Highlander code–as there can only be one Jack–I have absorbed his power, but I assure you I did not behead him. He was just old. There’s just a lot of Jacks so the immortality is thin, you see.
@Handsome “Punkle Stan” Jack
In roughly the same boat, myself. I’ve managed to get to day 42 once (Wickerbottom), but only the once. Problem is, I tend to survive through the winter, then lose interest rapidly. Still need to even make it to summer, let alone survive it.
EDIT: Oh, yeah, he did die, didn’t he. Eh, problem is the same as with Phyllis Schlafly and Tim LeHaye. There’s no sense of relief, since the damage has already been done.
Actually, looks like Fred Clarke did an article about that.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2016/10/24/haw-haw-haw/
@Fruitloopsie: Misty is adorable and I am sure will give you many years of cuddles. If you’re interested the head booping is officially called “bunting”. It’s the cat rubbing it’s scent glands on you to declare ownership of you! My cat likes to greet me when I come home by pressing his forehead against mine, I’m sure Misty will develop fun little habits like that too!
@Buttercup
As a fellow artiodactyl, I have to agree. That rather peaked right about the time a 52-year old would’ve been in elementary school; even by the late 70s Soviet sympathies were waning in much of the Left. Although if one means the New Democrats/New Labour types (Which That_Susan may well do, regardless of whether their liberal identification is sincere or disingenuous), yes, they deliberately embraced a lot of authoritarian bullshit from the Right, which is why IME the actual Left tend to despise them.
@OoglyBoggles
Any bets on that being the case this time?
@Fruitloopsie
What a precious little beast
@That_Susan
http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss303/crimage/gif/boring.gif
@That_Susan
Jaye made it quite clear to those considering funding her project that she would retain complete creative control of her work. It just so happened that many of the people most willing to support her research and filming with an open hand, not knowing exactly where her inquiries would lead her, were not feminists.
As a 52-year-old liberal, I myself have noticed a strange authoritarian mindset creeping into the left wing. Many college students are now protesting and even trying to prevent talks by certain speakers from taking place on their campuses. To me, it would make more sense to attend the discussions and present my point of view in the Q and A session. As long as we uphold the rules for respectful discussion and debate, people can be encouraged to logically examine the ideas being presented and come to their own conclusions.
If we set out today to impede the free speech of only those whose opinions we find most objectionable, who’s to say that tomorrow, the cultural tide will have shifted and liberals will be the ones everyone is trying to dismiss as not worth listening to?
“In his “review” of The Red Pill, Milo claimed, without evidence, that a virtual army of feminists was “scrambling to stop Cassie Jaye” and her film. In fact, feminists have mostly ignored The Red Pill.”
Actually, this is not the case. Here is a petition that successfully prevented screening of the Red Pill in Australia.
https://www.change.org/p/palace-cinemas-stop-palace-cinemas-screening-the-red-pill-film
I have no idea how that happened
Misty is adorable! She looks so scared under that table, but so cute, and makes me just want to reassure her that everything will be okay. What a beautiful kitty.
Fruitloopsie, you are a lucky woman and I am grateful that you shared that with me.
@Just Susan:
Unlike some others here, I’m not going to doubt your liberal credentials. I’ve met a number of people like you in the course of doing activism: liberals of the previous generation who believe that while one must oppose hateful people, one must do it in a respectful fashion which does not suggest that we regard their views as offensive.
This view of liberalism suggests that we should view politics as being like salt and pepper: two flavours which stand next to one another, allowing everybody to pick which one they like the best without being judged.
The problem with this position is that it betrays those with whom we should be allying: poor people, ethnic minorities, people of colour, LGBTQA+ people, the nonreligious, and so forth. We exclude them, because they do not have the luxury of existing in mutual co-respect with hateful people. Worse, we allow our own voices to be co-opted by hateful people, because we value the illusion of salt-and-pepper cosiness above the reality of oppression.
I’m not going to suggest that you’re not a liberal. Your way of doing stuff is pretty mainstream, especially in your generation. However, society has advanced far enough now that movement liberalism has come to a choice: we can either strive for greater social improvement and a better world, or we can maintain the salt-and-pepper cosiness. We cannot do both.
I have picked my side, and I immensely admire the company that I find myself in. You have picked yours, and I hope you feel likewise. We have both chosen the people whose respect we want, and we have chosen the people whose voices we want to lend ours to. We have, realistically, nothing further to say to one another. I hope you live a long and happy life; however, considering whom else you give your politeness and respect to, please do not extend it to me because that shit’s yucky.
@Dalillama
Your question is rhetorical given the context of the typical posting patterns of troll posters. No I do not believe she will argue in good faith, but I have to give the initial (however brief) assumption that a person is going to talk rather than tell me things and expect me to believe them without question.
The past trolls of the past few weeks have been sockpuppets, rage posters, disingenuous kissasses and drive by posters. I still haven’t forgotten Chad Skyboomster’s little charade of putting on an e wig and lipstick to pose as the stereotypical straw fem club predator, aiming to destroy the fragile egos of PUA’s. Or how mig/mick/mark kept a rotation between meltdown, paper thin lies and gaslighting.
I would like to believe, despite imperical evidence from months of being a dediated reader of this blog, that a newcomer with a statement as hers would be willing to talk, rather than say bait feminists into saying the strawman statements the manosphere projects so often as a way to validate their hate.
If this pattern is the same, c’est la vie, c’est la vie, may the next one be better than the last three.
Off topic, but I know there are people here who would want to be aware that Sherri S. Tepper has died, to science fiction’s great loss.
@alan robertshaw – oh yes, I was actually invited to play tennis at Wimbledon
(…Park – there was a demonstrator for the council’s summer tennis programme for kids).
KITTEN BREAK!
@Fruitloopsie:
Your kitty is superduper adorable!
Speaking as someone who has now shoo’ed 3 of the kittens out of the door to their new happy owners and foreverhomes (Riff Raff is still healing from a broken foreleg elbow joint at my place, but he will go live with his sister in early November), I can tell you that young ones can be a handful!
Rocky was the first kitten to figure out that whenever kittymom shouts loudly “OWWWW!”, he’s done a Bad Thing, and his immediate reaction was to pat the spot he poked with a claw with a soft paw instead, much like “Oh sorry, um, there there, sorry!”. (Also, to climb into lap and give nuzzles and licks to hoomin face, if it was a really loud yelp.)
Fortunately Riff Raff is getting better.
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvR1RpLVUAAxOAV.jpg
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvOB673XEAAem63.jpg
Riff Raff chases the wily Red Dot:
http://twitter.com/DidiCarisma/status/789469861240049664
@ rugbyyogi
The famous posh shooting club at Bisely is actually on land leased from the MOD who have a number of firing ranges in the area. So my squaddie mates are often to be hear saying “Oh this weekend I’m just off shooting at Bisley.”
(Coincidentally the shooting club used to be on Wimbledon Common but they moved it. Which must have been a relief to the Wombles.)
Hello.
> Kat
After riding the hate bus, will he want to take down the driver ? Does he think he is going to involve in some kind of Valkyria Operation ? And what would be too-hitler-ish ? Censoring Dilbert ? Which leads to the question : being hiter-ish-a-bit is ok ?
For a master persuader, i am not sure Scott Adams really ponders the words he uses.
> Handsome “Punkle Stan” Jack & Dalillama
Steve Dillon died too. That is a lot of artists, them being bad or good persons apart, who rest definitvely, recently.
Have a nice day.
This is a friends’ cat. He’s called Oscar. I know it’s usual to greet a cat with a chin tickle but when we go round his house we just hand over our wallets.
http://i.imgur.com/LC7rARV.jpg