Remember Paul Elam, the would-be Men’s Rights king whose assholish personality and obvious hatred of women (and, to be honest, most men) helped to derail the very movement he was trying to lead, ensuring that its time in the media spotlight would be a brief one?
I haven’t written about him in a while, because, honestly, there’s not much left to say about a man who will be but a historical footnote. But YouTube vlogger and Manosphere critic Kevin Logan has finally gotten around to doing a video about Elam, and it’s a doozy.
While I don’t agree with the way Logan has framed some of the issues in the video — I think most of you will see what I’m talking about — he does manage to capture just what an odious and angry character Elam really is. Elam’s writings are abhorrent enough, but the video and audio clips of Elam that Logan has worked into his video are stomach-churning, driven by a wide assortment of grudges and a barely controlled rage.
I’ve written a lot of stuff about Elam, obviously, but I’ve only rarely watched his videos. He’s such a toxic human being that it’s deeply draining to listen to him for more than a few minutes at a time. Logan, who obviously has a stronger stomach than I do, has taken a hit for the team by watching countless Elam videos and pulling out particularly revealing moments, despite the toll this much exposure to Elam took on him. So thanks!
I make a few cameos in Logan’s video. Apparently Elam doesn’t like me very much.
Here it is!
Oh, wait, that’s not the video. That’s a video of expert pimple-popper Dr. Sandra Lee draining and removing an inflamed cyst, which is actually much more pleasant to watch than Elam is. (And Dr. Lee is probably the most charming doctor you’ll ever run across ever.) Here’s the actual video.
Ugh. I’m not sure I’ll ever feel clean again.
Goddamn it David, I wanted to sleep tonight, and now I’m going to spend a lot of time looking at pimple popping videos.
I didn’t want to go back down that rabbit hole, but it’s just so hypnotizing…
I love Doctor Lee! She’s amazing ?
Paul Elam? Not so much.
Dr. Pimple Popper is definitely more fun to watch than Paulie. For one thing, she’s very sweet and professional. For another, one actually learns a thing or two from watching her. From Paulie, all I learn is how mean and ugly a man can get, from the inside out. Yuckier and grosser than the contents of an epidermoid cyst any day.
Ugh. TMI alert.
Thanks to PMS, I totally have a chest zit that looks just like that. It’s pretty gross. It should go away on its own in a couple of days though. No dermatologist assistance required. I hate how my period turns me back into a pimply, angsty teen though!
I hope Miggy Toes is reading this thread.
Oh, and since I’m sure we’ll get new readers soon: Welcome! There are welcome packages linked somewhere in the numerous sidebars!
However, I’m going to be a little blunt. As one of our delightful regulars is fond of saying: “Asshole is NOT a mental illness”.
It’s really detrimental to those of us who have mental illnesses to throw us under the bus to distance yourself from dudes like Elam (as tempting as it is. I feel gross sharing a species with him too).
Besides, none of us know his mental health history, that’s between him and his psychiatrist (which I’m sure is himself).
I’d much rather see something rot into nothing but bones and dirt than see clips of Elam and puss any day.
@Paradoxy:
Interestingly, one of the many things she talks about on her channel is how many people watch her “popping” videos before they go to sleep, apparently finding it soothing (or at least cathartically satisfying) to see nasty* things removed from human skins. I find her manner is very calming and gentle…and yes, it is soothing to watch a couple of them last thing at night!
*Nothing she could dig out of people’s pores (or lower down in the dermis) is anywhere NEAR as nasty and gross as Paulie’s thought processes, though.
I never got the fascination with watching pimple popping videos. I watch all kinds of horror, including the really gory stuff. But that’s all fictional. Real grossness is just a big no for me.
I have to confess that I’ve watched most of Sandra Lee’s videos. And other popping videos that are grosser, but I’ve lost most of my interest in the completely amateur ones, partly because of all the things they do wrong.
Actually not as bad as some tonsil stone videos I’ve seen recently. (Mostly because DO I HAVE TONSIL STONES?? OH GOD.)
Er, I’m talking about the cyst thing, not the other thing. I don’t think I have the stomach for that.
@Paradoxical Intention
Do you watch the Incredible Dr. Pol? He had this poor black lab (I think) who poor face was all swollen up with infection. He popped the abcess and the pus just poured out. It was nasty.
This video reminded me of that.This one was a lot grosser than the massive blackhead removal one of hers that I had seen.
Cyst lancing was more pleasant to watch
I’m another one who can’t understand the attraction to popping vids. I had a recurrent MRSA infection in my late teens and early twenties; I’ve seen enough boils, cysts, and pus to last me a lifetime. My favorite was probably the cyst I got on my tailbone, though honorable mention goes to the one in middle of my forehead. Said more than once: ‘No asshole, I’m not a unicorn. Go away or I’ll ooze on you.’ I get cranky when I’m full of pus.
Yesterday I discovered that one of my favorite musical artists (Cindergarden, aka Jaymie Valentine) has a couple of songs that I’ve somehow never heard before, despite owning the album they’re supposedly from. So my soothing thing since then has been listening to “Nothing Revealed” on a loop. Definitely better than listening to Elam (or Trump, whose smug voice currently fills me with nauseous stress).
FFS.
Pop-a-cyst video? (Yuck.)
Paul Elam video? (Yuck!)
I haven’t watched the former, and I got less than 3 minutes into the latter.
Notable so far:
1. Paul Elam thinks 80 percent of women are unworthy of his attention. (That’s women in their “raw state.” Oh goody, he wants to cook and eat us.) But Elam’s math is way off. I crunched the numbers and the figure is at least 1000 percent.
2. Elam’s Texas accent seems to come and go. It’s clear to me that the deal Elam made with Satan gives him this supernatural power. Most people don’t know about it because it didn’t get covered.
3. Like all abusers, Elam seems darned proud of the bile he spews; in his mind, it’s a mark of intelligence and leadership. He doesn’t understand that being nasty is easy peasy.
FFS.
Pop-a-cyst video? (Yuck.)
Paul Elam video? (Yuck!)
I haven’t watched the former, and I got less than 3 minutes into the latter.
Notable so far:
1. Paul Elam thinks 80 percent of women are unworthy of his attention. (That’s women in their “raw state.” Oh goody, he wants to cook and eat us.) But Elam’s math is way off. I crunched the numbers and the figure is at least 1000 percent.
2. Elam’s Texas accent seems to come and go. The deal Elam made with Satan gives him this supernatural power. Most people don’t know about it because it didn’t get covered.
3. Like all abusers, Elam seems darned proud of the bile he spews; in his mind, it’s a mark of intelligence and leadership. He doesn’t understand that being nasty is easy peasy.
Hmm, youtube has repeatedly recommended pimple popping videos to me, even though I’ve never watched anything like that. Maybe the embeds at WHTM are enough to influence its recommendations, even if you don’t click on them?
A bit OT but regarding the soothing effect of pimple-popping videos, there is this phenomenon called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or ASMR that some people experience: a kind of pleasant, tingling sensation in the back of the neck or across the scalp when you hear certain sounds or see certain actions being performed. I get it myself, often from hearing sounds like clicking, scraping or crinkling, or from watching someone perform a complex task with their hands like writing or drawing. There’s a whole sub-genre of YouTube videos devoted to it.
One of the theories to account for ASMR is that it is some kind of vestigial remnant of our primate grooming instinct which, if it were true, would explain why seeing pimples or other skin conditions being dealt with is so satisfying and soothing to many people…
Might explain some wound management specialist nurses – my daughter among them.
Since I’ve had this ghastly infection in the skin on my legs, it seems there’s a whole lot of Very Important work to be done in ensuring that as much dead skin as possible is removed before the area is dressed and bandaged again. My daughter who’s worked in the pediatric burns unit, the clinical nurse expert who runs/supervises the wound management clinics for this region, and a couple of others I’ve dealt with would happily – if their job allowed it – spend hours delicately using surgical tweezers &or scissors to pick up tiny, near invisible, flakes of skin and put them out of harm’s way. I’m pretty sure that, if they had time, nurses in this group would happily get one of those magnifying glass/ task light combinations and settle in for a satisfying session of identifying and removing Every Last Minuscule Particle they possibly could. Very much like our primate relatives seeking fleas, lice and every other little thing.
Quite different to the majority, I must say, who briskly get stuck into scrubbing it off as quickly as possible. Most are careful and considerate, but several can be pretty unhelpful when you complain about the pain – if you’ve taken oxycodone apparently pain is no longer an issue, even if you’re clutching the ceiling or crying your eyes out, or both.
You know what. Fuck Elam. Fuck him and his stupid ilk.
How can a man who claims to care about male suicide call a man (David) to commit suicide because he disagrees with him?
How can a man who literally repeats all the same stupid victim-blaming nonsense that my rapist used to discredit me claim to care about equal rights?
I just want to smash that guy’s face in so badly.
This Paul Elam guy is clearly a psychopath. If you read about psychopaths and how they think, you will see that their thinking consists almost entirely of rationalizations for blaming their victims, or those they would like to victimize. Paul Elam thinks just that way, clearly.
I have NEVER ONCE seen a photo or video of Elam in which he didn’t appear to be completely deranged.
@Sarah, PoS? Fuckwit, fuckwit wearing his arse for a face? (comments policy … being a total arsehole is not a mental illness, as they say).
I’m aware of that, thanks. I’m pretty sure “deranged” hasn’t been a clinical definition since the 19th century.
Shortly before I moved out of my grandma’s house, she got into the habit of watching his show every Saturday. I love the guy, he’s so much fun to watch, and he and his family are really swell people. (Though I didn’t see that episode. :P)
Another animal show I really love is Call of the Wildman. It follows a guy nicknamed “Turtleman” who runs a animal control business. Essentially, people call him when nature invades where it’s not supposed to, and he comes in, humanely captures the animal, and releases it back into the wild.
My favorite part is where he names the animal. He sees the evidence of it being there, and he’s like “I’mma call it [Name], because it’s [something related to the name].” Like how one time he got called to a Christmas tree farm to catch a beaver, and he named it “Scrooge” because it was wrecking the Christmas trees.
It’s so gosh-darned sweet.
Are “dysfunctional” and”maladjusted” considered ablist terms? Seems more accurate