By David Futrelle
An Australian man was just convicted of maliciously burning down the house he had handed over to his ex-wife in a divorce settlement. Naturally, the regulars on the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit are embracing him as a hero.
Last August, Krste Kovacevski poured kerosene throughout his ex’s house in Wollongong, near Sydney, before setting it on fire. The elderly arsonist, who quickly confessed to police, was arrested nearby watching the house burn. His excuse? He told police “I lost everything so I’ve got nothing to worry [about].”
Kovacevski seems to be quite the charmer indeed. In May, he was caught on tape attacking a reporter covering the trial, repeatedly punching and kicking the man and trying to put out a cigarette on his shirt. After the guilty verdict, he grabbed a microphone from another reporter and threw it on the ground.
In the MGTOW subreddit, the regulars saw his malicious act of arson as an attempt to symbolically even the score, as it were, for men “raped” by divorce. And as a blow against male homelessness, sort of.
“It’s a sad reality that there are more homeless men than women,” wrote the OP.
Fortunately this fellow tried to even the gender ratio. After being rendered homeless by divorce, he decided that his ex-wife should enjoy the same privilege. Because equality!
Most of the other commenters were similarly enthusiastic about the arson. Someone called DangZagnut wrote
I completely am on board with this. “If I can’t have it, no one can” Burning shit to the ground is completely justified when things you have are being taken away.
Slash and burn.
iamlikethewindbaby hoped that the arson would help men get better settlements in divorce cases.
The more often this happens, the less often unfair divorce settlements happens. Everyone wants to be part of a revolution, no one wants to start one.
Good for this guy. If I’m on the jury I’m not writing down anything other than not guilty.
newMGTOW was happy Kovacevski was able to put his ex-wife, from whom he had been separated since 1991, in her place.
Yep, if you’re 75 and just lost everything you worked your entire life for you’re gonna say fuck it, statistically he only has 5 more years of life left. I love what he did, it showed what a joke the system is and he showed that bitch who is really boss
For those itching to tell their own personal bitches who the boss is, but too timid to go the arson route, neutron_ had some other suggestions:
Try doing sneaky things like pest infestations, wood eating bugs to weaken the foundation, etc.
cheesymold suggested raising money for Kovacevski in hopes that this would encourage more men to burn down their ex’s homes.
Anybody want to start a kickstarter for this hero? We need to incentivize this kind of thing. Obviosuly not advocating violence but justice for men.
Dberp had a similar idea.
I’m thinking of starting something like a Divorced Men’s Relief Fund. A non-profit charity designed to swoop in and assist with special cases.
In this example, NOT giving him money (because the ex could turn around and sue him again for it) but perhaps renting out a nice place under the organization name for him to live his remaining few years stress free and rent free as a thank you for making an example that brings unfair divorces into public conversation.
Or at least makes it the subject of a Saturday circle-jerk amongst some of the worst human beings on planet earth.
@Banananana dakry: Fat, Short-Haired, and Deranged
Thanks for that; I’d heard that California had similar conditions re fires. We don’t have tornadoes here, but we have cyclones which are basically the same from the receiving end 😐
Re homelessness figures: I’m only up to date on the Aust. ones but as far as that goes, it’s technically correct that more men are homeless. It’s actually measured by a few categories (sleeping rough; insecure accommodation; boarding houses, etc.) – but men in general make up around 56%, or just over half.
25% of homeless people here are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, despite only making up about 2% of the population. I don’t hear much about that from men’s rights people, even though a lot of these homeless are men.
Kids 12 and under make up 17% – which is heartbreaking. The majority of these are kids with mums escaping DV situations. These are all terribly inconvenient facts, though, so I do apologise. Sorry/not sorry.
I watched a documentary about wildfires in Australia earlier today.
I think it was in regards to this –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires
This looks like the documentary I saw earlier –
http://schedule.wttw.com/episodes/397762/Wild/Out-of-the-Ashes/
It was fascinating and yet very disturbing at the same time. Horrifying really.
It seemed to me (I missed the first part of it) that much of these fires had to do with dry conditions. And can be a natural phenomenon that happens at certain times.
And that alone might be bad enough, but I suppose that would be something to point to, and it’s a natural occurrence at times, you could maybe process that.
If some asshole sparked such a thing? Out of some revenge plot? There are no words. I would be absolutely infuriated!
And “these guys” too – you know they be into APOPLECTIC RANGE MAD if so much as a fallen, burnt out, micrometer sized piece of ash from a cig or incense or outdoor candle – landed on their precious junk storage shed or fire trap garage. You can bank on that.
It’s very humid and wet here, we have the opposite problem. And at this time of year there’s the issue of storms and those with rotten old trees. Like one of my neighbor’s which should’ve been removed years ago, the thing finally fell apart during a recent bad storm, taking down several power lines and we were all without power for two days.
I wasn’t happy. But at least that was just laziness on the part of this asshole and not malice.
Do it on purpose? Either directed towards me or others and I’m subsequently harmed? You WILL answer to me, asshole, and I might not take the legal path, either.
I grew up in Tornado Alley and I too had recurring bad dreams about tornadoes – usually more suspense than horror, though. I only got sucked up like once. More often than not there’d be multiples and we’d be in a car trying to get away.
I’ve seen some really bad twisters. Never got my house, happily. One time we drove out of our perfectly preserved neighborhood (just a lot of wayward leaves) and everything was trashed and destroyed. National Guard was deployed (you couldn’t see the end of the line of vehicles). Looters getting arrested, streets blocked by thick telephone poles snapped like twigs… Pretty bizarre. The tornadoes usually occurred and moved along a certain path, so once we moved to the northwest side we only had to worry about hail and flooding. You can sometimes tell when it’s tornado-y outside: hot, humid, windy, thunderstorm clouds (namely low wall cloud, sometimes with whispy bits), and that yellowish or greenish “sick” looking sky.
Of course nowadays you get warned DAYS in advance instead of half an hour (sorcery!). Did you know they used to not inform anybody of impending tornadoes? Apparently in the 40s or somewhere in there the warning time was so short, tornadoes so little understood, and authorities were afraid of causing a panic, so they just didn’t tell people.
It’s my understanding that at least in the US, homeless individuals are counted separately from homeless families. If you look at homeless individuals, the large majority is male. But if you include homeless families, they’re usually headed by a single woman with children, so it evens out a bit.
I am always troubled by incidents such as this. Destruction seems to be so tragically easy, compared to creation. A house represents a tremendous amount of labor and materials, carefully and professionally assembled, and serves such a valuable function.
And some toerag with a grudge and a jug of kerosene can reduce it to a pile of rubble.
@Ooglyboggles
I remember the fall of 2007 well. My second autumn here, and I saw a patch of blue sky above me, to the north a wall of smoke going out to the ocean from near Irvine, and a wall of smoke to the south doing the same thing from all the fires in San Diego County. It was freaky.
The next day the wind shifted and all the crap fell on where I was living. Grey foul haze everywhere, they had to close the rollup door at the place where I worked early because the air was so bad, and spent the entire day with the smell of a fetid ashtray in my nose. Yecchh.
We kept some important supplies and the cat carrier out in the living room for a few days. Just in case.
@steven Dutch
That made me LOL ❤️
So much destruction and hate . . . . Meanwhile, in my red state local gov painted the crosswalk rainbow for pride month. It will remain. Also my local gov is seriously working with the homeless and homelessness has dropped. Google Mayor Jim Gray. Good man. I need all the joy I can get.
Well, inspirobot figured these guys out. Computers: 1 MGTOWs: 0
http://generated.inspirobot.me/044/aXm5504xjU.jpg
I wonder how long before some manosphere dude decides to record a gender-swapped cover of “Sunny Came Home” as a tribute to this guy.
Re: fire stories:
My mom tells me that very late one night, when I was maybe a year old, she found me crying and screaming uncontrollably in my crib, standing bolt upright and staring out the window…at a garage burning to the ground down the street. She couldn’t calm me down no matter how she tried, and I only stopped crying when I became too exhausted to keep it up.
I have no memories of it, but it took me the longest time to get my fear of fire under control. I was afraid even to light a match. Even now, long since over it, I’m leery of starting any fire that isn’t absolutely necessary. Even though I’m very good at controlled burns (eg. for long dry grass and weeds), I’m still reluctant.
These pyromaniacal fools really have no idea what they’re babbling about, they’re just trying to impress each other with how shit-awfully cruel they can be. I hope to the Gods that none of them ever find anyone sad, desperate or lonely enough to marry them.
He’s lost everything so he’s nothing to worry about? What about his physical form? He still has that but now it will be existing at a nice prison I hope. I love a good comeuppance.
@ Banananana
I was across the ocean when the 2007 fires hit (literally learned about them while out shopping; the TVs in the Japanese department store were reporting them), but I was home in San Diego for the 2003 Cedar fire. That one came within a mile of my home; we evacuated just in case, but it was the first time I’d ever driven a car alone (we didn’t have much of an evac plan at the time, since rectified, though luckily the cats were young enough to adapt to a new temporary living space). I remember even after the fires were pretty much contained, the sun was almost completely blotted out for almost a week, and ash was everywhere.
@ Ooglyboggles
I don’t remember what Cracked article it was, just that the author made some mention of the “pile of oil-soaked rags that is Southern California.” Made a helluva lot of sense. I still tend to have small panic attacks when I smell smoke outdoors, until I can identify the source.
Funny thing is, I think I still prefer this to tornadoes. It’s irrational, I know there’s less chance of actually getting hit by a tornado, and the damage is usually not as widespread, but they just feel a lot more unstoppable than fires or earthquakes (which at least can be prevented and/or guarded against).
I understand that life in prison isn’t pleasant. He’s got everything to worry about.
Too bad, so sad.
@Ray of Rays
At least we don’t get seismic earthquakes that release gas pockets during a wildfire, all combining into earthquakes spewing fire tornadoes on a regular basis.
Surely you must’ve had at least some remaining dignity, seeing how you promptly threw it out the window.
Look, I’m French, and burning shit up as an act of protest is kind of a national pastime for us. That means I also get to tell you that no, that ain’t justified, that ain’t protest, and you’re full of shit.
I uh… am at a loss for words here. So alfalfa tho.
This is the part where I’m reminded of my childhood and the unfair divorce between my parents. Yeah, shit needs to be brought into public conversation. Especially shit about the fuckers who will do anything to harm their divorced partner and often scar kids for life in the process. (Incidentally, arson is involved in this story too.) The only “conversation” there needs to be about assholes like you who defend those other assholes is easily summed up by a giant middle finger poking a hole in the sky.
Chances are Krste was a violent arsehole his entire life. A man who made the lives of all those around him miserable, especially his wife. I hope she gets a massive insurance payout and the miserable prick dies in prison, where he can’t hurt anyone else.
Krste sounds like a spoilt brat who hasn’t got his own way at a birthday party pass the parcel game, so he’s making sure nobody else can have fun. There’s something so petty about this, the “If I can’t have it, nobody can.” attitude reeks of entitlement.
I hope the former Mrs. Krste has a fantastic life, with a massive insurance pay-out, surrounded by loving friends and family, and Krste spends his remaining days in prison, ignored by any children or family he might have and completely friendless. If he’s prepared to destroy a house he hasn’t lived in for 21 years because their marriage is legally over, then he’s probably always been a nasty shit.
@everyone, @Fran
I’m almost positive none of these stupid assholes have ever seen a really bad fire on a residential street. A few years ago, the deli on my corner caught fire so quickly and viciously, when the fire fighters got there(in only 10 mins)it was completely unsaveable. I thank god the wind was blowing east and not south because it burnt the next five buildings to the east to a crisp also.
If it had turned south, it it very well might have burned down my house and we honestly didn’t know whether it was going to or not for almost an hour. There was an absurd amount of wind and the firemen had told some people in the surrounding area to be ready to evacuate if necessary, but they eventually got it under control.
That was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I thought of all my keepsakes, my thousands of books, the clothes I can’t replace because they don’t make 90s style clothes anymore(not really)Almost nothing expensive, but so many things that made up my life and I can be sentimental almost to a fault. I was having like literal hysterics I was so scared but thank God everything turned out okay at least for me. I felt so sorry for the people it didn’t turn out okay for.
Like I can understand they’re wanting vengeance on the woman for essentially being a woman because that’s who they are but how can any human being not care that fire spreads almost entirely unpredictably and could very easily incinerate bunches of children in a kindergarten or any other defenseless group of people. That’s just acceptable to them? I know it’s ridiculous trying to apply logic to them but how can you believe something like this and even delude yourself into thinking you’re a good person.
@ Fran
Sorry for this rant but I’m really not doing well emotionally. I’m having issues with my boyfriend of 8 and half years who I love beyond reason. I am a complete and utter romantic and I’m not ashamed of it. But some stuff’s been happening lately that is making my depression and bipolar disorder worse. Since I don’t like psychiatric prescribed medication(I’m scared of it)so I did a bunch of talk therapy and behavioral therapy for a while(and I still go periodically)It helped me a lot but my mental issues still exist, obviously. I remember how you told me you could do some of that computer tech genius type stuff that you do so we could exchange cell phone numbers without exposing them to the rest of the web.
We can exchange emails first if you like but I’d really like to discuss this with you because you are very intelligent and have good advice and you’re also a fresh set of eyes. If you’re willing to talk to me I’d really appreciate it. I feel like I’m getting less and less stable and I could really use advice from a new angle. So please think about it.
If you decide you’re not comfortable talking on the phone I’ll do email I’m just not used to them as we discussed before. Or even Skype like you mentioned before (I like Skype it’s like magic to me?) whichever medium you’d like to talk through is fine but if you are willing, please pick phone, Skype, email whichever you want and let me know how to contact you. Honestly I’d leave my throwaway email right here but I don’t know if that’s a bad idea for some reason I don’t understand so I’ll leave it up to you. Well I’m a day-sleeper as you know so I’m going to bed period I hope you have as beautiful and pleasant today as you can. That goes for everyone else too good morning/night and have a lovely day.
I had a woman homeless person tell me that before she learned how to dress and act male, she got raped daily. She smelled like urine and was 65. This was on Oahu two years ago. She explained that Women simply can’t be visible homeless. It is too dangerous so they hide in areas they know they will be alone or surrounded by many and try to appear as male.
OT but I just received a recommendation from my Amazon Prime video account to watch “The Red Pill” by Cassie Jaye.
First of all, ugh.
But, for those of you who might be interested – and have Amazon Prime – it’s available to watch for free.
I haven’t decided yet if I have the tolerance for it.
@Angry that’s horrible. Can’t even trust people to leave you alone as a homeless woman.
@dreemr blergh. Not gonna watch that. But I AM going to start watching Jessica Jones tonight, with a nice bowl of pop-corn and a can of soda. Cheers!
@Aulma Frendzar Dedd – Jessica Jones is really, really good. Much deeper and more nuanced than your usual “superhero” show. I’ve always liked Krysten Ritter but she’s really superb in the JJ role.
And yeah, I don’t think I can handle “The Red Pill”. I would prefer to read or watch one a breakdown of it.
If she got the whole house in a court-mandated divorce settlement in Australia then she undoubtedly made a large contribution to the getting of the house or it was her house to begin with and she’s the one who has been generously letting him there for years. But in the MGTOW version of property where what’s mine is mine and my wife and children and everything they my own are mine it’s been translated to him losing HIS house.
@Aulma Frendzar Dèdd
Seconding the Jessica Jones commends.