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By David Futrelle
UPDATE: DeVos met with MRAs Thursday; here’s what she told reporters afterwards.
The Trump administration has given a lot of fringe political weirdos a certain not-quite-legitimacy. We’ve seen “alt-lite” conspiracy slinger and bobblehead salesman Mike Cernovich given White House press credentials; meanwhile, Twitterbanned right-wing pseudo-journalist Chuck Johnson seems to have become entangled in one of the developing Trump/Russia collusion scandals, working at the behest of a longtime Republican donor (now deceased) who was apparently willing to drop big bucks to help Trump by somehow uncovering Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails.
Now a notorious Men’s Rights group — the National Coalition For Men — will be meeting with Education secretary Betsy DeVos to discuss the campus rape epidemic that MRAs claim doesn’t exist. DeVos will also be talking with rape survivors and college officials, but the fact that the NCFM will be part of the discussion is appalling, even by Trump administration standards.
Despite its long pedigree (it’s been around since 1977) and almost respectable-sounding name, the NCFM has, I would estimate, roughly as much legitimacy as a civil rights group as the Men’s Rights hate site A Voice for Men or the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit. Which is to say none.
Indeed, the NCFM site clutters its sidebars with videos from the likes of AVFM founder Paul Elam and antifeminist gadfly Girl Writes What, while the main page touts articles accusing feminism of destroying the family, suggesting campus “safe spaces” are “havens of misandry” and asking “is feminism killing young boys,” with the last article written by a regular contributor to AVFM.
The group has also won a certain notoriety in feminist circles for posting pictures of alleged “false accusers” on its website. I also ran across this lovely picture and caption on the NCFM site last year, illustrating a press release on Senator Patrick Leahy and the Violence Against Women Act.
As I noted at the time, “the Joker is [apparently] supposed to represent Leahy’s supposed feminist puppetmasters; regardless, it is a jarring image depicting violence against an elected official as somehow humorous.” If you can’t quote believe that a supposed civil rights group would run such a thing, well, make a quick visit to the group’s website; the picture is still up. (I’ve archived it here just in case.)
This is hardly the only time the NCFM or its officials have offered, well let’s just call them disconcerting takes on the issue of violence.
In an interview with Pacific Standard’s Ted Scheinman a couple of years ago, NCFM president Harry Crouch offered this take on Ray Rice, the (former) football player who knocked his then fiancée out cold with a punch famously caught on video.
I’m not saying he’s a good guy. But if she hadn’t aggravated him, she wouldn’t have been hit. They would say that’s blaming the victim. But I don’t buy it. And anyway football is always happy to put on pink suits to celebrate women. Why can’t they have a week, or just one day, where they celebrate men?
It’s no wonder that Jess Davidson of the group End Rape On Campus, told the HuffPost that she considers the NCFM a “hate group.”
“They have viciously and very intentionally harassed rape survivors online by exposing their identities and posting pictures of them,” Davidson told the HuffPost. “From our perspective, they really have no place in a conversation about civil rights.”
DeVos will also be meeting with representatives of the group Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), a group the Southern Poverty Law Center once described as devoted to “roll[ing] back services for victims of domestic abuse and penalties for their tormentors, while working to return the focus to the ‘true victims of abuse’ — the falsely accused.”
SAVE has long worked hand-in-hand with hate site AVFM to fight for men they believe have been “falsely accused.”
The meeting is scheduled to take place July 13th.
It is not known if any bears or their representatives will be attending the meeting.
H/T — Thanks to everyone who sent me links on this story
@Still Fiqah
No one should have to deal with that alone.
@kupo
Damn straight.
Honestly I don’t much care what happens to my body after I’m dead – that’s not the issue here (for me). I don’t think this person would see much difference between a live woman and a dead one, and that’s what creeped me out.
There were a couple of people on that timeline suggesting that the post was a poe or similar, but …
Of course. Why wouldn’t she? Dump has appointed people in charge of institutions they want to undermine. Every order that comes from them needs to be refused. If it’s on paper, that paper should be ripped on camera. That probably won’t happen, but i can dream.
@Still Fiqah
jayzusssss
@Still Fiqah:
And “incels” wonder why they’re “incel”.
Oh Betsy, don’t you understand that you are a tool? The minute you become slightly less valuable, they will put an even more less qualified man in the job?
@Still Fiqah
Well. I expected it to be bad, but seriously?
You would rather fuck a dead person than learn some basic people skills to be able to converse with society?
I am going to just spend the entire day playing with my puppy, because we are all garbage and puppies are too pure for this world.
As a slight antidote, there’s this: Milo’s book look’s like it’s not selling well:
According to Nielsen Bookscan, which monitors book sales through almost all outlets, including Amazon, the former Breitbart technology editor has sold only 18,268 copies of his book in the US and 152 in the UK since its launch on 4 July.
He says this is “fake news”, because of course he does, and that actually the book has sold out. Who do you believe: Nielsen Bookscan, or a notorious troll?
@Nikki
I went to a top 100 state school that had a reputation for being very liberal, but virtually all my professors were centrists with some a little center-left. I never saw trigger warnings on any syllabus and never saw a policy against microaggressions actually enforced, so I suspect the issue is more about more conservative faculty trying to silence any criticism of obviously bigoted views the professor defends with “science.” The media tends to focus on the most extreme parts of a student movement and then presents people on the right as apolitical and unbiased (you can always find the most extreme people in any movement). I don’t see a contradiction between calling people out and being somewhat of a First Amendment absolutist.
Academics are usually characterized as “liberal” or “left-wing” because they hold more left-wing views on social issues like abortion, marriage equality and gay rights, and religion/secularism. On the other hand, many academics believe that the traditional left is fundamentally dishonest and inflexibly at odds with “human nature.” There’s even research in evolutionary psychology trying to establish that morality is based on social dominance, an authoritarian government enforcing social dominance, and prejudice against members of an out-group. So, in other words, they’re claiming that more democracy and social egalitarianism will lead to people having fewer reasons to behave morally and not hurt other people.
What group is going to meet with her next Wicked Witches for Oz?
Katz:
……………..Of fucking course they are.
Imaginary Petal:
Awesome! You did much better over the phone then I could have.
Wow, debunked pseudoscience pulling nonsense out of its ass in an eyeroll-worthy attempt to defend the “Researchers'” bigotry, so blatantly at odds with everything that real science and history tell us that they clearly worked backwards from their decided conclusions? I never would have expected that.
@Moggie, That’s good news, only 18000 books will barely if at all pay for the print run, unless he only printed 20000. Where’s that White Boy Scholarship, Milo? Oh, you spent it fraudulently on publishing? What a surprise.
I’m guessing DeVos is talking to these guys out of some need to get ‘balance’ on college rape. And who better to ‘balance’ angry feminists than a group supporting the menz?
>.<
And that tweet…I'm guessing that's going to be one of Dave's next columns in the next day or so, once he tracks down where that bit originated from and can give the right incel credit for it. Whoever wrote that needs to have his name/nym attached to that for all to see.
Because seriously, someone who'd rather have sex with just a dead woman's vagina (not the rest of her body, just that organ after being removed from it, unless I misinterpreted something there) needs to be exposed, 'cause UGH!!! BLEAH!!!!
ETA: Makes me want to invest in a chasity belt for my own piece of mind, so I don’t have to worry about this guy or his supporters doing that to me. Even if I’m far from their desired HB 8-10’s. D:
Personal update:
Does anyone remember the Very Important Test I took earlier this year, and the Very Good Score I achieved? Well, the entire purpose for me taking the test was so that I could get accepted to a Masters program in social work, despite my terrible high school grades and general lack of accomplishment in life
Just a few minutes ago, I found out that… I got in! And I was also offered to do the first three semesters in a local community doing extensive field work. I might finally gain some kind of career, in my mid 30s. Look, mom, I did something! Well, don’t look right now, but look in 3.5 years!
@Zatar
Thanks!
@Imaginary Petal
Congratulations on making great strides towards your goal!
Well done & congratulations, @Imaginary Petal!
I wanna say it… damn how I wanna say it’s not awl white people… er, puppies, not even awl werging class white people… er, puppies…. But I don’t believe that any more. We suck, the whole self-absorbed lot of us…. We punted everyone else under the bus, and apparently we did that for our own amusement.
Not even TALKIING about the brain-dead, right-wing trumplings, I’ve cut off political dialog with almost everyone I know, people whom I THOUGHT were progressive, because the whole bunch are oblivious to the reality that real people’s real human rights are being washed away in a right-wing flood justified by a twitter storm of insult, invective and hatred. In this new reality it’s ok if trans people are erased, not just metaphorically, but erased physically, it’s ok if poor people are marginalized right out of the fucking picture, it’s ok if everyone who isn’t a white liberal is simply FORGOTTEN…. As long as working class and middle class white people are not disenfranchised.
I’m reminded SO MUCH of the early-mid 1970’s, after the military draft ended, watching the white men who had been active in the anti-war movement diddy-bop off into middle-class-ness, forgetting any pretense of having common cause with non-white draft resisters, with poor people, with non-whites struggling for civil rights.
Everyone learns at some point, when they are no longer useful to the ruling class, they learn what their real value is. When there’s no more money for the oligarchy to take from them, the white liberals will learn…. The white conservatives…??? I dunno, there may not BE enough that could be taken from them…. they may never learn.
@Imaginary Petal
Yes, bravo to you, and good luck!
Congratulations IP!
@Petal
Oh, hells yeah!
@ Petal;
YOO ROCK!!!
Off-topic, but 🙂
http://feministing.com/2017/07/11/oregon-passes-groundbreaking-workers-rights-law/
@Still Fiqah
Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick, what the FUCK did I just read? The level of objectification one would have to reach to consider having sex with a corpse is sickening!
Can any of the regulars have mercy on this poor soul who has just recently started frequenting this blog and pass me the bleach? I need it for both my eyes and my brain.
@SFHC
A commonly-cited statistic is that the liberal to conservative ratio in university faculty was 2:1 in the 1960’s, 5:1 in 1988, and 30:1 in the 2010’s (I’m not sure of the source). The problem is that the Republican Party has shifted very far to the right since the 1960’s. Hillary Clinton said she would be a moderate Republican without changing any of her views if it was 1968. People can also get counted as “liberal” because they don’t think any private adult consensual sex acts should be criminalized (which is a mainstream view now, but not in the 1960’s).
The new sexual assault policies from the Obama administration led to some changes in complaint procedures and slightly increased the number of expulsions for sexual assault. But the policies didn’t really change administrators’ attitudes to the problem or create significant change.