By David Futrelle
So this is a thing that exists. Take a moment to soak it in. It’s perfectly fine if you react like this:
The good news? It’s probably a joke — a pitch-perfect parody of incel logic rather than an example of it. At least that’s my guess. The meme (a version of the “ideal girlfriend” meme) seems to have originated on 4chan — the reference to “anon” is a bit of a giveaway — and has made it to Reddit and Twitter as well.
So far the reaction on Braincels, the main incel subreddit, has been a bit muted; some of the regulars are befuddled by it, others see it, as they see every bit of “evidence” that life sucks for them, as “suicide fuel.” Though they may be joking when they say that too.
I haven’t seen it show up on Incels.me — at least not yet.
Weirdly, the meme got a much more enthusiastic hearing in the ProLife subreddit.
“Not gonna lie, this got my all teary-eyed,” admitted someone called TheEmeraldCrusader.
“I’ve seen this popping up in some sections of social media that are probably less-visited by people in this sub,” wrote Yesofcoursenaturally,
and it’s been getting a good chunk of positive feedback.
Obviously there’s a layer of (dark) humor to it. But really, this is making some people think more about the issue in a good, if hard to describe way.
OnAllLevelsIAmBoJack agreed:
Anything that gets people talking about it, honestly. The government has “made up its mind” in my country. Anyone who dissents is considered a misogynist by default… That’s why it’s critical women share things like this
EpistemicClosure thought it might be an effective recruiting tool:
This will be good for attracting “incels” into the pro-life movement. They already lean sympathetic too, so it’s very fertile ground.
But not everyone on the subreddit was thrilled by the prospect of incels joining their movement.
“We don’t want them!” declared leathercanid.
“Yeah I don’t know if men who believe they’re entitled to sex and angry that they aren’t getting it are ones to seek out for a pro-life cause,” justtotossit suggested, noting that women tend to be “even pickier” when sex could easily lead to an un-terminatable pregnancy.
Incels don’t care about that. They don’t think they’re ever going to have sex anyway. They’re happy to support anything that hurts women, even if it (theoretically) hurts them too.
H/T — This tweet from @BenIsYourHero that alerted me to the existence of this thing.
I just keep thinking about this meme and how I imagine the GF’s voice
(For the record, it’s basically my voice and I’m doing an obnoxious little breathy baby voice. Ugh.)
@freemage
Given how many pro-life oddballs take violent measures, them trying to get incels–who glorify such extreme and horrific acts–on their side sounds like a spark in a powderkeg.
Should be sunny and warm but not roasting hot, which is good.
I found that getting text onto a mylar blanket was a bit trickier than I thought, so I kept the word-count down – it just says
NO KIDS
IN CAGES
(and then in little letters underneath it says
#toriesout #trumpout)
In coincidental timing, I think it’s quite possible that what I just heard going overhead was mango mussolini and the overkill helicopter cavalcade, on the way back from the dinner. What a total waste of oxygen that shitforbrains is.
They seem to be conveniently forgetting that it’s most likely that over half the aborted babies were male, and therefore could have been Chads… but I guess that would ruin their pity party over the evil womenfolk having aborted the only girls who would ever be in relationships with incels.
It’s very disturbing that 3 undercover cops went to try and bust Stormy Daniels for obviously political reasons. Was the police department taking it upon themselves to avenge Trump? Or was somebody in the administration asking the police force to do their bidding? Either way, it’s FUCKED up.
I also just heard on MSNBC via The Star that Trump has threatened trade war with the UK over May’s “soft brexit” plan. He’s demanding a hard brexit. So, there’s something else to protest. Whatever anyone thinks of May or her brexit plan, and I can’t imagine most of the British mammotheers are big fans of hers, Trump has no place meddling in your domestic political affairs.
I feel like I’m going to be surrounded by Mammotheers tomorrow. If you see me, do come and introduce yourself. Lorde quote on the front, history quote on the back, “the patriarchy isn’t going to smash itself” tshirt, with small black spaniel accompanying. But I suspect the crowds are going to be epic.
Here’s hoping we all have a lovely day!
I haven’t made a sign for tomorrow. Undemonstrative as always, I’m there to add to the numbers.
WWTH:
Why not? We always bend over for the US. But it’s not like the tories are competent enough to steer brexit anyway. We’ll probably get a hard brexit by default.
So, not only did Putin interfere in the referendum to cause Brexit; now, via his prez-puppet, he’s trying to influence what kind of Brexit?
@Moggie
Good for you.
I don’t like May, but I don’t hate her. She is the walking definition of the glass cliff (ie when something’s about to go shit-faced, put a woman in charge; you get credit for promoting a woman, but she carries the can if it’s awful (even when she didn’t create it) and none of your mates are tainted. If she salvages it, you get credit for putting her there. Plus if she doesn’t achieve the impossible, that’s women sunk as leaders for another 10 years).
And all of that is without discussing “how to be a woman”. You know, likeable in him is slutty in her, strong in him is inflexible in her, on message in him is boring in her.
All brexits don’t make sense, IMO. Hard Brexit assumes we still have an empire. Soft Brexit is eerily like being inside, only now we don’t get a say. That’s why I voted remain. I have a number of friends who voted for Lexit (left wing Brexit); I got it, but I kept saying “have you seen the people who will be negotiating?”.
So I’m pleased May finally jumped. We’ll see what happens next.
(Apologies to all who don’t give a damn about UK politics, give it 48 hours.)
In Entertainment News, another idiot said some very dumb words about #metoo!
http://time.com/5337130/henry-cavill-metoo-gq/
@ Ariblester and Catalpa: I actually got the grits reference, although no thanks to my own Damn Yankee upbringing: Luisah Teish references this bit of Southern-fired self-defense in in Jambalaya (along with a wish that the scalded abuser stagger and fall out a second-story window into an unpruned rosebush, to be apprehended by angry bulldyke policewomen; it’s the wording of a wonderfully spiteful Voodoo curse.).
@Weatherwax, regarding ‘glass cliff’:
For the Canadian version, see Kim Campbell. She took over after a prime minister who had all the charm and oiliness of a used car salesman, and instead tended to be rather blunt and honest. She took over in the middle of a civil war on the Conservative side of Canadian politics, and ran the Progressive Conservative/centrist/’Red Tory’ side against the more extremist ‘Reform Party’. The people running the party had absolutely no idea of what to do with her, and ran advertising that basically alienated anybody to the left of her, while anybody to the right of her was generally already going to the Reform Party.
I kind of would have liked to see her actually hold power for longer, just because she was such a frank person for a politician, and didn’t take much to the fripperies and pomp of the job.
Instead the Progressive Conservative Party became a second-rate party while the Reform Party split off further, became the Alliance Party, and then staged a hostile takeover of the original party to form the modern Conservative party, which includes way too many people who see the Republicans in the U.S. as something to emulate.
@Katamount – Well said. I was just hearing about the sex-ed curriculum changes on the CBC radio. They were contrasting it with the Quebec reforms (and I’m not trying to be Quebec > Ontario here; Quebec was dragging their heels on putting sex-ed in schools on any wide level for TEN years because of conflicting interests, and now it’s finally back).
But then the interviewer asked the Quebec guy in a seemingly anxious voice, after talking about how the curriculum would start in kindergarten, “Would children that young learn about same-sex relationships?”*
Er, is that supposed to be scary? Teachers wouldn’t be talking about what sex organs go where, anyway. It could be just as simple as who likes who.
I mean, I would’ve hated it if I hadn’t learned what “gay” meant before my parents had a chance to tell me (my mother is homophobic, I guess from a combination of religion and finding random things gross, and I’m bi). It wasn’t the best context, since one kid had used it to insult another, and the teacher corrected him, saying, “That’s not an insult.” When I found out it meant “a boy who likes boys or a girl who likes girls in a romantic way”** I thought, “Oh? That’s all? Why is that bad?”
*He said, no, not specifically; that’d be around grade 3-4
**Of course queerness encompasses a lot more than that, but I was 9!
Oh yes, also wanted to send waves of good luck and encouragement to the UK Mammotheers protesting Trump and Trump-like policies.
@opposablethumbs and @Weatherwax, I like the poster/blanket-sign ideas! Although I’m more like @Moggie… well, more like not organized enough to get sign things going until the last minute. But I’ve held other people’s when needed.
Brexit is undoubtedly a disaster. The only people who do have a shadow of a point are the Lexiters, and in practice I believe they are mistaken – Brexit will inflict so much damage on the UK economy (and a little damage on the EU’s) that left programmes will become harder/impossible to implement if (when!!!) we even get a decent government, and as ever it will hit the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest. The disaster capitalists like Rees-Mogg and Hunt will coin it in, while ordinary people face job losses, rocketing food prices, welfare cuts and cuts to any kind of public investment like infrastructure, education and the NHS. Not to mention Trump et al buying up the NHS and selling us (unlabelled) food that does not meet EU standards (animals kept under even worse conditions than ours which are bad enough already, hormone-fed beef and chicken that has to be chlorine-washed etc. etc …)
I think most of us know the EU isn’t any kind of perfect guardian angel, but it’s bloody obvious what Trump and Putin want – and that’s a lot worse.
Anyway, even though it’s not likely the odd mammotheer will bump into each other in the crowd – though stranger things have happened 🙂 – it’s still nice to know there will be a sprinkling of us there 🙂
Weatherwax: May is despicable for the work she did at the Home Office. She wasn’t sent in to clean up a mess; she went in and created one. The destruction of the Windrush documents was under her tenure (though she got someone else to take responsibility for it), for example.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Office_hostile_environment_policy
“The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants”
@numerobis
Absolutely. I was talking about her becoming PM; you are correct re Home Office.
On my way home now from The Women’s March. Best wishes to any mammotheers participating in the second leg. Wonderful atmosphere, lots of funny and thought-provoking signs, and the only negativity was an elderly American lady who declared “Trump’s done more for America than the last two presidents”, so I guess she wasn’t keeping a low profile!
Just got back from the second London march. It was a very good-natured affair, though there were some very rude signs, which is hazardous for TV coverage. Quite a few women comfortable wielding the c-word in protest.
Big crowd:
https://twitter.com/JohnWilson14/status/1017768951768592384
On the second London march too – oh my giddy FSM but that was a crowd and a half! Actually felt pretty knackered at the end, because we found ourselves (at random) somewhere roughly in the middle of the march – which meant there were so many people ahead that it took ages to get started. Trafalgar square was absolutely rammed when we got there!
Loads of brilliant signs, I can’t remember a tenth of them there were so many. The Child-Catcher from chitty-chitty-bang-bang was there in person, plus a lot of signs referencing … the jailing of children, the climate change denial, the misogyny, the racism … Trump, il a tout pour plaire. Huge range of different kinds of people. Quite a few USAnians on the march, which was nice 🙂
Got back a short while ago, but first had to quickly make a cake for tomorrow ’cause we got invited to an asado 🙂 (with a proper parillero, too. It is a point of honour apparently that only Argentinians can be proper parilleros 😉 )
Incels, who think that raping women is a great idea and should probably be legal, joining with anti-choice “pro-lifers,” who think women shouldn’t be able to abort the resulting pregnancy.
If that’s not a match made in Hell, I don’t know what is.
One of my favourites was a woman with a sign saying “it’s so bad, even introverts are marching”. My people! I’m stealing that for next time!
@Moggie that’s a really good one, yes 🙂
I also quite liked “Feed him to the corgis”
“You know it’s really bad when even the Australians leave their beer to march”
“We said comb-over, not come over”
“Special relationship? Just say no”
There were so many different individual home-made ones.
“I’m honestly petrified of what he might do” was one.
@Moggie
That’s one of my favourites too.
I liked “I’m not usually one for protests, but really…”
It’s so British.
I also liked “All in all, your’e (sic) just another prick with no wall”.
Since this has sort of become a politics thread, did anyone see the Rod Rosenstein press conference announcing the indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officers for the DNC hack?
The interesting part was the editorializing at the end. He talked about how the party of the victim doesn’t matter, every American, no matter the party should approach this as an attack on the country and keep that in mind.
A lot of people seem to think this is a warning that more indictments are coming, they will be Americans, and Republicans are probably going to be upset about them. It was the super stodgy man’s way of saying
http://67.media.tumblr.com/d6b2f68075df0d9fb4ea188f2bcfdbba/tumblr_inline_o8sfa8sOnp1u8q5k9_500.gif
The obvious choice for the next indictment would be Roger Stone. And I’m sure he will be indicted. But he’s not big enough for Mueller and Rosenstein to worry about the political fallout. Now this of course could mean they plan to indict Trump. But that’s still a ways off I think.
Is an indictment against Donald Trump Jr. forthcoming?
Egads, I hope so. For extra troll power, I hope the indictment comes down on July 27th. To mark the two year anniversary of Trump inviting Russia to hack Hillary Clinton.
I’m also wondering about why Trump is endorsing Boris Johnson. Is he connected to Putin in any way? Is Putin wanting to meddle and get him elected PM? Idk, it was just a strange thing for Trump to do.