By David Futrelle
With his sham FBI background report prematurely closed, and his confirmation vote looming, Brett Kavanaugh is omnipresent in the media at the moment. Cable news is pretty much wall-to-wall Kavanaugh, and social media is overflowing with takes — hot and otherwise — on the overgrown frat boy who somehow became a Supreme Court nominee.
If you’re looking for a respite from all the Kavanaugh talk online, might I suggest you take a look at the Men’s Rights subreddit?
Yes, you read that right. As strange as it might seem, the very people you might expect to be most worked up about the alleged injustices faced by red-faced Brett don’t actually seem to give a shit. On the Men’s Rights subreddit today there is virtually no discussion of the wannabe Supreme Court justice. Scanning through the top 100 posts on the subreddit at the moment, I found only three links to articles with Kavanaugh as their central focus; there are an equal number of threads relating to Cassie Jaye and her two-year-old documentary The Red Pill.
Over on A Voice for Men — which, despite its waning influence, is still the most prominent Men’s Right site outside of the Men’s Rights subreddit — there have been a grand total of three posts on Kavanaugh, one of them bearing the scintillating title “Dr. Christine Ford, Brett Kavanaugh, and the automatic outgroup derogation of men” and another that consists of nothing more than a reposted meme (and a pretty dumb one at that). The featured post on the site today? A tooth-grindingly unfunny “satirical” piece jokingly urging Hollywood to reboot Deliverance with a female-only cast.
Certainly there are plenty of Men’s-Rights-adjacent men (and women) out there talking and writing and tweeting about Kavanaugh. So why are only a tiny handful of those who identify primarily as Men’s Rights activists taking up his terrible cause? Isn’t he, as the alleged victim of allegedly false accusations, the ideal poster boy for the Men’s Rights movement?
It’s not that MRAs don’t support Kavanaugh, at least in an abstract sense, or that they believe his accusers. AVFM’s Paul Elam managed to call Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford a “rape liar” eight times in his post defending the red-faced nominee.
Meanwhile, in the handful of discussions of l’affaire Kavanaugh I’ve managed to find in the MRA-adjacent Men Going Their Own Way subreddit, the regulars have heaped praise on Kavanaugh while referring to Ford, variously, as a “bitch,” a “whore,” a “fucking lying piece of shit,” and a “dumb twat” who “probably fantasizes about” getting raped.
“It’s about damn time a man like Kav stood up to these evil, vile, feminist bitches trying to crush a man’s life on accusation alone,” wrote one MGTOW calling himself GoDuke2018Now. “I’m hoping more men will see this and stand the fuck up and fight back against these false ‘allegations’ feminist whores use to attack us.”
“That bitch called christine ford is fucking disgusting,” agreed someone called Drugs110. “I’ve seen plenty of 70 year old grannies more attractive than that ugly sack of shit.”
But despite their admiration for Kavanaugh and their even more palpable hatred of Ford, MRAs and MGTOWs are having a hard time staying interested in the political drama set off by Ford’s accusations.
Why is this? Because of a certain political obtuseness that lies at the center of MRA ideology. Taking their cue from Men;s Rights granddaddy Warren Farrell, MRAs have managed to convince themselves that we live in a world secretly ruled, behind the scenes, by women.
In his seminal The Myth of Male Power, Farrell argues that even though “almost all legislators are men,” the majority of voters (at least in the US) are women, and thus the men nominally in charged are forced to do their bidding of their secret female overlordsladies. “Overall,” he wrote, “a legislator is to the voter what a chauffeur is to the employer – both look like they’re in charge but both can be fired if they don’t go where they’re told.”
Weird, because some 55 percent of women oppose Kavanaugh, with only 37 percent supporting his elevation to the bench. Yet it seems highly likely that Kavanaugh will be confirmed. It’s safe to say that, especially at this particular moment in our political history, you’re not going to find a lot of women out there who see male legislators as their own personal chauffeurs.
Amazingly, most MRAs seem to have bought into Farrell’s absurd logic almost completely, dismissing both Democrats and Republicans as more-or-less-identical puppets of the so-called “gynocracy” and reflexively ignoring electoral politics.
I’m glad. Because it’s clear that this stance has been disastrous for the Men’s Rights movement, dramatically limiting its political influence.
Several years ago, the emergent alt-right embraced Trump with enthusiasm, at once boosting his campaign and their own political fortunes; now they have a president who has repeatedly signaled his support for them and who has taken numerous concrete steps to help carry out their racist agenda.
Meanwhile, Men’s Rights activists stood on the sidelines, and have watched their movement shrivel even as the fortunes of the alt-right have soared. There are assorted alt-rightists in and around the White House, and they have the ear of the president. Men’s Rights activists could have had the same sort of influence on Trump, who is after all a huge misogynist, someone who would undoubtedly react with enthusiasm to many MRA ideas, were he ever to hear them. But MRAs have so little political capital (and basic political knowhow) that they can’t even get their foot in the door.
MRAs’ continuing disinterest in Kavanaugh shows they’ve learned precisely nothing from this self-inflicted debacle.
Thanks, fellas! You’ve done all of use who oppose your vile agenda an enormous favor.
Actually, you’ve done us two favors. Because there are some on the left who share your seemingly cynical but actually profoundly naive dismissal of electoral politics, who still argue with a straight face that there is no meaningful difference between Democrats and Republicans and that voting is largely a waste of energy.
Anyone who thinks this is a viable political stance in the US at the present moment is invited to take a look at the Mens Rights movement and ask if they want to end up like them.
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I’m not familiar with fax machines. Is it not technically possible to omit items from the printing queue, or is that illegal for public offices? Like, fax evasion?
Oh, Alan Robertshaw, you are the best kind of evil! Very good suggestions indeed.
Welcome to the comments, Nugax! Very good advice with the faxes. I am not ashamed to say I use my awesome fax machine (from the 1990s) all the time.
@ carriev
Thank you! I try my best. 🙂
How will causing a senator’s fax machine to run out of toner/ink help with the goal of maximising the number of voters having their say?
@ moggie
If republicans won’t be swayed by a victim of sexual assault then I doubt they’ll give a toss what the public say. So it’s really just to cause them as much inconvenience as possible.
@Nugax Resistbot has been getting quite the workout. Sends texts, letters, faxes and e-mails.
https://resist.bot/
“Every $1 funds a real mailed letter to Congress, or 100 faxes. Show Congress we’re here, and we’re voting in November. “
Off-topic, but I’ve just found a GoFundMe that’s very worthy of donations. I’ve seen stories of people in similar situations in these comments, so I’m hoping this will reach someone sympathetic to her plight.
https://www.gofundme.com/help-leaving-a-toxic-life
So Collins Voted yes on Kavanaugh. And Manchin Voted yes to make it a bipartisan vote. Enjoy
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/brett-kavanaugh-vote-confirmation-protests-fbi-report-senate-latest-today-2018-10-05-live-updates/
My phone broke and I’m in the process of getting my apps going again. Can anyone re-invite me to the discord chat?
@ Brony
Oogly posted you the link; but she appears to have offended the WordPress mammoth. So here you go…
https://discord.gg/4TQ9xj
I can’t process what’s actually happening all that well today so I’m going to focus on trivialities.
You’re scare-quoting the word “allegations”? Do you think they’re not actually alleging anything? Do “you” not “know” what “words” mean?
@ Viscaria
My favourite example of that sort of thing was when someone on a political programme was frothing about “Arthur so-called Scargill!”
I might not be around much this weekend as I’m not sure I’ll be able to avoid breaking the comment policy. Off to drink a whole lot of wine.
@Viscaria
Someone on Twitter yesterday was having quite the meltdown over someone talking about the alleged SA and when someone said something about “if” he did it the tantrum-thrower latched onto that and kept repeatedly telling people they need to use the word “if” when talking about allegations. I’m pretty sure they didn’t know what the word “allegation” means. Or how the word “if” is correctly used in a sentence.
Nice try, Davey boy.
Don’t be such a linear thinker.
What you’re seeing is how manospherians have matured. MRAs are old news. To the extent they still serve a purpose it is as a gateway drug. MGTOW, neo-masculinists, and red-pilled men of wisdom from various perspectives understand how to make use of this situation without giving the Left what they want. We operate in all sorts of ways and under various banners. The Alt-Right and the Alt-Lite and even mainstream conservatives have been influenced by our teachings. Notice that we didn’t get a female SCOTUS nominee despite the pressure from gynocentric traditionalists to nominate Amy Barrett. Kavanaugh is a step in the right direction but as a lower court judge he made a point of hiring female clerks. And we all know that being the father of daughters, as he is, fags a man up to some degree. We won’t pretend Kavanaugh is our savior. We make use of him, Trump, the Alt-Right, and others even as we may criticize them. Politics is one small aspect of our game. As Breitbart said, “politics is downstream from culture”. The labels don’t matter. We’re winning. But much remains to be done.
@Alan, Ooglyboggles
Thank you!
I admire Senator Murkowski’s courage. But I’m on pins and needles to see what happens tomorrow.
@BrainBoner
You’re beautiful when you talk tough.
…but he’d be so much more attractive if he smiled all the time?
@BonerBrain: Who, exactly, is this “we” you keep speaking of? Putin and his cronies?
And to judge by the pre-election polling for this November, you are most assuredly not “winning”.
@Msexceptiontotherule
I’m pretty sure he’s talking tough with a smile. He’s just that cool.
@Surplus to Requirements
More linear thinking. When will SJWs learn!
I…what.
Boner,
You’re right that your side is winning right now. The problem is you’re doing it only by rigging the system. Congressional districts are gerrymandered. The Senate gives disproportionate power to a white conservative rural minority. Voter suppression laws keep our vote counts down. The courts are packed with far right extremists. All this is being accelerated by a president who lost the popular vote and only won the electoral vote with the help of a foreign dictator.
The ultra wealthy have been very successful at using the racism and misogyny of this disproportionately powerful minority to incrementally take all the money and power in this country. But they’ve increasingly had to destroy democratic institutions to do it. This might be news to you because I get the impression that you say “we” not understanding that you are one of the puppets, not one of the puppeteers. You might eventually figure that out if they decide they have enough power not to even need you anymore.
Here’s the thing. Your side has let the mask slip in the past couple of years. With Trump’s behavior, the media establishment could tell itself and its audience/readers that it’s anomalous. That Trump is breaking democracy by himself. The Kavanaugh farce has shown that to be false. The entire GOP is fully complicit in Trump’s mission to kill democracy. They have been since before Trump came to power because they share this mission. They were opposed to his nomination at first because they weren’t ready to accelerate things so far so fast. They were right to worry about this. Because that will be their eventual downfall. They’ve been winning because most people haven’t realized they’re losing. And we’re all losing, even the people like you who approve of this shit. But they decided to embrace this acceleration of fascism anyway. They can’t help themselves. There are any number of right wing white judges who have the same commitment to authoritarianism as Kavanaugh. They could have killed the nomination and gotten someone who could be sold as reasonable. But the GOP is on too much of a power trip for that. “Ramming through” Kavanaugh is a dominance display. As Adam Serwer said, the cruelty is the point. With this, the party has revealed itself as just like Trump. People are starting, bit by bit to notice.
The could news for the fascists and the bad news for the rest of us is that a giant chunk of the population is ignorant and apathetic about politics and extremely dedicated to that ignorance. Bread and circuses work. Until they don’t. The indicators for another recession are present. The decent economy is keeping things from getting truly unstable. But the acceleration of income inequality combine with the deregulation binge is a recipe for economic instability. Economic instability brings political unrest. The Obama presidency came early enough in the last recession to head off real unrest. He and the Democrats didn’t do enough economic policy-wise, but they did just enough to keep the country together. The way the GOP is now, they will never allow even small fixes to the economy next time they’re needed.
The wealthy and powerful in this country have either forgotten that they need political stability to operate in peace or they know and are trying to grab as much as they can before the unrest gets violent. I think it’s the latter. The reason I think this is because they’re really, really in a dither about progressives yelling them out of restaurants or cornering them in elevators. They’re calling this non violent but in-your-face method of protest incivility – even comparing it to lynching – because somewhere in their shriveled hearts they know that they’re lucky unrest hasn’t turned violent yet. They know they’re courting it. They know that giving up the pretense of caring about democracy will cause their demise at some point in the near future. But they can’t help themselves. They’re drunk with power.
The only question now is how much damage will be done before your kind loses. Because you always do. The wealthy always back down in the face of unrest because as I said, they benefit from stability.
So, tl’dr, congrats I guess on getting to see the suffering that you apparently get off on. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because it won’t last forever and you will like join the ranks of the suffering sooner or later, which will be less fun for you I imagine.
@Bonerhead
Don’t celebrate too early, fascist. November isn’t here yet.