By David Futrelle
We’re awash in a wave of male political violence.
On Saturday, a man radicalized by the so-called alt-right online walked into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and murdered 11 mostly elderly Jews. On Friday, authorities arrested a man for mailing more than a dozen bombs to prominent Democratic politicians and other critics of Trump. On Wenesday, a white supremacist man shot and killed two elderly black shoppers at a Kroger supermarket after first trying to force his way into a black church, his real target. I’ve lost track of how many far-right thugs have been arrested in recent days and charged with violent crimes, but they’ve all been men as well.
The fact that these terrorists — and that’s what they all are — have all been men is not incidental. Men are far more likely than women to resort to extreme violence to “make a point,” either personal or political. The vast majority of terrorists are male. Almost all mass killers are male.
The alt-right, which inspires and commits most of the political violence in the Unites States right now, is an overwhelmingly male movement. While there are a few prominent women in and around the movement, most of the leaders and almost all of the footsoldiers, are male, like those in the male-only fascist street gang known as the Proud Boys.
You might think that all this might be cause for a tiny bit of self-reflection on the part of those who call themselves Men’s Rights Activists.
But if you take a look at the current top 100 posts on the Men’s Rights subreddit — the largest Men’s Rights forum online, with close to 200,000 subscribers — there is only one topic devoted to the recent wave of terrorist violence. And it’s a post complaining that men aren’t being given enough credit for being the ones who “stand in harm’s way” during such incidents because the vast majority of SWAT team members are male.
Meanwhile, the subreddit is filled with stories about female criminality and violence. In addition to the usual parade of stories about female sexual predators, there’s a link to a Daily Mail article about a woman in China who slashed more than a dozen kindergarten students with a meat cleaver, and another link to a sloppy blog post about a prolific female poisoner … who lived in Italy in the fifteenth century.
“She killed at least 600 men,” the OP says of her. “Sounds like a good candidate for a feminist hero.”
Yes, he’s getting mad in advance about the hypothetical possibility of feminists today ironically embracing a female mass murderer who lived nearly 500 years ago and about whom very little reliable information is known (including her actual body count).
What are some of the other issues that Men’s Rights Redditors have collectively decided are more important to discuss than the hate murders and attempted assassinations of the last week, all carried out by men? Here are a few. (Click on the screenshots to go to the discussions on Reddit.)
And here’s one that’s clearly a burning issue for millions of men:
To be fair, most of those commenting on this particular issue think it’s stupid. But it’s still there in the top 100.
But the discussion that stood out most for me was this one, less for the topic itself — cis men’s supposed “right” to abortion, a perennial Men’s Rights favorite — but because of the charming way the OP decided to frame the debate.
He goes on for a couple more paragraphs, bringing up the idea of “financial abortions” — that is, a legalized version of deadbeat dadding — but I do love the idea that providing for a child that you have sired is as traumatic as someone literally forcing you to abort your baby.
As a men, I think that’s bullshit.
I know it’s not news that MRAs would rather talk about their hurt feelings when comedians make jokes about men being big dummies than they would any topic that forces them to possibly acknowledge that there are aspects of masculinity that are, indeed, toxic. But I’m still struck, even after all these years of tracking MRAs, by just how relentlessly avoid even the barest minimum of self-reflection on these issues.
No men’s movement that doesn’t in some way address the problem of male violence will ever be anything but a reactionary boys’ club reinforcing the most poisonous parts of toxic masculinity.
Discuss that, dudes.
CORRECTION: I corrected some incorrect info about the Kroger shooting (I had misstated the day on which it happened and the gender of his victims).
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Hey, a correction: Gregory Bush shot a man AND a woman in a Kroger on Wednesday. Not two women, not on Thursday. Just so happens to be one of the two Krogers I frequent for my grocery shopping, I’d been there last Sunday.
I do kind of wish that parents could sign off all responsibility for a child and we had a state and society kind and thoughtful enough to provide good care and support to children instead. The kind of man that wants a financial abortion also strikes me as the kind of abuser who thinks he owns a child and has rights over the mother if he provides any money, who uses child care payments as a form of control and who go after those families with violence if they are denied access but still have to pay child support.
No child should have to deal with a parent that is angry about their existence, and I would rather children were raised well by taxpayers than children and actual caring parents should be forced to keep on interacting with them.
Yep. MRAs should spend their energy supporting universal basic income, free university and (if in the US) universal healthcare. Then child support wouldn’t be so necessary.
But, no. They’d rather women and children suffer than have a just society with not much suffer for people of any gender.
@David:
Quick note — you’ve got a typo. It should be “As a man,” not “As a men.”
I mean, I know we all know you’re actually a bunch of ferrets in a suit, but I wouldn’t want the MRAs to see this, notice a grammatical error (assuming they’re capable of doing so) and immediately start insisting you’re an NPC because one small typo proves you’re not real or something.
As for the post itself: Yup. Exactly as expected.
Damn, no edit window. Sorry for the double post. I was just wondering: apparently there have been 365 mass shootings in the US this year. Does anyone know if even one of them was carried out by a woman?
I believe that typo is riffing on the same typo appearing in the post under discussion.
Edit: According to this Washington Post page – https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/mass-shootings-in-america/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5e0f1b792cb0 – the most recent female mass shooter was in 2015.
@Diptych:
Oops. This is what I get from not actually reading the things David quotes, only his comments on them.
I also tend not to read the trolls here, only the takedowns from the regulars. I generally find that sufficient to understand what they’re on about, and a good way of avoiding the brain damage they can cause.
Same, honestly. I just want the good parts, not the bad parts! But today I happened to read part of the quoted drivel, noticed the typo too, and had a chuckle over it.
Semi-OT for this site: For those who were wondering what Candace Owens and Kayne West have been up to, they’ve been trying to convince African-Americans to quit the Democratic Party and join the Republicans. Something about how the Democrats have done nothing but lie to Black people and take their votes for granted, as near as I can figure things.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/politics/what-is-blexit-candace-owens-explains-plan-to-lead-black-exit-from-democratic-party-impact-2020.amp
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/29/kanye-west-designs-clothing-candace-owens-blexit
Yes, one of those links is to a Fox News site, but it does give a decent introduction of what Blexit is supposed to be for those who have yet to encounter this iteration of these ideas.
Is there anything you can watch on YouTube that doesn’t cause their algorithm to recommend Nazis? I put on a The Skating Lesson recap of Skate Canada and amid all the recommendations of gymnastics and figure skating (which is most of what I use the site for) up came Tucker Carlson being interview by Adam Carolla. Wtf YouTube?
Given that Brexit has been a huge shitshow, it seems really weird to try and make a movement named after it happen.
Clearly, it’s a deep-state long con. Kanye is sleflessly sacrificing his reputation by pretending to want black people to abandon the Democrats, but deliberately sabotaging his efforts so the opposite will happen. Oh, and Soros is paying him for it.
@WWTH:
Well, it’s Candace Owens and Kanye West. “Weird” is pretty much a given, along with “clueless”.
I think it’s a reflection of the degree to which right-wing politics is all about “owning the libs” these days. They see Brexit as a massively successful trolling job and so they want to emulate it.
And Sarah, thanks for the correction. I fixed the post.
Ha, ha.
Nah.
Yep – Brexit is a shit show for so many reasons, but they cannot or will not acknowledge that and they do see the riling up of Remainers as a “GOOD THING”.
On the other hand, I just found out yesterday that we’ll be getting a Brexit commemorative coin (a 50p) so that makes it all ok.
“Financial abortions”, ugh.
Men, when you consent to sex, you consent to fatherhood.
@rugbyyogi:
Here’s the design:
https://twitter.com/pixelatedboat/status/1056835786446856192
Yeah this whole financial abortion shit. Just wear a condom!
I mean it’s obvs not a 100 % certain way to avoid getting someone pregnant – it does happen that women rape men who, e.g., are too drunk to really get what’s happening, and even if you do wear a condom it might tear. Still, I’d say the vast majority of men having sex with women is consensual on part of the man, it’s hardly common for women to keep pushing and pressuring men into taking the condom off or not using one in the first place, and if you do use one every time you have sex, it’s 98 % safe. That doesn’t mean, like some people think, that every single intercourse has a 2 % risk of ending in pregnancy, but that out of a 100 couples regularly having sex for a year relying only on condom use 2 of those couples will have an unwanted pregnancy. So they’re pretty damn safe.
And that’s not even going into the stupidity of claiming that paying child support is as much of a violation as a forced pregnancy…
That’s only if used perfectly, the actual effectiveness, taking in to consideration less than perfect use, is around 82% to 85%.
@Dvärghundspossen
More importantly, it is very difficult for a condom to fail to work in a way that isn’t obvious to the users (eg. it split, or rolled of) and so in the event of anything bad happening you know you need to go hunt down some suitable emergency contraception.
The chance of an unexpected pregnancy occurring is much lower than the 2% per year that it suggests, so long as the men involved can operate a condom and not fuck anyone who is unconscious or too inebriated to recognise when a Bad Thing has happened. Problem is, that demographic is considered a Man’s Right…
(there’s the small issue of user-error that goes un-noticed, like putting the thing on inside out, then inverting it and re-using it without thinking too hard about the possible consequences. i can think of a couple that did exactly this, and had a pregnancy scare, and they both had phds. evidently [sex] education only goes so far…)
If men weren’t sensitive snowflakes who can’t handle the same side effects women experience, a male hormonal birth control would most likely be on the market. Maybe a campaign to point this out and pressure governments to go forward with getting a pill out there would be a better use of activist time than whining about not being able to abandon children is. Or supporting right wing anti choice politicians and judges because it owns the libs.
It’s almost like they’re more into women suffering than helping men in a positive way. Not a stunningly original observation, I know, but it never hurts to bust out an old classic.
And yes, David, you’re probably right about them liking the troll aspect of brexit. I’ll consider this an admission that they know they’re nothing without Russian social media bots.
Halloween…. in the opinion of the L.A. Times circa 1901….
https://slate.com/culture/2018/10/against-halloween-los-angeles-times-1901.html
that ought’a get the migtoes going….
regarding the topic on point….
(puts fingers in ears) NM, NM, NM, NM, NM… I CAN’T HEEEAAARRRRR YOU…”
(puts fingers in ears AGAIN) “NM, NM, NM, NM, NM…”
Of course men should be able to have abortions; anyone who can get pregnant should be able to have an abortion- oh, wait, we’re talking about cis men.
If the dudes are so scared of a woman keeping a pregnancy, how about, in addition to wearing a condom (and rallying for more and better birth control options for men), they, y’know, actually TALK to their sexual partners and discuss what the plan is for an unintended pregnancy. That way, they can only have sex with the women who really don’t want any fucking kids and will definitely have an abortion if it comes down to it.
Of course, that isn’t going to happen, since it will require these numbskulls to:
1) actually put any though or effort into considering the consequences of sex,
2) believe that women are actually individual people who have different thoughts and plans for the future, instead of uniform automatons that provide life support for pleasurable body parts
3) only have sex with women they trust, which would result in 0 sex
4) share control of the situation instead of demanding all of it
5) find a woman who is vehemently childfree but still willing to have sex with an MRA. In my experience, most of us are pretty feminist and progressive and wouldn’t put up with their kind of bullshit.