By David Futrelle
It’s pledge drive time again! And your donations have never been more important.
As you may have noticed, the media world is a pretty screwed-up place at the moment. Media outlets that have done critical work in challenging Trump and the right — like Buzzfeed, Vice and HuffPost — have laid off hundreds of staffers in recent months. Meanwhile, out-and-out propaganda mills lavishly funded by billionaires continue to pump out right-wing disinformation on a daily basis.
It has become more critical than ever for those ordinary non-billionaires who oppose the current slide into authoritarianism to put their money where their heart is — funding media that can make sense of, and counter, the far-right ideologies that have become mainstream in the last several years.
That’s why I hope you’ll contribute to this fund drive. We Hunted the Mammoth has been helping people understand the misogynist backlash and take on the reactionary right for eight years now, largely thanks to donations from readers.
But I can’t keep the blog going without your help. WHTM has no billionaire backers. It has no obtrusive ads. It’s a truly independent, shoestring-budget publication funded entirely by your donations.
So please give what you can — either as a one-time donation or a monthly pledge.
You don’t need a PayPal account; credit cards are fine. And if you want to avoid PayPal altogether, email me at [email protected] and I’ll let you know how. THANKS!
While I am truly grateful for each and every contribution, no matter how small, your donation or $25 or more, or a monthly pledge of $10 or more, will help to provide some much-needed financial stability to the blog.
If I’ve made you laugh, helped you argue with a nephew who’s fallen down the Jordan Peterson rabbithole, or just made you feel a little less alone in the face of all the Nazis and misogynists and Nazi misogynists out there, please donate what you can to help me continue to do those things.
If you can’t swing a donation right now, there are many other ways to support the blog — from promoting posts on social media to sending in tips on stories to offering your insights (and amusing gifs) in the comments, (If you have other ideas, or special artistic, technical or promotional talents you could offer, let me know!)
Thank you again for your support! I literally could not do it without you.
Delurking to say thank you, David, for what you do. It’s vital to know about these toxic beings, and their organizations and tactics.
https://www.renegademothering.com/2018/06/14/you-are-not-going-crazy-america-is-gaslighting-you/
OK, why have I been put on moderation?
A small contribution to keep you afloat. It’s a petty thing, but I do like reading your takes on incel bile.
🙂
I’m unemployed but I made a small donation. Keep fighting these misogynist jerks!
Speaking of billionaires….
Billionaires literally torture women for fun in the depraved world Trump is trying to create: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/billionaires-literally-torture-women-fun-depraved-world-trump-trying-create/?fbclid=IwAR3lD6YJ04KDT-dsqis4ckmxu9yamu6SdNco3ULJlkRZ8tTOf0KoOiqPHJ0
The title is a little purple prosey, but not entirely unjustified.
Thanks, everyone! I really appreciate it.
Surplus, you haven’t been put on moderation. The sometimes persnickety spam filter grabbed your comment but I fished it out.
@Skylalalalalalala
Thank you for linking that.
I hope these disgusting men and all their allies burn.
@Surplus
Thank you also for that link. We’re all exhausted here, but have no choice but to keep dragging ourselves forward.
Donations are a bit easier when you let us know what you need, like now. I hope it helps ?
(Possibly not appropriate here, but what is an average/appropriate amount?)
OT, but I read an interesting Daily Beast article that reminded me of one of Lindsey Ellis’s examinations of the Death of the Author:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/movie-fan-boy-armies-rage-on-in-the-era-of-trump
It just got me thinking that I can’t imagine what it feels like to have taken the time to have created these characters, wrote the stories of these characters, particularly over the course of multiple works, then basically be told by the fanbase that they know more about the characters and the property than you. I mean, there’s admiration and writing fanfiction and then there’s essentially “story by committee” that social media seems to be fuelling.
OT: I’m currently watching the Cohen hearing in my criminology class. Apparently, it’s a perfect example of Control Theory: those in power commit crime to stay in power.
How long will the pledge drive run? I’m a little short on cash right now and I won’t be able to make any donations until Friday at the earliest.
“Control Theory”?
I saw an excerpt of it earlier. Between that and the articles recently posted about uberrich and human trafficking, these guys are reminding me more and more of the Goa’uld System Lords. Or, at the very least, Caligula.
@Surplus
Basically, criminology is the study of why people commit crimes. There are a lot of different theories in the field that apply to different people and crimes, but the Cohen hearing is a good example of Control Theory. Basically, Control Theory states that people in power will commit crime as a way to retain that power. It’s something you also see with drug kingpins and mob bosses.
Contributed a little bit, cause money will be kinda tight here till the end of the year too. Hopefully next year will be better… and wehuntedthemammoth.com still around for a long, long time.
O hai Mr. Futrelle, I don’t know how you can stand it. K thx bai.
I’ve made a donation. Slightly embarrassed that this is the first time I have. Money has been very tight for a while, but I’m feeling almost fluid this month, so I’m pleased to be able to contribute. This community and your hard work is worth it! I’ll try to make it a more regular thing in future.
Why should I wish to “stick it to the billionaires”? What’s wrong about being successful? Isn’t that the American dream? Why do you oppose it?
Because the billionaires most assuredly do wish to stick it to you. See also: dismantling of antitrust; destruction of unions; “casualization” of labor, “flexible” labor, and similar euphemisms; the precariat; wage theft; offshoring; Martin Shkreli; monopoly pricing; copyright enforcement; fiscal conservatism in politics; Citizens United; and more.
“Because the billionaires most assuredly do wish to stick it to you. See also: dismantling of antitrust; destruction of unions; “casualization” of labor, “flexible” labor, and similar euphemisms; the precariat; wage theft; offshoring; Martin Shkreli; monopoly pricing; copyright enforcement; fiscal conservatism in politics; Citizens United; and more.”
@surplus to requirements: At last, something resembling a counterargument. I was beginning to think every single contributor to this blog was afraid to engage me (which would be typical as liberals are a cowardly and superstitious lot). Unfortunately for you, I shall now vivisect your arguments, as they are precisely as shallow, superficial, and easily-rebutted as I have come to expect from people who get their sound bytes from the liberal media.
dismantling of antitrust: Monopolies cannot exist in a truly free market. Antitrust laws are an attempt to solve, with harmful government regulation, a problem created by harmful government regulation. It’s medicine to cure the side effects of the medicine Big Government sells you for the disease you never had in the first place.
destruction of unions: Workers have a right to organize, but they do NOT have a right to “win”. If workers allowed to organize to act in their best interests, so are corporations. “Destruction of unions” is liberal crybaby whining. If your job is so bad, find a different one. If your employer is so evil, create a competing product. Stop expecting people to hand things to you just for existing.
casualization of labor, flexible labor, and similar euphemisms: Buzzwords are not an argument. Please state precisely what you believe the problem to be.
the precariat: Buzzwords are not an argument. Please state precisely what you believe the problem to be.
wage theft: Liberal crybully code for “I deserve more money.” Dismissed.
offshoring: Corporations will naturally take their business where costs are lowest. This is particularly a problem in the United States because wages are artificially inflated by the so-called “minimum wage,” and the value of the dollar is artificially inflated by government money-printing and the end of the gold standard. Note that ZERO Democrats and very few Republicans have openly addressed either of these issues. They are caught in the liberal dream of becoming rich by printing money and then giving it to yourself.
Martin Shkreli: A smart businessman will always set prices to “whatever the market will bear.” If you don’t like it, offer a competitive product! Stop asking Big Daddy Government to give you free stuff!
monopoly pricing: As above, no monopoly survives a truly free market. Government regulation cannot stop monopolies; it only allows the monopolies to entrench themselves through buying the government. Deregulate the market, end the monopoly. It really is THAT simple. Or else why do you think the rich donate just as much to Democrats as they do to Republicans?
copyright enforcement: Top lel. Liberals can’t decide whether they’re in favor of workers owning their labor (see unions above) or whether everybody should work for free because Big Government says so. Or do you not think creativity like song writing, books, ect. are “labor”? Don’t bother answering, I know the answer is “you just want free stuff.”
fiscal conservatism in politics: Buzzwords are not an argument. Please state precisely what you believe the problem to be.
Citizens United: The rich are allowed free speech as well, and free speech includes saying things, and backing candidates, you don’t like.
Overall a very poor effort. I’d give you an F because 70% of your claims are garbage and the rest aren’t even intelligible, but I’ll mark it up to a D+ since so far you are the only one to attempt to defend any of what feminists and liberals CLAIM TO believe.
Lol.
The most common response here are “buzzwords are not an argument.”
Each of those “buzzwords” is the name for a political concept which our troll almost certainly doesn’t agree with, but absolutely isn’t a buzzword – each has a meaning and a body of work behind it.
Specifically, saying “buzzwords are not an argument” is an evasion tactic of a Begging the Question form. Our troll asserts that the position is a meaningless buzzword and presents this as the evidence that its meaning may be disregarded, instead of actually doing the work of addressing it straight-on.
As for the others, they’re a fairly classic mix of straw-man (asserting X is actually Y, where X is the actual position and Y is a hyperbolic and easily dismissed misinterpretation) and raw assertions (e.g. monopolies cannot exist in a truly free market).
I’d peel you like a grape, but I’m not sure if I feel like it.
Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
History; you don’t knows it.
…but even if that steaming pile of utter crap actually was true, we aren’t living in a truly free market, so what the hell is your point even on your own terms?
Jesus, you’re really fucking stupid.
Ah. I see we have another libertarian/ancap type here.
The problem with that is, due to economies of scale (and, once those have been used to grow a decent war chest, the ability to operate at a loss for a while to drive upstarts out of a market) the firms in a market will tend to coalesce, and due to synergies (e.g. eliminating middlemen by swallowing your own suppliers) horizontal integration is common as well. As a result, a hypothetical ancap utopia is thermodynamically unstable — it moves to a lower-energy configuration by mergers and acquisitions until there’s one corporation to rule them all and everyone is (if employed at all) both an employee and a customer of it, bound by numerous contracts of adhesion.
At that point, you might as well rename that corporation’s CEO “King George”.
Yep — Galt’s Gulch is in a thermodynamically unstable state and will turn into a feudal kingdom in the space of a few decades to a century, tops.
The only way to avoid that outcome is to have a public sector controlled, ultimately, by we, the people, that acts as a counterbalance to large assemblies of private power. This was well-demonstrated during the 50s and 60s, when unions and government antitrust authority were both strong. There was a huge, rising and prosperous middle class and a vibrantly competitive market with relatively few giant firms and a wide array of alternatives for employment and for purchasing goods and services. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a darn sight better than what we have now, economically speaking, and it certainly beats feudalism.
Also, your ideas have actually been tried, invariably ending in disaster:
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/bn53b3/atlas-mugged-922-v21n10
And now that I’ve proved your ideal society to be unworkable, both theoretically and with empirical evidence, please rethink your entire worldview.
Contract Jack or should i say AMBROSE or was it CRIANNON?
How desperate are you to come back, stinking up threads, pushing boundaries for the lulz.
You are still a garbage person. You like to drop little shit nuggets to rile up the libtards, thinking that if people respond in any way you are pwning them good. Grow up, loser.
Also, donated, just to stick it to the TROLLS and BILLIONAIRES.
Everytime I see a troll like this one I think, welp, that’s another few bucks to send to David.