By David Futrelle
Here’s an interesting little exchange on Tumblr between a woman discussing how common it is for creepy older dudes to catcall girls in their early teens and another woman who thinks it’s no big deal. Because it doesn’t involve alligators.
No, really.
Hey, men’s rights lady, sorry you got chased by an alligator. That would indeed suck. You’d think that the experience might have made you more sympathetic to teen girls having to deal with large predators, but I guess not.
Having conversations with you must be a treat.
“Oh, fuck, I just got robbed at gunpoint.”
“YEAH WELL LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE TIME I GOT CHASED BY AN ALLIGATOR.”
“A guy just stuck a gun in my face and took my wallet and phone!”
“WAS HE BY ANY CHANCE AN ALLIGATOR?”
As logical fallacies go, this is one of the more inventive ones I’ve seen of late. “What about the time I got chased by an alligator” is a form of whataboutism, I guess, but it really needs a name of its own. Argumentum Ad Alligator, perhaps.
Here’s the most effective rebuttal:
H/T — r/TheBluePill
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Isn’t this a fairly common tactic, just with an especially stupid spin?
“I was harassed.”
“Were you physically assaulted?”
“No, but-”
“Then it’s not important.”
The alligator is new, though. I guess Red Pillers can change… so long as you don’t ask them to change from being awful to women.
(Not so) funny thing : not alligators but “Les Crocodiles” is a cartoon against sexism, sexual harassment, domestic violence and so on, here. In it, all hetero men are drawn with an anthropomorphized body of a crocodile (even when they are just bystanders), and each story presents problematic situations for women (all based on stories told by victims on the Projet Crocodile website).
@Alan Robertshaw
Those pictures made me think: imagine a young woman being pursued by an angry incel only for him to be intercepted and devoured by her gator friend. It would be some real Prince of Tides stuff.
Please. I grew up in Pennsylvania, where the literal state bird is the ruffed grouse. You had it e-z down in Florida. The ruffed grouse is one scary bird.
I never actually saw one of these smallish birds. But what if I had!
@Alan:
Well, it sounds sinister, but one could look on the bright side. He used to pull the strings of the most powerful man in the world, and now he’s reduced to grifting students.
OT
Trump wants to sign an executive order that could potentially allow him to keep lying on social media without being corrected.
@Snowberry
Is that another reason they were mad at the fatter mannequin? Because they couldn’t catcall it?
@Makroth
I heard about that. Obviously it’s an attack on the First Amendment, which does make me wonder how he plans to enforce it. We don’t have a branch of government for social media crimes.
@Makroth:
Let’s listen to the widespread conservative outrage about the government interfering with a private company’s policies:
@Moggie
It’s almost as deafening as the conservatives defending the free speech of antifa protestors and opposing police murders of civilians.
Was the alligator threatening potential sexual assault? If not, doesn’t count.
I worked at a riding stable where they had guard geese. Those freaks are MEAN and will take bites, leave massive bruises, and even break a bone if they get in a lucky hit. Plus they burst your eardrums with their honks while they attack you.
Catcalling is much more threatening, from just active demeaning to potential rape and physical harm.
(Fun fact, stallions, like dogs, find the crotch of a menstruating human fascinating.)
Re Trump. The idiot really, really thinks signing an order with a sharpie makes it so. It’s like, magic! Plus the owners of Twitter are so much richer than Trump, I can’t see anything Trump does having any effect on them.
@ Schnookums Von Fancypants
I’m putting that joke up there with “man’s best friend-zoned” as one of my favorites I’ve seen on here. ?
@Snowberry I’ll take a wild guess at athletic body language?
You should see the size of the crocodiles here – and they can climb walls!
http://lapalmaisland.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/babyGecko444b.jpg
@Policy of Madness
Same here on wearing a bra. I skipped training bra stage and went right to C cup. In elementary school. Adults were gross. The comments grown men made about me as an elementary school student in fourth grade (US) still makes my skin crawl. When it happened to my friends I stood up and yelled but when it happened to me I wasn’t good at advocating for myself.
Only adult who commented who wasn’t gross was my poor fourth grade teacher. He didn’t know how to tell me I should probably start wearing a bra. He ended up getting my best friend to talk to me. (Our school guidance counselor was crap and the only other fourth grade teacher was a younger dude). Lol. It had to be hard for him. Lol. And it was only because I wore baggier tank top that showed a bit too much side. Lol.
@Alan @VP
My sister graduated from A&M as well. First thought when I saw that picture: “That really is peak Aggie.”
@Sheila Crosby:
Ooh! So smol!
Not related, but there have been a second somewhat important french politician dead by COVID.
I didn’t look at other countries closely, but apparently the french health system isn’t much better for rich political leaders than for the average citizen :p
@Ohlmann
Quite interesting to hear at least considering that France is run by a bunch of neoliberal scum (i.e. near-unanimous vote on the copyright directive, whereas most copyright lawsuits seem to involve the rich fucking over the poor).
It is at least like that compared to the US, but it could be marginally better compared to that of the UK maybe at the very least (having conflicting since I’m a British citizen via naturalization with family, but increasingly disapproving views of the UK because they are practically America wannabes politically).
@drlemaster
No weaponry in sight, alas, because that would make it ultimate Aggie.
Geese are scary! Once I was walking at a trail near a lake and an entire gaggle of geese were in formation on opposite sides of the trail, so I had to walk through this gauntlet. They stared at me, but fortunately allowed me to pass.
I was 12 the first time I got cat called. as in it was my 12th birthday, I was at an amusement park with my best friend and some dude who looked older then my father asked me if I was bleeding yet. And then that night I got my first period. Still convinced it was a misogynism wizard who forced that to happen somehow.
@WWTH
Scariest bird in the world is a fucking peacock. One chased me at the zoo when I was little and I’ve seen them as like a predator’s bird ever since. Come to think of it he had his tail feathers open so he might have been territorial for mating seasons or something.
@WWTH
Geese are mean too. I’ve had quite a few less than ideal interactions with those at my local park, which have a bad habit of charging bystanders.
Mmmmhmmm.
Someone said something dumb and thoughtless on social media. Surely, thinks Dave Futrelle, gut like a slug, this is worthy of an article!
Off-topic, but is there any chance we could start a George Floyd thread?
@Mansvoice
Don’t you have a life to get to, you’ve been in ever thread. This is just sad dude. I mean really you don’t even like being here. I’m here because I like the people and it’s nice to talk to those who have helped me through so much crap. Your just here to be an annoying fly? like don’t you have a life at all? even a little? how bad is your life that you have to turn up in a place your not wanted, to shit on the rug and then act like your so smart? like do you really not see how sad you are?