Yeah, that’s the ticket!
So the musician who goes by the name Pogo, best known for his magical audiovisual mashups using snippets of old Disney movies, is now declaring that the awful misogynistic nonsense he recently posted on his blog and on YouTube was “somewhat of an experiment for myself,” intended to rile up
the enormous breed of hyenas out there taking gender equality and feminism hostage, and bending it into a social status to validate their feeling that the world owes them everything because of their gender.
As Pogo (real name Nick Bertke) explains it in a new blog post today, his attacks on women were intended to expose these fake feminist “hyenas … as the self contradicting brats they are.” To do this, he says,
I uploaded videos and blog posts to draw this mentality out and see just how much of it plagues my own circles. I mashed together the most radical views I could find about women and feminism on the internet, doing my best to present it as my humble opinion and honest observations.
It wasn’t long before my Twitter, which I haven’t touched in months, was absolutely blazing with “equality seeking, compassionate and understanding people” putting every one of their ideals through the shredder and back again. A few people had excellent things to say, but watching the rest of them was like watching a bunch of vegetarians turn cannibal and tear apart a newborn.
Bertke gives zero examples of this.
Looking through Twitter’s list of “Top Tweets” mentioning Bertke’s now-deleted @PogoMix Twitter account, I didn’t find a lot of cannibals. I saw a bunch of Tweets like this:
@PogoMix Just watched 'Why I Don't Take Feminism Seriously'. As one of my favourite artists, this is tremendously disappointing.#feminism :/
— Andie Cox (@Andie_Cox) January 29, 2015
rip @PogoMix Used to love your mixes a lot. No more. Please look into what feminism actually is, then we'll talk.
— Cassie (@plaidkazoo) January 30, 2015
.@PogoMix I adore your music. Your anti-feminist video made me feel ill. Please tell us it was poorly judged satire.
— Ross Hardy (@rosstavo) January 29, 2015
The harshest tweet of the bunch was this one:
@PogoMix @UncleBibby you're a pathetic piss baby towards women with opinions because the idea of treating females as humans emasculates you
— ⚔ ᎷᎾᎢᎻᏆᏟᎪ (@dearmothica) January 30, 2015
Looking through some of the rest of the Tweets referencing his account, I found more disappointed fans, a few more people asking if his antifeminist videos were poor attempts at satire, and a number of people (mostly dudes) challenging him to back up the various dubious assertions he’d made in his blog posts and videos.
The most abusive tweet of the bunch was the following one, from a self-described troll — seriously, the word “troll” is in his avatar.
@pogomix im gonna beat you up
— SIDS Vicious (@IrateGamerNEO) January 30, 2015
There were not a lot of cackling feminist “hyenas” to be found, unless you count this Tweet as a sort of hyena howl:
@bearfaceington @PogoMix mras r so dumb
— angel_diary (@HELLOK1TTY4EVR) January 30, 2015
There are a couple of obvious problems with Bertke’s claim that the whole thing was an “experiment.” For one thing, as I pointed out in my last post, he’s apparently had misogynistic eruptions before. For another, his “honest views on feminism and gender equality,” as he puts it, are still pretty shitty.
While avoiding overtly misogynistic statements — you know, like claiming that women are basically just children begging for discipline — Bertke’s post today is full of the same sort of ignorant and vaguely infantile attacks on feminism you see on Men’s Rights sites. In addition to calling his feminist opponents “hyenas,” he also suggests that many self-described feminists are “brats pocketing what they think is a ticket to a special club for getting special treatment.”
And in his earlier post Where Feminism Goes Wrong — which he hasn’t taken down, and which he says he stands by — he makes similarly ridiculous claims:
The irony of feminism is that, by focusing largely on one gender, it in inherently supports the segregation of genders and raises a breed of self victimizing gold diggers who think historical injustice to their sex makes them personally deserving of special treatment today.
So, yeah, not buying it. And if Twitter is any indication, there aren’t a lot of other people buying it either.
I guess we’ll have to see what he comes up with next.
EDIT: Reworded the sentemce starting “For another” which wasn’t quite right before.
Why does everyone use the term hyena as an insult? Hyenas are sharply intelligent and highly socially organised animals. They are also very clean (but we always see them in documentaries neck-deep in carcasses) and are more useful for ecosystem than we give them credit for. They don’t steal food from other animals any more than others (like lions) steal from them. Opportunists, the whole lot.
They are also matriarchal and one of the rare species where a male cannot force himself on a female. Is this why they are associated with feminism? 😉
Before hyenas were properly researched, it was a widely-held belief that they could change sex at will. In fact, Aesop wrote this fable about it: http://www.mythfolklore.net/aesopica/perry/243.htm
It really speaks to the MRA fear that Feminists will treat men as badly as men have treated women in the past. 😀
On the other hand Hyena reproduction is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
@tinyorc
That way, when there’s a shitstorm of outrage that panics him, he gets to pretend he’s still in control and that he’s the one yanking the puppet strings. The angry reaction is all part of his master chess strategy. We’re not a group of people who he’s gratuitously insulted and provoked, we’re lab rats! Yeah, that’s it.
Little does he realize, though, his social experiment is actually part of MY social experiment. It’s called “When Asshats Try To Weasel Out Of Taking Responsibility For Their Words”‘ and it postulates that when a once-popular internet figure is called to account for his hateful opinions, he’ll double down and hide behind “It was all just a joke, geez you ladies are emotional”.
Checkmate, Pogo. You behaved exactly as expected. Here’s a misogyny pellet. I’m off to publish my results in the Journal of No Shit, Sherlock.
Elephant herds are also matriarchal, all female, and the males are essentially MGTOW but without the whining.
@wwth, I can’t watch Firefly because Castle.
@sunnysombrera – now I’m thinking of that photograph of the lioness roaring at the lion while he huddles in the corner.
If you’re going to be a backwards shithead, at least own it. Have some courage. The whole ‘LOL I WANTED TO SEE HOW U REACT’ shtick is minor league; the motto of a douche that doesn’t even have the conviction to stand behind their douchiness. I don’t need an ‘out’ for my opinions because mine aren’t indefensibly horrible.
The whole thing boggles my mind. The guy does Disney mash-up songs, correct? I’m guessing he has a large number of women in his audience, and almost no Red Pillers? He’s going to shoot his own foot off and mar his career because of some sexist drivel he read on Reddit? Inexplicable.
@Cyberwulf Ah yes, the misandry lioness. Also these:
I prefer elephants though. Not because they’re matriarchal but because elephants are awesome.
D’awwww.
facepalm
I didn’t know the guy, but I feel sorry for his disappointed former fans.
For a guy who’s into not just appreciating but also creating art with Disney music and movie characters… it sounds extra stupid to subscribe to red pill speech, its support for traditional gender roles and its macho-manliness ideas of masculinity. It also sounds really stupid to spew those ideas aloud to an audience that appreciates Disney music and movies. But admittedly, the whole ‘social experiment’ sam-pepperism is the summit of stupidity here (like, he’s not even retracting a word or non-pologizing at all!)
On the topic of animal misandrists–
The sea horse–the female sticks the male with carrying fertilized eggs. That’s pretty much FORCED CHILD SUPPORT.
Pretty much all fish–the female just lays her eggs and expects the male to come fertilize them, TYPICAL FEMALE ENTITLEMENT AMIRITE.
The mantis–the female literally decapitates the male, TALK ABOUT THE DISPOSABLE MALE.
Bees–literally a matriarchy, where all kinds of crazy shit happens, like a population of male sex slaves AND THEY SAY WOMEN HAVE IT BAD GEEZE.
…annnnd that is my MRA-take on the animal kingdom.
…I’m sorry, I am in a giddy, goofy mood because my husband has the weekend off and I am happy happy happy to spend time with him, so I am full of silly. We are going to go bird feeder shopping so we can attract birds, another famed misandrist of the animal kingdom in that the flashy, show-y, look-at-me portion of mating is placed squarely on the males of most species.
Damn that was a great experiment: “I posted horrible things and people told me they were horrible.”
This guy deserves a prize.
@WatermelonSugar: I have a question! Where do the scented candles, hard chairs, and spanx fit in? More specifically, the penguins in spanx?
Then there’s the anglerfish, where the female is pretty much 50x bigger than the male and is the one equipped with the bait lantern and vicious teeth. The male latches on to her and spends his life as nothing more than a dependent parasite and sperm donor.
Then there is also a type of elk where during the fall the males go into horndog mode and pester the females for sex, who are more interested in fattening up for the winter and surviving it, instead of having to carry a foal and then rear it. Selfish bitches, putting their well being above a man’s desire for sex!
@WatermelonSugar – you mean birds invented peacocking? WUT
Bingo! This guy secretly (well, not so secretly anymore!) thinks women deserve whatever terrible shit they’ve got coming. Therefore, well…he deserves whatever terrible shit he’s got coming, right back. Legos at…no, not dawn. How about that dark, dark hour right before, when you’re too groggy to find the light switch?
Slight nit pick. I know the writer was just making a funny, but the belief that females are by default exploited through the animal kingdom feeds the biotruth monster. While I doubt these people are educated enough to even be aware there are species with larger females who aren’t insects, I think this needs to be said at least for the MRA lurkers:
The sexual dimorphism of many mammals leaning to larger sized males does not automatically lead to males “forcing” themselves on anyone. Most animals, male and female are adequately capable of defending themselves or fleeing from unwanted contact. It’s only certain human cultures that brainwashed females into second class citizen roles that make this size factor appear much larger than it is.
We are a tool using species who have hunted large game before recorded history. Met an elk? Elk are larger than, well, every human. The idea women can’t themselves from men simply due to size is ridiculous. And that size difference will be small if the women in the same subgroup get the same nutrition and exercise as the men growing up.
Unscientific anecdote: I have a friend who is the shrimp in her family: She’s 5′ 10′. Her mother, and sisters are taller, and yes the men are mostly taller…by a couple of inches. And while none of them are fat, they’re not scrawny either.
Also compare men to men: few men make the assumption they can get away with pushing a smaller guy around simply due to size. Usually there is another decisive component: greater numbers, intimidation or he’s perceived as being part of a group that won’t defend himself(gay, etc). They know in most situations, if they push it, the guy would not hesitate to a) defend himself and b) cause damage. And so they do what most animals do: avoid a fight they don’t have to have. Because even if you “win”, you might be too damaged to hunt or die from infection. While there is conflict in nature, avoidance and cooperation are the actual norm.
A slightly smaller size is not a significant disadvantage if everyone has claws and teeth, or the human equivalent: equal nutrition, physical education and social networks that will get your back. Yes, guns can be part of that equation, but chances are if you need a gun, your social network needs more work. Or it’s time to move away from the ghetto.
Ironically the people attached to biotruths are pushing men to act exactly the opposite of the way one would really behave without civilization. The entire idea that men pushing people around(otherwise known as starting shite) is natural is what functional social animals DON’T do if they want to survive. Yeah that person, might be smaller than you, but if they’re the only one who knows how herbs can heal, you’ll be shit out of luck when you need them. Also, in a small tribe, they know where you sleep and everyone has a knife.
To wrap up this TL;DR post: MRA’s want it both ways: Their menz privileges based on “it’s part of the natural order”, but with all the benefits and protections that exist in the civilized society they’re disdainful of.
Aside: It would be great if all the extreme MRA/PUA went off to practice their assumptions Quaker-like in the wilderness or on an island. Hell, I’d crowdfund that just for the entertainment value.
@sunnysombrera
Re:lions
Nice social network in action!
Re :Elephants
Elephants are one of the few non human animals observed to take an interest in other animals just out of curiosity. Gorillas are another. And I think the octopus. It’s probably connected to shared manipulation of environment adaptations: primates, opposable thumbs, Elephants, trunks. I can’t think of others off the top of my head. Maybe the cetaceans, but what’s their excuse? Unless manipulating sounds waves language-like does the same thing to the brain?
Somehow I just don’t find being called a hyena an insult.
My favorite animal misandry is when female cats mate with multiple males whilst in heat. Then they have litters with multiple fathers. Sluts!
Female cats really ride the cock carousel.
Ooh, can I start babbling about my spider friends again? Spiders are the ultimate misandrists. Even aside from the drastic size differences and the fact that males are regularly eaten during mating, in some species, the males castrate themselves after breeding.
http://youtu.be/9hNIX7V21pU
In the next big twist, Pogo turns out to be a class of sociology students.
That’s nice, but what is his position on ass-wiping?
Well, when I posted those horrible things, I didn’t really believe them. But now that you got angry at me because of those horrible things, I do. GOOD JOB FEMINISTS YOU TURNED A GOOD MAN BAD
moral of the story is don’t ever criticize me for anything k? k.
While those items are typically associated with the human female, it is a little known animal kingdom fact that these very same items come in to play in the nesting practices of the hornbill.
When the male hornbill builds and seals the tree-hole nest around the female hornbill to keep the hornbill eggs safe, most assume that when he visits the nest post-sealing, he is bringing the female food. This is incorrect. He is actually bringing her scented fucking candles, hard chairs and sometimes whole colonies of penguins in Spanx–this makes the female hornbill feel more comfortable in her home, with the added benifit of providing a male-hostile environment for the hatching chicks, so that they will be better indoctrinated into female entitlement.
This is all actual science and it is completely, 100% factual* (see disclaimer).
*None of this is actually science or fact. It is 100% not-actually-real.
“I uploaded videos and blog posts to draw this mentality out and see just how much of it plagues my own circles. I mashed together the most radical views I could find about women and feminism on the internet, doing my best to present it as my humble opinion and honest observations.”
Let me guess…this is a man who absolutely has never read Mother Night.
I think we just found the Nice Guy™ from Craigslist.
Now he took down the blog post about it being an experiment? Jesus Christ Pogo, you can’t fix this, its too late. Its all been backed up and screen caped, it will not go away. This is like watching some one trying to plug up holes on a boat thats already underwater.
I don’t take any pleasure in watching this disaster, I just wish he’d just own it, you said what you said and you can’t take it back, so just own it.
I’d rather watch a sexist doosh who stood firm behind what he said than a complete coward who, in a moment of stupidity, bleated out an unpopular opinion because he thought his fans would back him up, now trying to desperately make it look like it never happened.
This is a sad thing. A very sad, sad thing thats happening.
Someone mentioned cats?
I am not in support of Pogo, but I have some information that might be relevant. Nick is on the autism spectrum and has Asperger’s, which he mentioned in a deleted video. I’ve heard that those with Asperger’s are very opinionated and no regard for other’s feelings. This isn’t an excuse for his behavior though.
Enjoying reading your comments @BVH.
@Tiege
Nope nope nope nope nope. Being on the spectrum is not an excuse for being an asshole. Plenty of people with ASD are decent human beings and although they often require an element rigidity in their own lives, that does not translate to being stubborn and incapable of apology. Most of the people I know, friends I have, and kids I have worked with who happen to be on the spectrum in fact have quite a bit of anxiety regarding making social blunders because they struggle with reading social cues more than others. Repeating stuff like this does a disservice to everyone who isn’t neurotypical.
I’m really sorry, I’m an idiot. I sincerely have nothing against the autistic. I got my info from someone that has Asperger’s but I didn’t realize that he was just an asshole and that his autism doesn’t contribute to that.
“in fact have quite a bit of anxiety regarding making social blunders because they struggle with reading social cues more than others.”
I’d QFT the whole thing, but that would be silly. So I’m just gonna double extra QFT that bit.
God fucking damnit. Do I need to copy-paste one of teal deers about why this is offensive bullshit thrust on us by trolls who use our disorder as their shield from criticism, about as true as “Black people are all criminals” and completely irrelevant anyway? Because I will.
AUTISTIC ≠ ASSHOLE, ASSHOLE ≠ AUTISTIC.
*One of my teal deers. I can’t type when I’m annoyed (or, indeed, ever). =P
Harley is my favorite batman character ever and speaking of matriarchal animals, I watched a movie at the iMax theater called Madagascar not the animated movie but it was about lemurs and the females are the leaders even the youngest are in charge over all the males.
no one should be offended by being called a ‘hyena’ hyenas are awesome espessically the ones in the lion king
http://youtu.be/XkU23m6yX04
… And yeah, I should probably apologise for raging out every time someone says something ignorant or ableist about autistic people. I don’t even care about them insulting me, but insulting my little brother… Overprotective big sister behaviour, whoops.
@MouseFarts
5:00 – “Good tiny hooman. I teach you to be mighty hunter, like me. Kill it! Kill teh toy mousy!”
Reminds me of that anti-gay basketball player who claimed his homophobia was secretly part of a college research project. Yup. Totally.
M
Don’t apologize. You have every right to be upset by that kind of statement. Maybe eventually these knuckleheads will start listening.
OT, ya’ll:
‘”Law & Order: SVU” will air an episode inspired by GamerGate. As first pointed out by The Mary Sue, the show’s Feb. 11 installment, “The Intimidation Game,” will explore the dangerous side of being a woman in the gaming community.’
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/31/law-and-order-svu-gamergate-episode_n_6586576.html
I don’t watch Law & Order anymore. I’m considering rethinking that for this one episode.
I don’t know where you heard that, but you heard wrong. Asperger’s causes difficulty reading social clues, not opinionated tendencies (which anyone, nice or nasty, may have) and disregard for others’ feelings (ditto, but especially in just plain old assholes).
M.
I’m neurotypical but as the big sister of an autistic person, I’m right there with you. I’ve been raging at ignorance of the subject since I was a little kid. Nobody comes for my brother.
My brother is absolutely capable of empathy. He developed a hatred of CNN in the post September 11th years because all the war stuff bothered him so much. He doesn’t like movie or TV violence unless it’s cartoons. He loves cats and dogs and they adore him back. He helps my grandmother and my grandfather when he was alive and doesn’t want anything in return but a Coke. I just hate the stereotype that autistic people are cold and don’t care about people. It just isn’t true.