Norwegian Men’s Rights Activist blogger Eivind Berge, known for his violent rhetoric and rape apologia, has been arrested for death threats against police.
Not too surprising, given that he once announced on his blog that “[k]illing at least one cop is on my bucket list.”
Here are some Google-translated details from a news account here:
The right-wing extremist and anti-feminist blogger Eivind Berge has been arrested for having encouraged and glorified the killing of policemen. The police have found both ammunition and textbooks in use of explosives at Berge.
The police regard the threats as an invitation to others to kill police officers, but also feared that he would commit the acts themselves shortly.
He was evidently arrested on Wednesday. According to this story — at least as far as I can tell from the obviously crude Google translation — he made a specific threat to kill a police officer this Saturday:
Berge also writes about how he was planning to attack a policeman with a knife on a Saturday evening:
“Then I used the trial to come forward as a good example for men, and I considered it to be worth 21 years in prison for premeditated murder.”
According to this account, Berge is being held for two weeks. He claims innocence.
Berge, as readers of this blog may well already know, is a fan of right-wing terrorist and mass murderer Anders Brevik. On his blog, he’s also argued (among other things) that “Rape is Equality.”
He’s glorified the murder of police on his blog numerous times.
Some examples, taken from the second news account:
“… attack on the police is something 100% in harmony with everything I stand for.”
“I maintain that police murder is both ethically and tactically correct.”
Some other examples, direct from his blog (each paragraph is from a separate post; click on the quote for the source):
I viscerally despise cops and wish them the worst. Killing at least one cop is on my bucket list.
If ever a victim of psychiatry, here is what I would do. I would first attempt to kill the cops or whoever tried to apprehend me. Failing that, I would feign docility in order to get out as soon as possible and then kill a representative of the industry as revenge. … killing cops is also very much a men’s issue. Every pig killed is also a blow against feminism, so men should be doubly elated whenever an officer goes down in the line of encroaching on our cognitive liberty.
This was his reaction to a news story about a police officer being killed:
Good news for men is rare in this hateful feminist utopia that is Norway, but today is a joyous day! Today I feel schadenfreude in my heart along with all the hate that feminism and resultant mate deprivation have instilled in me. One blue thug less on the streets.
From another post on the same subject:
The swine Olav Kildal died while trying to enforce our lack of cognitive liberty. This was a defensive, much deserved killing that cheered me up.
Here he threatens a female prosecutor:
To feminist prosecutor Anne Cathrine Aga I have the following message: The Men’s Movement is watching you, bitch, and we are seething with hatred against you personally and the police state you represent. Actions have consequences. Trials are still (mostly) public and they sink into our collective minds, where they form the basis of future activism. Hate breeds hate — that is a fact of life too smugly ignored by feminists. …
2011 is the year Norwegian men as a group emerged out of the blogosphere and into the battlefield. This in turn has led to a breakthrough for MRAs such as my good self in the public discourse, probably for the simple reason that the powers that be now realize ignoring us has deadly consequences. Men are angry now, and we have proven that we are deathly serious about resisting feminism. So the feminist prosecutors referred to above ought to wipe that smug look off their faces before it is too late. Clearly seventy-seven body bags wasn’t enough, but I am fairly confident that you will be sorry one day.
Aside from the explicit threats of violence, the violent and threatening rhetoric here is not unlike much of the rhetoric we see regularly on A Voice for Men and other MRA sites. AVFM founder Paul Elam, for example, told one feminist that:
I find you so pernicious and repugnant that the idea of fucking your shit up gives me an erection. … We are coming for you.
The blogger Emma the Emo, Berge’s girlfriend, has posted comments here in the past defending him. The news account quotes someone identified as Nataliya Kochergova, described as his girlfriend; I assume this is “Emma,” because what she told the media is similar to what she posted here. She of course denies that he planned any real violence. According to the article, she said:
There are not really threats. He has never had plans to kill someone, he has said several times in his blog. When for example, he says that “the police killings are an effective way to prevent stupid laws,” it’s a factual description and not a threat. Even those who love the police agree with it.
Berge, for his part, has stated publicly that if he had not met Emma, he probably would have killed by now:
At the time I wrote my last blog post, I believed I would probably become Norway’s first modern violent activist in peacetime. Celibacy enforced by a feminist regime had driven me to the point where I saw no other option. I would target the pigs who enforce feminist law, knowing I could realistically at least kill one of them before I would be captured or killed myself. Thus revenge would be assured and if I lived, my reputation as a violent criminal would make me attractive to some women. But then in the nick of time this blog attracted a lovely girl commenting as “Emma.”
This is why I take violent rhetoric from MRAs very seriously.
Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, MRAs glorify MRA “martyr” Thomas Ball, who killed himself on the steps of a New Hampshire courthouse last year in hopes that his death would inspire MRAs to literally burn down courthouses and police stations.
Ball’s manifesto is still up on A Voice for Men in its “activism” section, including these passages:
So boys, we need to start burning down police stations and courthouses. … This is too important to be using that touchy- feeling coaching that is so popular with business these days. You need to flatten them, like Wile E. Coyote. They need to be taught never to replace the rule of law. BURN-THEM-OUT!
Most of the police stations built in New England over the last 20 years are stone or brick. Fortunately, the roofs are still wood. The advantage of fire on the roof is that it is above the sprinklers
AVFM tastefully omitted Ball’s specific instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails, but left this in:
There will be some casualties in this war. Some killed, some wounded, some captured. Some of them will be theirs. Some of the casualties will be ours.
For many more examples of violent threatening rhetoric from MRAs, I urge you to go through some of my posts here and here.
“And how does he explain…”
His worldview seems to have exactly one lens, and it’s only interest is wtf is happening in his pants. He wants sex with women, therefore everyone wants sex with women, therefore anyone having sex with women wants it.
I think the Occam’s Razor answer is correct here — he only cares about his own sex life, or lack thereof.
And to note anything else insults the men who want sex and can’t get it. (I do like it when the idiocy is simply, it’s so much easier to figure out than NWO’s um…NWO…)
How is it feminists enforce celibacy? By not allowing rape?!
But prison rape is OK, right, Ruby?
“How is it feminists enforce celibacy? By not allowing rape?!”
Oooh…maybe it’s that we’ll send him to prison for rape and then laugh when he gets raped himself! That’s it, I’m sure.
(Gods Ruby, you and he both probably share that thought, the rest of us do not.)
“How is it feminists enforce celibacy? By not allowing rape?!”
You… you’re trolling us, Ruby, right? You’re pro rape! Not all rape, sure, just for BAD people, but still pro rape.
I’m thinking Ruby is a classical lulz troll at this point — she says shit just to see how we’ll react and the go laugh about it. Which probably means we shouldn’t feed the troll, but damned if I’m going to let “prison rape is hilarious” slide. Of my 4 best friends, and myself, 3/5ths of us have been arrested, two got the record expunged, the last is my FWBs naivete about telling a cop he was wrong, no, I do not find prison rape hilarious Ruby. (And before you start about how you don’t know any criminals, consider what expunged records means)
Have a look at the comments on his blog and on other blogs at the time, particularly around the time of his most notorious piece of rape apologetics, which included every shaming tactic under the sun and a petition to get him thrown out of his university on the grounds that he was a potential rapist – in other words, Minority Report stuff.
Obviously, this isn’t harassment on a Sarkeesian scale, but I’d certainly call it harassment – albeit in a situation where it’s pretty much impossible to feel any sympathy for the person being harassed.
I didn’t say that “anyone I don’t like” is no true MRA. For example, the guy behind the now-defunct In Mala Fide blog was a white supremacist and a generally unpleasant individual, but I’d still call him an MRA, because he identified as one and his views weren’t fundamentally at odds with the movement.
Berge, on the other hand, called for violence against police officers. That’s a fundamental violation of the MRM’s non-violent principles. I feel comfortable saying that he is no MRA.
As far as shaming tactics towards Berge go, file that under “he SHOULD be ashamed.”
Completely agree, but it seemed to me that his ideas were easy enough to contest without jeering about his lack of success with women. And I have a fundamental problem with the notion of trying to get someone thrown out of a university merely for expressing controversial opinions. In fact, Berge is a good illustration of this principle, since I utterly reject everything that he stands for.
@Happy:
I agree 1000% with MertvayaRuka and in addition–I have been immersed in academia most of my life (I stomped away for a while, but working clerical jobs wasn’t the answer). The majority of nice white straight cis men who nonetheless are sexist (just as I, as a white person, am racist) that I have to deal with day by day is one reason I come to manboobz: TO RELAX. It’s fun seeing a community of people dedicated to exposing the overt misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and racism of an extremist group–because I don’t get to snark back at the nicewhitestraightcismale administrators who are CLUELESS about their own prejudices and actions within the system they work in and claim leadership.
Your advice, which is kind of patronizing (I am bad with names, so my failure to recognize you as a regular may not mean much), also assumes a homogeneity that does not exist–especially a lack of awareness (PRIVILEGE?) that for some of us, this place might be helpful in a way you cannot realize.
(For one thing, just recognizing the shit that goes on and having a group to vent with is good!.)
I like the wit, I like the geekiness, I like the personal sharing, I like the stories, and I like the community here.
Plus, seeing the crap that these dudes writes make me approach my students’ writing in a much more positive frame of mind! I admit that may be fairly specific to my situation. But it helps.
NWo: @kirbywarp
The number of men actually following the herd is infintesimal. Men such as yourself will do anything or say anything to ingratiate themselves into the good graces of any woman to achieve validation by any woman, and the few white knights who’d kill or die to protect even the foulest woman.
It’s why all the men who comment here are so supportive of Emma the Emo.
That’s why Ruby has so many of the male commenters here defending her.
It’s why the women who comment here all praise the men who say that Ruby ought to be considered a person with a different POV, and not vilified for her defense of men being raped in prison.
That or, ya know, you are as usual talking out your ass.
Personally, I’ve never bought into the Original Sin-style “everyone is racist/sexist/etc.” angle. I guess I have some time for the idea, because obviously it’s been shown that prejudice can be unconscious. But it’s also been shown that unconscious prejudice is not very deep-seated and can be changed surprisingly easily.
My guess is that Ithiliana engages in a lot of projection. Especially since we don’t actually live in a misogynist society, but a misandrist one.
Personally, I’ve never bought into the Original Sin-style “everyone is racist/sexist/etc.” angle. I guess I have some time for the idea, because obviously it’s been shown that prejudice can be unconscious. But it’s also been shown that unconscious prejudice is not very deep-seated and can be changed surprisingly easily.
My guess is that Ithiliana engages in a lot of projection. Especially since we don’t actually live in a misogynist society.
Steele: but he is also fundamentally at odds with the principles of nonviolence woven into the movement.
The principles of non-violence woven into the movement?
The movement that says Thomas Ball is a martyr? The one that says MRA should acquit men they think are rapists, because women are evil?
That non-violent movement?
The movement that praises George Sodoni, and makes excuses for Marc Lepine?
That non-violent movement?
Bullshit. I have never seen an MRA site praise Sodini, or make excuses for Lepine. I disagree with AVfM’s decision to host Ball’s manifesto, but he is different from Sodini and Lepine for a myriad of reasons, first and foremost being that he didn’t actually kill anyone.
How does he connect the police to feminism? I guess they’re different than some of the ones around here!
@Argenti – Bit upbeat sounding for EA (well, I guess so was “Swallow” in sound) love the lyrics though. Interesting juxtapose.
If someone says they’re going to commit a crime and you try to stop them, that’s not “Minority Report stuff.” That’s crime prevention.
But he didn’t say he was going to commit a crime. He was merely mounting a not particularly convincing intellectual defence of rape. (The petition was about this, not about his anti-police views).
Oh, and I should probably make clear that “not particularly convincing” is British understatement for “entirely unconvincing”!
@Argenti Aertheri
“16 There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”
Is this not a perfect description of modern day women?
Haughty eyes is a womans standard expression.
A lying tongue is standard fare of modern women.
Hands that shed innocent blood has been handed over to the state so women maintain all innocense.
A heart that devises wicked schemes and feet that are quick to rush into evil are endemic for those who’ll suffer no accountability for committing such acts.
A false witness who pours out lies is a standard tact for relieving oneself of accountability and obtaining things like child custody in courts.
A person who stirs up conflict in the community is the very description of the ruling power structure known as feminism.
Why not quotes about a woman submitting to a man? A man being the head of the household? Is that truth no longer popular opinion?
————
@MertvayaRuka “And I again question why this rape apologist piece of shit is still allowed to post here;”
Lying tongue, false statement, degradation, haugthiness.
@Argenti Aertheri
“Shorter version for NWO, since he has trouble with complex things”
Lying tongue, manipulation, false statement, degradation, self superiority, haugtiness.
@CassandraSays
“Um, Happy, most of us are very well aware that MRAs are a minority group and not the norm.”
The norm is good when it supports your position, the norm is bad when it defies your position.
Every comment is more of the same. Lying tongues, manipulation, false witness, haughtiness, ect.
————
@jumbofisch
“Has NWO ever answered the age long question of how the “Big Daddy Gov” censors and punishes mra (for being mras) yet he is not censored or punished for posting his stuff?’
As you cheer that an innocent man who has committed no crime is imprisoned for speaking words against the feminist power structure, you ask what the punishment is?
jennydevildoll — FLAG’s the climax of the book/musical basically…hard to explain without spoilers for the book…if you want a counter to Swallow though, try Take the Pill, she’s basically taunting the idea of swallowing the pills by the end, it’s different (and I like it, a lot). And if you want a new one that’s actually violent, you want Time For Tea. To spare you from the crappy live recordings, here’s my playlist of the better ones. (Girls! Girls! Girls! in album form will not do it justice, that one needs to be watched to be get the full effect)
*rat claws* ok, done geeking, I should go to bed
NWO, you rhetorical nitwit: No man has that resource. We can clearly see that by the comments. Every woman here has made it abundantly clear that you know women’s sexuality is a resource. Over and over every woman here has ridiculed any men who say, “I would never fuck her.”
You are ignoring the context, Oh, that’s right, you don’t believe in context. I strike the word rhetorical from my greeting.
They are mocking them for the idea that the refusal of an asshole to desire fucking someone is a threat. Which is because sex, no matter how pleasant, isn’t all that big a deal.
If Scarlett Johanson were to say, “I wouldn’t fuck you for all the Oscar Award winning parts I might ever get”, I’d make fun of her too.
Because it’s ridiculous to make sex that big a deal. Does it suck to not get laid? Yep. But for reasons apart from the sex. And the people we mock for saying it, aren’t complaining about the non-sex aspects. The people who do complain about the non-sex aspects aren’t mockworthy for that.
What possible threat could it be for a man to say he wouldn’t have sex with a woman? She could have 20 suitors lined up in a minute. Every woman here could walk into a bar or a mall and say I’m willing to have sex and within 60 seconds someone will be happy to accommodate her.
Does shooting so much nonsense out your ass hurt? Because it’s not true that any woman can get laid in 60 seconds. I know someone who is unhappy right now because she’s not had anyone who was interested in having sex with her in the past three years. It’s not as if she’s not been looking. But the men who are interested in her just don’t seem to be there.
“The only way I can maintain the belief that rape for a woman is a horrible experience is to accept that women’s experience of it is radically different than mine, as the thought of any woman forcing herself on me is sweet or neutral at worst if she is really ugly. — Eivind Berge”
A brilliant statement, I believe I’ve said something similar in the past.
And it was just as stupid as when he said it. Then again, you and he seem to have some other views in common, so I’m not surprised.
NWO: In ancient greece it became mainstream for grown men to have little boys as sex toys as well as women having little girls. Women happily gave their sons to be sodomized. It was their truth. Soon it’ll be preached in this country as well. You’ll embrace that as your new truth. The vagina monologues anyone? A skit about a little girl calling her rape by a grown woman a good rape. It’s already begun.
Again, you are wrong.
Plato argued for this idea, but it was never mainstream, and no one knows what women thought about the idea, because they were property. It wouldn’t have mattered if they hated it, because their husbands owned them, and could kill them out of hand.
As to the latter half of your claim… well you are an obtuse twit who makes it up as he goes along. The commenters here have said that part of the VM is vile, and reprehensible. You of course, refuse to notice this.