Anyone who reads the Men’s Rights subreddit on a regular basis knows that when you see the username DavidByron2 you are in for a treat. Well, a “treat” in the sense that discovering a flaming bag of dog poop on your doorstop is a “treat.” Like many Men’s Rightsers, he’s both smug and ignorant, a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger effect in action.
But somehow he manages to be more than just another insufferable mansplaining rage-baby who spends all of his spare time ranting about a subject — feminism — he knows less than nothing about. No, there’s a kind of daft genius to his comments; I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
And so I thought I’d wind up this week with a small collection of the best –that is, worst — comments he left in the Men’s Rights subreddit this week. In choosing the top 5, I have confined myself mostly to those that got more upvotes than downvotes, because, seriously, the thought that there are actual human beings out there upvoting this crap is almost as amazing as the fact that there’s an actual human being posting it. And thinking himself quite clever and righteous for doing so.
Let’s work our way to the top starting with …
5) Getting cat-called is a form of power women have over men:
4) One MRA can fend off twenty feminists with his superior LOGICKING:
3) Society is bizarrely fixated on punishing rape to an unhealthy degree:
2) Feminism has to steal legitimacy from the struggles of truly disadvantaged groups because women don’t have any real issues:
1) But DavidByron2’s masterpiece this week was his argument that if women are really as scared of men as the feminists (allegedly) say they are, then they should probably be banned from doing pretty much everything.
Dunning, Kruger, meet DavidByron2.
Total pest. I remember him from his trolling Feminism discussions at FreeThought Blogs, and I believe others have encountered him elsewhere going back as much as ten years. He’s been a dedicated anti-feminist hater for a loooong time, and it fits that reddit in its present state would be like a home for him.
That last comment makes me wonder if he’s ever felt scared or even particularly nervous about a situation–hasn’t he ever been in a situation where there is a danger lurking at the back of his mind, but he does it anyway? Hell, I do it at work–whenever I change glass pipets, I worry a little about them breaking and then getting jammed into my hands (I’ve heard horror stories about what broken glass can do to you.
If you are reading these comments, DavidByron2, here’s a hint: when women say we go through life scared of rape (and harassment), we mean that we are constantly evaluating our environment for threats and trying to decide if this is the time that we are actually in danger and what we can do to lessen the danger. It doesn’t mean panic attacks–though if you are alone with a strange woman, it might cross her mind to be worried.
BRB! Going to get cat called cos I LOVE it, get involved in conversations ensuring I has 20 femiNAZI buddies to protect me from the smarter menz, fixate on rape cos I want to punish the menz for something they can’t help COS WOMEN ONLY DRESS PROVOCTIVELY SO THE MENZ KNOW THEY WANT THEM SO ITS ONLY REGRET SEX NOT RAPE DUH, then, after the fake rape accusations, I’ll co-opt some “real issues” to make feminism seem REAL, AND AFTER ALL THIS, I’ll go lock myself away because I IS NOT SMART ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH THE REAL WORLD! YEH! FEMINISM! (I literally cannot contain the sarcasm).
“It’s like a famous movie star complaining about the paparazzi”
Actually it more like ‘being treated like a dog being called by her/his master
I’m not even going to explain the rape part
http://tropdamour.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/grumpy4.jpg
MRA really do have problems! They have to find more ways of manipulating and abusing women and children! And also to get rid of Scented Effin Candles!!!
Well… Ladies lets all go to an island where we will build our own world! That’s right! We ALL are going our own way! With kitties, Bon bons, my little pony and scented effin candles!! Who’s with me!?
http://thesnapper.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Women-Cheering.jpg
::deep breath:: Sorry I got a little carried away there.
TW – F/MGM
Oh my… sometimes I wonder if any MRAs have any understanding of feminism at all, and then I read things like this.
1 is pretty priceless, but I think 2 is my favourite. MRAs have real issues and don’t need to co-opt real minorities’ issues to make their points? Let me see…
Lynch mobs were anti-male prejudice, because some of the accusations that were used came from women, or involved women. Totes not co-opting and flatly dismissing the racist aspect of racial issues there.
The high fatality rate among miners and builders is anti-male prejudice, because women don’t often get those jobs. Totes not co-opting and flatly dismissing the economic and work-safety aspects of worker’s rights issues there, nor the issues with the pervasive assumption that women are incapable of physical labour.
The fact that most victims of violence are men is anti-male prejudice, because shut up about domestic violence. Totes not co-opting and flatly dismissing the economic and social issues inherent in problems surrounding gang violence, nor is it recognising the obvious side effects of toxic ideas of masculinity while taking offence at the suggestion that all masculinity is toxic, you misandrist!
The fact that people are more outraged at the removal of a girl’s clitoris and infibulation than the trimming of a boy’s foreskin is anti-male prejudice, because we have no sense of scale! Well… they do have a very tiny actual point here – infant male circumcision is mutilation, pretty much by definition, but it’s not as bad, unless it goes wrong, as fgm can be by design. Both should be forbidden, as purely aesthetic surgery should never be performed on a child or anyone without their informed consent, but scale, people, scale.
Do MRAs have [i]any[/i] real issues of their own, outside of circumcision? I think there might be one other thing, but it’s not coming to mind.
I like the new title btw, and hello again, everybody.
Street harassment is “annoying”? More like terrifying. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Also, :: waves at Athywren ::
The irony of No. 2 is so very very deep. It’s like gazing into the Void of Self-Awareness.
You know that if other men harassed DavidB the way they do women, he wouldn’t feel that he had any power over those men.
Amusingly, re #4, though, while that ratio may be a mite exaggerated, it _is_ generally a lot easier to generate bullshit than it is to call it out–possibly even considerably more effort, if you’re dealing with a suitably _dedicated_ bullshitter. Tracking down and correct with proper documentation and so on all the fallacies, half-truths, red herrings, and outright lies of even a single schmuck determined to spew, you’re probably on equal footing with maybe a half-dozen fact checkers, working cooperatively, if that schmuck is typing at full-tilt (even if it’s one-handed…)
… so yeah, I wouldn’t be too surprised if this is his impression. But it probably ain’t the logicking, chum.
Incidentally, the same general asymmetry occurs across the general family of denialists and cranks; when a creationist does it, we call it a Gish Gallop, after a particularly well-known practitioner. I’m not quite familiar enough w/ the the MRA stable yet to suggest an equivalent for that domain; it’s hereby left as an exercise for the reader.
Anthywren
Hi! I’m kinda new here so nice to meet ya!!!
Personally, I’ve loved reaching my thirties and no longer being the focus of street harassment. I’ll still get the random asshole meowing out his car window or honking at me as he drives by, but it’s nothing like the dudes who would literally follow me home and knock on my door when I was 18-20. Back then, it terrified me and I never knew what to do. Now, I’m quick with a smartass reply to put them in their place. This is the reason they go after teenage girls — fully grown women are faster at smacking them down because we know what they’re doing.
Chie
Hugs if you need them
Hi Athwyren!
Society what? Is it opposite day? Rape is…by…
Oh would someone please locate my eyes?
Punishing the rape of women to what degrees? WHAT IS THIS SHIT?
Today I learned that being frequently worried about rape and harassment means women aren’t capable of going out in public.
But yesterday I learned that men are afraid of being “falsely” accused of harassment 99% of the time.
So by that logic, he would surely agree that men shouldn’t have jobs or go out without a chaperone either. Wouldn’t he?
It couldn’t possibly just be that he’s trying to rationalize creating a Taliban-like society could it?
Hello fruitloopsie, nice to meetcha. 🙂
So, I have no idea of what it’s like to face street harassment as a woman, because I’m not one, but the few cases I have had (car with two to four aggressive looking & sounding men drives past, “GECHERERRCUT!” (I have long-for-a-man-bodied-person hair)) have been incredibly uncomfortable for me, considering that they have control over a device that could grievously wound me if they wished to, as well as the impression that they have the right to dictate what I do. So, yeah, I have trouble taking anyone who claims it’s merely an annoyance or that it’s a sign of women’s privilege to receive it seriously.
Athywren: Cosmetic Male Infant Circumcision is a ‘legit’ issue in the way that most of theirs aren’t, yes, but even then, they tend to take utterly disgusting tactics to combat it. Read through an anti-CMIC site long enough, and you’ll typically find a lot of anti-Semitism–very often, I’ve seen it referred to as “the Jewish rite” (even though it was the devoutly Christian Dr. Kellogg, of corn-flake fame, who pushed CMIC in the U.S.). And, yeah, comparing it to FGM just utterly ignores scale of harm. The worst CMIC practices begin about where the least harmful FGM practices start, for one thing.
Hi Argenti! I have articles for you! Need to tidy them up first, but feel free to send an abusive email if you don’t have at least three from me by Wednesday.
No 2 was quite ridiculous. I actually learned the term microagressions in discussions about racism. If he thinks discussing what is dismissed as small things doesn’t take place amongst other marginalized groups he’s really, really ignorant. Not that that’s a surprise.
auggziliary: In all honesty, I suspect he wants them to be ‘punished’ with a high-five.
Of course it takes 10 to 20 feminists to “keep up” with one MRA spewing their brand of nonsense. The same way it takes hundreds of workers to contain a toxic waste spill, or a forest fire raging out of control.
We should have a Mammoth Derby: Menstrual High Horse vs. Gish Gallop.
Interesting how he thinks older women complaining about being invisible is actually a wish for cat calling.
“My friend says she’s a vegetarian but then when she didn’t get any dinner because I only served steak, she wants steak. Only now she calls it “I’m really hungry” and somehow it’s my fault for inviting her to my dinner party.”
I am so powerful that I can force men to honk their car horns against their will! Or shout sexually explicit things at me! They must be embarrassed to lose all self control like that in front of other people.
How about a smart ass email? I haven’t made the post yet, cuz I suck, but looks like the June theme is summer.
Auggz — I think the thing done bizarrely was the fixation on punishment, not the punishment itself.
BACK!
Turns out this is how MRM wants women to look and behave like.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ilzr59kbL.jpg
Plastic. Silent. Always smiling. CAN TAKE A COMPLIMENT. Compliant. Dead on the inside.
#2 is pretty horrible, but let’s give DavidByron2 credit where it’s due: Most MRAs don’t believe there’s any such thing as a “genuinely disadvantaged minority group” — if those filthy Others have a problem, it’s clearly due to being not as Hard Working, Smart, and Objectively Attractive as white male Americans. I hope his fellow M(H!E!!)RAs don’t revoke his fedora privileges for his heterodoxy.
P.S. Insufferable Mansplaining Rage-Baby is the name of my Ted Nugent satirical cover band.
MRAs do believe there’s a genuinely disadvantaged minority group. It’s just that they think that group is white straight cis men. Because it’s always opposites day in MRAland.