You’ll never guess how incels and MRAs responded to a new UK report whitewashing the manosphere. Or maybe you will

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So in my last post I talked about a shocking whitewash of the manosphere from the official UK communications regulator Ofcom. The agency’s new report suggested that the dangers of the manosphere were vastly overrated, drastically downplayed the misogyny central to every manosphere subgroup, and informed its readers that many of the denizens of this poor maligned movement were actually upstanding young men with “a strong commitment to equal treatment and fairness.”

Which raises the question: What color is the sky on Ofcom’s planet?

But I didn’t have room in that post to get into one of the strangest things I discovered while researching the post: the reactions of some in the manosphere to the report, or at least to the weirdly uncritical reporting on it in The Guardian. I found threads on the subject on Incels.is and on the Men’s Rights subreddit, and, well, the boys weren’t exactly able to recognize the giant favor that Ofcom had done for them. 

The incels, remarkably, responded more soberly to the report than the MRAs. One commenter reacted to the report’s conclusion that the dangers of the manosphere were exaggerated with sarcasm: “Turns out real people aren’t two-dimensional cartoonish villains. Who would’ve thought?”(Many incels are in fact two-dimensional cartoonish villains, but never mind.)  “Wow, I can’t believe that lonely virgins aren’t a significant threat to society!” commented another. “Next thing you’ll tell me, sexually active men are the majority of cheaters and domestic abusers.” (Don’t try to parse the logic of that last sentence; your brain might explode.) 

Of course, this being Incels.is, other commenters used the report as an excuse to drop some cartoon villain misogyny. One suggested that he would only accept the new report “if they realize that women are responsible for the growing dislike towards women. Then again, they’d never have the balls to conduct such a study to see why men actually dislike women. They’d rather blame Andrew Tate instead of women’s actions.” Another added: “Now they just need to realise the violence foids deservedly receive is by men they choose to have sex with.” 

Just another day on Incels.is, I guess. 

But it was the Men’s Rights Redditors who really surprised me with their loopy, conspiratorial logic. “Why do they suddenly speak about the manosphere in more positive (not overtly slandering) way?” asked the MRA posting a link to the Guardian article. “What is the agenda? Especially when UK is one of the most men hating country in the world.” 

The top comment offered this, er, explanation:

They’re trying to downplay support for Men’s Rights. By doing so, politicians will believe they can get away with more misandrist policies. They can stamp down on men and not lose votes. That’s the narrative The Guardian are pushing.

Another commenter suggested that the powers that be in the UK were using the report to push conscription. “War is coming and they want men to fight,” a third commenter added. “Problem is they’ve spent so long telling men how shit they are, so men won’t fight their wars.” 

Someone called Gmotor offered a similar theory, and a stirring call to arms:

They have realised men have had enough AND they need our support AND without white males society is going to collapse. Oh, and the coming war that women really don’t want to have to fight themselves and the establishment realises they are going to lose badly thanks to their stupid policies

Don’t accept it. They have spent decades in a “Battle of the sexes”. Now they want to sue for peace? Nah… we can wait a bit and the terms won’t be anywhere near as favourable. We just need to make sure Gen Z get a proper education on what women are really like and the poison the Left has injected into society for decades. Don’t throw the next generation of men into the military woodchipper.

Ok, then! I guess that this is what “a strong commitment to equal treatment and fairness” looks like. 

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