We Hunted the Mammoth: The FAQ-ening
Q) A mammoth, huh? What’s this blog about?
A) Misogyny and the ongoing reactionary backlash, not mammoths.
This blog began in 2010 as a way to chronicle (and ridicule) the ideas of the misogynistic Manosphere. When I started, the Manosphere was a niche thing, confined to a relative handful of reactionary blogs and the Men’s Rights subreddit. Since then we’ve seen a broad reactionary and misogynistic backlash. Now many of the central ideas of the Manosphere have seeped into the broader culture, infecting young men and teenage boys especially, as well as noxious public figures like Andrew Tate, and the focus of the blog has shifted accordingly.
I also write frequently about Donald Trump and his attempts to turn our flawed democracy into an authoritarian state, because that’s kind of the central issue of the day and I want to do what I can to fight against our rapid plunge into literal fascism.
Q) So Trump I can see. But what about this misogyny thing?
A) I write about what I call the “New Misogyny,” an angry antifeminist backlash that has emerged like a boil on the ass of the internet over the last decade and a half. These aren’t your traditional misogynists – the social conservatives and religious fundamentalists who make up much of the far right.
These are guys, mostly, who range in age from their teens to their fifties, who have embraced misogyny as an ideology, as a sort of symbolic solution to the frustrations in their lives – whether financial, social, or sexual.
Some of them identify as Men’s Rights Activists, trying to cast their peculiar struggle against what they see as the excess of feminism and the advantages of women as a civil rights issue of sorts.
Others proclaim themselves Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), declaring a sort of independence from women – while spending much of their time on message boards talking endlessly about them.
Still others see themselves as Pickup Artists (PUA), or masters of “Game,” espousing elaborate “scientific” theories of male superiority while trading tips on how best to pressure or manipulate drunk women into bed. This misogynistic wing of the PUA subculture has a considerable overlap with a subset of traditionalist and far-right blogs. Many of those in the Manosphere don’t simply embrace misogyny; they also proudly embrace “scientific” racism and other bigotries.
And then there are the incels. At this point, you probably know all about incels.
Q) Ok, but you still haven’t explained the mammoth thing.
A) This is a reference to a quote I once posted from a dude who felt women weren’t sufficiently appreciative of what men had supposedly done for them over the ages. Here’s the quote, in all of its weird glory:
We men built a nice safe world for you all the the coal-mines of death, roads, railroads, bridges and tall office buildings. Its $1,000,000 spent per death of a man on a large dangerous project on average now you can just 9-5 it and call it a day in air-conditioned and heated safety. Forget about the wars we died in and the sacrifices made just ignore history or is it now hersorty? You are accruing the benefits without ever having to pay the price you still don’t have to sign up for the draft and who will protect you? The Sex and the City girls will fight off the North Koreans with their Manolo Blahniks?
Men gave you this modern world now you take it for granted we hunted the mammoth to feed you we died in burning buildings and were gassed in the trenches but that was just for fun right?
How quick and conveniently you forget who made this possible.
We gave you Leonardo da Vinci, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy not to mention countless others, Jonas Salk saved half the world from death and you just piss on it all.
This quote is such an amazing clusterfuck of misogyny, entitlement and unwarranted self-importance – not to mention historical ignorance – that the bit about mammoths became a catchphrase around here, neatly conveying pretty much everything this blog is against. And so I decided to make it the name of the blog.
Q) And who exactly are you?
A) David Futrelle. I’m a freelance writer and blogger living in Chicago, IL, and the guy behind the viral hit blog Confused Cats Against Feminism. For more on my illustrious career, see the David Futrelle FAQ.
Q) You’re against the Men’s Rights movement. Are you against men having rights?
A) Of course not. As hundreds of posts on this site show pretty clearly, the so-called Men’s Rights Movement is a hateful, reactionary movement driven largely by misogyny and hatred of feminism. It doesn’t help men. It encourages them to scapegoat women and stew in their own bitterness.
Q) Are you secretly funded by the international feminist conspiracy?
A) No. I’m not funded by any organization. Some readers have very kindly given me donations. You can too, if you wish, via PayPal or Venmo. (You don’t have to have a PayPal account to use this method; a credit card will do.) There are no ads here, by choice. Individual donations are what keep this blog going.
Q) What’s with all the cat pictures?
A) I like cats.
Boring troll is boring, but he does get one small point for “psyco-murdered”. I kill you with the power of my mind! Feminists are General Zod from Superman.
Running total score: -4/10
The tagline is meant as a summary of site’s position. Position by itself, does not specify the extent of the point of view allowed to contribute the discussions. Users look at categories. Your categories are misleading.
Is Guit trying to be a dictionary troll in a language in which he’s clearly not proficient? What an odd thing to do. It’s like, I dunno, going skeet shooting armed only with a Nerf gun. Why would you do that to yourself?
Communities moderate trolls. You keep my posts on. Let’s go. Instead of fucking off people, delete my posts or talk with me. If this is not fake, make your choise. The big error you do, is presuming I will go depressed for a ban here.
No. It’s an inaccurate* summary of which topics get the most attention on the blog, in the form of posts/comments.
You don’t give the orders here, bub. You don’t make the rules, and you don’t define how the community interacts with you. Fuck off, necro-izer.
*inaccurate because “kitties” should be MUCH MUCH larger.
“You think I know fuck nothing, but actually I know fuck all!”
You keep categories on, and you fuck off mislead users. You are public readable worlwide, you should be tolerant with speech. This is just old radical culture applied on web.
Running total score: -10/10
Unimaginative: “You don’t give the orders here, bub”
Sure. If I gave orders here, I wouldn’t allow people fucking off users.
Running total: -12/10
-13/10
Running total for Mr. Unable To Count by 2: -14/10
Does anyone else think the dark lord should be alerted that we’ve got a troll challenging us that we have to either listen or delete him when, you know, deleting him isn’t an option?
Guit — if I had mod power I’d have bounced your ass ages ago.
Categories = things we mock people who say stupid shit about. Better?
Oh and telling you to fuck off IS moderating trolls. See above.
Usually, I do not waste my time skilling me on bullshits like counting by 1 or by 2 the alleged trolls. One more civil tip for you: start a new counter for insults.
Eh, I’m going with the “point and laugh” approach.
Oh FFS, failing to stick the flounce is a standard 2 pt deduction! You can only get odd numbers if your original flounce score was odd!
Guys, should I go back and play Spot! That! Fallacy!…I don’t think he’d score well though.
Stupid challenges counter — 3~
Agree. Ban me, delete your responses to me too. It will make you look more educated.
I’m back in you interests.
I’m back! In your interests!
Argenti Aertheri: “Oh and telling you to fuck off IS moderating trolls”
LOL
You have admin tools!
Have you ever seen in some blog’s admin panel the option to fuck off?
Fucking off is trivial. You do not want to moderate me, you just want to offend me.
Running total: -18/10
I repeat — none of us have admin powers. And if I did, you’d have been banned already.
Argenti, you seem to be forgetting that we are all David.
But we aren’t! Only about a third of us are David!