TheAmazingAtheist’s Misogynist Meltdown
At the risk of splitting the “misogynist dickbaggery in the atheist movement” discussion in two, I really need to mention the amazingly well-timed Reddit meltdown of TheAmazingAtheist. It’s already been covered pretty well by PZ Myers and by Jen McCreight of BlagHag but, what the heck, I’ll throw in my two cents as well.
TheAmazingAtheist, for those who don’t follow these things, is (or was?) a popular atheist podcaster well-known, and beloved by some, for being something of a misogynist dickbag. He’s been on a anti-feminist kick for the last couple of months, winning himself many plaudits on Reddit’s Men’s Rights subreddit, though even the MR regulars couldn’t help but notice that he’s a bit of an ass.
Well, now he’s pretty much revealed, with a series of horrendous comments on Reddit, what a complete and utter asshole he is. Let me put a second TRIGGER WARNING here (for violent talk about rape), on top of the default TRIGGER WARNING I put on all my blog posts.
The context : a discussion (which he started) about the propriety of one feminist Redditor calling themself ICumWhenIKillMen. I’m not going to defend that nickname, which obviously makes light of violence in an obnoxious way. But AmazingAthiest was apparently so troubled by this sort of language that he felt compelled to spew forth a succession of violent rape threats.
Let me draw your attention to some of the highlights. (Click here to see his whole comment history on Reddit, where he comments as terroja).
Things started going south about 19 hours ago, when he told one detractor:
I’m going to rape you with my fist.
He followed this with:
I will make you a rape victim if you don’t fuck off.
It got worse:
I’m tired of being treated like shit by you mean little cunts and then you using your rape as an excuse. Fuck you. I think we should give the guy who raped you a medal. I hope you fucking drown in rape semen, you ugly, mean-spirited cow. Actually, I don’t believe you were ever raped! What man would be tasteless enough to stick his dick into a human cesspool like you? Nice gif of a turd going into my mouth. Is that kind of like the way that rapists dick went in your pussy? Or did he use your asshole? Or was it both? Maybe you should think about it really hard for the next few hours. Relive it as much as possible. You know? Try to recall: was it my pussy or my ass?
He continued in this fashion for some time, mocking those who pointed out that rape threats can be triggering, and regularly referring to his opponents as “cunts.” (Each of the following paragraphs is from a separate comment of his; click the quotes to see the full comments in question in their original context.)
BTW, you have to admit, when I told you that I hope you drown in rape semen, you got a little wet, didn’t you? It’s okay. We’re friends now. You can share.
Yes, you read that right: he was saying this shit to a rape victim.
Eventually, theAmazingAtheist found himself stopped short by this scathing critique, from the Redditor called veerserif.
I now know that, apart from being misguided, intentionally ignorant, and quick to resort to pathetic excuses, you are also a purposefully hurtful person with no sense of empathy, and no sense of remorse. You’re not just unintentionally uninformed, you actively turn what you know against people who should be deserving of your sympathy.
I was mistaken before. I thought, maybe, just maybe, after the circlejerking and the giggling, I could try showing you the stuff you said I didn’t highlight. I could show you what feminism has done for men, or maybe tell you about the existence of sex-positive feminism.
But this… this is a whole new level.
Your reputation, in my eyes, has fallen so far that dragging it back up to “mild disgust” would require nothing short of a miracle. You pretend to care about other people, but you really don’t. You like to think that you’re a decent human being, but you fall so far short of that you’re practically on separate planes of existence.
Deliberately triggering a rape victim? Equating being called out on your bullshit to the trauma of rape?
You know what you deserve? You don’t deserve death. You don’t deserve rape. You don’t even deserve some cosmically mandated, hilarious schadenfreude which would not only be brilliant, but just.
What you deserve is for everyone to know this side of you. You deserve for anyone who thought you were a good person to know what you’ve just done. You deserve your fans’ adoration turning to hatred, you deserve the judging stares and looks that people will give you. You deserve to be reminded, every day, of what you do and what you’ve done. You deserve to remember every day that there are people who suffer more than you, that there are people who are stronger and smarter, braver, more principled and better than you, in every way, until the day you realise exactly how wrong your actions have been.
I don’t want to see bodily harm visited on you, because I don’t want to see bodily harm visited on anyone. What I do want is for you - and, for that matter, every shitposter I’ve ever seen - to learn that anonymity is not an excuse.
At this point, theAmazingAtheist backed off, offered a whiny, petulant non-apology apology for, as he put it, “SOME of the statements I made,” and wondered aloud why people were still so mad at him.
He went on to make, yep, a little video about his experience, and to offer a weird and unconvincing “rebuttal” to PZ Myers’ comments on his meltdown. See PZ Myers’ post for links to the video, as well as the rebuttal itself (which is effectively re-rebutted by Myers). See here and here for a transcript of the video.
Naturally, there’s a discussion of the meltdown on ShitRedditSays as well.
One heartening sign in all this: the massive numbers of downvotes theAmazingAtheist got for his worst comments. I hope that a significant number of them were from actual Men’s Rights Redditors, and not only from people who came into the discussion from elsewhere on Reddit, but of course there is no way of knowing.
Will atheists and MRAs drop theAmazingAtheist like a hot rape-threatening potato? Or will they start rallying around him as some sort of heroic truth teller and rape threatener? Somehow I suspect there will be a bit of both.
Like this:
Posted on February 8, 2012, in creepy, douchebaggery, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, MRA, oppressed men, rape, rapey, reddit, threats. Bookmark the permalink. 244 Comments.
The thing about an apology is that when you do something wrong and feel remorse you proffer an apology.
Whether it is accepted or not is not up to you.
Claiming that you can read people’s minds and decide if your apology will be accepted or not is just one more red flag for abusive controlling behavior. Than which there were about a kazillion red flags flying from the moment his fingers walked him on to the interwebs.
No it does not appear to have fixed the italics.
The only thing that can fix them is either the page changing, or Dave finding the open tag; and closing it.
I fixed the italics, and also did that thing no more mr nice guy says will fix them forevermore! So thanks, no more mr nice guy!
Happy, I started this blog because i got annoyed reading r/mensrights on reddit. And then I discovered quickly that the MRM outside of reddit was even worse. I just sort of settled into the style I use, in which I basically let the people I quote from dig their own holes.
Its kinda great to add a quote from Baldwin, via Dworkin in Intercourse, which fits in well with the redditors’ spot on short-stopper.
“People pay for what they do, and, still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.”
This kind of shit is why it is so important to air out the atheist dickbags regularly - so we can be rid of them one by one.
And what’s particularly amusing is that most people, once they’ve started digging their hole, don’t think to stop.
Odd, that.
The Amazing Statist has always been a mysanthrope…he doesn’t hate women, he hates the human species, especially himself. I find many liberals to be mysanthropes (although not most). I’m not conservative or liberal, so I think I can say that objectively.
Aiden:
I don’t think Evan has been back, but Elena posted a few days ago asking if anyone had any news of zie. I’m sorry and really concerned if zie hasn’t shown up yet. Maybe Benny (who seems like a very caring cat) could organize a search party of the local neibourhood. I was talking to Mikeneko, my feline housemate, about this the other night and she said that she had once organized a search for a lost kitten. They found the kitten in a matter of an hour and returned her to her mother, completely unharmed.
Or there is always the possibility that Evan has escaped and is laying low for the time being.
I find many liberals to be mysanthropes (although not most). I’m not conservative or liberal, so I think I can say that objectively.
Right…
Just keep on thinking that.
@jimmythegreeksghost
http://xkcd.com/774/
i personally think what he said wasn’t that bad. I think he was making a point about how people will attack others, and then hide behind something that supposedly makes them “sympathetic”. This is something I actually personally went through when a girl started calling me a loser for being a virgin, and then I started tearing into her, and she suddenly dropped the bomb that she’d been raped. I didn’t respect her exploiting her victim status to get away with verbally abusing me, so i basically called her a slut for being raped, which she then proceeded to treat like an atrocity on my part for saying. I don’t respect the way that victims exploit their victim status.
@jingles How does it feel to be a horrible person? I mean, seriously, are you fakeposting? For fucks sake.
Jingles: I don’t care if a survivor has murdered your entire family, it is NOT okay to call someone a slut for being raped. “You shouldn’t call me a loser for being a virgin” = okay. “Yeah, well, you’re a slut” = not okay.
Besides, what’s wrong with sluts? I’m a slut, and I’m a nice person.
Jingles, that’s nice dear. Go be awful someplace else.
Jingles: She ought not have been mocking your virginity.
You were a shit to call her a slut; for any reason.
You are a shit to the power of n for calling her a slut for being raped.
@Jingles
You call someone a slut for being raped then wonder why someone uses the satirical username “IcumwhenIkillmen….etc’? Fuck you. You are scum. Every time you wake up, the first thought in your head should be “I am an awful, disgusting excuse for a human being. I called a woman who had been raped a slut. I am lower than any other form of life, and I don’t deserve to be breathing the same air as any other lifeform on this earth, because I am sickening”. Fuck you. Go crawl back under your rock and die there, because frankly, humanity is better off without you.
So jingles is trolling. I do not believe anyone did that in person.
Jingles: Oh? and you weren’t exploiting your virgin status?
Bostonian: The part which seems incredible is the person he says virgin-shamed him, and then said, “I’m a rape victim”.
The slut shaming a rape victim, I can completely believe. I can even believe that someone said something he took as being virgin-shaming and then the rest took place.
Is Jingles another MRAL sockpuppet? I hate to think that there are multiple people like that out there walking around in the world.
If not - that’s nice, Jingles dear. Now go play in traffic.
@Bostonian
Unfortunately, I can believe that that happened pretty easily.
Pecunium:
Personally, I think quite a number of people use these stupid Internet arguments as entertainment. They forget that the things they say are being said to real people who can damaged by them. If most of this shit mattered maybe they could be forgiven but most of the time it’s just bullshit.
That guy! I found him in the so-called “related videos” next to Feminist Frequency. He freaked me the hell out because everything from his facial features to his body type to his voice and even his mannerisms reminded me of a guy who sexually assaulted and stalked back in high school. Figures he’s not just a narcissistic misogynist asshole, but fucking evil.
I’m a man, and not a rape victim, and was too upset to keep reading past the 1st half. I would need to make up new expletives to convey how fucked that is.
The NotSoAmazingAtheist is one unbelievable fool who’s got nothing better to do than slut-shaming! I would NEVER wish rape upon anyone! That fool needs to grow up, get a life, get a job, get a girlfriend and stop hating women and everyone else!
Set aside whether what Jingles said actually happened, it does show the hypocracy. Yeah somebody can call you names and then say she is a rape victim and you are not supposed to say anything about that? Why not? If you decide to call me names I am not going to safe ammo. If you can curse at people expect to be cursed at. If you take a username as ICUMWHENIKILLMEN expect people to post hateful stuff about women. Don’t dish it out of you can’t take it in, maybe rape insults are off limits to you but it might be not for the person you are cursing at.
@dapartypoopah/jingles (as if):
Nonsense. It’s simple: if someone’s calling you names, you call them out on *that.* On their assholery. Calling them names in return is just about the most useless, childish, and dumb possible option. Attacking them because of something they had/have no control over is bad enough (er, wasn’t that your problem in the first place?). Deliberately slut-shaming a rape victim just because “so there!”? Wow. Step this way; nine circles, no waiting.
Isn’t it funny how here, the #1 issue is “she used her rape-victim status to get away with shitty behavior!” and yet at the time, the #1 thing that came to mind was to… call her a slut? Waitwhat? That’s a really weird leap. Similarly, why should an offensive username lead directly to offensive namecalling? Like, how does that help? Something tells me posting “hateful shit about women” won’t exactly change a misandrist’s mind. And it *definitely* won’t get that username changed. Why not just confront the actual problem, which is *that it’s an offensive username.*
What the hell is wrong with some people?
What were his remarks in response to? There’s really nothing that could mitigate such remarks, but I would like to know what prompted this meltdown.
Ok, i feel like i have to comment here. let it be known that i am a women too, so here me out. how jingles reacted to that girl was very,very bad. you don’t make fun of someone for being raped, you just don’t. just like you don’t make fun of someone for having their family murdered, or make fun of someone for being a victim of domestic violence or child abuse. all of these things are truly horrible things and shouldn’t be used against someone in an attempt to demean or humiliate them. right? am i right? ok. so why is it that many of you feminist types out there treat rape like it is the most single horrific crime in all of history and the cosmos beyond. it is worst then murder, it is worst then domestic violence, genocide, EVERYTHING!! now im not trying to downplay rape or say that it isn’t as horrible or traumatic as these other crimes i’v mentioned above, i just want to know why feminist are so fucking obsessed with it. why is it that feminist place rape on a fucking pedestal above all of these other horrible crimes.
i heard someone else here mention that they don’t even care if that rape victim kills your entire family, you shouldn’t make fun of them for being raped. …really? ok, let’s say ”hypothetically” that your family was just brutally murdered and you find out that the murderer has been raped at some point in their life. and in a fit of emotional angst, anger, and fury(after all, your family was just killed)…you tell the murderer that they deserved it. ZOMG!!!HOW DARE YOU!! YOU MISGONIST PIG!! it doesn’t fucking matter if that person killed your entire family, it doesn’t matter that you are now fucked up in the head for the rest of your life because of it, it doesn’t matter that you were angry, hurt, and enraged when you said it. all the matters is that you used their rape against them, and for that you are a horrible fucking human being and you should be murdered to along with your damn family!!
ok, that’s an extreme case. but you know that’s what it sounds like to me when you say something like ”it doesn’t matter if that person killed your family”.
and again like i mentioned in the beginning of my post, what jingles said to that girl was a very asshole thing to say. just like it would be horrible if he said something like ”you deserved to be abused by your parents” if the girl had told him she was abused as a child. but i don’t think that makes him a horrible monstrosity who is unable to change and should be beat to death, like you guys imply. hell, im not even really defending him. the reason why i wrote this long ass comment was because of the way you guys are reacting to him and how many of you seem to treat rape like it is the genocide of humankind(hell, not even sure what that means). and no, im not a ”troll” either, im just voicing my opinion on this matter.
you guys should read this article on the goodman project written by a blogger called ”quiet riot girl”. in this article he talks a lot about what iv just mentioned above. im gonna link it below, some of you guys should have a read at it
http://goodmenproject.com/gender-sexuality/rape-culture-and-other-feminist-myths/
Honestly? This is just short of trolling, what with the strawmanning and militant obtuseness. But on the off chance it’s not, I’m going to take the time.
1. “many of you feminist types out there treat rape like it is the most single horrific crime… worst then murder…domestic violence, genocide, EVERYTHING!!”
Well, that’s measured. Glad to know you want to have a serious discussion. Definitely not trolling. /sarcasm
This is a ridiculous statement. Buuuut… since you’re going there, I have to note that rape *is* pretty viscerally horrifying; so much so that a common euphemism for rape is… wait for it… “a fate worse than death.” Pretty sure feminists didn’t make that up, since— lmgtfy— it’s been around since SEVENTEEN EIGHTY-ONE. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/134650.html So yeah.
2. “i just want to know why feminist are so fucking obsessed with it … feminist place rape on a fucking pedestal above all of these other horrible crimes.”
Look, this is pretty simple: feminism is about gender equality, which involves defending women’s interests. Okay? Now. Crime is bad and violence is bad. But feminism isn’t actually about fighting crime or violence… except where they intersect with what it *is* about. Rape is a horrible form of violence that’s primarily used *against women*, THAT’S why feminists are “so fucking obsessed”with it. DUH. (And btw, since when do feminists not care about DV?? Pretty sure we only have the laws we do because of them…?) I mean honestly. This is such a bullshit Bingo-card complaint. It’s called specialization. Do you also not understand why MLK placed Jim Crow “on a fucking pedestal above” say, drunk driving? Or why cops don’t fight fires? Jeez.
3. “i heard someone else here mention that they don’t even care if that rape victim kills your entire family, you shouldn’t make fun of them for being raped.”
And? What’s the problem? If, in my grief, I was going to “make fun” (??) of said murderer/rape victim, I’d prolly focus on I dunno, THE FACT THAT THEY’RE A FKN MURDERER.
4. “let’s say ”hypothetically” that your family was just brutally murdered and you find out that the murderer has been raped at some point in their life. and in a fit of emotional angst, anger, and fury … you tell the murderer that they deserved it. ZOMG!!!HOW DARE YOU!! YOU MISGONIST PIG!! … for that you are a horrible fucking human being and you should be murdered to along with your damn family!!”
Right, yes. That seems likely. Totally fair assessment. *sigh* I await an example of this. Oh, riiiight. It’s “hypothetical.” Which is to say, you’ve just made this up out of whole straw. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that nobody anywhere has ever said this. (BTW, you have now lost all credibility.)
Also, sidebar: Personally? I don’t say shit like this no matter *how* angsty, angry, or infuriated I am. Just… doesn’t come to mind. Kinda like how I don’t spew racist slurs when I’m angry. STRONG side-eye to the idea that fucked up shit suddenly makes sense to say cuz y’know, sooperpist!! WTF is that about? If you think “you deserved to get raped” is suddenly a valid sentence because someone you loved died, or because you’re angry, well fuck you, IMO. I’m sorry for your loss, AND you’re an asshole for casually advocating rape. I can do both!
5. “and should be beat to death, like you guys imply”
As if. Cite it or it didn’t happen. I’m hearing crickets already.
6. “you guys should read this article”
No. YOU need to read. You’re the one who’s so confused. You’re the one with all the entry-level questions. So no.
Yeah!! Rape is worse than murder, genocide and all that stuff. Give me a break!
Nikki is right on the money. The rest of you are fucking nuts.
How is wishing rape on someone worse than wishing DEATH or TORTURE on someone? I hope most people aren’t like you feminist fucks. I don’t even want to understand you.
Well, you’re only about a year late to the conversation here Skippy. On your way now, shoo.
Since this thread was necro’ed, I can’t say that for sure 100% definitely no one here said that, but “How is wishing rape on someone worse than wishing DEATH or TORTURE on someone?”? No one here said that.
And what is with this thread? Looks like it’s been necro’ed at least 3 times now.
Magician: So, the appropriate reaction should be “thanks for only wishing I get raped, instead of murdered”?
And incidentally: rape IS torture, and moreover, it is often a tool of genocide.