Category Archives: infighting
No, YOU’RE The [Anti-Woman Slur]: A Manosphere Debate [NOW WITH TRANSCRIPT]
Today, some comedy, in the form of an 8 minute excerpt from what was apparently an hour-and-a-half “debate” between John “The Other” Hembling, noted Men’s Human Rights Activist from A Voice For Human Men, and some dude from Manhood Academy, a Men’s Rights site that’s actually a teensy bit more obnoxious than AVFM, although in a much less interesting way.
It’s NSFW, unless you’re wearing headphones, due to salty language and near-constant anti-woman slurs.
In case you haven’t listened to enough of JohnTheOther to instantly recognize his irritating voice, he is — uncharacteristically — the quieter of the two, er, debaters here, and a little bit on the defensive.
Thanks to the intrepid work of new commenter Thal, we now have a transcript!
Is Mark Minter, Misogynistic Marriage Mocker, Really Getting Married?
Oops.
Mark Minter, a bitter, angry, divorced man in his late fifties, made a name for himself over the last year or so in the tiny world of the misogynist manosphere as that subculture’s most vociferous opponent of marriage.
In a series of little manifestos, deposited as comments on various manosphere blogs, Minter excoriated the institution he thought made a “slave” of men. “Get it through your head,” he wrote in one,
Men are from mars; women are FUCKING IDIOTS.
Never marry. … Duh. Game. Duh. Pump them, dump them, next them. Duh. THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO WIN. Duh!!!!!
That was the old Mark Minter. Then, last week, word got out that Minty was getting married. To a single mother (oh no!) over the age of thirty (eek!) that he’s apparently never even met in person (well, actually that does sound a bit worrisome).
Scorned: How Pissed is GirlWritesWhat at A Voice for Men’s Paul Elam?
GirlWritesWhat to TheWoollyBumblebee: This misogynistic hate blog ain’t big enough for the both of us.
Sometimes the subtext is much more interesting than the text. On the surface, blabby FeMRA videoblogger Girl Writes What’s recent 3,635 word blog post on the l’affaire TheWoolyBumblebee is a nasty, brutish, but not-at-all-short attack on her former FeMRA comrade at men’s rights hate site A Voice for Men, recently kicked out of the clubhouse for telling off libertarians and Men Going Their Own Way. (See here and here for more details on it all.)
But if you read a little more carefully you can see signs that Girl Writes What’s anger and frustration may really be directed at AVFM’s founder and grand pooh-bah Paul Elam.
Tom “Female Penguins are Whores ” Martin, banned from A Voice for Men for excessive feminism?
Tom Martin would be right at home in Second Life, apparently.
I realize that I may be the only one who’s really all that interested in sectarian infighting amongst the MRAs, but an old friend of ours has weighed in on the recent battles over the A Voice for Men satellite group MRA London, and I’ve learned some interesting things as a result.
A Voice for Men/MRA London infighting gets even sillier: Paul Elam makes his uninformed stand
So, that tempest in a teacup involving MRA London, A Voice for Men’s British satellite group, that I wrote about last night? Well, it’s gotten even sillier.
The tl;dr is that MRA London has split up, with accusations and counter-accusations flying. AVFM staffer Andy Thomas has appointed himself CEO of the group after apparently tossing out most of its members. (Or “accepting their resignations,” or something; who knows?) As far as I can tell, this means that the group may now be down to literally two people.
Now AVFM’s Maximum Leader Paul Elam has posted a very long statement on the subject, saying very little indeed. The gist of it? He really doesn’t know what happened in the “very British coup” or who was right, but he’s sticking with Thomas because he knows the dude better than the dudes who are no longer part of the group. No, really, that’s his explanation.
Not only that, but Elam admits flatly that doesn’t really even care who was right, at least not enough to bother to try to figure out the basic facts of the case:
I am not in the least interested in trying to ascertain who was more or less at fault in MRA London’s internal conflicts. It is not that I am indifferent to right and wrong in this case, but simply as a pragmatic matter I cannot and won’t try to wade through several weeks/months of infighting, insinuation and accusations between people in conflict 8,000 miles from here and even pretend that I can come up with an informed judgment.
Really? Because most political organizations, when faced with issues like this, like to at least pretend to gather the facts before making their decisions.
Elam also alludes vaguely to
other factors, having to do with the best interests of AVFM and the MHRM, that lend more support to our decision to maintain the historical relationship we have had with Andy Thomas of MRA London. I am not at liberty to discuss them, but they are compelling.
Oh, so there were some SUPER SEEEKRET reasons too! Having to do with the “best interests” of the world historical force that is the Men’s Human Rights Human Movement of Men (But Not Those Dudes We Just Threw Under The Bus for Super SEEEKRET Reasons).
Come to think of it, no one has actually explained straightforwardly the non-super seekret reasons either. Ah well.
Elam also makes clear that any dissent to this decision will be confined to the comments of this one thread.
ALL HAIL ELAM AND HIS INFALLIBLE WISDOM OF MAKING DECISIONS BASED ON NOT KNOWING SHIT ABOUT WHAT HE’S MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT.
PS In my haste to write this post I neglected to include my regular reminder that AVFM, while claiming to be a “human rights” group, continues to post a literal call to firebomb courthouses and police stations in its activism section.
Dirty Laundry Alert! Tears, recriminations and infighting amongst A Voice for Men’s London allies
A hit, a palpable hit!
A Voice for Men’s plans for world domination seem to have hit a little snag. Earlier today, the so-called “Men’s Human Rights” site — which posts an open call to firebomb courthouses and police stations in its “Activism” section — posted a most unusual article titled “A Very British Coup,” which detailed — in a highly one-sided manner — some rather nasty infighting in AFVM’s apparently quite tiny British satellite organization MRA London.
According to newly self-installed MRA London Maximum Leader Andy Thomas, earlier this month,
a bizarre coup was attempted within the MRA London. While I was travelling and out of regular contact, a certain member of the group announced to the world that he had been ejected from MRA London by me personally, and put out a widespread appeal to have me “deposed”, “overthrown”, or whatever. He also made a series of even more bizarre allegations against me and several others.
But for various unspecified reasons this “reverse coup” failed, according to Thomas, “ending in farce and bitter recrimination.” Now the alleged coup-plotters are no longer with the group, and Thomas has declared himself the Chief Executive Officer of the group, such as it is.
This news seemed to come as a shock to most of the AVFM faithful, some of whom were faintly horrified to find Thomas airing this sort of dirty laundry in public where people like you and me can see it. One reader was so baffled by it all they concluded it might be “feminist gaslighting.” (When in doubt, blame the feminists.)
Others more familiar with the situation blasted Thomas’ account of the affair as self-serving nonsense. Richard Ford, one of the expelled/resigned/whatever members, wrote sarcastically, in a comment on AVFM that has miraculously not yet been deleted:
Andy has not chosen to speak to me directly about whatever is bothering him and I am unable to discover the reasons from any other member as it seems that every one of us (with the exception of Erin [Pizzey] and possibly one other) has been expelled at the same time! I honestly know no more about this than what I read here.
I wish Andy well with his new bonzai version of MRA London. The membership will simply have to start again with a new name. Much time will be wasted but we will get there in the end.
For the record. Andy has no power to expel anyone from a group that he so recently joined. Despite this I believe it best to go our separate ways.
AVFM’s own Maximum Leader, Paul Elam, has promised a further explanation tomorrow. Stay tuned, as this has the potential to get very messy indeed.
