Deleted Comments Of The Day: Why All The Hatin' On MRAs, Wonkette Dude?

We have nine million comments backed up in the queue, and they are just precious! We will make an effort to bring you as many of these "real characters" as we can in the next few installments of yr Dear Shitferbrains. Let's see what frothy goodness the internet has left lapping up against the sides of our comment holding tank, shall we?

To start with, we heard from a number of Men's Rights Advocates who were quite put out indeed by our story Wednesday about an MRA group that crowdfunded $25,000 for extra security at a dumb convention they're having in Detroit, because the hotel required them to have it, citing unspecified threats it had received. Our story did not sit well with would-be commenter "ARenMan," who called us out on our unspeakable double standards:

Oh! But if a big scary man looks at my boobs #YesAllMen But if feminists make terrorists make death threats against a legal, peaceful gathering . . . um . . . #YesAllMen

Darn those well-organized feminist terrorists! Now, we of course do not think death threats are a laughing matter, at least depending on spelling.

That said, we'd also note that requirements for security at conferences, particularly conferences held by assholes, are fairly routine, and the Atlantic story we linked to points out a couple of important considerations:

Although the hotel's letter did not specify from whom the threats came, it is plausible that the increased attention on the conference inspired the internet to do what it does and send nasty letters. (The Men's Rights activists could have consulted feminists, who deal with this sort of thing all the time, on how to handle that.) However, the accusation that feminists are to blame for the threats against the conference feels like another cry of "wolf," as A Voice For Men tends to blame feminists for pretty much everything.

We'd also add that the hotel that allegedly sent the letter mentioning threats now won't confirm that it sent any such letter -- the only copy of the letter released to the press came from Paul Elam, the organizer of the conference.

Onwards to the three comments submitted by the rather verbose "azshade," a Men's Rightsist from Australia, who explains why he is an MRA and no one should ever mock MRAs because of all the ways men suffer due to feminism. We will not quote the entirety of his long long comments, because we are petty tyrants who hate free speech, but here's an excerpt, so you get the flavour of his thinking:

Why I am a Men's Right Activist. Because my grandfather committed suicide. He had breast cancer and was shammed that he had a "woman's disease". 2% of breast cancers are male, yet despite that the colours are pink, the logo is a female, the brochures also contain cervical cancer information. I've written, as I do each year, to the McGrath Foundation and the Cancer Council and each year I don't get so much as a reply.

That is actually very sad about his grandfather, and we will not make fun of anyone with cancer. We are inclined to make fun of his pique that national cancer charities didn't even write him back, because that seems a tad self-important. And then he launches into the usual list of ways in which men have it so bad in Western countries -- the shocking indifference to domestic abuse against men, which is "treated as something to be joked about (even this article aludes [sic] to it)." And also child support and men getting screwed in divorces. And so on:

Another issue is the sentencing differences that have males facing, on average 1.5 to 2 times as long as sentence for the same crime. Then there are more "ideological" issues such as the male = rapist issues. Some males are now being required to move seats on planes to not sit near children because it 'poses a risk'. There is also increasing calls to 'teach males not to rape".

We like that "sentencing disparity" -- which has to be because juries are biased against men, probably because of feminism's overwhelming influence on the justice system. (Also, even the U.S. study that found a larger disparity than previous studies suggest the men's sentences were 63% higher, not 150% - 200%). And yes, it is terribly terribly unfair that anyone would want to teach men not to rape just because most rapes are committed by men. But we'd be happy to tell both men and women not to rape, sure.

Oh, and he went on, finally addressing the very real damage done to men by our terrible mean article:

And finally we have articles like this, where any male that speaks out against these issues is treated as a rapist, as a child, as an idiot or weak. All of these issues are real issues with real effects. They effect people daily in various ways ... I am not against women. I support almost ever issue that female rights campaigners do. What I want is the same as what they want, equality ... I hope that as more people like myself make these issues understood, we'll see less hatred and laughter being made of these issues and we can treat them with seriousness.

Well, that's nice. It also has fuck-all to do with the Detroit conference being arranged by a group with a well-documented history of downplaying rape, and which actually is sponsoring a dumb petition to have "feminism" declared a "terrorist group."

We got two more comments from azshade, both going over similar ground, and even acknowledging that there are "some trolls that call themselves MRAs" who are terrible, but that's no reason to ignore the whole very important movement for male equality. Azshade seems like a not-terrible person, and he is very disappointed that people call his comrades "titty babies" and disparage them for having "their poor widdle feelings hurt." It is unfair, by golly, and he just does not see why we won't take more seriously the simple desire for men to finally achieve equality. Incidentally, here's what the MRA conference organizer Paul Elam has to say about rape:  

all the outraged PC demands to get huffy and point out how nothing justifies or excuses rape won’t change the fact that there are a lot of women who get pummeled and pumped because they are stupid (and often arrogant) enough to walk though life with the equivalent of a I’M A STUPID, CONNIVING BITCH – PLEASE RAPE ME neon sign glowing above their empty little narcissistic heads.

We're sure that azshade would probably not agree with such a crude troll. Who happens to be running the conference that our post was about.

We also heard from "Poetentate," whose pseudonym suggests maybe we shouldn't take their comment at face value:

Men are always ready to stab each other in the back at the slightest provocation or for fun, which is mostly what I see on this forum. I really don't know why MRAs even waste their time on it. Feminists got it right.

What do you think, Wonkers? Genuine disappointment at men's inability to come together and fight for their rights, or a brilliant parody ascribing the problems of the MRAs to cattiness?

There's no doubting the sincerity of "slantyjaws" (nice nym, actually), who found even more proof that Men Have It Worse:

Or, you know, the 4: 1 to 6:1 male to female suicide ratio, depending on where you're living. But hey, it's only men! Who cares, right?

Ooh, ooh! Let us try that! Suicide is tragic, and it absolutely needs to be addressed. And it makes sense to aim prevention and interventions differently to men and women. And the difference in suicide rates, once again, has fuck-all to do with mean old feminists oppressing men. Dare we say it, it probably has more to do with macho culture and the idea that seeking help isn't "manly," a problem in the male psyche that was not invented by women. Thank you!

"Turbo" also made several muted, worried chiding noises about our mention of Elliot Rodger -- that is to say, he took us to tsk:

I find your eagerness to exploit this tragic event to score points for your ideological bent to be truly disturbing. You need to have a hard look in the mirror.

And your concern is noted. Shame on us. We are the real problem, not misogyny. We actually went and looked in the mirror, and we were pleased to see that we were holding neither a Glock nor a woman-hating manifesto.

And finally, we have "TheKozloski," who informs us that we were utterly out of bounds to suggest that Rodger's hatred of women had anything to do with the Men's Rights "movement," because it is just SO UNFAIR:

Elliot Rodgers [sic] was not associated in any ways with MRAs. He was associated with Pick-up Artists, and by associated I mean that he hated them and was active on forums that verbally denigrated the practice of pick-up artistry. Furthermore, the Hotel ordered them to hire police protection or cancel the event. This article is full of either grave ignorance or intentional dishonesty, and in either case it's shoddy journalism.

We had a bit of a sense of deja derp with this one, since we handled a similar complaint in our last outing. We said at the time that MRAs, “RedPill” misogynists, and PUAs are "three very different types of assholes, each with a rich heritage of assholery all its own," which we stand by, but we'd also note that there's plenty of overlap among them, largely based on the whole thing where they hate women and desire to put them back in their rightful place. And for what it's worth, conference organizer Paul Elam just loves fantasizing about women getting the beatings they deserve, so there's that kinship, too.

And good lord, there's so much more stupid in the queue that we want to share with you! This weekend, we'll definitely bring you more -- you'll love the stuff we've received from the open-carry and Bergdahl-hating crowds.

 Follow Doktor Zoom on Twitter. He apparently has no idea how bad he's got it.