All of you have heard about how the Southern Poverty Law Center is now tracking the so called manosphere. Many people in the so called manosphere are patting themselves on the back and thinking that it’s great publicity. They’re wrong because the SPLC has managed (likely by accident) to exploit the greatest weakness of the MRM,the lack of rational, politically astute leadership.
The “leaders” of the MRM like Paul Elam have completely failed to distance themselves from all the kooks that inhabit the so called manosphere. (Even in the case of game where Paul Elam, for example, took a strong stand against it, he ended up giving it legitimacy by treating it as a valid alternate point of view by debating it in the Elam-Frost debates. This is another example of the lack of political astuteness of the MRM “leadership”.) While I’m sure the SPLC would have tried to smear the MRM with white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and other kooks, the fact is that the SPLC was handed what they wanted on a silver platter. With all of the kooks inhabiting the manosphere, it was easy for the SPLC to smear anti-feminism with those kooks.
A person who reads what the SPLC says about the so called manosphere might not believe it so they would check things out for themselves. What they would find by going to AVfM, for example, is kook after kook from anti-semitism to medical conspiracy theories to conspiracy theories about the CIA and the Rockefellers orchestrating feminism to conspiracy theories about dead guys to lies about currency, economics, and the Federal Reserve. The problem isn’t just a few kooks commenting. The comments at AVfM are filled with kooks, and the insanity is not limited to the comments. The last three links are from John the Other, AVfM’s managing editor. The kooks are just in the comments. They’re at the top leading AVfM. Plus, AVfM still links to InMalaFide (one of the sites listed by the SPLC) and Hawaiian Fat Blob. (Since it would take all of five seconds to remove those links, there is no excuse to keep links to those kooks around.) Anyone who goes to AVfM as a result of the SPLC, even if they’re sympathetic to mens rights, will conclude that the SPLC is right about AVfM because of the amount of kooks there. If Paul Elam was more politically astute, he would be in a much stronger position to defend against the SPLC’s accusations. Instead he is alienating potential allies who would be interested in mens rights but don’t want to be involved with kooks.
The problem is larger than just AVfM. Even rational anti-feminist blogs and organizations like the False Rape Society and SAVE are being tarnished with the same brush because the MRM “leadership” has failed to deal with the kooks due to their lack of political astuteness.
Even if a potentially ally gets past the kooks, the fact that the so called manosphere is now forever connected to game crap. One of the blogs that the SPLC listed was Roosh. Roosh is gamer who has said that MRAs are just losers who can’t get laid and has nothing to do with mens rights whatsoever. (It can be argued that the kooks have more to do with mens rights than he does.) A potentially ally who comes to the MRM via the SPLC might conclude that while the SPLC is full of shit, that the MRM isn’t about mens rights but stupid crap about getting laid. Just like with the failure to deal with the kooks, this is another example of the MRM “leadership” failing to be politically astute. It’s the Misandrist Dating Advice Distraction happening again.
If the MRM “leadership” had been politically astute, they could have turned what the SPLC did into a victory. Instead it’s another failure that delays the progress of anti-feminism.
