Figleaf’s thought-provoking post on perceived masculinity got linked to by none other than Ann Althouse yesterday, in case any of our regular readers were wondering why the comments to that post contained much more troglodytic bullshit than usual.
Thing is, you guys got spared the worst of it. Me and Ozy were looking over the spam filter, clucking our tongues and going “My, my, my” at the lizard-brain ugliness that didn’t meet our comment guidelines.
Then we figured, “Ah, fuck it, let’s have a laugh.” Below are some of our personal favorites from the torrent of hateful crap that Ms. Althouse’s readers saw fit to bless us with. TRIGGER WARNING for vehement transphobia, homophobia, gender shaming, and a really weird genital obsession. Names have been removed because someday some of these folks might want their self-respect back.
You all are mad because your hero Obama is such a pussy
“He’s manly enough. For an Air Force pansy.”
That’s tough talk coming from a tofu-eating girly-man.You prove my supposition that your hatred for Perry stems from your recognition that he is a real man, while you are not. Gotta tear down those who, by their mere existence, shame you.
Well, for one thing, he isn’t a Democrat. Seriously, Democrat women are more masculine than Democrat malse (they don’t actually qualify as “men”). I mean just look at those dudes. They are a serious bunch of femmes. It is just about impossible to be a man and be a Democrat. Sorry boys, that is just a fact. I will give it to you on your women though. They do have some balls. Literally. Look at that hag Waserman Schults. Or Hillary Clinton. Also, the reason you people are so hateful of women like Michele Bachman or Sarah Palin (other than the fact that they look so much better than your hogs) is because they didn’t abort their children. You hate that, because you sick fucks love you some abortion. The only good baby is a dead baby in your book.
Crying “Racism!” is the first refuge of the progressive scoundrel.
And my personal favorite, this is just an amazing piece of wild bullshit, hitting so many hateful, stupid, and wrong notes in a relatively small space:
“Put it another way: if you could choose any kind of man to be would you choose his kind of “manliness” over all others?”
All others? Likely not. Over the effeminate, uncoordinated, non-athletic goof-President we currently see flitting down the stairs like a Key West “performance artist?” Uh, yeah, in a heartbeat. Hell, Perry’s even more of a man than Michelle Obama, and you can tell what “she’s” packing by the way “she” walks.
I think of these comments as a museum of remembrance. Every time you start thinking “Oh, c’mon, gender policing isn’t that crazy” or “People really aren’t that stupid about genitals and gender, are they?” or “Traditional notions of masculinity aren’t usually bundled with a bunch of hateful bullshit, right?” then you can look at this post and go “Oh, shit, my mistake, that’s actually how a lot of people think.”
This crap right here? This is why this blog exists. Because these people are out there. They are voting. They are in relationships. They are (brace yourself) raising children. And I think that the more they realize that people are pointing at them and laughing, the less damage their painfully limited and utterly worthless ideas of gender will do.
About Noah Brand
There are two types of courage that the best men and women (though mostly men) have and they both have to be present for a male to be a good example of “manliness”.
Physical and moral courage. Perry may have physical courage, his treatment of Willingham (and the whole issue of Innocence in Texas in general) shows he lacks moral courage. Why can’t those hateful goofs from Althouse understand that? He’s a disgusting human being who, if one can’t trust him to follow his professed religion -well, why shouldn’t one wonder what he really believes?
I should clarify that i think physical courage is more often exhibited by men and for two reasons:
A. It’s expected of us, and not expected of the ladies.
B. Men tend to be bigger and stronger and its easier to “mix it up” when you have a better chance of winning.
In short, I’m not saying women can’t show physical courage, I’m saying its more prevalent among men for both good and bad reasons, particularly I think the social expectations. Women don’t usually feel the sting of being called coward for not fighting.
I’m also of the opinion that moral courage is at least (and probably more) important than physical courage and Perry seems to lack that utterly.
@noah: Ah, quoting Wilde, the sure sign of a non-manly man …
Then again, I’ve got a T-Shirt saying “Born To Quote Wilde” on the back, so who am I to mock …
That is a good tactic, which is why I suspect people like those who wrote the obnoxious comments rely on it so much. Some of them may believe those things, but most probably wrote those comments just to get under your skin, just as Sun Tzu advised.
Well said, Toysoldier. The internet will forever be full of trolls and those who’s intent is only to seek out and cause misery.
I was preparing a post about Honour last night, when my Admin cut the internet. Which was actually a good thing because it was skewing slighty femmo-Spartan, which can be construed a certain way…
Anyways, I’m gonna be controversial. From where I stand, Rick Perry is a Murderer. If certain US states are executing innocent civilians on phoney evidence, then that means they could accuse anyone, at any time, and that makes them corrupt. I don’t like that Idea. Luckily I’m British, so I don’t have to worry about this. And yet, I still worry.
I worry for all the wrongly-convicted. I worry that if these people are using outdated methods, and catching the wrong people. It’s at times like this that the E-bomb rises up in my mind.
“The E-Bomb?” I hear you all cry. Evil.
“Governor” Perry, in my mind at least, has committed evil. An innocent man has gone to his death for a crime he did not commit, a fire he did not start. And all the trolls can do is say how unmanly WE are? Honourless toads!
I’ll not go down the road of what I should do to these unworthy Arseholes. After all, Kids in blighty who went out looting are getting stiff sentences now. I don’t know where I’m going with this, so I’m gonna stop.
i got maybe a quarter of the way through the comments (post-regulars, i mean) before i had to close the tab in disgust.
had a lol at the person accusing figleaf of insulting texans, though. newsflash: rick perry does way more to undermine the actual honor and perceived sanity of texans at large than literally anyone on the internet ever could.
seriously. fuck rick perry.
This right here is where the cracks in the armer of traditional gender and those who defend it begin to show. They feel the need to come over here and fill the comment section with nasty hate filled sniping.
Aren’t these guys supposed to be against vulgar displays of emotion I mean isn’t it supposed to be a sign of weakness with them? Yet they flip out over one post even though when the entire MSM is kissing Governor Perry’s arse.
I guess crippling insecurity coupled with the need to bully anyone who disagrees with you is part of trad masculinity now.
And the people making those comments on that blog this post linked wonder why Republicans and The Right-Wing are marginalized.
They do it to themselves.
regardless of tone, republicans and conservatives are wrong on most issues and in general reject reality
Eagle, Debaser, Let us say Amen to that.
“I bet you all wear helmets when you ride your bikes.”
I nominate this to be the most epic fail of an insult of the year. This is seriously asking to be ridiculed. I could milk it until the end of time. Every time you forget something or make a mistake I’ll say “guess wearing a helmet would have been better after all”.
Incidentally, I never wore a helmet but that’s out of laziness and overconfidence in my ability to avoid accidents. I was lucky – not manly.
If your goal is social justice, is it really helpful to play into the ‘fight’ framing of the debate, or taking on the tactics of ‘war’? Ridicule is a tactic intended to dehumanise the people on the ‘other side’ with the intent to foster mindless tribalistic combat. I’m not sure dehumanisation or tribalism (despite how tempting it might be) should be considered to be beneficial to the pursuit of social justice, particularly given it’s just going to further cement such views in those who hold them.
I think Sam’s comment, attempting to understand why people hold such views, is a much more constructive way to approach the issue.
Because social justice is based on respect.
These creatures do not show respect, ergo they are not entitled to respect. Rather, they can and should be treated as what they are: pests or vermin.