Do you know what the opponents of the Men’s Human Rights Movement hate most? The reality, slowly dawning on many of them, that they are on the opposite side of decency, civil rights, and fundamental human rights, and are instead on the side of prejudice, bigotry, racism, and sexism.
Today our opponents, primarily and most visibly ideological feminists who consider themselves liberal, but also frequently gynocentric conservative traditionalists, are facing a growing and irritating cognitive dissonance: they are on the wrong side of humanity, compassion, basic decency, civil rights, and equal rights under the law. And probably on the wrong side of history. They’re also on the wrong side of logic and common sense, and in denial about those annoying things called facts.
It must be really uncomfortable for them, having run on presumptions and prejudice in the area of men’s human rights, including those of themselves and/or those they love. One can almost feel sorry for them, if it weren’t for the fact that many remain willfully, aggressively ignorant and as such are still contributing directly to mass human suffering, not to mention participating in, or at least excusing and giving cover to, censorship and violent tactics.
Out of their mouths spews ridiculously ignorant foolishness, when they aren’t outright making things up. Indeed, one of their favorite, grossly cliche’d lies is that the men’s human rights movement is all about “white men,” even, occasionally, “white Christian men.” This last lie is particularly pernicious, for it also contains an implicit attempt to racially and religiously polarize issues that have little or nothing to do with race, creed, color, or national origin.
But it also exposes what’s at the core of most criticisms of the Men’s Human Rights Movement: not just gross sexism, but an appalling racism, as well as no small dose of religious bigotry and intolerance. Our enemies are the same as the enemies of Nelson Mandela, the same as the enemies of Mahatma Gandhi, the same as the enemies of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, the same as the enemies of those who wish to free Tibet from totalitarian Chinese rule. They are the people who make excuses for violent criminals, for child abusers, for financial abusers, for involuntary servitude, and for rapists. That’s who they are, even though they struggle desperately to believe they are the opposite of all that.
Again, one is tempted to feel sorry for them. When it finally hits them what they’ve done, whose side they’ve really been on… when they realize they’ve been on the side of fascism, repression, censorship, thuggery, racial and sexual and religious discrimination, it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt a lot. Some will have the courage to admit all this eventually and maybe try to redeem themselves for their past misdeeds. Others, I predict, will say it was our fault all along because we were not very nice in our tone–never mind that we’re talking about issues that have gone fundamentally unchanged for many decades only to be ignored or laughed at or marginalized or treated with contempt, and never mind and the overwhelming proof that being loud about it is the only thing that brings attention to it.
I mention all this in passing to also let you all know that our brothers in India are holding a national level conference to discuss men’s human rights in Nagpur, India. Among the attendees will be two contributors to A Voice for Men. It started about 12 hours ago and will be running through the weekend. There you will find Sikh men, Hindu men, Muslim men, and probably the odd Christian or non-religious type there. I can’t prove it but I doubt very much there will be many pale-skinned men there, not that it should matter much. Our Indian News Director will be there. From Korea to India, Australia to the United Kingdom, South America to Asia to Africa, the Men’s Human Rights Movement is spreading, and it’s got nothing to do with irrelevant bullshit like skin color.
We wish our brothers in India well and reach out our hands to offer whatever assistance we can. In the meantime our prayers and well-wishes are with them. And if any members of the A Voice for Men community wish to follow what these brave men are up to, you can follow on twitter at #EventMRA, or check out their Facebook Page. Both will be giving live regular updates.
Solidarity, brothers.
