Editors Note: Even though I took a bit of a spanking in it, I really enjoyed this piece from fellow Spearhead contributor and blogger Ferdinand Bardamu. He is challenging the idea of whether debating with the likes of David Futrelle is beneficial. As far as current events, I am committed to the upcoming exchange with Futrelle, so it is very unlikely that I would change my mind.
But I was hoping that Bardamu’s post would drag up some discourse on the matter of debate. When it is and isn’t worth it, that sort of thing. While the intellectually scrawny Futrelle isn’t a real threat to anyone, I would still like to hear readers ideas on whether he is a waste of time. PE
Will you people please stop paying attention to this assclown?
By Ferdinand Bardamu
As I’ve mentioned before, I generally don’t bestow attention on blogger haters who aren’t in the general vicinity of popularity that I am. It’s precisely what they want – a writer with a vastly larger readership to train their guns on them and give their stats an unearned boost. Starve the trolls and they’ll either go away or curl up and die. Which is why I am making this plea to my fellow manosphere denizens: will you please stop writing about David Futrelle?
For those who don’t know who David Futrelle is, he’s the twerp behind Manboobz, a blog that “offers a critique of the Men’s Rights Movement and anti-Feminism generally.” He writes in his opening statement:
I’ve been watching the Men’s Rights movement, such as it is, for some time, with a mixture of amusement, horror and disgust. It’s a movement that’s bad for everyone — for men, for women, for children, and probably even for my cat, though I haven’t yet quite worked out how. The best thing you can say about the Men’s Rights Movement is that it doesn’t, and hopefully never will, have anything near the impact on the world that feminism has had over the years. And this blog, in its own little way, hopes to help keep that way.
Apparently, he never read that Schopenhauer quote about how truth is first ridiculed, then it is violently opposed, then it is accepted as being self-evident.
Manboobz is little more than twelfth-rate feminist boilerplate with the added twist of anti-men’s rights activism, all leavened with snark. Snark is the preferred humor of dweebs like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and all Beigeist posers who like to imagine themselves as heroic underdogs being pissed on by the evil elites, when in fact they’re the elites doing the pissing. And make no mistake, David Futrelle is carrying water for our cultural overlords, evidenced in part by the fact that he can post his opinions under his real name while the majority of anti-feminist bloggers have to use pseudonyms to avoid impoverishment, censure or even imprisonment in some countries. “Free speech” my ass.
David even has an “enemies list” of anti-feminist sites that gets top billing on his blogroll over actual feminist blogs like Jezebel, Feministing and Shakesville. The “enemies list” includes such diverse contrarians like myself, Roissy, MarkyMark, Dalrock, Laura Grace Robins, Elusive Wapiti, and Robert Lindsay. In fact, I was the recipient of Futrelle’s effete ire recently, when he took umbrage at my discombobulation of “gay pride”:
You know, I didn’t bother reading the whole thing, which has something to do with Carl Paladino, and apartheid, and elephant poking, whatever that means, but this little nugget stood out in the latest post on In Mala Fide, a generally retrograde Men’s Rights-ish blog:
“Gay culture” … has about as much cultural legitimacy as redneck jokes. A bunch of nearly-naked men marching down a major city street beating each other with riding crops and wearing makeup is not a legitimate expression of culture, any more than a group of married dudes finger-fucking their wives on a giant vagina float would be an expression of culture.
Since he’s clearly incapable of following a metaphor, I’ll lay it out for him en anglais – radical gay activists, in their obnoxious way of shoving their lifestyles in the faces of the heterosexual majority and demonizing them, are poking and prodding an elephant.
Elephants are big, heavy and have sharp tusks, and can gore or stomp you to death without breaking a sweat. If gays don’t clean up their act and stop treating straight people with contempt (hat tip: grerp), they could inspire a violent homophobic backlash. Capisce?
Under normal circumstances, a nobody like Futrelle wouldn’t be worth the mental energy it takes to read one of his posts. Feminist quislings are a dime-a-dozen, and this guy is just an attention whore who’s looking for his fifteen minutes of fame. And yet for some reason, MRAs continue to waste time on this idiot. It’s bad enough that the majority of his commenters appear to be anti-feminists, but men’s rights bloggers are now devoting blog space to Futrelle’s tiresome dribblings.
I first heard of Futrelle when my fellow Spearhead contributor Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech wrote him up as a hater. That post lead to another one where he made some additions to the Catalog of Anti-Male Shaming Tactics, which inspired me to come up with my own addition, so PM/AFT gets off. Next, Rob Fedders of the NO MA’AM blog lambasted Futrelle as “the Tit Man“:
David is another typical Western Male Fucktard, thinking that even on-line sucking up to fembots will slather his withering pole. A true SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) in every dimension.
Reality is not so, Mr. Futrelle, it is not so.
You are anethema to female vaginal lubrication.
Hope you feel proud! You are the reason panties are starting to be modelled without the protective cotten-lined-gussets! Who needs such a thing when the West produces poofs like you?
Hopefully, this blog and your willingness to be a dancing jackass for the matriarchy will help me illustrate this – over time, of course. A suave man of your persuasion will take many moons to out-manoeuvre.
Rob is now accusing Futrelle of libel for calling him a “fag basher.” I’m not up on Canadian hate speech laws, but an MRA suing a feminist toady into next Monday would just make my day. Talk about cosmic justice.
But the last straw came yesterday. Paul Elam, another one of my Spearhead comrades, laid into our very own Menopause Man over at A Voice for Men. And he ended it with this nugget:
Take heart though. I have challenged Futrelle to a debate, he has accepted and chosen domestic violence for the topic. Should be coming through with the beginning of the debate late this coming week.
You read that right. Paul Elam, former editor of MND and one of the most well-known proponents of men’s rights, is debating a feminist blogger whom no one has ever heard of.
I don’t understand. Why must you people give this nitwit the attention he craves? David Futrelle is nobody important. He’s not a Jessica Valenti, a Melissa McEwan, or a Hugo Schwyzer. He’s not even a Barry Deutsch. He’s a miserable mediocrity who’s trying to get famous, an ant in our blog ecosphere. All you’re doing is feeding his ego. I feel bad about even having to pollute my abode with his name.
To my brethren, I say forget about Manboobz, and forget about David Futrelle. He’s not worth your time or your ire. Paul, good luck in your debate, but after you’ve kicked Futrelle’s ass, exorcise him from your brain. Your bullets should be conserved for bigger, more important prey.
And David, this is the last time I’m ever mentioning you here or anywhere else, so relish it. Oh, and you’re welcome.
