The blog post was presented on the AVFM forums by Deidre. Republished here with the authors permission. EDs
Apathy is defined as having no concern, interest, or enthusiasm for a given matter. When we look at the various violent shootings that have unfolded in the news over the past forty-five days, we find many people holding candlelight vigils and protests, while Facebook blows up with all kinds of seemingly meaningful status changes and quotes. It gives the impression that we honestly care about what’s going on in the world around us. But, interestingly, many people seem to be already finished talking about that horrible nightclub shooting in Orlando, and soon enough, the recent shootings of two African American men by police officers will all be a distant memory, as well. It does make for a catchy hashtag phrase, though ‘’#blacklivesmatter” and “gaylivesmatter.” But, it’s easy to pay lip service to horrific events, it’s not so easy to take action and speak out against such atrocities.
Apathy paves the way for many ‘isms.’ Feminism is one such ‘ism’ that didn’t arrive at its destination overnight, nor merely by a group of zealous feminists. No, it takes a lot of doing nothing, to make something happen. It takes a lot of passive onlookers to bring about something negative. Feminism, in theory, can appear like a good thing for our culture, after all, it preaches about equality. How can wanting equality for everyone be a bad thing? But, when we pull the layers apart of feminism, at its core NOW, is a group of women (who probably are not the majority, actually) who hate men, and want other women to hate men. And by hate, I mean that they want women to view men as needing to pay the price for the supposed decades of patriarchal damage that has been done to women. Keep removing the layers of the onion, and you will find a rotten core, and when we put the onion back together again or try to, that infected centerpiece seeps out to the rest of the onion, and we have what we have today…modern feminism. Feminism is what one could easily call ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing.’
But, I’m not so sure that we should be angry at solely feminists for why feminism has spread like cancer into all aspects of everyday life. No, rather we should look at the fact that it has taken a lot of apathetic individuals, men and women alike, to pave the way for feminism to march down the streets of westernized society. Apathy is a powerful force, and it seems inevitable that we will continue to see more mass shootings, more ill effects of feminism, and more inequality because as a society, we simply don’t care. We don’t care about anything, unless it personally disrupts our lives, or causes us to lose our Facebook statuses, sadly. People are buried in their phones, obsessed with how many ‘’likes’’ they received that day on a given selfie, unaware even of what is going on around them. They find out about current events, through a narrow margin of talking heads scattered on social media outlets. But, usually, those talking heads are not giving facts, but rather are spewing mere opinions. We blurt out ‘Oh my gosh, that is horrible! How disgusting that in this day and age, we still have racism!’’ And then, we go about doing whatever it is we were doing before we were rudely interrupted by that news alert.
The Men’s Rights Movement isn’t even making mainstream news, which should disturb us all. I was once a feminist, and now, I’d consider myself way more than merely sympathetic to the injustices that have befallen men, due to the evils of feminism. It’s important for us all, in our small corners of the world, to speak out against feminism, and how it’s negatively affecting our lives. The glaring truth of it is, it adversely affects feminists’ lives, too, but they are too blinded by their selfish agendas to see it really for what it is. You will never be victorious by lying about your opposition, or creating an opposition that doesn’t exist. Of course, there are historical incidents that point to women being treated as less than equal to their male counterparts. But, that’s honestly a long time ago, and the feminism of today seems to want to pretend that women are still being treated by the law, as second class citizens. There will always be sexism, racism, and hate groups that pop up in small pockets, everywhere, but feminism wants people to believe that without it, women would not have equality with men. That is a lie. Among many of its lies, feminism likes to create illusions of truths, and if you’re an apathetic drone that follows along with the rest of society’s herd, you will be duped into believing its lies.
So, how can we combat apathy? Well, for starters…we ourselves have to stop being apathetic towards feminism. It’s easy to look at feminism and think there is no end in sight, no light at the end of the tunnel. But, there is if we build the tunnel, and create the light. This is how Martin Luther King, Jr. brought about the civil rights movement. He was tired of the status quo and felt that if anything was ever going to change, he had to get people to stop accepting things as they were. Change is very hard; apathy is much easier. But, in the long run, apathy will catch up to us all, and we will be forced to change. I’ve been reading about single dads who have formed groups to combat the injustices done to them through the divorce court system. Small changes will eventually lead to large outcomes. But, we can’t stay silent, or apathetic. If you want to see the tide turn against feminism, you have to be willing to at least board the ship. You might not be a leader type, but your voice matters. Every voice matters. Women’s voices matter in the MRM, especially since many feminists don’t ‘’listen’’ to men, in general.
It’s not an easy route to take, but the road less traveled is usually the right road.
‘’All it takes for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.’’ – Edmund Burke
