A bit of background:
Last month, the good people at Return of Kings had planned to organize a series of international meet-ups, all simultaneously occuring on February 6th. These were planned to establish informal “Tribes” of like-minded men around the world, for the purposes of discussing the state of masculinity today, problems they were facing and, if need be, establish a support network to face any sort of catastrophic future event. I myself was planning to attend one of the New York City meet-ups…
Until I checked my patron’s site this morning and was crestfallen to find that the whole thing had been cancelled. Every single one.
The reason stated was that the safety and privacy of the participants was not guaranteed, and there had been numerous threats of violence and public shaming from various social justice warriors and well-meaning rubes.
How could this be? How could anybody object to the thought of a bunch of men, loosely organized under a common goal, getting together and having some drinks, discussing current events, and making friends? Especially since the parameters of the meetups had repeatedly been stated to be non-violent.
Perhaps it has something to due with the repeated insistence of the media that Return of Kings “Advocates the legalization of rape”. This claim comes from one article, which is written as satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal. It is, admittedly, pretty subtle, you’d only realize it was satirical if you read the disclaimer at the beginning that clearly states it’s not intended to be taken seriously. Just as Jonathan Swift sought to raise umbrage at the thought of eating Irish babies in order to criticize the English’s poor treatment of Erin (ie: “You’ve already persecuted their religion and conquered their country, so why is eating children such a taboo?”), Roosh sought to posit the ridiculous concept of legalizing rape on private property in order to ask why we teach our daughters to completely ignore any sense of responsibility for themselves and instead think that they can force the world to bend to their will.
My first thought was to simply think that the world has gotten too stupid to understand the concept of satire. Since it’s not a difficult concept (“a work of media in which some aspect of human culture or behavior is ridiculed with the intent to ‘fix’ it”), I decided against that. Instead, I think this is not the work of ignorance, but rather of malice.
Simply put, the powers that be seem to think we’re a threat. But rather than attack us directly, they used proxies-nobody in their right mind would approve of a group that demands the legalization of rape. So if trusted media authorities constantly squawk about us being such a group, well-meaning people are unfortunately going to be duped by it, and want to vent their righteous indignation. I’d certainly like if people would take the time to read the article, but both I and the rainbow-haired Gawkerites who control the culture know they won’t. They’ll instead see the headline, think “Those guys are rapists”, and rush off to battle. As usual, the powers that be manipulate nice people to do their bidding.
Perhaps next year the meet-up can occur (I personally think the secret locations being revealed via verified emails was a good idea, but it was too little, too late), but I gotta admit: It feels kinda good being persecuted by “the man”.