Clueless in Texas

That was fast: the post I put up two hours ago about the way misogyny ruins a good party, so women would be banned has seen a change in the ad's text.

It seems someone posted to reddit forum that they'd been mistreated at one of these LANs. The veracity of the allegations is disputed, but this is their response:

We understand that there are several valid concerns and comments brought up from the Reddit posting, and want to address them here. We actively discourage gamers from being the kind of mysogynistic jackwagons seen in the Reddit post, and such behavior should not be tolerated. Frankly, we don't like that kind of player either. So far as this event goes, it is an special event designed specifically for male gamers. *Further, it is meant as a getaway designed to help said male contingent become better men both for themselves and for those who love us.* As much as we encourage our significant others to have "women-only" events, this a "men-only" event. Future events may be planned to include the ever-growing female contingent of gamers, at which time we hope for an equal-opportunity of pwnage and head-shots for all.

Oi... I somehow doubt much focus is going to be diverted from the pwnage and headhshots to help said male contingent get over being jerks.

I say this because they link to an outside source on how to become a better man, which offers up such gems as these:

Here are a few examples of what men in our BetterMen, community have developed that define the men they want to be. 1. Compassion for my family trumps my need to be right. 2. I am faithful to my wife. 3. I seek validation only from men. 4. I do not ask for permission. 5. I do not indulge my addictions. 6. I exercise regularly. 7. I honor my daily spiritual practice. 8. I do not hide out at work to avoid issues at home. These N.U.T.s are not discussed or defended. They're just the terms by which men live.

and


The challenge you said you’ve been missing is to be the man you want to be, no matter what life throws at you. The only place to learn to be that man is in the company of other men. No matter how loving, competent, caring or committed, a woman cannot teach a man to be the man he wants to be—although a good woman can certainly inspire a man to become that better man....

The last couple generations of men are disconnected from their masculinity. They are feminized. That means they have been influenced primarily by women—and men who had little sense of themselves as men—and have grown up to see the world through their mothers’ eyes. As a result, these men continue to seek out other women, rather than men, when they need help with their emotional worlds.

It's possible that the workshops he leads are fine, and that the things like, "I will do whatever it takes to keep my family in my home" won't compete with, "I do not ask for permission" and "These N.U.T.S are not to be discussed and defended", but when a group in Texas is using a therapist in Agoura Hills Calif. to say that a weekend of beer, cigars and shoot 'em ups is suddenly a retreat meant to make the guys who attend better able to integrate the female gamers they claim ruined the party because the men who attend were being jerks and assholes:

I don't really believe it.

They admit that the way the guys behave in the presence of women was the problem. So they banned the women. In short, they have decided on a giant burqa, because the men can't control themselves.

That's a pretty shitty view of men.

More ways prejudice corrupts the intel stream

And shapes popular opinion.

The most commonly shared features of terrorists in the US is that they are male, and religiously fundamentalist. They tend to be politically conservative, white and Christian.

Prior to 9/11 the most devastating... I don't know that it's the right word, but certainly the largest, most memorable attack was Timothy Mcveigh's attack in Oklahoma City. He used a truck to plant an Ammonium Nitrate and deisel bomb under the Murrah Building.

Yesterday, in Oslo a right wing, religiously conservative Christian did the same thing, and then went on to shoot at least 84, to death, at a summer camp which happened to have teens from families who belonged to a political party he didn't like.

He seems to have claimed ties to racist/fascist/rightwing groups in England.

The New York Times, today, said this/:

Terrorism specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled out Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks.

“If it does turn out to be someone with more political motivations, it shows these groups are learning from what they see from Al Qaeda,” said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington. “One lesson I take away from this is that attacks, especially in the West, are going to move to automatic weapons.”

Wow... It was done by a white christian. Who used a tactic (vehicular bomb made from ANFO, and then went on to shoot people.

This is evidence that people are emulating al Qaeda?

Because no in the West ever went to a school and shot at people. Never happened in Texas. Nope.

No one ever went to someplace where people he didn't like, whom he felt were ruining things for people like him, certainly not at, The École Polytechnique in Montreal.

I suppose the guy who crashed his Cessna into the IRS offices could be said to be imitating al Qaeda, but the FBI said that wasn't terrorism.

No, see when a Right-wing Christian does it, those are one offs. If a White Person has some strange grudge with the world that makes him (it's almost always a male) lose it and start killing people, even when he's linked to groups with agendas, he's a "lone wolf".

When a brown person does something (even when tricked into it by the FBI) they are "agents of Islam".

Meidaite has a slew of comments about how Oslo must have been perpetrated by Muslims (and how they all want to "wipe us out". Presidential candidates are saying that building mosques is an infringement of religious freedom (apparently Herman Cain thinks bigotry = religious freedom, if one is a Christian; but practicing one's faith is intolerance of others, if one isn't).

And the NY Times is buying into this. They ran an unsubstantiable claim about a hitherto unknown group (and the mediaite comments have people saying, "If they don't want to be blamed, they shouldn't take credit. Never mind that no one seems to have publicly done so).

Which colors how analysts, and esp. the public, see things. When the Eric Rudolphs, and the Scott Roeders aren't called terrorists, and the Ted Kaczynskis are, when the people who say they are are out to kill Liberals* are glossed over. Wikipedia says Adkisson was, "politically motivated" which links to the page on terrorism, but the actual article doesn't use the word. The Discussion pages says, Ironically enough, yes - it pretty much fits the standard definition. However, we should still refrain from calling it so, or calling Addkisson a terrorist

Why? Because terrorist is a"contetious, value laden word" and it requires a lot of people in "reputable sources" to justify it. So they will call Ted Kaczynski a "domestic terrorist", but not a James Adkisson.

And that bias, that sense that the, "terrorist is other" is a big problem. The Order went on a rampage in the Pacific Northwest, but no one talks about them. A kid sets off a bomb to commit suicide, "OMG the Muslmms are attacking".

But it's not. And the guy in Oslo wasn't either. Our greatest real threat is the Adkissons, the Kaczynski's, the Orders; all the people who live here, and are being so disaffected they see nothing short of purging the evil with blood.

We would do best to remember: We have met the enemy, and he is us.


*an excerpt from Askisson's Manifesto Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate, + House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the Main stream Media. But I knew these people were inaccesible to me. I couldn't get to the generals + high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It's the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence!”

Scale

I want to put some perspective on the events in Norway. This is a lousy, imprecise and pathetic attempt to show how traumatic this is. Charlie Stross ran the number to make it's relative scale more apprehensible.

We have things like the Murrah Building (168 dead) and 9/11, at, roughly 3,000. We have a population of 300 million.

Norway has a population of five million. 1/60th the size of the US. That would mean 5,000 people. Worse, these were all children on Utoya.

Imagine 5,000 teenagers being killed in the US, and what the reaction would be. The Prime Minster of Norway has said that they won't be made afraid, that fear is what terrorists want. I hope, for Norway's sake, he means it. I heard the same thing being said after, That Tuesday.

I don't know what else to say. I am thinking good thoughts for Norway, sad for them. hoping it works out. But it was horrible beyond our comprehension, because we are so many.

Here's an eyewitness account: Helvete på Utøya