Return of the king
A couple of Daily Mail reporters went to visit Roosh V and found him, scruffy and unappetizing, living in his mother’s basement. No not figuratively; literally.
Daryush ‘Roosh’ Valizadeh, 36, the self-proclaimed ‘King of Masculinity’ called police after receiving death threats from around the world and canceled a series of ‘tribal meetings’ in 45 countries set for this weekend.
I love those self-declared kings of something who are actually just dorks who spend too much time on Twitter.
In a highly-criticized blog he said that if a woman was raped on private property, it should be legal.
Today he told police that it was meant to be a satirical article and that he had written it in early 2015 and had since put a disclaimer on the piece saying it was satire.
But asked when he had added the disclaimer he admitted it had been placed only ‘yesterday’.
Also, in what sense is it “satire”? He’s not satirizing himself, so what is he satirizing? Guys exactly like him who talk smack about women exactly the way he does? How is that satire? Or does he take himself to be satirizing women? But saying people should be raped isn’t satirizing them.
Today, dressed in a stained T-shirt and shorts and living in the basement of his mother’s home, he was concerned for his safety.
He said he had received death threats from around the world. He played officers voicemails left on his phone and showed them emails.
But apparently he never had any concern for the safety of women when he talked about how rape on private property should be legalized. His own safety, yes, that of other people, no.
The DM has lots of illustrations. This is one time it’s worth a look.
Once a micrbiologist, Daryush Valizadeh first spread his misogynistic propaganda via a blog called ‘DC Bachelor’.
By 2007 Valizadeh felt he had established a considerable following and decided to pen his first book, called ‘Bang’.
Inside the book, he described the ‘ruthlessly optimized process’ that ‘enabled me to put my penis inside’ various women.
He later traveled abroad researching a slew of other titles that include Bang Colombia, Bang Iceland, Don’t Bang Denmark, Bang Poland and Bang Lithuania.
The 36-year-old has 15 self-published books, many of which have been widely condemned as ‘rape guides’ by media, residents and politicians who live in the countries he is writing about.
He once said: ‘My default opinion of any girl I meet is worthless dirty whore until proven otherwise.’
That’s interesting, isn’t it – his whole “career” is devoted to putting his penis inside as many women as possible, and he considers such women worthless dirty whores, presumably because they let a man put his penis inside them. I know that way of thinking isn’t at all unusual, but it seems like such a horrible way to live in the world.
In October 2012, Valizadeh decided to expand his online presence by creating the website ‘Return of Kings’.
The website publishes a string of ‘neomasculine’ articles that claims women should not work, women should have their behaviour and decisions ‘controlled by men’ and has even encouraged males to record consensual sex with a hidden camera to ensure they are not ‘falsely accused of rape’.
Other articles claim that one in four women are ‘certifiably mentally ill’ and should not be unable to live autonomously in today’s society.
Satire, no doubt. Misogynist satire, exactly like misogynist non-satire.
Why even waste your time?
He’s an idiot.
Or do you think some guy even stupider would take it seriously?
Ophelia has reasons for why she spends her time on what she spends her time on. YES, “Man,” there are millions of guys who take it seriously. This isn’t in controversy. I suspect you intend to try to make it so, however.
I think I can parse the logic fail of Roosh’s attempt at “satire”. I’d be willing to bet serious cash that he was going for “A Modest Proposal” effect (either initially or retroactively, it doesn’t really matter). I’ll crib a quote from Wikipedia to save the unfamiliar some googling: “Swift suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. This satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as Irish policy in general.”
Roosh (and plenty of others) seems to have equated “making a statement shocking to prevailing sensibilities” with this type of Swiftean satire. The problem with this equivocation is that Swift was not proposing either that Irish babies should be eaten, or that cannibalism is a solution the hungry masses should consider. Put crudely, Swift was implying that what was being done to the impoverished Irish was morally equivalent to consuming Irish babies as a delicacy. That’s the hyperbole part.
If we were so generous as to suspend our disbelief (and literary taste) and accept at face value the claim that Roosh was being satirical, and his proposal to legalize the rape of women on public property (as a way to combat rape) was made in the same spirit as Swift suggestion that selling babies for food might improve the material conditions of their impoverished Irish parents, then the statement Roosh would be making would go something along the lines that women are treated so abhorrently by our society that it is as if it were legal to rape them on private property…
However, that’s definitely not what Roosh believes based on ANY of his writing, including the piece in question. In fact, his books describe incident after incident of him coercing unwilling women into sex (in private). What actually riles Roosh is that there’s at least a possibility (however faint), that one or more of his past or future victims might be able to seek recourse from the law (and maybe even be believed). So, no, there’s no satire here, Roosh simply misunderstands what it is, and is trying to cover his ass with vague handwaving.
For many nitwits, “satire” just means “Hey! I was kidding!”
Even so, was this nitwit kidding?
Nope. Not satire. It is sick misogynistic grandiosity. And it is rampant in the world. Millions of guys, whose IQs are irrelevant, take it seriously. Deadly seriously. It isn’t a waste of time to keep an attentive eye on this kind of man. And it isn’t hard to either because they are everywhere.
I’m wondering if he and Jian Ghomeshi traded notes
Too bad that ‘legitimate’ dating advice is so horrible that these pigs almost pass for normal.
Between ‘The Rules’ and ‘The Game’ I’m amazed people EVER make partnerships.
Re ‘Between ‘The Rules’ and ‘The Game’ I’m amazed people EVER make partnerships…’
https://xkcd.com/800/
… on the story, in no particular order:
1) Prediction: many of the usual noisy manospherians will fall all over themselves to distance themselves from the guy, following this. As this is essentially about hierarchy and dominance, nothing could more undermine their support than seeing him as ‘a loser’.
2) It’s not really a huge win, exactly, for anyone opposed to the same, for essentially that same reason. As I expect actually owning a BMW and wads of cash and treating women like garbage is still all good, even something to aspire to, in said manospherians’ minds. Being under or unemployed and perhaps merely claiming to do so, less so.
3) The observation that there are a lot of relatively unsuccessful men who are seduced by this stuff is pretty much inline with my understanding of the nature of such hierarchies. Hierarchy is stabilized by a number of things (stepping out of line is policed several ways), but it is generally useful to give people something to lose. For men with relatively few other privileges in the system, the one thing they had was: they could boss at least ‘their’ women around, treat them as chattel. Further up the chain, equality of the sexes is less an immediate threat, as you’ve other people you can treat as inferiors (though sure, the far-sighted will understand _any_ progress in egalitarianism may eventually theaten their privileges). Down near the bottom, different story. This is one of their very few things; they will defend it.
I think I can see the intended satire of his Modest Proposal. He is satirizing women. He says that women are so unconcerned with their own well being—in large part because rapes are considered the rapists’ fault, not theirs—that the only way to fix their lack of concern is to up the consequences*, and make sure rapes are always considered the victims’ fault. In parallel: false rape accusations, same causes, same exaggerated fix.
Of course, espousing that kind of argument would totally work the other way around, to satirize these sorts of views of the world, if he hadn’t beaten everyone to it.
* Note that in his post this is never phrased as “we should go out and rape”, it’s “other, bad people are rapists, and letting them become more effective monsters will cause beneficial social change that includes fewer rapes, and fewer false rape accusations.”