The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

TV Shows I Never Watched

Posted on | June 7, 2018 | Comments Off on TV Shows I Never Watched

 

Feminists have an annoying habit of identifying some sort of misogynist behavior or attitude then attributing this to “society” or “culture” as a very general condemnation of “patriarchy.” An example of this is a new article about the so-called “incel” movement by feminist Sady Doyle. The article is actually an interesting history of how frustrated losers came to identify as “involuntary celibates” and developed a deranged belief system by which they justify terroristic violence.

There is a lot about this article that annoys me, however, particularly when Doyle makes reference to a couple of TV shows I never watched:

VH1’s The Pickup Artist aired for only two seasons, in 2007 and 2008. Yet it may turn out to be one of the defining pop culture products of the decade, both for what it contained — Ed Hardy! Reality competitions! Guyliner! — and for what it conveniently left out. The show featured a house full of “lovable losers,” described on screen with captions like “Scott, 26: Awkward and uneasy,” who were forced to admit on camera that they were virgins before submitting themselves to the sexual tutelage of the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest pickup artist,” Mystery.
Mystery, born Erik von Markovik, was the lead character in Neil Strauss’ bestselling 2005 PUA guide, The Game. . . .

When was the last time I watched VH-1? Honestly, I can’t remember, but it was a long time ago. Maybe the 1990s. Anyway . . .

Late-’00s papers and magazines were filled with bemused PUA coverage by male reporters. “Sure, seductionism makes me glad I don’t have a daughter running around out there,” concludes one 2007 Boston Magazine write-up. “But, ultimately, [these] lessons aren’t any nuttier than those of more culturally accepted ‘gurus.’” The New York Times not only published Strauss’ early writings on the PUA culture; it also sent one of its reporters to a club with a pickup student.
The fad even made its mark on sitcom history: How I Met Your Mother included, as part of its core ensemble, a pickup artist named Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris. Like Mystery, Barney ran a blog, invented convoluted dating lingo, and performed magic tricks. Several of the character’s tics and catchphrases — referring to male friends as “wingmen,” shoving them in front of random women with a “haaaaaave you met [X]?” — came directly from the pages of The Game.
The PUA lifestyle had been normalized, seen not as anti-feminist extremism, but as a slightly more baroque version of standard frat-boy obnoxiousness. This was a mistake that would cost lives.

Whoa! This is an Evel Knievel-level leap of logic. Is there any evidence that, e.g., Elliot Rodger or Alek Minassian ever read anything that Neil Strauss ever wrote? Were these killers readers of Boston Magazine or the New York Times? Were they fans of How I Met Your Mother?

I’m pretty sure I’ve never watched more than five consecutive minutes of How I Met Your Mother. I don’t enjoy most sitcoms, and that one in particular never interested me. Seinfeld was awesome, and I occasionally catch an episode of The Big Bang Theory, but in general, I can’t stand TV “comedy” from the past three decades. It’s too predictable.

By the way, use of the word “wingman” as describing a buddy who assists in a pick-up attempt, was not originated by Neil Strauss. Credit for popularizing “wingman” in this context goes to Top Gun (1986), deriving from the language of fighter pilots, “Maverick” and “Ice Man.” But the basic tactic involved was understood among guys long before that movie was made. It’s just a simple application of social psychology, and isn’t any kind of nefarious patriarchal plot against women, unless you consider it wrong for guys to try to increase their chances of getting laid.

Guys getting laid is what feminists are actually against, but they never want to admit this. Feminists are anti-heterosexual, at least insofar as heterosexuality makes men happy, as I remarked Tuesday: “Feminism is about eliminating from human existence every source of male happiness — find something men like, condemn it as ‘oppressive,’ and destroy it.”

Anything a man does is bad, and everything a man says is wrong — this is the essential philosophy of feminism, in plain English. To conceal their malicious purposes, however, feminists have created a specialized jargon used to discredit all opposition to their totalitarian anti-male hate movement. It is misogyny for a male to defend his own personal interests against feminist attacks, and it is harassment for him to criticize a feminist. Having silenced all opposition to their agenda in academia, young feminists emerge from university campuses to the shocking discovery that most people in what is quaintly called “real life” do not agree with feminism’s radical anti-male/anti-heterosexual ideology.

Meanwhile, of course, there are these “incels.” Losers and weirdos who can’t get laid, who spend their time huddling online with other losers and weirdos who can’t get laid, and every once in a while, one of them goes on a rampage and murders people. Feminists want us to believe TV sitcoms and the New York Times are somehow to blame for this, because they helped popularize ideas about how guys can get laid.

It is by no means self-evident that feminists actually have anything to do with why “incels” can’t get laid. I mean, autistic freaks would have difficulty getting laid under any circumstances, and their typical mode of retaliation — random rampages targeting strangers who aren’t part of the problem — is a total loser move, naturally. Could I suggest better ways for the “incels” to fight back? Yes, but if were to publish a “Loser’s Guide to Effective Anti-Feminist Terrorism,” I’d be blamed if one of these doomed geeks actually followed my advice. So never mind that idea.

No, go ahead you unf–kable nerds — continue wasting your lives plotting revenge against the world with random rampages, tedious “manifestos” and spastic gestures on social media. The feminists will keep blaming TV shows I never watched and blogs I never read, and the world will continue descending into a Hobbesian war of all against all.



 

Category: Sex Trouble

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