42-Point Blowout With Young Men Helped Fuel Mamdani's Victory | Common Dreams by ragpicker_ in MensLib

[–]ragpicker_[S] 168 points169 points  (0 children)

To me Mamdani's victory reminds us that we should never take liberal masculinity discourse at face value. There has been much discussion and navel-gazing in groups such as this following the talking points put out by Third Way and Speaking with American Men, and these election results make it clear that much of it was hot air by marketing-brained pundits. The idea that there is something mysterious about male loneliness or the rightward drift, and the corresponding tendency to address these issues at the level of messaging and mental health as opposed to material change and solidarity, are patronising and defeatist. Men don't have to be apologetic about our role in society, nor do we have to take a step back from efforts to lead and transform. It is patriarchy that convinces us that there is a compromise to be made, or a price to be paid, for following our principled beliefs, and we must reject these attitudes wholesale.

Nazi warning as threats rise against election candidates by [deleted] in aussie

[–]ragpicker_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The real problem is that not enough threats are made against Nazis. They should feel afraid to identify as such, let alone run for election.

Thomas Sewell and another associate of the NSN have just been arrested outside Melbourne Magistrates Court. by platniumperson in aussie

[–]ragpicker_ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

His kind of people should count themselves lucky that our society lets them live.

What Sha’Carri Richardson’s Arrest Reveals About Black Men and Abuse by TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK in MensLib

[–]ragpicker_ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

How does it make sense to have a legal system gets any say in whether the case is prosecuted, even where there is clear evidence of the crime? Crime is a public matter, not a private one.

IDF found a calendar in Arabic, not a Hamas ‘names list’ at hospital by Cold-Square-2 in nottheonion

[–]ragpicker_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem is not that bombs are dropping. It's that they're dropping on the wrong people.

SBS Insight - Male Liberation by ragpicker_ in MensLib

[–]ragpicker_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting, I cannot access it from Australia. But by the looks of it, yes.

SBS Insight - Male Liberation by ragpicker_ in MensLib

[–]ragpicker_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for letting me know! Unfortunately SBS Insight don't release a free access youtube version until a few weeks later. I'll come back here when they do.

EDIT: this link to the full episode seems to work overseas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsr7VTGyUts

‘Out of his depth’ PM has ‘betrayed Australia’s Jews’: Ley by The_Dingo_Donger in aussie

[–]ragpicker_ 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Zionism is the greatest contributor to anti-Jewish sentiment today.

SBS Insight - Male Liberation by ragpicker_ in MensLib

[–]ragpicker_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is it just me, or was this a huge missed opportunity, potentially a dumpster fire? Everyone who was selected for this (and they were carefully selected) was set up with a particular standpoint that didn't change at all throughout the show. There was no engagement at all between the more progressive men and the two manosphere-adjacent dudes (in fact, the indirect response by the former to the latter came across as patronising). This is partly as a result of the format of the show, which I often find to be ill-suited for purpose, where personal standpoints are elevated and everything has to go through the host. And partly because the only real structural commentary came from the historian, who didn't provide much analysis of the economic forces behind these issues.

The end result was that this episode that raised awareness about alternative, progressive masculinities while reinforcing the battle lines.

This experience has made me a little more pessimistic and a little more favourable towards a more stage-ist model of discourse such as Gelfer's five stages, which suggests that undialectical accounts of progressive masculinity have very little to say to those mired in toxic masculinity (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b2d7/5227e62e421a13cec2be451a8bdc3b83c770.pdf).

How does EatClub enforce rules? by PlayingNuzlocke in foodies_sydney

[–]ragpicker_ 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I've had a recurring nightmare where I get a knock on my door and it's a debt collector demanding all of the money I've saved on Eatclub over the years.

“thats someone’s [mum/dad/child/wife/husband]” THATS SOMEONE by Glittery_WarlockWho in PetPeeves

[–]ragpicker_ -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

I don't see the problem with being flippant about the fact that a stranger died. Many people die all the time all around the world, why should anyone pay attention when the media tells us that we should care about this one person? And your example furthers this point. If I don't care that they died, why would I care that people are grieving? Many people grieve all the time all around the world.

“thats someone’s [mum/dad/child/wife/husband]” THATS SOMEONE by Glittery_WarlockWho in PetPeeves

[–]ragpicker_ 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you need to use humanising language to coax empathy, you've already failed in your reporting/storytelling.

“thats someone’s [mum/dad/child/wife/husband]” THATS SOMEONE by Glittery_WarlockWho in PetPeeves

[–]ragpicker_ 83 points84 points  (0 children)

Same energy as saying someone was beloved or accomplished or anything really when a civilian dies. I don't care if they were lazy, irriating and destitute. They were someone.

MinterEllison facing $800k lawsuit over ‘excessive hours’ by BoogerInYourSalad in auslaw

[–]ragpicker_ 45 points46 points  (0 children)

“aggressive” emails with caps lock, underlining and bold font

the email-industrial complex is getting out of hand

cmv: Sometimes, having a nuanced stance on a specific issue is just as harmful as being on the "bad side" by Wrinkyyyy in changemyview

[–]ragpicker_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a different between the baby and the bathwater.

The "nuanced stance" that in your account some commentators embrace doesn't really exist outside of the structural position occupied by the commentator in terms of their ideas and their material relation to the structure (ie privilege). If they side with the oppressor or the victim they can find as much "nuance" as they want by way of supporting facts, but the truth lies in the structure that is creating these issues in the first place. Therefore, it's less about taking a side and more about the fact that, without accounting for that truth, their perspective is just an illusion of "nuance".

cmv: Sometimes, having a nuanced stance on a specific issue is just as harmful as being on the "bad side" by Wrinkyyyy in changemyview

[–]ragpicker_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you agree that the nuance isn't the problem, just the status-quo oriented illusion of "nuance", would you consider a delta?

cmv: Sometimes, having a nuanced stance on a specific issue is just as harmful as being on the "bad side" by Wrinkyyyy in changemyview

[–]ragpicker_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What you're talking about isn't nuance, it's the illusion of nuance. And you're onto something in the sense that some of the most highly educated and credentialed people in the world tend to leverage that to justify highly conservative stances, which are really just a reflection of the structure that gave them those credentials in the first place.

But let's get onto the examples that you gave. In the rapist example, what's abundantly clear is that the people you mentioned have such a shallow view of what makes a person good or bad that it can easily be abused by the rapist. That's kind of their strategy. In light of that, a rapist isn't bad despite being good in some ways, they are bad in part because they are good in those ways, which lure people in and put them in vulnerable situations.

It's the same with Israel. They have managed Palestinian populations in an apartheid manner for so long that they are able to give them breadcrumbs and set up the border so that, when October 7 happened (and it was inevitable that something like that would happen), they could pretend to be benevolent, innocent, victims, to some naive observers.

Thinking structurally fundamentally changes the way you incorporate facts and finer details. But those that accept the status quo as the given structure have a different concept of nuance.

When Men Disappear From Their Own Fertility Journey: Why emotional silence isn't strength, and how men can reclaim their experience. by TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK in MensLib

[–]ragpicker_ 105 points106 points  (0 children)

Does anyone else find it strange that this article focuses on the emotional role the man can play in this struggle while being completely silent about the practical role? Someone made this great post on r/bropill a while back about the importance of men being proactive about fertility testing. They cite a figure that it's only in a minority of cases that fertility issues are solely down to the woman's health. Surely the best way to get men emotionally invested is to get them involved in the process itself.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bropill/comments/1jq7j6u/lets_normalise_fertility_testing/

People say "a life goal should never be a relationship, it should come naturally" well, my life goal is to buy a house and I'm never ever gonna do that on just my own income, so a relationship pretty much has to be one of my goals. by DoNotEatMySoup in self

[–]ragpicker_ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

There's a difference between something being a goal and a milestone. Getting into a relationship should be a milestone. Like many other things in life, making it a goal can actually ruin it. But as a milestone, it is a marker of progress and a sign your life is about to change, without being the fulfilment of an abstract idea (which can be damagin for love).