American Heroism: A Story about Doug Stanhope and Erectile Dysfunction

Doug Stanhope is one of my all time favorite comedians. He is an artist, a true master of his craft. Of course I follow him on Twitter. A few weeks back, he tweeted about a marine who threw a fit of road rage. Here is the video. There were a lot of people criticizing the marine for going bezerk. There were many wishful thoughts for the marine’s death, some comments about his flag-draped coffin and etc. I thought those comments were a fine and comical way for people to lament about the sort of men we raise these days.

No offense to the good soldiers who signed up to protect the country and slaughter other people, but where else can murderous psychopaths go for work these days? With the faltering economy, it's hard to make a living as a killer. Hard times are upon us and joining the military seems like a good choice for the aspiring killer. It's a sound career move. He's doing the right thing for his career and country, paying taxes, bills, and supporting his wife and kids. He shows up for work everyday, jazzed up on some 'Merica...Fuck Yeah tunes, ready to do some killing, some maiming, and some torture. We spent thousands of dollars training him to be "all he could be" as a killer in the military. If he got a little confused about who he is supposed to kill, it's something that society can overlook. Clearly, it's easy to confuse a traffic accident with the enemy or a terrorist threat. It's a mistake that any man could make. People should lay off the criticism of his actions. Minus his confusion, his actions were a perfectly acceptable way to resolve conflict. As such, he is good man, a protagonist, a hero in the American story.

As with any good story, a protagonist needs an antagonist. Enter the degenerate pacifist lovers of peace who sat in their seats recording the actions of this good man. Notice how the villain sits in his car. He remains calm, only to enrage our heroic marine even further, deliberately pointing out to the marine that his silly monkey-taunts were not effective. This only magnifies the marine's experience of impotence. Heroes who experience this lack of power must act out with ever more aggression. Violence is the hero's only power and this power is an expression of the hero's lack of power. America's hero is impotent. He has no power, only violence. He is just a pawn. His life is practically meaningless. The totality of his identity is his impotent power--his violence.

Feminists will typically point to our hero's behavior as a shining example of male privilege, domination, and power--the patriarchy in all its glory. Feminists may point to our hero's behavior as proof that men are vile monkeys who will abuse each other and women to compete in some patriarchal hierarchy of dominance. Feminists and his critics will say that our hero's behavior is evidence of his power, when in fact, our hero's behavior is evidence of his weakness.

If this society gave a damn about men, we would give men options other than violence. We wouldn't sell them false ideas of heroics. If this society gave a damn about men, we wouldn't create murderous psychopaths and call them heroes. We wouldn't call the peaceful guy who sat calmly in the car a faggot or a coward. If this society gave a damn about men, we wouldn't teach men that their value is derived from their ability to slaughter other people. If this society gave a damn about men, we wouldn't teach men to be some sort of heroic pawns, willing to sacrifice their lives in a blaze of violent glory for pride, for money, for woman, for some corporate entity--America. If this society gave a damn about men, compassion for men wouldn't be a revolutionary action. If this society gave a damn about men, Doug Stanhope and others would have no reason to lament about the sort of men we raise these days.

Moral Turpitude: An Open Letter to Facebook

Feminists are pissed. According to WAM, Facebook has completely failed to produce an adequate response to feminist's demands regarding censorship of "hate-speech" against women. WAM's contention is that Facebook's "inadequate" response contributes to violence against women, catering to a culture where violence against women is normalized. How could Facebook be so callous to the plight of women? What are the demands of these feminists?

1. Recognize speech that trivializes or glorifies violence against girls and women as hate speech and make a commitment that you will not tolerate this content.
2. Effectively train moderators to recognize and remove gender-based hate speech.
3. Effectively train moderators to understand how online harassment differently affects women and men, in part due to the real-world pandemic of violence against women.

On the surface, such demands seem reasonable. No moral person would deliberately support speech that trivializes and glorifies violence. No moral person acting as a moderator would deliberately tolerate gender-based hate-speech. No moral person would deliberately misunderstand how violence affects women and men. Any failure to comply with these demands is proof of Facebook's callous attitude and contribution to the normalization of violence. In fact, failure to acquiesce to these demands is proof of Facebook's moral depravity. As such, corporate businesses should pull sponsorship from Facebook on the grounds of moral turpitude.

As a moral lesson for Facebook and as an attempt to instill at least a bit of virtue into this vile corporation, let us walk the grounds of moral turpitude for a moment. Let us deliberately support speech that trivializes violence, tolerates gender-based hate-speech and misunderstands how violence affects men and women. What would that speech be? Who would support that speech? What would be misunderstood about the effects of violence?

As we walk the grounds of moral turpitude for a moment, try typing into a search engine the phrase "violence against men." You will get scores of pages linking to articles and information regarding violence against women. That's right. Searching for violence against men leads to information about violence against women. Try it. Even though the overwhelming amount of violence in this world is violence against men, feminists have monopolized the narrative of violence as violence against women. The normalization of violence against men permeates society. We don't even notice it. However, violence against women receives special status and notice. So much so, that search engines don't even link to violence against men. This elevation of violence against women is de facto discrimination against men. This focus on violence against women minimizes and trivializes the savage violence that men experience everyday in this world. It is men who are overwhelmingly brutalized by a "justice" system that throws them into cages for non-violent drug crimes. It is men who are overwhelmingly slaughtered on battlefields and glorified for being great at slaughtering other men. It is men who are overwhelming homeless. It is men who are glorified for their brutality against other men in the ring as "sportsmen." It is men who suffer overwhelmingly from sports related head trauma. It is men who juice their bodies in order to be glorified as objects of utility for a sports team. It is men who suffer the trivialization of violence done to them by society, by women, and by other men. Nobody notices. Nobody cares. We are too busy elevating the violence against women to some sort of superior status, some sort of slight against the divine, in some ridiculous feminist pissing-match about which gender is the longest suffering long-sufferer in the history of long-suffering. That is a walk along the grounds of moral turpitude.

Those are the grounds of moral turpitude and along those grounds we see the lack of care, understanding, and compassion for the lived experiences of men. If feminists gave a damn about equality, they would be screaming about violence against men. They remain silent. The more they scream about violence against women, the louder is their silence about violence against men. This silence is hate. This silence is ignorance. This silence is bigotry. This silence trivializes and glorifies violence against men. This silence distorts the "real-world pandemic" of violence against men. This silence is violence. Nobody notices. Nobody cares. Feminists are pissed.