Thursday, May 22, 2014

NATIONAL REVIEW TALKS TO THE LAY-DEEZ.

At National Review, Jim Geraghty has one called "Jill Abramson, and Why Most Women Should Cut Themselves Some Slack." By "Cut Themselves Some Slack," he means don't worry your pretty little heads about any economic injustice you may have hysterically imagined you've experienced. Part of his argument:
As I was saying, employers are people (“Corporations are people, my friend!“) and there will be good ones and bad ones. The bad ones tend to have karma bite them in one way or the other — most often by watching their best, or perhaps most motivated and talented employees leave to work elsewhere.
Either that or they'll grow fat and rich on the exploitation of their workers, though Geraghty won't notice because the free market is dreamy and the exploited are generally the working poor, who are gross.
I’d argue very few Americans really benefit from buying into Democrats’ (and the New York Times’s! ) preferred simplistic, demagogic narrative that America’s workplaces are a Kafkaesque, dystopian landscape of nasty male bosses conspiring to pay their female employees less. This viewpoint may in fact hold women back. If you perceive your boss as a sexist, conniving shyster who’s out to rip you off, then it’s going to be hard to show up every morning and do your best work. And whatever your circumstances, you’ll probably benefit, directly or indirectly, from doing your best work.
You're only hurting yourselves; c'mon, smile, baby! Then he tells the ladies that men have it rough, too, but you don't see us guys complaining, and (I swear to Christ) that you girls should try it sometime:
I am speaking broadly, and generalizing when I make this next statement: Men do worry about this sort of thing, but they don’t talk about it. They’re generally less likely to obsess about it, and/or publicly beat themselves up about it. There are not nearly as many bestsellers about the struggles of working fathers, magazine covers asking “Can Men Have It All?”, daddy blogs with passionate arguments and comments sections aflame, etc. 
It's like Geraghty never saw an MRA rant or Dr. Mrs. Ole Perfesser.
...the guys’ approach certainly is an one that involves less angst, self-doubt, and self-flagellation for failing to live up to some preconceived notion of how all of those roles should be fulfilled.
Also, a woman who thinks more like a man would understand why I want to have my cock sucked every morning.

For lagniappe with the emphasis on the yap, National Review also offers James Lileks chasing the not-all-men meme off his lawn.
Actually, pointing out that you’re not one of [the rapists and abusers] would indicate that you’re not the problem, and hence are part of the solution.
Let me ease your pain, ladies, with old matchbooks and accounts of my trips to Target! Eventually the lack of strawgirl response convinces Jimbo he's not being listened to:
I suppose this is useful information for men who want to have tendentious arguments about male perfidy with the sort of person who might want to put a “trigger warning” on Winnie the Pooh because a reader might have a honey allergy, but most men don’t. In fact, most –
Oh, never mind. Why state the obvious?
I didn't want to talk to you bitches anyway!

Have a nice electoral map, guys.

135 comments:

  1. How DARE he drag Mr. Sanders into his tacky little world.

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  2. sharculese1:14 PM

    ...the guys’ approach certainly is an one that involves less angst, self-doubt, and self-flagellation for failing to live up to some preconceived notion of how all of those roles should be fulfilled.



    How strange. It's almost as if nobody ever puts any pressure on men to prioritize one of those roles over the other.

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  3. XeckyGilchrist1:21 PM

    I think this comic shows where we're headed with this: http://chainsawsuit.com/comic/2014/04/29/a-strict-policy/

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  4. For lagniappe with the emphasis on the yap

    I would like to give this phrase a baker's dozen of fine pastries.

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  5. Derelict1:26 PM

    No doubt about it: White men living on wingnut welfare most definitely are perfectly positioned to tell women they shouldn't be worried about being exploited, abused, harassed, or even raped in the workplace. After all, nothing like that has ever happened to one of these white men living on wingnut welfare!

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  6. DEER LADIES, SHUT UP AND MAKE ME SAMMICH.

    - NRO
    ~

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  7. Derelict1:27 PM

    Oooh! Can I lick the spoon?

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  8. petesh1:34 PM

    Have a nice electoral map nap, guys.

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  9. Jay B.1:35 PM

    Roy, conservative mansplaining is so yesterday! The new new black is for the National Review to have women talk about how <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/22/national-reviews-penthouse-forum-submission-for-mra-rpe-fanfic/>there is no such thing as rape culture on campus, you whiny, needy chicks</a> (no link to NR, just to TBogg. You can count on AJ Delgado (whom I credit you for finding. You have an eye for malevolence).

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  10. Shakezula1:35 PM

    In the wingnuttian reboot of My Fair Lady, Prof. Higgins sings "Why can't a woman be more like a man? Only not too much because we're not gay and anyway if she were too manly she could kick our asses and we hate dykes so really why can't women just shut up and get back in the kitchen where they won't have to worry about jobs and stuff?"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doz5w2W-jAY

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  11. This whole "rape accusations are the real rape crisis" reminds me of that other old favorite "attempts to end racism are the real racism."

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  12. trizzlor1:38 PM

    It's amazing that Geraghty cannot even imagine gender discrimination in his article. The one sop he gives to an alternative viewpoint is that some employers are tightwads and just want the "best deal" (followed, of course, by some self-serving yuk yuks about working at NRO). It's like you tell the guy that you got violently mugged on the way home and he responds with "Boy, people can really be inconsiderate sometimes".

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  13. The Winnie the Pooh thing is just creepy.

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  14. Shakezula, the mic rulah, the old schoolah

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  15. "Actually, pointing out that you’re not one of [the rapists and abusers] would indicate that you’re not the problem, and hence are part of the solution."

    Wait, what? That's the second stupidest thing I've read so far today, after Amity Shlaes' anus-licking paean to Carnegie and Frick. Lileks' version of Niemöller's famous speech would apparently end with "Then they came for me - even though I wasn't part of the problem!"

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  16. Shakezula1:46 PM

    It seems to me a certain kind of flat heided leech molester has started to get a kick out ridiculing trigger warnings.

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  17. I dunno about you but I definitely needed a Tigger warning for Winnie the Pooh when I was 4 a manic tiger jumping around cackling like the Joker who wouldn't be -

    Oh he said "trigger warning"? He made fun of someone preferring not to relive an event so tragic it shattered their sense of self?



    Toddlers that just acquired theory of mind have more empathy than this guy

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  18. Derelict1:54 PM

    This whole, well, fantasy that women routinely accuse men of rape is just that: Fantasy.

    I can't imagine any woman I've ever known--including my craziest girlfriend ever--making such an accusation. If for no other reason than having to go through the shaming and humiliation that our legal system has built into rape cases (and, sadly, which keeps many women who have been raped from reporting the crime).

    But, then, apparently nobody in right-wing world ever talks to anybody who lives here on planet Earth, so . . .

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  19. Have a nice electoral map, guys.


    SPEAKER BOEHNER AND MAJORITY LEADER MCCONNELL: Thanks, we will.


    SCOTT WALKER, STILL LEADING THE POLLS OF LIKELY VOTERS: Ditto!

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  20. I think its more like he's instructing Solomon Northrup to let a smile be his umbrella during his 12 years of slavery--after all though its true that some of his owners might be a little mean or cheap their real concern is just "getting the best" out of each and everyone of their employees and you are really just cutting off your own nose to spite your face by engaging in any kind of resentment filled work slowdown or being lazy, as you people are wont to be.

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  21. trizzlor1:59 PM

    Heh, indeed:

    "When there’s a disagreement, no one is automatically the villain. Everyone’s just looking out for their interests, and hopefully negotiations remain cordial, because at the end of the process, everyone has to work together."

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  22. montag21:59 PM

    I'll bet it's absolutely killing the boyz over at NRO to be defending--however lamely and backhandedly--The New York Times, because, hey, it's a business, too, y'know.

    This is something bound to make Geraghty's intellectual hernia worse.

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  23. edroso2:00 PM

    Oh no. Amity Shlaes wrote something again?

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  24. You are right that this is another of their logical cleft stick situations. Its like having nothing to eat but poisoned chocolates or something.

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  25. edroso2:09 PM

    Ugh, I read it.

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  26. Gromet2:16 PM

    Yes. And keep in mind, slaves were never actually mistreated -- they were too valuable.

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  27. Bizarro Mike2:22 PM

    Wow. Both a fedora and a "smile, baby!" That's pretty special.

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  28. whetstone2:35 PM

    If you perceive your boss
    And whatever your circumstances, you’ll probably benefit
    Actually, pointing out that you’re not one of [the rapists and abusers]
    Oh, never mind. Why state the obvious?

    In short: trust us, ladies! An eternity of history can't be wrong!

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  29. redoubtagain2:36 PM

    I would like to sit in Cafe du Monde and watch container ships go by above my head with this comment.

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  30. whetstone2:39 PM

    mds felt a disturbance in the Force, as if millions of historians cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

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  31. Penniless Moocher2:42 PM

    You know, I've never seen a formal definition of the term 'mansplaining,' but if the first quoted paragraph in this post isn't a perfect example, then I don't know what is.

    Actually, pointing out that you’re not one of [the rapists and abusers] would indicate that you’re not the problem, and hence are part of the solution.

    This sounds like a variant of the old "if they're not wearing white hoods and in the process of lynching a black person, they're not racist" canard. Conservatives are a really creative bunch, aren't they? "Nuh-uh!" and "I'm not listening LALALALALA" just never seem to go out of style.

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  32. Derelict2:48 PM

    I'll bet it's absolutely killing the boyz over at NRO to be defending--however lamely and backhandedly--The New York Times, because, hey, it's a business, too, y'know.

    Well, the NYT is a business. The NRO is a charity that keeps a small band of otherwise unemployable cretins off the streets. And I can't recall any actual business having to beg for donations, which is a regular feature of NRO.

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  33. Broad jumping to conclusions. Diving into the shit.

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  34. I'm uprating just because I feel so sorry for you.

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  35. Derelict3:06 PM

    And don't forget pole-vaulting over facts.

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  36. You make it sound like a killer musical. Sister Act crossed with Arthur.

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  37. I realize the stoic male approach may not necessarily be for the best; I remember an article that suggested modern society had women who talked with their girlfriends about work, relationships, raising kids, how to get ahead, and all kinds of useful subjects, and men who talked with their guy friends about sports. The result was women quickly improved various life skills, while men learned a lot about sports.



    My favorite part about conservative views on gender roles is that no matter who is making them, no matter what perspective they're coming from, they always lean on the same shopworn stereotypes. Back as far as high school, my friends and I talked about relationships, personal projects, etc. and never once about sports. Apparently, we weren't real men.

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  38. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps3:34 PM

    Gosh, when it rains, it pours

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  39. Another order of beignets, sir?

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  40. whetstone3:53 PM

    And whatever your circumstances, you’ll probably benefit, directly or indirectly, from doing your best work.

    In other words, by "cut yourself some slack," he means "work even harder, even if it means hitting a glass ceiling for less pay than your male peers."

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  41. Derelict4:02 PM

    Maybe part of the nightmare for (putative) men like Lileks is being torn to gobbets of hamburger by a crowd of enraged women.

    As for the Shlaes piece, I only wish she could be transported back in time to experience first-hand the "trust" that was part of the "covenant between employer and employee." Indeed, I think spending March 25, 1911 working at Triangle Shirt Waist might give her some insight on just how benevolent employers could be (especially to women).

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  42. tigrismus4:07 PM

    And in his view women who talk about sports are ... ?

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  43. tigrismus4:10 PM

    HONEY ALLERGEN TRIGGER WARNING.

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  44. L Bob Rife4:16 PM

    preferred simplistic, demagogic narrative that America’s workplaces are a Kafkaesque, dystopian landscape of nasty male bosses conspiring to pay their female employees less.



    That's simplistic? Because it leaves out the blowjobs or something?

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  45. Al Swearengen4:30 PM

    When you're a stupid bag of hammers, everything looks like "Just relax and enjoy it."

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  46. susanoftexas4:31 PM

    TIGGER TRIGGER

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  47. Al Swearengen4:35 PM

    Well, they do have to go on National Review cruises, the most unpleasant boat rides since the Middle Passage.

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  48. Derelict4:36 PM

    Or, in this modern world of ours, the unsolicited dick pics.

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  49. Al Swearengen4:38 PM

    More like Oklahoma! crossed with Sweeney Todd.

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  50. Derelict4:38 PM

    Lileks thinks he's a humorist because everywhere he goes, he hears people laughing. And every time he speaks, they laugh uproariously. The difference between being laughed at and being laughed with escapes him.

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  51. Derelict4:44 PM

    You owe me a keyboard, Al! I spit tea all over this one.

    Thanks!

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  52. Isn't that "its yours to keep...or else?"

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  53. BigHank535:15 PM

    The 100-meter goalpost shift and the dead pommel horse are two likely events as well.

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  54. smut clyde5:49 PM

    The new new black is for the National Review
    The "new new black" for NR is white guys explaining the post-racial nature of America.

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  55. smut clyde5:52 PM

    I would like to join with this comment in shouting WORRAWORRAWORRA and bouncing Eeyore into the stream.

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  56. Miss you in the Blogger feed!

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  57. susanoftexas6:02 PM

    Still working on the book, when I have time. I should be working now but this is more fun.

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  58. That's what they do BEST

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  59. smut clyde6:38 PM

    Fat-shaming body-image trigger alert!

    http://lib.ru/MILN/img00003.gif

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  60. MBouffant6:40 PM

    Every victim a criminal, & all the sinners saints.

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  61. MBouffant6:47 PM

    She can't be stopped by normal human means.
    Anyone seen Godzilla yet? How'd they stop him? (No spoilers, pls.!)

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  62. MBouffant6:54 PM

    Having worked in real businesses for much longer than I want to remember, I can assure these leeches that America’s workplaces are a Kafkaesque, dystopian landscape of nasty bosses conspiring to pay their employees less.


    In addition, every boss is a twisted fuck w/ serious issues of inadequacy & a god-complex.


    Not one of those people could hold a real job for an entire day.

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  63. smut clyde6:57 PM

    a Kafkaesque, dystopian landscape of nasty male bosses conspiring to pay their female employees less.
    Bosses do demonstrably conspire to pay all their employees as little as possible, and if they can use sex as an excuse to pay some of their workforce less, they will do so (they wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't). All else is denial.It would be nice if more people read Kafka instead of throwing around 'Kafkaesque' as a meaningless adjective.

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  64. smut clyde6:58 PM

    Damnit, MBouffant has beaten my comment by 3 minutes.

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  65. I would like to give this comment a TRIGGER WARNING for being too fun. (Also fear of bouncing)

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  66. Not real women, clearly. Men talk about sports, women talk about their feelings, all exceptions are anomalous and must be fixed. I've read books on the subject, I'll have you know (excessive reading being one of many ways that I'm anomalous).

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  67. Shakezula7:12 PM

    However, there are documented cases of people committing crimes and blaming someone else. Yet you never hear people say "We should always arrest the victim of a shooting because of Charles Stuart was a liar."

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  68. The first rule of Chess Club is: you do not talk about Chess Club. The second rule of Chess Club is: you do not talk about Chess Club. Third rule of Chess Club: Someone resigns, topples their king, walks out, the match is over. Fourth rule: Only two guys to a board. Fifth rule: One game at a time, fellas ... except on simultaneous exhibition night. Sixth rule: No shirts, no shoes, no service. Seventh rule: Matches will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: If this is your first night at Chess Club, you have to play.

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  69. TGuerrant7:23 PM

    Um, no, that's not rain pelting down.

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  70. TGuerrant7:25 PM

    Ultimate.

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  71. Brian Schlosser7:37 PM

    "His name is Robert Fischer, his name is Robert Fischer, his name is Robery Fischer..."

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  72. Brian Schlosser7:39 PM

    Which is funny, because reading National Review is like No Exit crossed with slicing open my own throat

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  73. Brian Schlosser7:42 PM

    "Bachelor Number 2: if I was Roe vs Wade, how strongly would you repeal me?"

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  74. MBouffant7:43 PM

    Two great minds, one obvious statement.

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  75. Brian Schlosser7:45 PM

    They've just discovered, through trigger warnings, the concept of empathy. And as with all new, different things that they encounter, they instinctively loathe it and feel compelled to mock it in an attempt to make it go away.

    See all: all progress towards equality since Magna Carta

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  76. Brian Schlosser7:46 PM

    Woo woo

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  77. That really cracked me up.

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  78. Yeah. Nothing Kafkaesque about it. Its just completely natural.

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  79. Brian Schlosser7:51 PM

    Right? It would be like a guy getting back at his ex by telling everyone she left because he has a tiny penis, hates cunnilingus, and has never given a woman an orgasm. Its theoretically POSSIBLE, but who would do it given the shame?

    (and of course, that hypothetical shame is nothing compared to the actual shame that actual rape victims endure)

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  80. tigrismus8:18 PM

    Hrm. Can we talk about how we feel about sports?

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  81. KatWillow8:18 PM

    In other words: Guys blame the bitches.

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  82. KatWillow8:21 PM

    Now I'm visualizing Jonah and Arglebargle and Dr. Ol Perfesser and ... all of them ... packed in 14" slots (on their sides to take up less space)... ewww.

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  83. Smarter than Your Average Bear8:25 PM

    I'd rather pay Charon an obolus and take his ride across the Styx than go on that cruise .

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  84. mortimer20008:29 PM

    ...the guys’ approach certainly is an one that involves less angst, self-doubt, and self-flagellation for failing to live up to some preconceived notion of how all of those roles should be fulfilled.

    Let me just open this closet door here and... Mr. Geraghty, meet Rod Dreher!

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  85. Marion in Savannah8:41 PM

    Lileks is still alive? Well, I guess his daughter (didn't he call her Gnat or something similar?) is still to small to wield a hatchet...

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  86. If Republican demographics are any indication Charon is pretty much full time captaining those cruises, anyway.

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  87. M. Krebs8:53 PM

    Chess Club? How about Physics Club? We get together and talk about physics, properties of physics, you know.

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  88. Jay B.8:55 PM

    White is the new black.

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  89. Back field in motion/you know that's against the rules.

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  90. AngryWarthogBreath10:00 PM

    There are not nearly as many bestsellers about the struggles of working fathers, magazine covers asking “Can Men Have It All?”, daddy blogs with passionate arguments and comments sections aflame, etc.



    Yes, patriarchy does hurt men too, Mr. Geraghty. Have you just discovered this? I don't think feminist scholars have been trying to keep it a secret.


    I've heard it before, and I'm going to say it again: magazine covers don't ask "Can Men Have It All?" because it is accepted that men can have it all. Because magazine covers assume that men don't care about childrearing and family - that an occasional weekend at the baseball with Son Number One is all that a man requires - and that business success is more than enough. "Can Women Have It All?" means "Can a woman have a full time job and still be a woman?" and most of the time the magazines find the answer "More in sorrow than in anger*, no".


    There are plenty of bestsellers about the struggles of working fathers, but they don't identify the working fathers as fathers. See above. They're bestsellers about high-flying business types whose shrewish castrating harpy wives are trying to divorce them and take the kids and their money and tell all their friends that they have small penises (despite their penises being ten feet long and made of tensile steel) until they win the big boxing match and in so doing earn back their wives as possessions. Most of them are movies. They have Jim Carrey in them and are awful. (This is not a given. Several Jim Carrey movies are not awful.)


    As to the lack of daddy blogs, I've done exactly as much research as the writer on this, so I'll accept that. It might be right. Because men are told that real men don't value family and fatherhood, or at least don't consider "father" as a primary role. Because patriarchy hurts men too. You see how it is?


    Now, if women had the same cultural role here, if women were also told that they shouldn't consider "mother" a primary role, we'd have to get either a lot of creches or a lot of ice floes, or we would be terrorised by roving gangs of infants. So Geraghty here can't be saying that (or he can be saying that, but if he is, he's even stupider than he seems). So the only conclusion is that he's saying "Stop trying to succeed in business, womens! Get back to barefoot and pregnant and in all the kitchens!"


    Which doesn't really surprise me. No matter how big you draw the circle, it always comes back to its origin point.


    * to the dismay of some on the left

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  91. AngryWarthogBreath10:03 PM

    Could he be an Oedipus? If he brooched out his eyes, I'm pretty sure it would slow down his typing.

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  92. AGoodQuestion10:18 PM

    I have to wonder if the real purpose of the #NotAllMen meme is to trigger James Lileks' persecution complex. Sure, it's probably overkill, but the guy does seem like he'd be fun to fuck with.

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  93. AGoodQuestion10:24 PM

    Ah yes, Amity Shlaes, who's made it a personal crusade to repeal the minimum wage. I look forward to hearing her firsthand account of making less than the minimum wage and living well.


    Extra Strength Amity, for when McArdle just isn't Megan enough.

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  94. Tehanu10:25 PM

    As opposed to being fun to fuck. Obviously.

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  95. AGoodQuestion10:25 PM

    How'd they stop him? (No spoilers, pls.!)
    Well can I at least think of an elephant?

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  96. AGoodQuestion10:27 PM

    Jonah's cratemate is not expected to survive.

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  97. Shakezula10:27 PM

    Oh, ick.

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  98. AGoodQuestion10:53 PM

    Only because the Olympics aren't as big on amateurism as they used to be.

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  99. freq flag11:45 PM

    in this modern world of ours,
    ...when you can't tell the ACs from the DCs.

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  100. smut clyde11:59 PM

    Bacchante win 'em all.

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  101. smut clyde12:01 AM

    TRIGGER WARNING PLZ
    http://i.domik.net/pic/publication_105359_imgf5569f5fc96014cf101a6ddf6fc765bb.png

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  102. Daniel Björkman12:45 AM

    From what I have seen of Kafka, he was actually demoralizingly accurate on human nature - not necessarily mean-spirited or even entirely without compassion, but self-involved, short-sighted and prone to believes whatever is convenient for it to believe.

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  103. smut clyde12:47 AM

    Ah, that explains why Tonstant Weader fwowed up.

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  104. Daniel Björkman12:59 AM

    Mmm. I can't imagine any woman I've ever known making a false rape accusation either. But... I also can't imagine any man I've ever known to commit rape. And yet, rapes are committed. So I am not quite so quick to assume that every accusation of rape is proof. Clearly, people are capable of being self-destructively malicious to an extent that I can't even begin to understand.
    On the other hand, I also find it hard to believe in the plague of false accusations that rightwingers seem to imagine. I can imagine a stupid and malicious person reaching for the most horrible accusation they could think of, but only if that accusation was credible in the first place. You don't see anyone being accused of being a baby-eating Satanist, is what I'm saying. (well, not anymore, anyway) Rape is a real and common crime with a pedigree as old as theft and murder, and with as little likelihood of suddenly going away - to suggest anything else is ridiculous.
    (actually, I tell a lie. I have met a few men who always seemed to be restraining themselves, with difficulty, from raping me to show dominance. And I may have met exactly one woman who struck me as sufficiently stupid and emotionally volatile to accuse someone of rape just to screw him over, and to hell with what she had to put up with to do it. So I guess that might serve as an estimate based on my life experience? Rapists, existing in small but still depressingly significant numbers. False accusers, also a thing but far less common)

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  105. montag21:00 AM

    And it's a toss-up whether it's the toxic fumes, the endless stream of inanities or the frequent requests that he get up and get Jonah some diet Coke and Cheetos that's going to do in the poor bugger.

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  106. smut clyde1:03 AM

    Oh yes. But so many lazy columnists have a Cliffs Notes idea in their heads that Kafka was a percursor of Joseph Heller, and write "Kafkaesque" to convey an Eichmann combination of bureaucracy + death camps. They go to rhetorical war with the Kafka they would like rather than the Kafka who actually wrote books.



    Also too I find it hard to forgive Steven Sonderbergh for the travesty he committed by filming "Kafka".

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  107. montag21:07 AM

    I don't think the fellow has read much Kafka or spent much time as an underling in the modern corporate world. To him, wingnut welfare is the real world.

    Scary thought, that.

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  108. Daniel Björkman1:14 AM

    Yeah, he seems to be very much one of Those People who think that everyone's main problem is poor self-esteem. When in fact quite often their main problem is shitty working conditions. (when it isn't no paid work at all - another thing they love to tell you to smile away)

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  109. montag21:15 AM

    Indeed. But, then, these are people who embrace, "ignorance is strength," and "freedom is slavery" and "war is peace."

    I wouldn't expect any less from them.

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  110. Another Kiwi1:21 AM

    preferred simplistic, demagogic narrative that America’s workplaces are a Kafkaesque, dystopian landscape
    Jam those words in! Never mind what they mean it impresses the rubes.

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  111. Christopher Hazell1:23 AM

    Actually, pointing out that you’re not one of them would indicate that you’re not the problem, and hence are part of the solution.



    Hmm, let's see if that works:


    "I'm not helping Assad put down the Syrian rebels, so I must be helping to overthrow Assad!"


    Wait, no, that makes no sense.


    Feminist thought, and actually a lot of moral thinking in general, embraces the idea that bad acts happen because good men stand by and do nothing, or even tacitly approve of and enable the bad acts without actually participating directly.

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  112. montag21:24 AM

    Yeah, that's mighty fuckin' funny coming from someone writing for NRO.

    Seems he hasn't figured out that we've already had a really good look at his idea of "best work."

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  113. montag21:35 AM

    I so badly want to teach by example and transport this eejit back in time to the paper mill I worked in fifty years ago, and give him an object lesson in demagoguery and dystopia.

    And then leave him there alone, with no way to escape. That would take care of the Kafka part.

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  114. Derelict7:15 AM

    When Lileks last in the dooryard bloomed.

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  115. Susan of Texas7:24 AM

    I just watched the first episode of the most famous tv show of our time, in which the father passes out twice from anxiety while trying to fulfill his roles a s son, father, husband , and Don of New Jersey.

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  116. BigHank537:32 AM

    It's the critical thinking version of Saw. How many of your reasoning abilities do you have to amputate to make it out alive?

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  117. Pope Zebbidie XIII7:34 AM

    Certainly only the bones will be left.

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  118. It's like they say "Hard work is its own reward."

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  119. Yes but david chase is a gender traitor.

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  120. BigHank537:41 AM

    You can talk about how you feel about your men watching sports. As long as you do it in the kitchen, and you don't let it get in the way of your sandwich-making.

    Christ, adopting that vile reductionist mindset for just two fucking sentences makes my head hurt.

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  121. cleter8:31 AM

    While you are at it, if you could also turn him into a giant bug and make him work in the mill, operating machines with his many tiny bug arms, that would be great.

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  122. "But they told me it was."

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  123. Where are the Koch brothers when you really need them?

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  124. LittlePig10:09 AM

    Long way from standing athwart History yelling 'Stop!' to propping up Lets-go-live-in-a-50s-sitcom Fiction.

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  125. LittlePig10:22 AM

    "And they used Bon Amity!"

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  126. Ellis_Weiner10:49 AM

    ...aren't we all just YEARNING for someone to turn on a little Stopping Power?

    Yesterday, while walking the dog, I had a fleeting inspiration that the entire masculine cohort of the Republican Party consisted of men who are insecure about their sexuality. I can't remember the chain of thought that led me to that conclusion, but now, in the cold light of day, I can't think of why it isn't true.

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  127. Ellis_Weiner11:01 AM

    As to the lack of daddy blogs...


    Oh pleeze. I've done less research than you or Geraghty and I can say without fear of contradiction that there dozens, if not hundreds, of daddy blogs. This is the INTERNET. There are daddy blogs written by potatoes. They're..you know...not *great* but still...

    As to Geraghty's Advice to Young Girls to stop complaining and do your best work: my other theory is that wingnut propagandists include in their number a great many of the kind of people who would be collaborators with an invading enemy, trustees in prison, etc.--sharpies who conclude that the best way to thrive is to work for the powerful, regardless of the morality of the thing. Once you've embraced that role, why *wouldn't* you urge others to do the same?

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  128. Ellis_Weiner11:05 AM

    And the shot argument put.

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  129. Professor Fate12:50 PM

    reading this all i could hear was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGjOE_7bYI

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  130. StringOnAStick3:14 PM

    I've known several women who were raped, or nearly killed in the process of attempted rape. The ones that filed charges were sufficiently abused by the process to make anyone that knew them think twice about going through the same thing.
    I've also known just one woman who was credibly accused of falsely claiming rape. His alibi was air-tight, and she was pissed that this married, new father refused to take her as a lover, so she filed charges. She was also bat-shit crazy and spent some time in court ordered mental health care after that whole episode.

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  131. Tehanu11:10 PM

    Hopefully, not wearing bloomers.

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  132. geraldfnord8:22 PM

    James thinks he makes his point full well
    And damns his foes to Lilek Hell

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  133. geraldfnord8:35 PM

    > 'Have a nice electoral map, guys.'
    Well, we've seen the reaction to the increasing electoral melanin levels, and I've seen repeated versions of its X-chromosomal equivalent such as and like the following:


    The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women - two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians - have rendered the notion of "capitalist democracy" into an oxymoron.
    The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women - two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians - have rendered the notion of "capitalist democracy" into an oxymoron.

    ---Peter Thiel.

    (Yes, he's not officially a Republican, but he's in strong sympathy with much of their party...and, quite frankly, I've never heard of any avatar of C.M. Burns who really gave a damn what his employees smoked or whom they fschkd, and didn't appreciate the relative low dislocation of Things Running Smooth of abortion when compared to pregnancy, especially when the Evil Gummint won't let you fire the pregnant `for Just 'Cos'. Sorry for the caffeinated prolixity: I'm basically just repeating the necessary 'Libertarians are functionally conservative because their programme would result in most of those now powerful having even more power.)

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  134. geraldfnord8:59 PM

    As I'm anemicky, I appreciate such a wonderful blous of concentrated irony.

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