House of Eratosthenes

Actually, I’m a bit on the fence about this issue. On the one hand, of course I’d like to slap silly the next feminist who whines away about it when she doesn’t spend any time on the subway, and it’s completely obvious that any space a man occupies, regardless of how small, is going to be too much for her. As well as for a lot of other people in our modern culture of “all problems are due to men having too much, and all solutions come from threatening or revoking the status of men.” But, that’s not a a man-abuse thing, that’s a thing with people pretending to solve problems who wouldn’t know a real problem, or a real solution, if it walked up and kicked ’em square in the ass. Very common occurrence these days.

And, I don’t like inconsiderate people on any kind of public transit. Especially, spatially-inconsiderate people. If some ride-the-rails rent-a-cop in a reflective vest comes along to dispense a lecture, what’s the harm?

But Katherine Timpf, writing in the National Review with her tongue firmly planted in-cheek (hat tip to William Teach at Pirate’s Cove), points out the connection being made. And yes, it’s a bit of an unholy alliance, between the police power of the state and unhinged hatred straight from the pages of Jezebel:

Let’s talk about these fucking guys for a second because they’re fucking everywhere. The MTA is full of them. They walk onto the train and sit down like it’s their goddamn living room then spread their legs in a V so dramatic that it wouldn’t be out of place in gynecologist’s office. Why? Who the fuck knows? Maybe it has to do with straight up rudeness. They don’t give a shit that there’s a lady standing in front of them holding a baby or that an old lady with a walker who is actually wearing a shirt from an MS run who needs a seat (I recently saw this happen). They want to sit there and be comfortable and — don’t you know? — there’s no way a dude as macho as him can be expected to sit with his knees together. Haven’t you heard that sitting like a normal person totally makes you gay?

It could also be peacocking. Maybe these fucking idiots think we women are impressed when they act like their penis is so fucking big that they can’t even try to make room for you next to them on the bench. Because if there’s one thing we ladies like, it’s a monster dick the size of yule log (Happy Holidays!) and a man who won’t offer us a seat because it makes him slightly uncomfortable.

Let Us Abolish You Others have said it before but it’s worth repeating: Take modern feminism, remove “men” and replace with “Jews” and you get the Third Reich. Men need to know their place!

Timpf closes with,

I am glad that the government is finally taking action. This is clearly not the kind of thing that could be solved by asking people to scoot over and make room for you to sit down, and I am glad the government is finally doing something about it.

Quite the smackdown when you give it a moment’s thought. Pre-Internet, and pre-feminism, that would have been the completely obvious solution: Just a little bit of that human interaction we’re all supposed to be craving anyway, a tiny bit of confrontation, not even unpleasant, nowhere near the fuck-word-laced tirade you see above, just a “pardon me.” Problem solved.

Now, you have to have an Internet essay — which the actual offender will, in all likelihood, never see. Stoke the stewpot with enough heat and the authorities swing into action. Then we all have a whole new set of rules under which we get to do our daily toiling…to solve a problem that, 45 years earlier, would have become a big nothing with a simple ‘scuse-me.

Progress, this is? The question answers itself.

Now, you have to have an Internet essay — which the actual offender will, in all likelihood, never see

Fucking Millennials. Social retards, all of them. Pardon my French, but seriously — I’ve never met a kid born after about 1985 who isn’t terrified, utterly terrified, of human interaction. They’re dauntless keyboard warriors, but have to have their every meatspace interaction mediated by as many layers of daddy surrogates as possible.*

Just the other day I overheard two grad students talking about some public service the city was shutting down for lack of funds to hire workers (a food bank or something). The outrage!!11!1! was palpable as they discussed hashtag campaigns, online petitions, email bombs…. Devilish me, I couldn’t resist. I leaned over and asked them “have you ever thought about, you know, volunteering down at the food bank? If everyone who re-Tweeted your hashtag took just a half-hour shift, you’d have complete, round-the-clock coverage, cost free.”

They weren’t just flabbergasted, they were furious. At me. Problems aren’t for solving; they’re for writing pretty vicious rants and important action reports about.

*this is why the kind of girl who will order you to “sit down while we abolish you” is taking that selfie from a Designated Safe Zone in the student union. If you agree with her, please hold your applause — it’s triggering. Use jazz hands instead.
- Severian | 06/03/2015 @ 15:16
[…] More here. […]
- Rebog: Manspreading, by House of Eratosthenes | wyowanderer | 06/04/2015 @ 07:41
This is why I disagree with Rush Limbaugh about liberals loving & worshiping government.

Liberals don’t “love” government any more than the metaphorical ostrich loves the ground into which it sticks its head. Government, to them, is simply distance. “We need a government program to” just means “I don’t wanna do it.”

And ACTUALLY confronting someone, it’s revealed here, falls into that category. For all their Internet bluster about “decide what sort of world we want and insist on absolutely nothing less,” they’re not really of a mindset to, or in any sort of position to, insist on anything at all. The “Manspreading” campaign proves it.
- mkfreeberg | 06/05/2015 @ 05:33
I agree — they don’t worship government. They worship uniformity, or more likely anonymity. They want to be able to claim a share of any and all credit without any chance of their name being attached to any failure. It’s why they’re so baffled and angry when one of their pet programs actually affects them.
- Severian | 06/05/2015 @ 05:55

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ManspreadingWednesday, June 3rd, 2015

Manspreading
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2015