It’s seems that whole clumps of bitter techbros are fleeing to the MGTOW life (that’s Men Going Their Own Way, if you didn’t know), and advocating a life of male separatism. Just a thought, but if you avoid women at all costs, it might not be a surprise that your viewpoints are more suited to a cave than a nice high tech office somewhere. Naturally, this is an evil witch hunt, with the intent to subjugate men (and make them do what? Scrub out the toilet?) and other nefarious things. As always, the irony of men screeching “witch hunt!” escapes them entirely.
One of those who said there had been a change is James Altizer, an engineer at the chip maker Nvidia. Mr. Altizer, 52, said he had realized a few years ago that feminists in Silicon Valley had formed a cabal whose goal was to subjugate men. At the time, he said, he was one of the few with that view.
Continue reading the main storyNow Mr. Altizer said he was less alone. “There’s quite a few people going through that in Silicon Valley right now,” he said. “It’s exploding. It’s mostly young men, younger than me.”
Mr. Altizer said that a gathering he hosts in person and online to discuss men’s issues had grown by a few dozen members this year to more than 200, that the private Facebook pages he frequents on men’s rights were gaining new members and that a radical subculture calling for total male separatism was emerging.
“It’s a witch hunt,” he said in a phone interview, contending men are being fired by “dangerous” human resources departments. “I’m sitting in a soundproof booth right now because I’m afraid someone will hear me. When you’re discussing gender issues, it’s almost religious, the response. It’s almost zealotry.”
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Altizer, when you decide to pontificate about how women should not be in a workplace, and they should be quiet about slaps on the ass, if they don’t want to deal, they should stay home and do what they were ‘made’ for and all that, it will elicit a response. Women have been responding to misogynistic attitudes for thousands of years now. If we, from time to time, snap or yell, well, I’m sure you’ll understand the frustration of having one generation after another having to repeat themselves.
I do love the touch of the soundproof booth, though. For unknown reasons, the NYT has decided to give these sad separatists a full work up, because life is so gosh darn hard for men, especially those of the white variety. I’ll wish them fun in their cones of silence, and continue to pay attention to those men who have happily figured out that yes, women are human beings too.
If the evolutionary psychologists were right, wouldn’t these guys removing themselves from the gene pool mean their ideas would be removed as well? Ah, if only we could be so lucky.
Surly a ‘warlock hunt’…
Gobi’s @ 2:
They can’t even get that bit right.
a radical subculture calling for total male separatism was emerging.
…
it’s almost religious, the response. It’s almost zealotry.
We are seeing a revival of monasticism?
I fully support MGTOW. Maybe after they go their own way for a while, they’ll figure out how to care for themselves like competent adults. (Yes, yes, I know. #notallmen. #sarcasticeyeroll) The best way to learn to appreciate something is to do without it for a while. Also, if they hate teh females, yes please, stay away.
@2: Spouse who is a witch says witches who are men are witches. “Warlock” mean “oath-breaker” in many traditions.
Your wife doesn’t get to put new definitions on meanings hundreds of years old, at the very least. A male witch is a warlock, and yes, the etymology of the word has to do oath-breaking, which was also tied up with the devil, as witchery was thought to be, so perhaps a refresher course on etymology is in order.
Just the tip of the origin there.
My high school sweetie, Rachel R., used to wear a Tshirt that said “if we can send one man to the moon, can we send all of them?” It seems like a good response to the MGTOW. “Men going away”
He’s not wrong but I get the impression he’s wrong about which side has the zealots. I’ve certainly seen quite a bit of fanaticism on gender issues, usually in the MGTOW-reddit and other MRA-like sources so often quoted by David Futrelle on wehuntedthemammoth. I suppose the soundproof booth could be their their equivalent of a temple, one that goes well with the religious icon of the frozen peach.
Apart from that the claim of him being in a soundproof booth strikes me as ridiculous hyperbole. Who’d hear him? Is he at work and thinks a colleague might denounce him to the cabal? Or does he worry that the feminist bureau of intelligence has bugged his home? Maybe future interviews should be given in the park, sitting on a bench with his back to the interviewer on the bench behind him, wearing hat, shades and a long coat, while pretending to read the newspaper.
*murmur murmur*
-- “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
*murmur mumble*
-- The feminists are plotting what…?
Notsoloud *mumble* *hiss*
@6 Husband, but I see your point.
I’m not a witch, wicca, or any spiritual tradition. *Hi! Atheist here.* He tells me that his spiritual tradition finds using warlock to define a man who is a witch is offensive and the preferred term is witch. Not being of his or related tradition, I respect that at face value. I haven’t asked for citations or references.
How wide-spread does the consensus of a definition need to be, in cultural terms, to warrant requesting consideration? Obviously, minorities should be able to frame language to define themselves [opinion as fact]. In your perspective, is there a point at which it’s justified for someone outside the group to tell them that they’re using language wrong? Is it inappropriate for me, as a member of the out-group, to point out that a thing is known to be offensive to a non-zero part of the minority group? I know that it is inappropriate, as a member of the out-group, to say something *isn’t* offensive because a member of the in-group said it was ok, but I haven’t heard an discussion of the inverse.
Both the etymology and original meaning(s?) of witch is uncertain. It has, for multiple hundreds of years, been predominately female-gendered, but to this day the implication of female is not an absolute (but is very common, and hence making that not-necessarily-intended assumption is understandable). As is perhaps better known, the implication of being a nasty or evil person seems to largely be an invention of “the church”. Some of the earliest existent English references are quite clearly to good people, such as midwives and healers (which were also probably women?).
I once tried to study this traditional English witch terminology on Wikipedia, and it seemed to be rather complicated, involving several interrelated articles.
Looks like men could be called cunning man* or wizard or (usually in a negative context) witch or warlock.
Women could be called witch (often but not nearly always in a negative context) or cunning woman.
*Not to be confused with Cunning Man, a villain in one of Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books, an ancient witch hunter turned into a ghost of pure evil.
OK, this may fall in the category of anecdata, but:
James Altizer is full of shit. I’ve been working in Silicon Valley, and SV-adjacent locations, for my entire professional life in engineering (25+ years). For various companies small (less than 100 employees total) and large (current is a 3000-employee, $5B chip company) and I can say I’ve never seen any “cabal (of feminists) whose goal was to subjugate men” or “men are being fired by “dangerous” human resources departments”.
Anyway, seeing these “techbros” spout off about “witch hunts” really gets me pissed off.
(Sorry of this comes of as #notallmen, but I honestly do not understand what their problem is.)