Delicious. Stefan Molyneux failed miserably at attempting to be an “attractive young woman” leaving a comment thanking the wonderful Stefan Molyneux. Unless, maybe, there is an attractive young woman who looks to Stefan Molyneux for guidance who just happens to also be named Stefan Molyneux.
There’s a simple way to avoid getting caught inventing imaginary fans. Don’t invent imaginary fans in the first place.
Marcus Ranum says
I have it on good authority that the gods particularly like responding to Voltaire’s prayer.
Marcus Ranum says
PS – apparently there are further developments… He was “re-posting” a comment from someone else, yadda yadda. So set your skepticism to the “intriguing…” setting.
ibyea says
“Reponsting” from someone else. *raises eyebrow* Sure, Molyneux, sure. And I “believe” you.
anteprepro says
Stefan Molyneux: The Scott Adams of the Manosphere, apparently.
Sili says
I agree with Polly O!
freemage says
This got researched by the folks at WHTM; it actually seems legit (though he is largely responsible for the confusion, as he failed utterly to post any sort of attribution whatsoever). The commenter seems to be a real person, and there’s screen-shots from the Google+ account it was taken from.
That said, all this really does is let us focus on pointing out what a shitty, shitty writer the guy is.
marilove says
It’s just so CREEPY. And not a way most teenage girls would speak about themselves. Uuuugh.
Woo_Monster, Sniffer of Starfarts says
The “reposting” excuse is pathetic. Own up, Stefan.
Woo_Monster, Sniffer of Starfarts says
As an attractive young woman, I just want to thank the above commenter. Woo Monster is spot on. They summed up my own thoughts so well, it almost ruined my urge to comment at all. But, more people need to say it, Stefan is a fraud.
Woo_Monster, Sniffer of Starfarts says
As a super-hot young man, I agree with the above two commenters. It seems that all demographics see the truth in the point that the ultra-genius, Woo Monster, was making. Stefan is shit.
A Hermit says
I’m still grappling with the spectacle of a grown man posting an earnest faux-philosophical hour long review of a Disney princess movie…
Jennifer Burdoo says
A Hermit: You’d be surprised. They do it for My Little Pony too, even a US Marine.
The Vicar (via Freethoughtblogs) says
@6, freemage:
Yeah, sure, I bet. It’s not like screenshots could be either complete fabrications or captures of a sockpuppet account created by Moleynose. It’s totally not suspicious that someone wasn’t willing to post a comment on YouTube with an account, but apparently was willing to send screenshots of their browser logged in to Google+ (which account, incidentally, would be used to make a comment on YouTube, since both are Google projects). That’s not implausible at all.
Actually, I just received an e-mail from Moleynose where he admits that he made up the whole thing. He says:
I know it seems unlikely that he would actually admit that, but give me a few minutes and I’ll get you a screenshot showing the e-mail. That will prove it beyond doubt.
dianne says
This is just pathetic. Couldn’t he even figure out how to create a sock puppet? I mean, how hard is it to log in under a different username anyway?
Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says
….what.
Howard Bannister says
Yes, his conclusion is that when they Disneyfied the story they made it explicitly feminist.
By changing it from a story where a girl rescues a boy into a story in which a girl and boy together rescue a girl.
Yes, seriously, that is his conclusion.
Also, the snowman represents friend-zoned betas.
And he does an hour on it.
hyperdeath says
Sili:
Damnit. I wanted to make that joke.
throwaway, never proofreads, every post a gamble says
The Vicar:
Yea, no. Please don’t.
sambarge says
The only reason I would believe this is true is because the alternative is that Molyneux is so stupid that he doesn’t even know how to set up a sock puppet account.
Possible but so unlikely. Sort of like not believing the moon landing was a hoax if for no other reason than it would mean that thousands of people kept the secret.
That said, it reads like a fake.
The Vicar (via Freethoughtblogs) says
@19, sambarge
No, there are alternatives which don’t involve believing that this is genuine:
1. He had a sock puppet account, but got confused about which account was logged in. (As, for example, if he was using two different browsers on the same computer to represent the two accounts, and — because the two browsers were showing the same site — got confused about which one was “frontmost”. An easy mistake to make after spending an hour or two pontificating in front of a camera.)
2. He properly logged out of his own account and logged into his sockpuppet account, but Google’s login system, which is notoriously buggy about logging out and then logging back in in the same browser session (apparently because of the cookies Google uses to track users, which they do so zealously that they illegally break browser identity protections), failed to properly register this. (“Google, you wacky emergent monopoly!”)
3. He left the YouTube video window open, opened a new browser window/tab to create the sockpuppet account, and on completing the process, closed the tab, thinking that since Google+ logins are typically persistent the newly-logged-in account would have taken over the existing tab.
Olav says
Vicar, exactly.
grasshopper says
“I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter
And make believe it came from you
I’m gonna write words, oh, so sweet
They’re gonna knock me off my feet
Kisses on the bottom
I’ll be glad I’ve got ’em”
grasshopper says
Dagnabbit!
Sorry about the embedding.
timgueguen says
I’ve found that lopping off the “https” portion of the URL kills the embedding on here.
Stacy says
http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2014/07/10/the-tiny-kitten-comment-on-youtube-my-explanation/
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says
Rumor has indicated that linking within the [a href = “Video link”] video [/a] also avoids embedding, where the square brackets are replaced by the pointy ones found in HTML tags.
anteprepro says
Howard Bannister
lol fucking wut?
danl. says
BAAA-HAHAHAHAHA!
…as we say on the interwebs.
Lauren says
Wow. I clicked through to the last 15 minutes of the video in question – it sounds pretty much like Molyneux is reading from Elliot Rodgers’ manifesto.
speed0spank says
I’m having a hard time with this. On the one hand the screenshot seems legit. On the other I have a hard time imagining a girl describing herself in that way. :/
CHARLES says
Can’t log in as playonwords on FTB again!
I’ve been following this on “we hunted the mammoth,” The guy is just a joke.
Nice Ogress says
Another possibility is that it wasn’t a flubbed sockpuppet attempt, but a flubbed crosspost of a plain old-fashioned shill – that is, an account run by marketers to drive traffic to sites that pay for the service.
Of course, Stefan still failed at posting from the shill account, so, y’know, it’s still a ridiculous trainwreck from any angle.
MRAs. They’d
run the worldbe pretty average members of society if they could just. Not. Fuck. Up.sambarge says
Vicar @ #20
Thanks. I suppose I displayed my own ignorance about having multiple accounts! Everything you say make sense though. The actual message sounds so unreal; if it was posted somewhere as a comment, I’d assume the person was a fake. I wondered if Molyneaux could be that unsophisticated as to think that comment would read as something a “fan” would post. As we’ve seen, I’m pretty unsophisticated and I think it reads like bs, so…
What I’ve read about the contents of his video, however, makes me think he is just that unbalanced.
lactosefermenter says
“LOL” at the “said no woman ever” comment in the link…
nich says
That would read better if you replaced “man” with person…
loren says
Y’know, it’s really not that hard to verify the claim that Stefan was reposting a comment by someone else. Just go to the full list of comments on the YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=3wCZPTSo1_U
If you order the comments by ‘Top comments’, then about halfway down (with 5 upvotes) is a comment by one Lajune McMillian. Her profile pic shows an attractive young African American woman. You can click on her name and see that she’s had a YouTube account since 2011, and she’s rather active in ‘Liking’ videos and subscribing to channels. If Stefan faked her account, it’s a long-con that’s already lasted three years.
And if you order the comments by ‘Newest first’, and then click ‘Show more’ a few times, you’ll be able to see that Lajune very clearly posted her comment BEFORE Stefan did his.
But by all means, continue calling her a sockpuppet and claiming that he botched an effort to imitate a female fan, despite the very plain evidence that says you’re wrong.
(And for the record, I’ve never even *heard* of Stefan until this thread. But why promote false claims about the guy when they’re so easily rebutted?)
The Vicar (via Freethoughtblogs) says
@36, loren:
Yeah, that’s absolute proof right there, because no MRA trolls ever create false accounts. Certainly not in 2011.
Tony! The Queer Shoop says
loren:
Then why did Stefan attribute her comment to himself? Even if the comment was made by someone else, he didn’t present it as such.
Tony! The Queer Shoop says
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says
When do MRA trolls ever stop lying and bullshitting? Sounds like the answer is never……
anteprepro says
Allegedly, (either in this thread or in the WHTM thread) Stefan does this regularly (copypastas other people’s comments about him without attribution). So, that means that his regular fans might know what is going on and everyone else would have no fucking clue, and it is an idiotic, sloppy, and pointless thing to do anyway. I mean, who fucking does that? Scours the internet for praise and then plop it down without citation right in the middle of a different website? So even if he isn’t a sockpuppeteer, he is still quite the fucking egotist. MEH
quasar says
This.
I like analaysing movies as much as the next person, and Frozen provides quite a bit for analysis by virtue of being the first Disney princess movie to subvert the Twue Wuv and Guy-Rescues-Girl formula that identified previous Disney princess movies.
But that analysis was a ten, maybe fifteen minute conversation with my parents, not an hour of verbose, self-important bullshit about Elsa’s magic as an analogy for mental illness, hidden homosexual themes, and… okay, I didn’t actually get any further than that.
Ichthyic says
why did you bother spending the time to go and sort through dozens and dozens of youtube comments to try and find the original?
answer that question first.
loren says
Answer it first or…what? You won’t accept Lajune’s post and profile because you’re unconvinced of my *motivation* in finding and sharing it?
In any case, I saw PZ and commenters claiming this guy wrote a fake complimentary post, and I noticed that PZ’s source link said something different. So I was intrigued and looked into it. And the source was right: it was a copy-and-paste job from an earlier comment.
Of course, going to the comments page and using CTRL-F to find the original post took upwards of several seconds, so it was truly arduous to find the truth of the matter.
Marc Abian says
Vicar
#37
Do you hold out for absolute proof for everything, or just this? This profile is almost certainly legit. Stop being hypersceptical.
The Vicar (via Freethoughtblogs) says
@45, Marc Abian:
“Almost certainly legit”? Well, naturally, you know that because of all that information you have which isn’t available to me, plus your not at all laughable ability to tell an unaltered screenshot from a doctored one. (I guess you have a special kind of technology which can detect the age of individual pixels in a graphic.) It’s not as though I already linked to a news story showing that people with anti-feminist opinions were creating accounts on social media sites claiming to be women of color in that timeframe, specifically so they could leave anti-feminist comments, or something like that. And it certainly isn’t as though the sort of person who does that would want to try and cover for a misogynist who has embarrassed himself, right?
No, obviously when you point out that people have been known to fake exactly that type of account, in exactly that timeframe, and we don’t have access to any proof which isn’t easily faked, and if the whole thing is genuine it involves an uncommon combination of identity and opinion, then doubting it is hyperskepticism. (This is an unusual claim, but asking for unusual evidence is just so… mean-spirited! C’mon, be a bro and trust the MRAs for once!)
It’s also hyperskepticism when you get an e-mail from an acquaintance claiming that they are stranded in a foreign airport with no money and no passport and need you to send cash right away, to doubt the legitimacy of the message. After all, who cares if this is a well-known scam carried out by a particular sort of person — the account it came from is totes legit! Quick! To Western Union!
Marc Abian says
People almost never keep troll accounts active over that sort of time period. Of course they technically could, but it’s very rare. Well known scams tend to be not so very rare, so it’s not really a fair comparison.
It’s ridiculous that you think a someone putting that level of detail into that troll account is more likely than it being a genuine account.
I can go on and effectively prove it to you that she’s a real person, but I shouldn’t need to. You are being hypersceptical, and you should see that.
The Vicar (via Freethoughtblogs) says
@47, Marc Abian
Um… “people” seldom have “troll accounts”. Only trolls do, and they are a minority.
And why should I take your word for how long trolls keep accounts? Wouldn’t they want to keep an account as long as it was useful? The only way you would actually know otherwise for sure would be by being a troll, yourself — in which case your argument shouldn’t be taken seriously anyway.
In short, you’re not only not convincing me of the innocence of this particular account, you’re making me suspect you’re on the MRA/troll side.
Marc Abian says
I’m a troll with about 5 years posting history here then.
But really, take the 2 seconds required to google her name and get
her facebook account with hundreds of friends who also have hundreds of friends
Maybe at this point you can begin to give the benefit of the doubt?
rossthompson says
Rick Astley aside (I guess you’ve given up convincing peopel you’re not a troll?), the only LaJune McMillian I can find on Facebook has 16 friends. I’m not going to click through and find out how many friends they each have, but I will go out on a limb and say that your claim of “hundreds of friends” being evidence that no-one could have faked this account is slightly overblown.
LaJuné McMillian says
Uhm hi. This is actually the girl who posted on the video and i can assure you that im 100% real. I enjoy stefans videos however I want you all to know that I have never met the man and Im NOT a follower of his NOR am I a follower of anyone else. There are somethings I agree with like that video however there are certain things i disagree with as well. No one has all the answers but it is important that we listen to one another to help the human race as a whole.
I am very disappointed in this article for calling me fake
I am very disappointed in the article for not fact checking before the author went ahead and posted this nonsense.
If you expect to make an impact on the world i suggest becoming more open to the opinions and views of others.
Marc Abian says
Shhhhhh, don’t ruin it. I couldn’t resist after he called me a troll.
Anyway. you found the right facebook profile, but you are confused between followers and friends, which are different things.
Marc Abian says
Opps, my #52 was a reply to #50, not #51.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says
I’m open minded, but not so open minded my brains fall out, which happens if you don’t do reality checks. Why should anybody be open to ignorant and bigoted views? It should be the other way around, and they should be the ones to have more open minds and learn how to become less obnoxious and treat their fellow citizens better.
LaJuné McMillian says
Because the more you learn about the way people are, the more you can understand them. When you understand people you can better understand yourself and your surroundings. That is what produces change. Understanding and then taking action. What really makes me sad are people who don’t take the time to hear other people out. What really makes me sad is how much a lack of empathy people have. Like i said before there are videos of stefan’s i dont agree with. Sometimes he can come off as cold and not understanding himself. however i do enjoy to watch his videos because they challenge my thinking whether i agree or not.
LaJuné McMillian says
Also everyone please feel free to follow me on instagram and twitter @lajunex0 and also add me on fb my email is lajmcmilly@gmail.com if you need me to “prove” im real -___-
LaJuné McMillian says
One last thing, the fact that each and every one of you had soooooo much to say and none of you reached out to me except for one person is sickening. You should feel ashamed and do better research before you talk s**t on people. This author could have really said some outrageous stuff and all of you followers would have just believed him because you hate the other party involved. That is so sad.
anteprepro says
Lajune
So wait….you know that you don’t always agree with Stefan’s shit, you know that he is cold and lacks understanding of people, you think that empathy and understanding is incredibly important and yet….you give Stefan a pass and use your prioritization of “empathy” to yell at us, for hating Stefan’s lack of empathy too much or something? Also ignoring that many people in the comments noted Stefan’s excuse and had mixed reactions to it, meaning that your implication that we are just blindly following whatever PZ says is completely fucking backwards?
I mean, really.
yazikus says
I don’t know, I think the comments were fairly measured, and several people posted in defense of your personhood. I think what amuses people is that Stefan re-posted your comment without attributing it to you (you might want to let him know that he probably shouldn’t do that ).
anteprepro says
Oh, I doubt she cares yazikus. She seems all too willing to make excuses for Stefan that she wouldn’t for the Ebil Social Justice Brigade in these parts. Because empathy.
LaJuné McMillian says
Yazikus. Yea i just saw this now, and honestly i have no idea why he did that however i have posted negative comments on his videos before – like the maya angelou video . Im guessing he was looking for attention and for validation of his views of frozen. And i agree with you. he should have quoted me. what I don’t understand is why people cant just comment on videos in peace anymore. Anyhoo its over now and the fact that all of this blew about Frozen is crazy.
Like i said before, i follow no one person
And anteprepro you dont even know me. Ive never even been on this blog. I have no idea what your views are and yet you still want to judge me. I really cant.
Im done.
I like to view life as my ultimate teacher. There is something to learn from each and every person and event. Positive or negative.
anteprepro says
Lajune
I believe you are the one who barged in here, inaccurately judging all commenters and PZ. And now you, finally, admit that it was in fact bizarre for Stefan to copy your comments without attribution, which has pretty much been about half of the complaints here.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If you want to talk about not judging, how about you walk the walk instead of just talking the talk?
Tony! The Queer Shoop says
LaJune:
Perhaps if you’d read the thread, and seen what people actually said, you wouldn’t have posted such condescending advice. You’d also have seen that not every commenter here was in agreement about whether Stefan was sockpuppeting himself. Comment #6, for instance, by freemage:
It’s not necessary to reach out to YOU to determine whether or not that comment was Stefan’s.
The larger point is that Stefan is a dishonest asshole, but I see little concern from you about that.
People do, and many people express racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic thoughts in their responses. Other people speak out against that shit because the world is filled to brimming with it, and some people seek to combat that. I’ve no interest in being nice or commenting in peace with people who deny my very humanity, thank you very much.
Please take your holier-than-thou antics elsewhere.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says
And if you believe that, I have a bridge for sale over the East River….
sparkles says
Amazing how quick everyone is to jump on a black woman, as if she’s not allowed to have an opinion.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says
Everybody can have an opinion, even you. But then, I don’t have to respect your opinion, nor you mine.
Tony! The Queer Shoop says
sparkles:
A-“everyone” didn’t jump on her
B- people criticized some things she said
C- no one said she isn’t “allowed” to have an opinion, so please burn your strawman
D- being black doesn’t mean someone cannot be criticized.
Do you have anything that’s actually worth adding to the conversation? If not, fuck off shitstain.
sparkles says
You must feel guilty, Tony. I’m so sorry that you’re mansplaining on why you can talk over woman because you’re such a good male queer. Ooh, so powerful! Go step on a lego.
Tony! The Queer Shoop says
sparkles:
Nope. Not feeling guilty for anything.
And I have not mansplained anything. Care to explain how I have done so, or are you here to just toss out barbs?
I didn’t talk over LaJune. I criticized her. There’s a difference. Equality doesn’t mean freedom from being criticized, as you seem to think.
sparkles says
Uh oh, I hurt the the big gay man’s big gay fee fees.
chigau (違う) says
Did you lose something, sparkles?
Tony! The Queer Shoop says
sparkles:
No, you didn’t. Stop trying to read minds. And if those comments were meant to disparage me because I’m gay, you ought to shut the fuck up now.
Why won’t you actually address what I’ve said?
If you’re actually here to engage in discussion (I should know you’re not, bc I’ve never seen you actually engage the substance of what people say, you just make snipes), then address the words I’ve said:
You seem to feel that I should feel guilty for saying the above. Why? Can you explain yourself? Will you?
You seem to think the above is a case of mansplaining. How is that the case? Can you and will you explain why? If not, then you’re just here to troll, and doing a pathetic job of it.
Marc Abian says
I just hope sparkles will find solace in the fact that people were pretty quick to jump on him too.
At least his trolling backs up what I was saying upthread. People like sparkles don’t often have the intelligence and dedication to make and maintain accurate fake accounts over a number of years. He couldn’t convince anyone from post 1.
anteprepro says
I think this thread calls for an exhibition for the lurkers and others who might not recognize the utterly forgettable nym “sparkes”.
I call it “Sparkes: The Living Shit Heap”.
We begin here
That comment, followed by:
You can really feel the concern and sincerity from good ol’ speckles.
Exhibit B: A thread about three black teenagers who were arrested while waiting for their bus to get to their basketball game
What’s sprinkles really think about race?
And now, snarls barkley on Feminist Hypocrisy . Because of citing sources.
Because we already have established how much sparkles cares about racial sensitivity.
BONUS ROUND.
On Fred Phelps:
Yeah, sparkles is a real fucking winner.
Tony! The Queer Shoop says
anteprepro:
Ah, thePoemsplaining-mansplaining thread. I’d almost forgotten that one. The one where sparkles never admitted he was wrong when he said this:
(note: the poem didn’t come from her blog, but the sparkling wondertwit didn’t bother to check that before launching an attack on people)
Sparkles has a habit of dropping into threads and adding nothing of significance. His favorite activities are stirring the pots, long walks on the beach, misunderstanding feminism, launching straw based attacks on social justice advocates, whining about people who complain about racism (while demonstrating a severe inability to understand racism to begin with), and well, the examples above speak volumes. As does his inability to address my criticism of LaJune above. No, he’s not here to actually engage with people. He’s here to be a Trolltastic Fuckwit.
anteprepro says
Exactly Tony! Just thought it would be worth mentioning, lest someone accidentally take him seriously.
PZ Myers says
sparkles has been banned. Boom, headshot.
chigau (違う) says
It’s the meds.
Everyone be vewwy kefuw.
A. Noyd says
LaJuné McMillian (#55)
What makes you think we haven’t “heard” Molyneux? The man is a revolting misogynist and total crackpot (including being an uber-libertarian). He doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt and certainly doesn’t deserve empathy when he has loads of privilege and no empathy to offer people like me. I’ve seen some of what he has to say and it’s all disgusting and pulled completely from his ass. He could say that the sky is blue and I wouldn’t believe it. Honestly, you should get away from his nastiness, because he’ll only appreciate you so long as you’re stroking his massive ego.
In fact, do yourself and your mental health a favor and just stay away from the MRAs entirely. They’re not here for you. They’re misogynistic, transphobic and almost always racist and homophobic to boot. You want someone to actually challenge your thinking? Try reading Gradient Lair. The author, Trudy, is an atheist, a womanist, and an actual critic of the media and of feminism (instead of a rabid anti-feminist pretending to be an intellectual). She’s an honestly good person who prizes intellectual integrity and cares deeply about women’s safety, self-esteem and mental health.
Tony! The Queer Shoop says
A. Noyd:
Thank you for introducing me to the term ‘womanist’.