This is probably the most important article I have ever written, and it addresses what I believe is the greatest challenge the M(H)RM has faced so far.
Victor Zen just brought us an important bit of news that I have also known about for several hours, and about which I am already getting emails. Facebook has just bowed to public pressure from feminists to start policing its pages and removing what is ostensibly called hate speech and the glorification of violence toward women.
Please don’t make the mistake of believing that this is the real agenda.
Let’s dispense with the basics first. As Zen has already pointed out, the sexism that Facebook has agreed to root out is that which is identified and defined by ideological feminists only. No MHRA perspective on the subject, or any other perspective for that matter, is relevant. Consequently the hundreds and maybe thousands of male bashing pages on the social network giant will remain, and only those pages identified as a problem by moderators “trained” by feminist ideologues will be targeted.
Unfortunately, that is not near the worst of the news.
What is happening, and it is going to happen more swiftly than you can imagine, is that just as we have seen in academia, in the military, in many workplaces and more recently in the secular community, feminists are using whatever tools are at their disposal to ensure that their narrative is the only one allowed.
To put it more bluntly, feminist ideologues are co-opting Facebook, and they will root out any and all opposition to their worldview. That will include, at some point, the AVFM Facebook page and its nearly 3,500 fans (2,000 of which have come in the past two months).
How important this is? In a word, very.
Facebook accounts for roughly 10-13% of our traffic on most days, and with a rapidly growing fan base that promises to represent a continually increasing number of actual visitors to the site.
To be honest, this does not mean that the loss of our Facebook fan page would result in a complete loss of traffic from Facebook. Many individuals post our articles on their pages, so that resultant traffic does not come directly from the fan page. But that is a minor detail when you consider the actual agenda here and its potential for harm to our community.
The machinations of these ideologues do not begin or end with Facebook. Still, as a battle ground in the ever increasing conflict between radical feminists and their opposition, it is of massive importance.
Have you ever known an ideologue to be satisfied with a victory? Where do you imagine, if they are successful at eliminating men’s rights discussion from Facebook, they will go next? Reddit? YouTube?
How about Google?
Do you think they are above trying to have men’s rights websites de-listed from Google search returns? Why don’t you ask them at Norton Symantec or O2, who have already blocked nearly ALL men’s rights related websites?
If you believe that these ideologues would not seek to wipe out all opposition to their worldview from the internet, then you likely believe that the current campaign on Facebook is to simply address sexism and sexual violence against women. You will probably believe that till the day you come here and find an error message instead of a website.
This is not the somewhat comical antics of the SPLC. It is not the even more comedic histrionics of the University of Toronto Student Union. This is actually a well-planned agenda that that could ultimately deal very harsh blows to the Men’s Human Rights Movement just as it is beginning to emerge.
And we need to do something about it.
With that in mind, I am respectfully calling on all men’s organizations, father’s rights groups, men’s issues bloggers, secular organizations and anyone else concerned with free speech and evidence based solutions to social problems to take a stand on this issue and to demand that Facebook make a public commitment to the free speech of men’s rights organizations.
Facebook should also include a non-feminist anti-sexist perspective to be given equal weight when evaluating what is and is not hate speech as well as what constitutes the glorification or condoning of violence against women.
Facebook should also make a public commitment to take precisely the same measures against online misandry that they take against alleged misogyny. That commitment should include addressing the promotion of violence against men. And they should follow through with this commitment in a verifiable and measurable way. At AVFM we support free speech for all, but if it is to be abridged in any way, that abridgment should not be driven by sexism.
We are entering very, very dangerous times. Ideological feminists are witnessing the deconstruction and debunking of their theories. They are watching a once stagnant and ineffectual men’s rights movement start to gain momentum. The hegemony they have enjoyed for 50 years is under direct and long overdue attack.
They are not just going to let it happen.
So far, we have witnessed only bumbling attempts to paint us as a hate movement. Most of their efforts have simply blown up in their face. We have had more than our share of good laughs, and have been thrilled to see their hateful, disingenuous efforts result only in more growth for us.
It has been enjoyable, but it has also had the potential to make us soft. We can hardly afford that.
From this day forward, we need a directed and organized response to this problem. As we are just initiating this response, there is but a few details available now on what our efforts will be, but I will share them with you and advise you as more information becomes available.
One, I will be conducting outreach to NCFM, of which I am a member, and other similar organizations to initiate a coordinated response, and more importantly to make contact with other mainstream entities about this problem. If there ever was a time to think “the enemy of my enemy” this is it.
AVFM will establish monitoring of Facebook, to see what kinds of pages are deleted and for what reasons under the new Facebook guidelines.
This is also as good a time as any, though I wish it were under better circumstances, to announce that thanks to your donations to AVFM we have finally been able to hire Editor-in-Chief John Hembling (JTO) into a salaried position for AVFM. He is scheduled to start working for us full time on June 1, and not a day too soon. I am sure his dedicated efforts on this important matter will be invaluable.
While it is obvious that nowhere near all our plans are set, or even envisioned at this early stage of the game, it is just as clear that this is going to be a fight. It is also where you will be able to see, in clear public view, which “men’s organizations” will take a stand when it absolutely counts, or whether they have feet of clay.
Finally, as always, we have to ask you to make the real difference. When we initiate email campaigns, which we surely will, please participate, regardless of where you live. Post this article to your Facebook page and other social media. If you are on Facebook, this article is also posted right here. Come and leave a comment encouraging others to take action. If you have not “liked” our page, please do so. If you are not on Facebook, please join, and then see the previous two sentences.
Go to the Facebook page about these events now and make your opinion known, respectfully, firmly and briefly. Be prepared to give some of your time and effort more than once. More than ten times.
Dig in, folks. This is going to be a long one. If you want a men’s movement, YOU are going to have to fight for it.