I'm not sure what Penny is trying to achieve with this article. If she intended to make so-called 'mysoginists' more considerate of her point of view, sweeping generalisations like the one above certainly won't avail her."Women owe men. Women, as a class, as a sex, owe men sex, love, attention, “adoration”, in Rodger’s words. We owe them respect and obedience, and our refusal to give it to them is to blame for their anger, their violence - stupid sluts get what they deserve."
I think it's a huge mistake to approach this as if the shooter was a normal human being and construct an argument/social critique around that assumption. Can anyone watch his videos or read his "manifesto" and actually convince themselves that this is what a "normal" person behaves like? So, are the killings misogynist extremism? Or were they the effect of a mentally ill individual who just so happened to perseverate on and be disturbed by his inability to relate to women? When I read about this story, I don't see a normal man attempting to exercise some kind of "misogynist extremism." I think that's an intellectually lazy argument to make that's made strictly to score some political points. Instead, I see a poor kid that should've been getting some help, didn't, and ultimately cracked. While it's tempting to go for the easy explanation here, I'm not convinced it's the right one. Jenny doesn't make a particularly convincing argument - she comes across as a political opportunist looking to move forward a cause she identifies with and finds importance in.
Are you telling me it's possible to discuss this tragic UCSB Shooting without wholesale blaming feminists, red pillers, women, or men? But how else will I grind this massive axe????? I mean, this tragedy proved that I was right about [insert bias] all along!
Now I partially agree with this, but if he were part of a racist group, or posted his thoughts on stormfront, would this change your opinion? What about if he was part of a militia? What if he was part of a church? A cult? A group that advocated for the violent overthrow of the United States government? From what I've seen online, these "Pickup artist" groups are bad, and they advocate a lot of bad behavior. They perpetrate this weird mythology that women are simply video games, if you push the right buttons you will get access to their vagina. I am not saying that the groups caused him to go over the edge (because it's complex, you can't pin an illness like that) but what I am saying is that it is relevant that he was part of this culture and it helped reinforce (directly or indirectly) his views about women.So, are the killings misogynist extremism? Or were they the effect of a mentally ill individual who just so happened to perseverate on and be disturbed by his inability to relate to women? When I read about this story, I don't see a normal man attempting to exercise some kind of "misogynist extremism." I think that's an intellectually lazy argument to make that's made strictly to score some political points. Instead, I see a poor kid that should've been getting some help, didn't, and ultimately cracked.