The latest dissentions and criticisms floating around the MGTOW circles.
And so on...
Personally, I think debate is good. People are different, and they're going to process things in different ways. I enjoy Sandman's videos. I have some trepidation regarding MGTOW going mainstream. (I bring up this point thinking of the issue of monetizing video content.) You may laugh, but the media has a tendency to take anything with a following and try to make some money off of it.
Cashing in on women's liberation to sell cancer sticks to women.
Appropriating black culture to sell breakfast cereal to white
xenophiles. (Shout out to
RazorBladeKandy, who got me thinking about
oikophobia and xenophilia in social justice attitudes.)
Sandman himself makes a reference to companies marketing pudding to herbivore men in Japan.
"
This phenomenon has also created a shift in the Japanese economy. Men have been buying products such as cosmetics and candy in greater quantities than before, and marketers have begun to shift to target this growing population. Products typical of the Japanese salaryman, such as cars, have shown a notable decrease in recent years; products geared towards family life, typically shunned by salarymen, have seen an uptick amongst fathers, as well.[10]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbivore_men
I find the appropriation of MGTOW by the media to be much more troubling than some MGTOW video makers dissapointed in some video content. If anything can blunt and dilute the MGTOW ideas, it's going to be the mass market.
Speaking of dissent, I've got a few criticisms of my own that have been fermenting. There seems to be a tendency for MGTOW to criticise MRA activism on certain points. Stardusk has asked the question "What laws have they changed?" But then, I could make the same criticism of MGTOW. What have MGTOW videos accomplished to change laws?" The answer, of course, is that neither have tossed out the gynocentric attitudes that pervade our society. Hell, these observations about women are as old as recorded history.
"If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure."
http://www.the-spearhead.com/2013/02/24/when-the-romans-tried-to-save-marriage/
What has changed is the internet. Obscure voices now have a platform to reach a huge amount of men. These ideas can have a global impact, and that means a global community of men discussing them. Men of all temperements and attitudes.
There's a fine line between criticism and dismissal. The difference between not liking Sandman's videos, and considering them damaging to the movement. I encourage more criticism, because criticism is the forge that tempers ideas into fine steel, and removes the impurities and flaws.
Tom Golden said something that has stuck with me. Women talk about their problems. Men either withdraw or apply themselves to a solution. The rift between MGTOW and MRA might be a manifestation of that. MGTOW withdraw and contemplate, and MRAs attempt to fix the problem. I'm not going to say that that assessment is correct, but I find it an interesting point to ponder.
