Roosh V: Bro is definitely mad
Tomorrow, pickup artist and rape legalization proponent Roosh Valizadeh’s four-country “world tour” comes to Montreal, Canada and it’s fair to say it has hit a few snags.
The first little snag, as you may already have heard, was a petition asking the Canadian government to bar Roosh’s entry into the country as a literal hatemonger. It drew nearly 14,000 signatures, while a counter-petition, demanding that Roosh be let in, has so far managed to get six.
The snags continue. Though the wily Roosh has apparently been able to make his way over the border, he wasn’t able to keep the Montreal hotel originally scheduled to hold his event from cancelling on him, in the wake of complaints from local activists and some less-than-adoring media coverage of the terrible Mr. V.
Roosh says he’s found a new location, but the cancellation and the campaign against him have clearly been wearing on him.
In an an angry and at times unhinged video that he made before he secured the new venue, Roosh declared that his life’s work was at stake, and that if he was unable to book his event at another location he would show up at whatever protest materialized and, he strongly implied, start fighting everyone there until he got carried off to jail.
Hoping to forestall such an embarrassing spectacle, Roosh rallied his internet army and called on them to dig up dirt on the organizers of the planned protest. Posting on his own forum earlier this week, Roosh announced the start of “Operation Medusa,” the name an apparent reference to his belief that feminists are ugly monsters.
Naturally, Roosh’s five-prong plan was steeped in ethics. Among other things, he urged his followers to
1. Infiltrate main staging area for the enemy on Facebook and gather information. Use a fake Facebook account that is not linked to your real identity to message the organizer pretending to be a sniveling male feminist and asking for access to the private group. …
2. Spread disinformation on the event page. On the public page, contribute updates that distract them and lead them astray. You can also attempt to goad them into making illegal statements that can allow me to pursue legal action (civil or criminal).
3. Counter opposition research on the main perpetrators. With the help of an ROK writer, I am commissioning an investigative journalistic piece that focuses on [the three main organizers].
Given that he announced this super seekrit plan publicly on his forum, and that his opponents found it fairly quickly, it’s safe to say that prongs one and two were not likely very successful.
But Roosh seems to be going forward with prong number three. Posts attacking two of the three names at the top of Roosh’s enemies list have already appeared on Return of Kings, though they are less muckraking than simple poop flinging. The conclusion of David Garrett’s post will perhaps give you a sense of the general tenor of both pieces:
Aurelie Nix and her not so merry band of affronted, free speech-hating witch hunters are currently in the self-immolating throes of their violent opposition to Roosh’s truth.
Both posts quote Roosh without mentioning that he’s the guy “commissioning” and presumably paying for them. Smearing someone for money on Return of Kings, on behalf of the publisher of Return of Kings, is not “investigative journalism” as it is practiced anywhere on planet Earth.
You’d think that ace reporter Matt Forney, the author of the other of these lovely posts, would know better. After all, he was until recently the, ahem, “editor” of Roosh’s Reaxxion website, a #GamerGate-aligned video game site ostensibly big on media ethics. Indeed, it had this as the first plank in its “ethics policy.”
We give full disclosure if writing about a topic that we have personal or business relationships with, including investments. All disclosures will go at the very beginning of an article. Failure to disclose relationships will result in an immediate blacklist from publishing on Reaxxion.
But I digress. Forney’s piece, in addition to its many ethical failings, is also a terrible work of journalism, a blustery assault on what he describes as a “frenzied hate mob” of “authoritarian, Pharisaical” feminists, whose allegedly “violent campaign” against Roosh is “built on lies and intimidation.”
Uh, isn’t that a pretty spot on description of Roosh’s “Operation Medusa?”
You know, the one where he openly and unapologetically urges people to “spread disinformation” and dig up dirt on his opponents in order to scare them into silence?
In response to this nasty little campaign of intimidation and insinuation, many of those publicly associated with the planned protest of Roosh’s event have deleted and taken their social media accounts private. The original proposed protest of Roosh’s event has also morphed into a more broadly focused Demonstration Against Rape Culture, to be held tomorrow at noon, with the organizers of the new event declaring
In the last few weeks various women have mobilized to protest the hate speech disseminated by an American “pick up artist”. These women were victims of intimidation, trolling, harassment, and even some rape & death threats. Cuntamponary Art has decided to lend its voice to these women and to serve as an anonymous platform for them to express themselves freely. Due to said harassment, public facebook events have been canceled. The Cuntamponary Art Collective refuses to play into this petty “internet war” that has been targeting and abusing individuals instead of focusing on the larger issues at hand: preventing the promotion of hate and rape culture.
Roosh and his followers see this a giant victory. Which, looked at narrowly, I suppose it is.
But by responding to charges that Roosh is a disseminator of hate with a hateful, misogynistic campaign of intimidation aimed at feminists, they have succeeded only in making clear to more people just how staggeringly awful Roosh and his ilk really are.
Nest week, Roosh heads to Toronto. I don’t think he’s going to get a very warm welcome.
EDIT: Added some stuff about Roosh’s three-prong plan.
