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-By Caleb Jones
No, this is not a review for Mad Max: Fury Road. As I always do, I’ll be reviewing this film over at the CJ blog along with the rest of this summer’s movies. Today instead we’ll be addressing the issue that has so many in the manosphere and the media bent out of shape. I’m a little late to the party on this one, frankly because I don’t care about feminism and think that this battle has already been fought and lost. However, I’m getting a lot of email about this and so we should probably discuss it.
If you didn’t already know, a while back Aaron Clarey (aka Captain Capitalism, to whom I link to on this blog over on the links sidebar) wrote an article on Return of Kings where he stated that the new Mad Max film had clear feminist overtones, and that men should boycott the film. For some odd reason, the article went viral, was picked up by the national media, and everyone on both sides had a panic attack. MRAs, MGTOWs, and red pillers were furious about the fact that Hollywood had dared to put feminist overtones in a Mad Max movie in all places, and the mainstream media were furious at all of these evil misogynists who clearly hate women.
There’s a lot to this. I will do my best to dissect everything based on the facts.
1. I’ve never spoken with Aaron Clarey, but clearly I like his content or I would not be linking to him. I also consider him a philosophical brother and agree with just about every major point I’ve seen him make. (Of course I don’t agree absolutely 100% with anyone, so keep that in mind.)
2. I saw Mad Max: Fury Road, and not only is it a good film, but it’s one of the best action films in the last decade, at least. With the possible exception of The Raid 2, it may be the best action film of the past 10 years. I say that without exaggeration. It really is that good, even with the feministy stuff in there, but I’ll be talking more about that over at the CJ Blog a little later.
3. Are there some feminist overtones in the film? Oh yes. Do they overwhelm the film? No. Do they detract from the quality of the film? No, at least not for me.
4. Was I surprised to see there was feministy stuff in the film or its trailers? Of course not! As I have been demonstrating repeatedly over at the CJ Blog, a significant percentage of today’s big Hollywood movies are clearly left-leaning. This is because, again as I’ve shown many times, the majority of directors, screenwriters and actors in Hollywood are left-wing liberals. Some people deny that, some people try to justify that, some people try to explain it away, but it’s the empirical truth.
I didn’t say that the Hollywood executives or studio heads are left-wing. Most of those guys are apolitical capitalists trying to make money. I’m also not saying Hollywood never makes right-wing movies. Of course, a few of those occasionally slip through the liberalism. I am saying that the majority of directors, screenwriters and actors in Hollywood are left-wing liberals, because they are.
This has been the case since the early 1970s, folks. I’ve been complaining about it publicly since at least 2007, and it has actually become worse since then. I’m really not sure why anyone is surprised about any of this.
You’re shocked or pissed that there’s some feminism in Mad Max? Dude, the left-wing has already defeated the right wing, so you should be thankful that Mad Max isn’t portrayed as a beta male who only eats GMO-free food while cowering from a Strong Independent Wife™ who bosses him around while lecturing the audience on the virtues of socialism. I’m not kidding about this: you should be thankful that Mad Max: Fury Road wasn’t even more left-wing than it already is.
Left-wing liberalism, of which feminism is just one of many slivers, now dominates the public square. This includes movies, my friends. Accept it, be aware of its dark messaging, and do your best to ignore it when you watch movies (which is what I do), or refuse to watch movies.
I don’t like it any more than you do, but those are the facts.
5. I’m still amazed that the culture hasn’t caught on to this, but when you internet-rage about something, whomever you’re raging about makes a lot of money. I relate to this personally. The few times I’ve been bashed by a Blackdragon hater on a site with a decent amount of traffic (and it’s only happened three or four times in the last six years), my ebook and coaching sales spike upwards by at least 18%, sometimes as high as 34%. I love it when people trash me on other sites. I make a lot of money when this happens. Nothing would make me happier than 10 different big-name online guys bashing me all day long. Shit, I could go buy Lamborghini and then a vacation home. If you think I’m kidding, I’m not. Anyone else who makes money online discussing controversial topics will tell you the same thing (though quietly). Negative online buzz = shitloads of money.
I’m sure Aaron Clarey got a nice boost in income from this debacle. I’m sure Roosh did too, just like I’m sure he did when that eating disorder article went viral on Return of Kings last year. If these angry left-wingers, mainstreamers, or feminists really hated things said in the manosphere, they should completely ignore them and keep very quiet about them. Instead they go into internet-rage mode, and provide free traffic, exposure, advertising, and SEO to the very people they hate.
It’s hilarious. I laugh out loud every time it happens. Particularly when it happens to me.
This doesn’t apply to just the manosphere, but to every topic. If you really dislike what someone is saying, the best thing you can do is to never talk about it in public. The worst thing you can do is to go out of your way to discuss them.
There are a few individuals and/or web sites that I think are completely wrong and truly despicable. Guess what? You don’t know who they are. You never will. Because I’ll never talk about them. I don’t want to give them the traffic. See how this works? Very simple.
6. Of course the mainstream media mischaracterized Aaron Clarey as a misogynist and woman-hater, which clearly he is not, which is obvious if any of these commentators bothered to actually watch a few of his videos and/or read some of his articles. But that’s the nature of the internet these days. People (on both sides of the issue) just want to be angry about something. Scott Adams calls these people “outragists,” and that’s the perfect word for them.
7. On the flip side, many of my manosphere brothers are also being dishonest about this. I have seen several posts, articles and YouTube videos where manosphere guys are saying stuff about how Mad Max: Fury Road is “oversaturated with feminist propaganda” and is the “biggest bait-and-switch in cinematic history.” I’m sorry gentleman, but that’s bullshit. There’s some feministy stuff towards the end of the movie, but that doesn’t constitute oversaturation. Yes, Charlize Theron is the defacto main character of the movie, and I agree that sucks and Max should have had more dialogue. Yet, as I’m about to demonstrate in a minute, just because an action movie has a female hero doesn’t necessarily make a movie A) bad or B) a symbol of feminist propaganda. Sometimes it does (Columbiana! Yuck!), but not always. I'll explain in a minute.
As is usually the case, everyone on both sides needs to calm the fuck down, think rationally, and stick with the facts.
8. So the movie has some feminist overtones and has a strong female character. I agree that I could do without those things in a Mad Max movie, but does that make the movie shitty or subversive?
I have one answer to that: ALIENS. The movie Aliens is one of the best, if not the best, action / sci-fi movies ever made. Yet it stars a tough female hero and one of the main characters is a muscular, roided-up female marine who uses the biggest gun in the movie.
Did Aliens suck because of these aspects? No. Was it trying to program all men with subliminal feminist messaging back in 1986? No. It’s one of the best god damn movies you’ll ever see despite those aspects. Could the film have been better without these aspects? Sure. One of the reasons why some of the more awesome, high-testosterone movies like Glengary Glen Ross, Predator, The Thing, Reservoir Dogs, Master and Commander, Saving Private Ryan, and Lawrence of Arabia are great and relate to men so well is that there are no primary female characters in them. But that doesn’t mean movies like the Aliens or Mad Max: Fury Road suddenly become harmful or shitty because there’s some left-wing bullshit in them (as there is in most mainstream films these days).
This all comes back to what I’ve been saying all along. As much as we all hate it, we now live in a feministy, left-leaning, socialistic, SJW world. The societal crusaders in the manosphere and the men’s rights movement, who I do agree with, are a teeny tiny percentage of the population. They are far outnumbered and out-financed by left-wingers. I don’t like it any more than you do, but that’s how it is. Not only it is not going to get any better, but it’s going to get worse. And a guys ranting on a few blogs and forums (who again, I agree with) aren't going to fix it.
Therefore, your options are:
A. Be upset about it the rest of your life.
B. Enjoy pop culture as best as you can while doing your best to be aware of it and ignore the left-wing propaganda and Societal Programming that soaks through just about everything nowadays.
C. Completely shut out pop culture from your life as much as possible and avoid it.
So far, I have chosen option B, though option C makes sense to me also. If you want to choose option A, then I guess you can go ahead, but I prefer to be happy. Crazy me.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Want over 35 hours of how-to podcasts on how to improve your woman life and financial life? Want to be able to coach with me twice a month? Want access to hours of technique-based video and audio? The SMIC Program is a monthly podcast and coaching program where you get access to massive amounts of exclusive, members-only Alpha 2.0 content as soon as you sign up, and you can cancel whenever you want. Click here for the details.
If you didn’t already know, a while back Aaron Clarey (aka Captain Capitalism, to whom I link to on this blog over on the links sidebar) wrote an article on Return of Kings where he stated that the new Mad Max film had clear feminist overtones, and that men should boycott the film. For some odd reason, the article went viral, was picked up by the national media, and everyone on both sides had a panic attack. MRAs, MGTOWs, and red pillers were furious about the fact that Hollywood had dared to put feminist overtones in a Mad Max movie in all places, and the mainstream media were furious at all of these evil misogynists who clearly hate women.
There’s a lot to this. I will do my best to dissect everything based on the facts.
1. I’ve never spoken with Aaron Clarey, but clearly I like his content or I would not be linking to him. I also consider him a philosophical brother and agree with just about every major point I’ve seen him make. (Of course I don’t agree absolutely 100% with anyone, so keep that in mind.)
2. I saw Mad Max: Fury Road, and not only is it a good film, but it’s one of the best action films in the last decade, at least. With the possible exception of The Raid 2, it may be the best action film of the past 10 years. I say that without exaggeration. It really is that good, even with the feministy stuff in there, but I’ll be talking more about that over at the CJ Blog a little later.
3. Are there some feminist overtones in the film? Oh yes. Do they overwhelm the film? No. Do they detract from the quality of the film? No, at least not for me.
4. Was I surprised to see there was feministy stuff in the film or its trailers? Of course not! As I have been demonstrating repeatedly over at the CJ Blog, a significant percentage of today’s big Hollywood movies are clearly left-leaning. This is because, again as I’ve shown many times, the majority of directors, screenwriters and actors in Hollywood are left-wing liberals. Some people deny that, some people try to justify that, some people try to explain it away, but it’s the empirical truth.
I didn’t say that the Hollywood executives or studio heads are left-wing. Most of those guys are apolitical capitalists trying to make money. I’m also not saying Hollywood never makes right-wing movies. Of course, a few of those occasionally slip through the liberalism. I am saying that the majority of directors, screenwriters and actors in Hollywood are left-wing liberals, because they are.
This has been the case since the early 1970s, folks. I’ve been complaining about it publicly since at least 2007, and it has actually become worse since then. I’m really not sure why anyone is surprised about any of this.
You’re shocked or pissed that there’s some feminism in Mad Max? Dude, the left-wing has already defeated the right wing, so you should be thankful that Mad Max isn’t portrayed as a beta male who only eats GMO-free food while cowering from a Strong Independent Wife™ who bosses him around while lecturing the audience on the virtues of socialism. I’m not kidding about this: you should be thankful that Mad Max: Fury Road wasn’t even more left-wing than it already is.
Left-wing liberalism, of which feminism is just one of many slivers, now dominates the public square. This includes movies, my friends. Accept it, be aware of its dark messaging, and do your best to ignore it when you watch movies (which is what I do), or refuse to watch movies.
I don’t like it any more than you do, but those are the facts.
5. I’m still amazed that the culture hasn’t caught on to this, but when you internet-rage about something, whomever you’re raging about makes a lot of money. I relate to this personally. The few times I’ve been bashed by a Blackdragon hater on a site with a decent amount of traffic (and it’s only happened three or four times in the last six years), my ebook and coaching sales spike upwards by at least 18%, sometimes as high as 34%. I love it when people trash me on other sites. I make a lot of money when this happens. Nothing would make me happier than 10 different big-name online guys bashing me all day long. Shit, I could go buy Lamborghini and then a vacation home. If you think I’m kidding, I’m not. Anyone else who makes money online discussing controversial topics will tell you the same thing (though quietly). Negative online buzz = shitloads of money.
I’m sure Aaron Clarey got a nice boost in income from this debacle. I’m sure Roosh did too, just like I’m sure he did when that eating disorder article went viral on Return of Kings last year. If these angry left-wingers, mainstreamers, or feminists really hated things said in the manosphere, they should completely ignore them and keep very quiet about them. Instead they go into internet-rage mode, and provide free traffic, exposure, advertising, and SEO to the very people they hate.
It’s hilarious. I laugh out loud every time it happens. Particularly when it happens to me.
This doesn’t apply to just the manosphere, but to every topic. If you really dislike what someone is saying, the best thing you can do is to never talk about it in public. The worst thing you can do is to go out of your way to discuss them.
There are a few individuals and/or web sites that I think are completely wrong and truly despicable. Guess what? You don’t know who they are. You never will. Because I’ll never talk about them. I don’t want to give them the traffic. See how this works? Very simple.
6. Of course the mainstream media mischaracterized Aaron Clarey as a misogynist and woman-hater, which clearly he is not, which is obvious if any of these commentators bothered to actually watch a few of his videos and/or read some of his articles. But that’s the nature of the internet these days. People (on both sides of the issue) just want to be angry about something. Scott Adams calls these people “outragists,” and that’s the perfect word for them.
7. On the flip side, many of my manosphere brothers are also being dishonest about this. I have seen several posts, articles and YouTube videos where manosphere guys are saying stuff about how Mad Max: Fury Road is “oversaturated with feminist propaganda” and is the “biggest bait-and-switch in cinematic history.” I’m sorry gentleman, but that’s bullshit. There’s some feministy stuff towards the end of the movie, but that doesn’t constitute oversaturation. Yes, Charlize Theron is the defacto main character of the movie, and I agree that sucks and Max should have had more dialogue. Yet, as I’m about to demonstrate in a minute, just because an action movie has a female hero doesn’t necessarily make a movie A) bad or B) a symbol of feminist propaganda. Sometimes it does (Columbiana! Yuck!), but not always. I'll explain in a minute.
As is usually the case, everyone on both sides needs to calm the fuck down, think rationally, and stick with the facts.
8. So the movie has some feminist overtones and has a strong female character. I agree that I could do without those things in a Mad Max movie, but does that make the movie shitty or subversive?
I have one answer to that: ALIENS. The movie Aliens is one of the best, if not the best, action / sci-fi movies ever made. Yet it stars a tough female hero and one of the main characters is a muscular, roided-up female marine who uses the biggest gun in the movie.
Did Aliens suck because of these aspects? No. Was it trying to program all men with subliminal feminist messaging back in 1986? No. It’s one of the best god damn movies you’ll ever see despite those aspects. Could the film have been better without these aspects? Sure. One of the reasons why some of the more awesome, high-testosterone movies like Glengary Glen Ross, Predator, The Thing, Reservoir Dogs, Master and Commander, Saving Private Ryan, and Lawrence of Arabia are great and relate to men so well is that there are no primary female characters in them. But that doesn’t mean movies like the Aliens or Mad Max: Fury Road suddenly become harmful or shitty because there’s some left-wing bullshit in them (as there is in most mainstream films these days).
This all comes back to what I’ve been saying all along. As much as we all hate it, we now live in a feministy, left-leaning, socialistic, SJW world. The societal crusaders in the manosphere and the men’s rights movement, who I do agree with, are a teeny tiny percentage of the population. They are far outnumbered and out-financed by left-wingers. I don’t like it any more than you do, but that’s how it is. Not only it is not going to get any better, but it’s going to get worse. And a guys ranting on a few blogs and forums (who again, I agree with) aren't going to fix it.
Therefore, your options are:
A. Be upset about it the rest of your life.
B. Enjoy pop culture as best as you can while doing your best to be aware of it and ignore the left-wing propaganda and Societal Programming that soaks through just about everything nowadays.
C. Completely shut out pop culture from your life as much as possible and avoid it.
So far, I have chosen option B, though option C makes sense to me also. If you want to choose option A, then I guess you can go ahead, but I prefer to be happy. Crazy me.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Want over 35 hours of how-to podcasts on how to improve your woman life and financial life? Want to be able to coach with me twice a month? Want access to hours of technique-based video and audio? The SMIC Program is a monthly podcast and coaching program where you get access to massive amounts of exclusive, members-only Alpha 2.0 content as soon as you sign up, and you can cancel whenever you want. Click here for the details.