Today in “man in position of power not-so-secretly hates women”… Be careful what you say online. The Daily Beast has linked a New Hampshire state politician back to an account responsible for the creation of Reddit’s The Red Pill, one of the most well-known hubs of misogyny and “Men’s Rights Activism” on the internet.
Following an online paper trail through a series of Reddit posts, blogs, and his personal Facebook account, Bonnie Bacarisse has connected pk_atheist, a well known Reddit figure who thinks women are subordinate to men, to 31-year-old Republican representative Robert Fisher (though he previously ran as a Democrat).
Image via New Hampshire State Legislature website
Fisher denied all knowledge of The Red Pill when The Daily Beast reached out to him for comment, but within hours, pk_atheist and other linked Reddit usernames had been wiped. But ah, trolls. When will you learn how the internet works?
The Daily Beast has kindly linked to many of The Red Pill’s archived threads featuring pk_athiest’s posts, showing that Fisher was more than just the founder of something that got out of his hands: he was an active poster and rhetorician. He considers women to be of subpar intelligence (useful only for their bodies), and a threat, ready to strike with a false rape allegation at any moment. He also preaches that women don’t really want feminism and that they prefer being treated with disrespect.
Some of the worst of it:
The moment he realized women didn’t want to have sex with him (probably):
“I grew up in a family with four very smart sisters and a very intelligent mom. I grew up with the understanding that women are communicative, direct, intelligent, and honest. When I grew up and started dating, that’s about where the delusion began to hit reality.
The reality is this: Ask any 18-year-old girl something about science, ask her what she thinks about philosophy. Get in a conversation about politics. You probably won’t get much.
Now here’s the thing — your response will be telling here. “Well she’s an 18-year-old girl, what do you expect?”
That’s basically it. Because she’s a girl, and she’s young, we don’t expect much of anything, do we?
At 18 I had a job that paid decent wages, I was very interested in multiple hobbies, I learned how to program computers, I read as many science books as I could get my hands on, and I began learning about philosophy and determinism and all that great stuff. And if I found somebody with similar interests, we could have a conversation forever.
But an 18-year-old girl doesn’t have the same interests. And guess what, a 25-year-old girl doesn’t either. And guess what, a 35-year-old girl isn’t getting younger, and hasn’t suddenly developed curiosity.
When I’m out with friends, including girls, you know EXACTLY what the conversation will entail, it’s gossip or fashion, pop culture, trendiness, personal experiences.
Nothing abstract. They do not chat in the abstract.
Now you can say that’s a difference in desire, they don’t have concern for things that guys do. But you know, I grew up thinking women weren’t limited in their capabilities. And yet, I’ve never dated a girl who could change her own tire.
I found myself making excuses for women. I distinctly remember thinking to myself on more than one occasion about more than one woman “wow, she’s really cool, and really smart, too!” And I was lying to myself. Because when I told myself I thought they were smart, I really had the footnote in the back of my head… smart.. for a woman.”
(If you would like to email Fisher about gossip, fashion, pop culture, trendiness, or personal experiences, you can email him at [email protected])
Like one Donald Trump, pk_atheist seems to think his respect for his mother and sisters cancels out his misogyny:
The “women don’t actually want your respect.”
He has also been linked to panderific:
And this FredFredrickson account:
Speaking to WMUR about this one the day the story broke, Fisher admitted this one was him. “Of course rape is a horrible crime. That was an out-of-context quote from a nearly decade-old debate about the failings of moral relativism.” Riiiight. Relativism.
Fisher joins a long list of state and local politicians who are as bad, if not worse, than their federal counterparts (Jezebel keeps a great list of these guys on their regular column, Big Time Small-Time Dicks). It’s frankly disturbing that such creepy misogynists continue to slither into local office across the country, not to mention in DC, and it just goes to show how pervasive sexism truly is. Sure, there are dickheads all around us- but there is something all the more insidious about having them in positions of power. The fact that their blatant disrespect for at least half of their constituents does not rule them out of the running is a mark of just how far we still have to go.
If you are a New Hampshire resident, please call your rep and ask them what they are planning to do about Rep Fisher.
Top image via Flickr
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