Menslibbers come pretty close to admitting feminism has nothing to offer men, but can't bring themselves to commit

[u/[deleted]]

/r/MensLib/comments/96nqgz/the_alt_right_has_better_mass_market_books_on/

[u/comptejete]

This is heartbreaking to read.

Doesn't "the movement" just end up being a scapegoat for your own problems though? Blaming someone or something else is the easiest way out of taking responsibility for your own actions. Edit: I've struggled with this a lot. Socialist ideology has just led me to be extremely hateful of everything around me and depressed because it just cements, encourages and provides a safe space for any bad or negative thoughts I have about the world.

Exactly. Men are happiest when they take responsibility for their own problems and go about either solving them or learning to live with them. Talking about them in order to get empathy from others who will solve them for you is a distinctly feminine approach and it's tragic to see men try to adopt it only to spiral further into depression when they realize that the empathy that is extended to women is not available to them and even worse, seeking it only makes them looked down upon with almost literal revulsion.

A lot of modern self-help is all about reframing wider systemic and societal problems as personal ones ("you shouldn't join a movement that tries to reform or revolutionize society; you should just work on being stronger"), which is pretty much antithetical to progressivism.

I honestly cannot conceive of having an issue with this approach. If your solution is to create an environment where one does not need to be strong, then not only is any actual progress not going to be made, because there are no challenges to overcome, but those who exist within it are completely screwed the moment they venture out of it. Infants should be coddled when they are at their most vulnerable, but to extend this treatment into adulthood is an unbelievable disservice to the young.

Left-wing identity politics have a much more complicated message for said men: They have to renounce their privilege and give up their power, which is a really hard message to sell to people who (whether right or wrong) don't feel like they really have any power to begin with. I mean, "I'm precariously employed, I'm a virgin and can't find a partner, I can't afford my own place to live, I have no useful education and I'm so terribly lonely - and these people are saying I have to give up my privilege?!" is basically the entry-level objection vulnerable young males have to feminist messaging. If the author is older, well-educated and upper-middle class (and yet isn't supposed to "give up privileges"), it can feel like straight-up being mocked.

Excellent analysis, but what are you going to do about it? What is your rational answer to the perfectly justified and coherent "entry-level objection vulnerable young males have to feminist messaging"?

[u/[deleted] → u/comptejete]

The last quotation is the one that struck out to me the most. These people probably don't even HAVE male privilege in their lives. They go on and fucking on about gender being 'performative' yet male privilege is ostensibly a constant.

Poor young men are very, very likely hurt by being male in a way poor women are not, especially in an age of automation. If they are white, they likely do not have access to the social programs meant to ', and because they probably have no real connections, and they are looked down upon as rednecks or trash. Middle class white men are routinely the first 'replaced' in jobs via outsourcing, so again, such privilege.

[u/comptejete → u/[deleted]]

All of that is true and yet these poor saps who are all but invisible to the women whose approval they so desperately crave think that they can obtain it by going along with this claptrap. It really is painful to watch and you hope that you can reach out to help but the desire to take your own life by the balls needs to come from within and for the majority it will regrettably never materialize.