September 12, 2013
In what will come as a surprise to absolutely no one who follows him on Twitter, the roguish bro reactionary Pax Dickinson has been defenestrated and sent off to a labor camp where he will toil alongside John Derbyshire, Pat Buchanan, and Jason Richwine while being reeducated in the virtues of social justice. At least the cocktail parties will be good.
Our dear Pax, until Tuesday morning the Chief Technology Officer of clickbait news website Business Insider, has a flair for the controversial and smug”just check out the look on his face“though the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was surprisingly tame.
The tempest in a teapot began when Dickinson was not sufficiently enthusiastic about denouncing a fictional app called Titstare that made its debut at the annual TechCrunch Disrupt startup conference. Institutional feminism has as of late descended upon the tech industry, widely known as a bastion of unabashed authoritarianism and (clutch the pearls) unbridled masculinity (no, really), demanding (what else?) equality of outcomes. The app, which doesn’t actually exist, supposedly lets you take selfies, as the kids say, while you stare at a luscious pair of mams.
The usual suspects, who aren’t exactly known for their sense of humor, weren’t amused. Much digital ink was spilled throughout the tech blogosphere denouncing the pair of jokers who kicked off Disrupt as indicative of (of course!) “a rampant culture of misogyny in tech.” Dickinson, not generally known for being a fan of feminism, was quick to pounce, though in what those who follow him closely will immediately recognize as an unusually restrained and measured manner:
“misogyny” is “hatred of women.” It is not misogyny to tell a sexist joke, or to fail to take a woman seriously, or to enjoy boobies.
Further Tweets rather patiently explained that using the same word to describe a low-class attempt at humor and burying women up to their neck in the sand before pelting them with rocks until they die for the crime of being raped might not be the best rhetorical tack to take.
Not that Pax’s detractors have likely much of a problem with the latter. Pelting rape victims with rocks until they die is just a part of their culture, which trumps gender at the Oppression Olympics. Natch.
The witch hunt kicked into full swing when Dickinson started mocking the “social justice” crowd, stating that feminism in tech was the biggest reason he blocked people on Twitter. Articles appeared featuring Tweets made as far back as 2010. The sundry “smoking guns” will leave those not in the thrall of the True and Holy Progressive Church scratching their heads. The enterprising folk at the Ministry of Hysteria, a major “new media” outlet that will remain nameless lest we drive more traffic their way, were able to find Dickinson mocking Mel Gibson’s “pack of niggers” meltdown, nuclear brinksmanship between the United States and Russia over gay rights, and Bradley Manning’s recent gender awakening. These were translated as racism, homophobia, and transphobia, the most recent addition to the list of mortal sins, respectively.
