Posted by Amanda Marcotte April 2, 2008 in Uncategorized, Asides
Anti-feminists who haven’t even read my book are posting negative “reviews” at Amazon. I hate to bleg, but I’d be so grateful if people who actually know what they’re talking about and aren’t motivated by a white hot hatred of women could counterbalance that.
It’s so weird how a bunch of men who’ve never met me hold me personally responsible for the fact that they’re too obnoxious to get laid or have women look at them with much besides disgust.
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There’s a good review! By someone who, oddly, found a copy of the book in the back of a cab.
Well, whom else are they supposed to blame?
I generally support leaving nasty, anonymous comments in Amazon reviews of books people haven’t read (see Jonah Goldberg), but this of course doesn’t apply to books written by people I like.
It’s the jungle, baby! You’re gonna ddiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee!
The way I interpreted it, the cab driver snorted “Keep it” in disgust. He had picked up the book on his lunch break, neglecting to read the subtitle. Damn if isn’t a jungle out there, he thought; and that’s a hot dame on the cover besides. Wouldn’t mind giving her a ride wink!
As he began to read it an unsettling feeling came over him. Unsettling but all too God damned familiar: rage and shame. Just like that one time that bitch made him feel. And the other ones too! He could feel stinging outrage rise from within like a whale that had been restlessly asleep, barely contained in an aquarium. Finally, his ears burned bright red. Made a monkey out of again. Again! These God damned American women! Back home everything had been so easy.
He threw the book over his right shoulder with great force. Snort! Bitter once more, he lit a cigarette and dragged slowly and deeply until the acid subsided. American women.
You want it? You keep it. Tell you what, you take that God damned filth out of here, and the ride’s on me.
I have to say that the Amanda-hate truly baffles me. I mean, as bloggy obnoxiousness goes, Pandagon’s hardly on the top of the list. (it’s not near the bottom, either, or I wouldn’t read it…)
It’s like the people who hate on Dooce. What could possibly raise blood pressure on a site where some woman just talks about goofy stuff that happens with her kid and her dog? There’s not even any politics involved. And yet her hate mail is amazingly venomous.
Yet there are echoes, in both cases, of Hillary-hate, that blind rage so many people go into when they see even mildly uppity women. My old man’s afflicted with it, and it’s very confusing.
OK, fair enough. I’ll order your book when I get home this evening. I assume that you make the most money if I click on the cover pic on tyhis site, right?
I know what you mean. I used to say to myself “Self, how is it you can rip on Jonah Golderg’s book even though you haen’t read it, and likely never will?” Then I realized that books like Liberal Fascism are written to make people less intelligent, rather than more. So, reading a book like that in order to better criticize it is like starving yourself to gain weight.
“I’ll order your book when I get home this evening.”
One book on Feminism - $11.95
Reading a book on Feminism - a few hours
Actually learning something about the “other” gender? - Priceless…
Where are the bad reviews? I only see two.
Grr, I only see two reviews in total, the first being the cab-discovery. Both are positive.
Be fair, Ms. Marcotte. You start the “I Hate Blowjobs and Puppies and Sex and You” alliance and you are going to get that sort of thing.
No, wait. That wasn’t you. That was Maureen Dowd. Sorry. My bad.
Hats off to the God Monkey! Woo!
I blame the fact that chicks are too intimidated by my mere presence. Anyhoo…
Amanda, serious topic that I may have missed: any book signings or readings in Austin planned?
“I know what you mean. I used to say to myself “Self, how is it you can rip on Jonah Golderg’s book even though you haen’t read it, and likely never will?” ”
You can’t. If you haven’t read it shut up. Anyone who criticizes Amanda’s book, or anyone’s book, without reading it is afraid. They are intellectually weak in the worldviews and scared of information or ideas that might challenge it. If you are too lazy and too frightened to review material you may disagree with, then sit on the sidelines quietly and let literate adults engage one another.
Did those reviews get deleted? Because I also only see two, and both are 5 star.
Nicely done, GM!
I hate ratings abuse at amazon.
Since I haven’t read the book, I can’t very well write a review… But I *can* click on the “no” button next to the haters’ comments “was this review helpful to you?” option.
I reported the 2 “bad reviews” (not that they were reviews, a’ tall) as inappropriate and an hour later they were gone. That tells you something about amazn’s monitoring. I think.
They are intellectually weak in the worldviews and scared of information or ideas that might challenge it.
Or they have better things to do. When you see Goldberg on The Daily Show saying that while he points out that liberals and Nazis both practice vegetarianism he is not implying that liberals are Nazis (even though the book is called Liberal Fascism), why do you need to read the book to know it’s crap?
I ordered it and look forward to reading it.
Dr. T, I disagree with you. If I decline to read a book devoted to advancing the thesis that the Earth is flat, it’s not because I’m afraid to entertain ideas that challenge my belief in the Earth’s roundness. And I am free to call the book stupid and its author an idiot. Same goes for Jonah and his moronic screed.
let literate adults engage one another.
About books written by Jonah or other NRO clowns? I’m not sure that “literate adults” is the right descriptor. There’s no harm in having a little fun at Jonah’s expense.
In other news, Dr T: the only reason people make fun of you is because they’re jealous, and they actually really like you but don’t know how to express it.
The bad review has either been deleted or moderated into oblivion, but it was a wonder to behold: the reviewer claiming he retired to Central America and how the women had nothing to do with feminism and how wonderful it was and how down where he lived, he didn’t have to deal with this long list of various women-related things he disliked, including marriage-broker regulatory laws (why does it always come back to marriage-broker regulatory laws for these guys?).
This is getting some play on right-wing sites, but I just had to bring it to your attention. Someone needs to be talking about this, a 13 year old girl strip searched at school because they thought she possessed…tylenol. Gotta love the stringency or bureaucracy.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/125786.html
Austin readings:
Book People—April 30th
Book Woman—May 14th
Monkey Wrench—May 15th
Thanks for the help, everyone!
Isn’t Monkey Wrench the combination gay bar/foreign car repair place in Buda?
Dangit, the negative ‘reviews’ have disappeared! I was looking forward to a good giggle!
How did the reviews get removed? Did the guys chicken out and take them down? I’d ask if you could remove reviews of your own book, but that’s not Amanda’s style.
I loved Amanda’s book, it gave me a much needed dose of humor after writing a paper- but one thing as missing from the merging feminist section. How to hide your feminist books from your family. I ordered the bundle pack, and Jessica’s may have to be delivered to my house. any advice Amanda?
I reported the 2 “bad reviews” (not that they were reviews, a’ tall) as inappropriate and an hour later they were gone. That tells you something about amazon’s monitoring. I think.
Amazon has been cracking down on people posting “reviews” without actually having read the book. The comments on some books were just turning into personal slams of the author(s) and it was very difficult to get actual information about how the book was.
So, yes, I support Amazon deleting screeds against authors that have nothing to do with the book. I think it’s somewhat fair game to say that you’ve read other work by the author that made no sense and so the new book probably won’t be much better, but that’s different than just posting personal attacks.
Amanda,
What about dallas (writers garret) san antonio denton (recycled) hell even lubbock? marfa?
what about houston? what about detroit? what about pittsburgh PA? you oughta know not to. stand by the window. somebody see you up there.
Congrats on the book deal. But when you write:
“It’s so weird how a bunch of men who’ve never met me hold me personally responsible for the fact that they’re too obnoxious to get laid or have women look at them with much besides disgust.”
It’s comments like this that dissuade me from buying the book. Maybe I’m in the minority. Perhaps the vitriol will sell more books than not.
I reviewed your book last weekend on my blog. Americablog linked it and I’ve had many, many people read it.
It’s brilliant, Amanda.
Hope you sell a million copies.
Maybe I’m in the minority. Perhaps the vitriol will sell more books than not.
I like vitriol, so long as it’s well-aimed. Which of course is subjective, but I’m here rather than at Little Green Footballs, so…
OMG!!!!! — I think Jim just called Amanda an “angry feminist.”
:::giggles uncontrollably for a very long time:::
I find that a daily glass of Vitriol helps keep my energy up and my movements soft and regular as old age advances upon me.
Jim, luckily you weren’t going to buy the book anyway. So your fake “concerns” don’t tend to worry me. A man genuinely concerned about “vitriol” would be far more concerned about misogyny than about women defending themselves from it. Unfortunately, while you think you are clever, you have revealed yourself to be a pig who hates uppity women. If you were less sexist, perhaps you would have a better understanding that you aren’t very bright, but unfortunately you are operating under the delusion that your sex makes you special, and you’re unaware how you appear stupid to others.
Dang, does everyone else love it when Amanda just goes to town like that as much as I do? Can I get an amen, or at least a “So say we all”?
Amen, Sister Darwin…
Amanda, how dare you call a sexist pig a sexist pig. You are clearly a vitriolic bigot, and the Sexist Pig League is going to have your ass.
So say we all.
I look forward to reading your book; it should be arriving by the end of this week if the mail bandits don’t get it first.
Amanda,
I’ll ignore your offensive comments and offer you a sincere piece of constructive criticism.
I’m the kind of person who would likely buy your book. I have a huge collection of non-fiction and political/social analysis. Looking up at the books over my desk I see 1776, What’s the Matter with Kansas?, Big Lies, and Baghdad Burning. I like Al Franken. I’m someone who stood up for gay/lesbian/bi rights in the 80’s, at some personal cost. I support women’s right, I’m in the ACLU, and I read liberal blogs.
I’m your perfect audience, yet I’m unlikely to buy your book. You might want to reconsider the tone of your writing. It would be a shame if the social changes you advocate were overshadowed by the angry tone of the message.
In short, I think you’ll attract more flies with honey rather than vinegar. But if you’re happy with using anger and insult, then so be it.
Heaven forfend that Amanda should be angry! We couldn’t have that.
And if someone considers the quote:
“It’s so weird how a bunch of men who’ve never met me hold me personally responsible for the fact that they’re too obnoxious to get laid or have women look at them with much besides disgust.”
which I interpreted as “a bunch of men”=”these particular Amazon commenters”
to mean “a bunch of men which includes me personally”, well, who are any of us to stand in the way of his self-interpretation?
I think you’ll attract more flies with honey rather than vinegar.
However, who wants to attract flies?
You know what they say: you attract more salad dressing with vinegar rather than honey.
Or something. Anyway.
Personally, I find all this mincing, pearl-clutching OHNOES!1!!!11 I Can Haz Ass-kissing Femniss? stuff to be bullshit.
Amanda, you are a vegetarian … so why are y’all insulting pigs now? Pigs can be far more civilized than your average (and I do mean average) transfer-station variety misogynist.
“In short, I think you’ll attract more flies with honey rather than vinegar. But if you’re happy with using anger and insult, then so be it.”
…and you need to smile more. And put some makeup on. And those clothes! Ladies DO NOT wear pants! And would hurt to pretend that you like all those misogynists? And let people know your anti-Patriarchy stance is really just an affectation. Look how much it’s helped MoDo…
Do you want to be successful, or do you want to tell the truth? You can’t do both…
So, Jim is fine with Al Franken, who calls right-wing loons “Lying Liars” and is plenty ascerbic and vitrolic about conservative idiocy; but he scolds Amanda for failing to “tone down” her approach and thinks she would catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
It’s almost as if he has a problem when women are in-your-face and pull no punches, but admires the same tactics in men.
Sorry, Jim; Amanda’s not the only one who sees through you. The sorrowful if-only routine isn’t even original.
Jim, Amanda’s job isn’t to catch as many flies as possible. It’s to cultivate an audience interested in what she has to say.
Tell her she would “catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” is like telling a science fiction novelist he’d attract a larger audience if his books were more like romance novels.
I think you’ll attract more flies with honey rather than vinegar.
Does anybody EVER say this to a man? Really? If so, I’ve never heard it.
Is it really scientifically verified, anyway?
“In short, I think you’ll attract more flies with honey rather than vinegar. But if you’re happy with using anger and insult, then so be it. ”
Yes, Amanda. You’re just so. . . shrill. Strident, even.
I never did understand that expression. Speaking as the grandson of the owner of a chemical company, shouldn’t it be “You’ll kill more flies with insecticide than with honey?”
I mean, who wants flies? Nasty, disease-carrying pests, the lot of them.
I can’t review the book yet, for the same if opposite reason that those other folks shouldn’t have done. I look forward to doing so once I get a chance to read it!
Jim,
Doesn’t Stuart Smalley have a blog you can read?
While your personal sacrifice is to be commended the tone of this blog is not misrepresented anywhere. You will read adult language. You will see real anger. People have real, valid emotions here. If you cannot handle these things then you are not part of her audience.
Vitriol is OK for you if it comes from Al Franken and is directed at Coulter or Limbaugh, but it’s not OK from a woman towards a group you may have a more then tangential association with?
Concern trolling is the lowest form of performance art. I would rather watch Sean Hannity in a pig costume hunting truffles in a kiddie pool filled with brown gravy then read faux-wounded concern troll posts like yours. Then again…everyone’s got their kink.
Raging,
“Or they have better things to do. ”
But then you’ll never truly understand the depths of their idiocy. You have to read Kant to understand how utterly and completely self centered he was. You have to read Tolstoy to comprehend the enormity of his pompous assedness. You have to read Jane Austin if you want to vomit repeatedly…
Besides it provides excellent fodder for making fun of people who espouse similar ideas.
Amanda,
Perhaps a horrible question to ask…but…um…would this be coming out on audio book anytime soon? I know, I know…but I “listen” to most of my non-fiction these days….
Ms Kate: you beat me to the punch! I was about to recommend the same comic.
Ah, but Ben, do we want that punch? I mean, punch really attracts flies.
Jim, I would suggest you know when you’ve been called out and move on your merry way. Your willingness to buy this book or that is both questionable in its truth value (since you’re a concern troll, which automatically makes you dishonest) and irrelevant to the fact that you radiate sexism. Sorry. You thought you were clever, but you were wrong. You should probably be embarrassed, but like many men swimming in entitlement, you’re incapable of realizing what a fool you’re making of yourself.
Yup, and also to cultivate her own authentic voice as a writer. Just as Al Franken has done. One’s writing won’t resonate with *anyone* if the voice is phonied up to avoid alienating some segment of potential readers. Truth people! Like MikeEss said above.
And as for catching flies, horseshit is very effective for that. But this blog seems more in the horseshit-shoveling-and-removal biz IME. So some flies may be lost along the way…
Hey Amanda, maybe if you stopped calling a bunch of obvious trolls sexist pigs and started calling Ann Coulter a cunt, like Franken did, then you would be the sort of feminist that Jim wants to read. Don’t you want to be that sort of feminist and make the world a shinier, special-er place for our boy Jimbo?
LOL, I’m loving the Jim smackdown: geez what a maroon. (In my mind’s eye he’s smoking a pipe while guiding his belly around a bookstore, “t’cht”ing at the ’strident’ feminist authors.)
Amanda, was it exclusively men posting the “haven’t read it” reviews, or did they have some female stalking horses fellow travelers?
(And nice to see Amazon was on top of it, or is that automatic from the “Helpful?” button stats?)
Kristen, I agree that one should read/watch/listen to something before actually criticizing it in any detail. I just object to Dr T’s claim that not reading something that you feel certain is not worth your time means that you’re afraid, intellectually lazy, and scared to have your opinions challenged. Please. I wouldn’t personally go write a detailed screed against Jonah Goldberg’s book (or anything else I haven’t read), but I don’t think people who do are scared to read the book — they just already have enough information about it to ridicule it.
Well clearly I’m just going to get flamed further for trying to make a polite point. I do find it discouraging that so many people here are prejudging me in such a negative light.
However, I will say that there is a difference between how Al Franken (and M Moore, etc) poke fun and how Amanda does it. Neither Al nor Mike make frequent sweeping generalizations based on race, gender, or nationality. They tend to go after the (selfish) choices that people have made and the (ridiculous) ideas that these people espouse. Amanda, on the other hand, tends to make a lot of generalizations based on gender.
I’ll let the door hit me in the ass.
Didn’t this myth get busted on Mythbusters? (I am such a nerd).
And Amanda’s book is sitting on my bed-side table, waiting for me to get through the other books on my bed-side table.
And good grief, but isn’t Jim the epitome of the condescending arseholic concern troll? Damn, someone take a picture so we have an example of an ideal type …
Amanda, was it exclusively men posting the “haven’t read it” reviews, or did they have some female stalking horses fellow travelers?
No women. Not that there aren’t a couple pathetic hangers-on, but the women who join in are a bit more half-hearted and even more pathetic than the men. I mean, they’re the kind of women who try to cultivate the good opinion of misogynists. It’s the most maudlin kind of ass kissing imaginable. It’s hard to look at such low self-esteem directly, for fear of catching some of it.
But I’m afraid it’s Jim who generalizes all men. I say “misogynist men”, and he wrongly assumes there’s no other kind. There are plenty of great men—but you kind of have to be a non-asshole to see them, and so Jim’s out.
Actually, you can attract a whole mess of bees with a pile of sugar you found on the highway.
Jim, how does “a bunch of men who’ve never met me” = all men? Amanda did not take a swipe at an entire gender.
I second the ubiquitous Jim bodyslams.
At some point, with all his liberal bona fides, doesn’t Jim have to move past the intellectualism of progressive politics and recognize people are going to get angry about the shit going on, and that it’s going to come out in their blogging/writing/art/etc.? I mean, how much of an insulated bourgeois armchair liberal do you have to be that you still think it a priority to inform the wimmins that the real way to make sure a bunch of strangers don’t get control over their civil rights is with the “cookies and a smile” strategy?
Next up for Jim: Why atheists are big meanies.
However, I will say that there is a difference between how Al Franken (and M Moore, etc) poke fun and how Amanda does it.
Yeah, because Amanda’s Driving While Female. I’ve read a lot, and admired a lot, of Franken and Moore’s work- and to say that they don’t rely on sweeping generalizations is at best disingenuous, and at worst simply untrue.
And yes, Sarah, it’s almost like there’s an “I’m concerned about your tone, missy” form letter circulating on the internet these days.
Heaven forfend! I do believe he might be coming down with the vapors! Someone do be a dear and fetch the fainting couch for our entitled guest.
You don’t always. But you do need to read the book to publish a review of it. Otherwise, you’re just reviewing the author, and that doesn’t belong on an Amazon product page.
In deference to Austin, they should at least change ‘missy’ to ‘little lady’.
Hihihi. First fafblog comes back (yesterday, in case you missed it), then someone leaves a “vinegar-flies-honey” comment chez Marcotte. We are entering a more humorous universe!
Oh and Jim et al: you don’t have to be polite when you’re right. It’s a waste of time and your meaning might get misconstrued, you know, since politeness = weakness in our culture. But nice try, please do come play again any time.
I did not. I “post-judged” your asinine comment (and then sat back to watch the fun & flogging). I believe the other commenters probably did the same.
“I just object to Dr T’s claim that not reading something that you feel certain is not worth your time means that you’re afraid, intellectually lazy, and scared to have your opinions challenged.”
Hehe…I wonder if all the people who make that claim have read things like The Politics of Reality or the Communist Manifesto or The Art of War or goddess forbid all 10 volumes of The Republic.
Yet I’m absolutely positive they’ve all made reference to something written by Plato or SunTzu…
Nobody is ‘prejugding’ poor Jim, as he seems to think. Prejudging would be if someone came on here and said ‘there’s this guy Jim who’s going to be posting, and he’s sexist and not very bright’ and we all proceeded to assume all sorts of things about the kind of person this Jim was.
What the people here are doing is judging, not prejudging, based on actual stupid and sexist things that Jim has posted.
It’s an important distinction, I think.
wasn’t that one of the principal’s lines from The Breakfast Club?
i THOUGHT our wee indignant concern troll sounded familiar.
I would totally watch that. Like other people said, it seems that jim has taken “some men” to definitely include himself. QED Jim is a hater. Truthyness will out! I think I’ve learned as much from watching trolls here as I have reading the normal comments.
10 volumes of The Republic
There are 10 volumes of The Republic?
Did Plato get a deal to expand it into an ongoing series sometime in the 5 years since I had like 3 entire college courses on various aspects of that work? Because I only remember the one volume, maybe 300-400 pages or so.
Jim, shouldn’t you be wagging your finger at H.L. Mencken? Same problem.
so teh sark…
Women who express anger are to be “toned down” and lectured to. Then, MAYBE, they are worthy of listening to and/or taken “seriously”.
Men who express anger are to be honored and considered worthy of being men. More than that they have a RIGHT! White men are ANGRY DAMMIT! They are the angriest group in the whole world because they are the most put upon!
Lookit John McNasty- he’s been nasty his WHOLE life and look where it got him! That’s right fawning arse licking in the press and complete willful ignorance of his asshole-ness. Why- he’s just having senior moments and what’s more he’s been having them since high school! So there!
The only woman who seems to get away with this obvious slap to the face of the status quo is Ann Coulter but then I think she has an adam’s apple anyhow. And I don’t think she’s sprogged so therefore she can’t possibly be a real woman!
/snark
First fafblog comes back (yesterday, in case you missed it)…
Miss it I did. Thank you so much for alerting me to it’s resurrection - I’ve missed it terribly since it went away. My day has been made.
There are 10 volumes of The Republic?
Ten books rather. It’s been a while since I’ve read it myself. They actually have it online now.
Not that I’d recommend reading it. At least not without a firm hold on your temper and a stiff drink.
Actually what was being done was nothing more than an Ad Hominem. Instead of attacking Jim’s argument, you’ve attacked his character. Good job people.
Now I invite you to do the same with me. Ignore my point in the same way that you are ignoring the fact that you are avoiding Jim’s point that “perhaps if you toned it down, there wouldn’t be so many negative reviews” (valid or invalid, still an opinion) and instead attack the person making it.
Don’t shoot messengers. Burn the message.
Still waiting for the copy we requested to arrive at the town library; the assistant librarian was there today, so I couldn’t nag!
Alas, the postal service, like moderation, is our friend and we must continue to wait… maybe on Saturday.
Absolutely inspired imagery- bravo!!
i drank this greek moonshine last month at an art opening (friend from overseas brought it)…and finally realized how the ancients could tolerate Plato.
shit was wicked, man…
Oh man, I hate The Republic. I can almost vaguely sense the stench of the gas chamber every time I read it.
Well, who wouldn’t?
You actually catch the most flies with a corpse. Jonah Goldberg has done very well for himself with publishing hunks of rotting flesh.
Jonah Goldberg is a hack who is only where he is because of his father.
Why does he think vegetarianism/veganism is uniquely leftist anyway? I’m pretty far left but I still eat meat.
Anyway I’m going to buy the book now just to spite the reviewers on Amazon.
I didn’t read Amanda’s comment as attacking all men. I certainly wasn’t offended by it. I read her comment as attacking the asses who reviewed her book without reading it.
Some comments about the way amazon handles reviews. Amazon does not delete reviews based on helpful or unhelpful voting. Amazon does have a strict policy that a review must review the book in question and not the author of the book. For instance, a review that said, “I haven’t read this Stephen King novel but he is great so you should buy it,” would be considered inappropriate. Amazon can’t review every review out there so they use the “report this” feature at the bottom of every review to let them know that they should check a review. They also tend to keep an eye on certain books that they expect to generate a lot of reviews based only on political opinion, such as this book by Amanda.
And yes, a reviewer can delete their own review. They can also edit their own review.
FWIW, you trap the most flies with carrion. (Yes, I know all about making homemade fly traps, from living down in central Texas & being too poor for AC as a kid.)
So the next time you want to lure someone you can’t stand to a fatal end, skip right over the vinegar (it works, esp. for fruit flies) AND the honey, and put some ripe, high chicken bones with the flesh still on them in a jar with some water down at the bottom and a funnel over the entrance…
–How, exactly is this process supposed to relate to political dialectic?
Yeah, good thing Richard Wright made sure to keep the tone of his books moderate so his message against racism wouldn’t be overshadowed by his angry tone.
/snark
Yes, but to hopefully beat MikeEss to the punch, what does JEREMIAH Wright think about Richard Wright?
Anyone who identifies with the mouthbreathers who harass Amanda has given himself away as a pathetic loser more worth pitying than listening to. I’m trying to listen objectively to what this Jim has to say, but it’s a bit like talking to a piece of gum on the bottom of your shoe.
“Yes, but to hopefully beat MikeEss to the punch, what does JEREMIAH Wright think about Richard Wright?”
Dammit!…
:)
Whoa! 93 posts! I was really concerned that Amanda had been slammed on Amazon.
But no! It’s a concern troll pile-on! And I’m late to the party. =^(
Man. he just can’t catch a break, can he? All he wants is for Amanda to write a book that uses a sweet tone to discuss injustice. B/c she might attract more readers like him that way.
Of course, it would probably drive away those of us who already enjoy her writing…but we’re angry feminazis anyway who should just lighten up and smile.
Then there could be ponies and rainbows for everyone!
Honestly, did you really expect anything else?
Having listened to right wing rant radio for years, I’m frakly surprised not to have seen more of this stuff.
These are, after all, the same people who don’t have to actually see a movie to write a negative review of it, eh?
Ah yes. Never bother trying to understand why a woman is angry. All you need to know is that she simply isn’t entitled to anger, and then you must assure her that you just MIGHT listen if she wasn’t angry.
Never mind that you would have never noticed her to begin with if she had just been a good little girl.
Amanda, after people read the book and find it funny - I’ve read it and found it as sharp as Amanda’s blog posts, which is high praise - and have put up the good reviews, then you should glory in the disparagement of the dipshits! While Tertullian was sorta gross when he said one of the joys of heaven is listening to the howls of the damned, in this sublunar world, one of the joys of the righteous has to be the howls of the less witty, the perpetually duncecapped, the Bushian deadenders, as they meet the business end of your skewer.
Perhaps I have a wicked heart, but I love all their clucking and balls clutching!
A new one star review appeared there with this. How do you tell amazon to get rid of these comments again? I think one funny thing this random hater failed to notice was that the book is now #907 in books on amazon, which isn’t too bad considering the lowest is #1,000,000 or so.
Jim, shouldn’t you be wagging your finger at H.L. Mencken? Same problem.
I object to your base flattery, sir, while I secretly take it behind closed doors.
Cripes; there’s the headliner for tomorrow on WingNutDaily!! Wonder what they’ll manage with Photoshop…
Mr Ess wrote:
Well, Mr Ess, I’ve been married for 28 years, 10 months and 14 days thus far; I must’ve learned something about women, or at least one particular woman, by now.
I’m gonna review your book right now, Amanda. I’m giving it a perfect five star rating. An excellent read!
“…I’ve been married for 28 years, 10 months and 14 days thus far;”
Congrats, Dana - and I’m serious when I say that. It’s been 21-years for me and mine.
I hope if you hang around here enough you’ll learn some things that’ll bring you even closer to perfection…
Ordered via the tag on the site.
Damn. Mnemosyne beat me to the “if only those negroes had all been as polite as Sidney Poitier we would have given them civil rights decades ago” line.
My only question is whether the book is going to raise my blood pressure even further by reminding me what a bunch of cavemen-wannabes inhabit the world outside various little enclaves
Thanks, Dana.
Paul, I tried to balance that with lighter mockery of things like footwear, people who tease vegetarians, and my nemesis, the co-ed baby shower.
Okay, while I know that picking on trolls is easier than shooting fish in a barrel and that therefore I should probably strive to be above it, I still have an observation that is begging to be made:
Can anyone tell me when invalid opinions came under some sort of protection? The opinion in this case — Jim’s — has been invalidated due to sheer stupidity. Being respectful of stupidity would be stupid. I don’t think I like being part of the team that is expected to treat the opposition with kit gloves.
Furthermore, a dissenting valid opinion would be acceptable, no? “I’m not going to buy the book because the blog is free,” or “I like those negative reviews because they are battle scars,” or whatever else, would not prompt anyone to shoot the messenger, what with those points being valid (if cheap).
I’ve just had it up to here today.
Okay, I’m going to order from Powells and blow my “inheretance” of residual gift card value from my recently deceased mother.
I’m going to buy yer book in her honor, as she was quite the bookworm and reclusive mouse/pack rat with her knitin and cats and piles and piles of books.
She totally surprised the hell out of me a few years back when she somehow got her highly non-confrontational self mixed up with a roving pack of clinic escorts - you know, the folks who keep the lunatics at bay and help women in need of reproductive care services get from the parking lots to the clinics?
I probably would have gotten her a copy of her own, had she been around for mother’s day. She may not have completely walked the feminist walk, but she taught me the talk. Mom, this one’s for you!
“I never did understand that expression.”
The only thing I could figure out is that it comes from the pre-pesticide days, and the point of the honey was to drown the flies, thus making the expression actually “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
Which makes the saying sound really strange when it’s coming from a “fly” rather than from an aunt or grandmother. One might begin to think that such “flies” are secretly hoping that women will do anything to “trap” them into paying attention to them/marrying them/etc.
But then, since the expression apparently isn’t even true - I got nothing.
No Amy actually you’re quite right. Invalid opinions SHOULD be shot down. In fact they should be ridiculed and pointed out as the tripe that they are. However, the point was that people were calling Jim all sorts of names and attacking his character instead of attacking his argument.
Example. A) Jim, Amanda wasn’t talking about all men, just the men on the Amazon board that were giving her bad reviews. When you state your opinion you are classifying yourself with them and therefore you’re identifying with some rather dubious characters.
B) Jim you’re an asshole and I think that you should rot in hell.
Notice how A actually makes a point and B does nothing to show how Jim’s argument is flawed?
AB) Jim ignores it when people point out what was written versus what he said, and then starts into the “women can’t ever be angry little missy” lecturing for which he is being hectored.
Nice try SPLAT. You get he blivvy prize as our parting gift.
I posted a review which will probably appear at some point, most of it cadged from my own review at my blog.
http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/24/amanda-marcottes-danceable-revolution-on-its-a-jungle-out-there/
Jeez all of the reviews are glowing right now. Where is the harsh and unjustified criticism? Even if MRAs are not venting, I’m sure it must fail some ideological purity test.
re: Flies: wasn’t the original saying “You catch more BEARS with honey than vinegar.” ?
Hey hey hey, BooBoo.
SPLAT,
1) ‘B’ take a lot less typing, which is important ‘cuz;
2) another word for ‘concern troll’ is ‘energy vampire’– spending worthwhile nanoseconds addressing Jimmy’s ‘concerns’ is that many fewer nanoseconds to do other things that will actually change peoples’ minds.
If Jim wants to step into the breech and make the arguments in a more civil tone, since he’s SUCH a progressive fellow with a great {cough} library, more power to him.
Conserves more water that way, though…
I think you’ve just encapsulated the presidential primary/electoracl college lifecycleOkay so where are all these negative comments? Everytime I look up this book I only see 10 5-star reviews. Have they all be deleted or something?
For those ordering via the ad on this site, I placed my order at about 7:30 PM last night, and received a shipping confirmation e-mail time stamped 1058 AM today. That seems like pretty good service to me.
i drank this greek moonshine last month at an art opening (friend from overseas brought it)…and finally realized how the ancients could tolerate Plato.
You wanna watch out for that - look what that cheap Greek shit did to my man Socrates…
Oh, that ol’ imbra debate. Amanda, why do you waste your time banging heads with these expats?
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/04/02/can-a-person-be-illegal#comment
and don’t let “Reg” bait you into answering that question. The pre-communication conditions are the hallmark of imbra. Enough said.
Amazon estimated the delivery date to be April 9th; I actually received it yesterday, so that’s good service.