On Elliot Rodger

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation” 

― Henry David Thoreau

THE STORY SO FAR: In California 22-year-old Elliot Rodger kills his three (male) housemates and takes to the streets shooting at people after posting YouTube videos online detailing his plans. Internet feminists immediately claim he was either an MRA or somehow influenced by the Men's Rights Movement.

So I went and checked out the Elliot Rodger 'Retribution' video (and others) just to make sure what it was he actually said, and it's unequivocally clear that the guy explicitly hated the entire human race, not just women:

"All of you men, for living a better life than me, all you sexually active men, I hate you, I hate all of you and I can't wait to give you what you deserve: Utter annihilation".

It's a sad thing to see, as the guy's clearly gone over the edge into maniacal delusion but the pain inside him is palpable too - his voice trembles with emotion as he describes what he feels to be a life of cruelly imposed isolation and rejection that he just can't take anymore. And then he does that eerie supervillain laugh and you realize just how completely far gone he actually is.

Just in case it needs to be stated, there is no connection of any kind to the men's rights movement. He never once mentions feminism in his videos or in his 137 page 'manifesto', which can be found online. Instead he speaks of being beaten up and bullied by males, the pain of seeing attractive couples walking along happily together, and the feeling of betrayal when a (male) friend told him he didn't want to be friends any more.

Elliot Rodger appears to have basically been an annoying, arrogant, spoiled and narcissistic brat - with a long history of mental illness and Asperger's - incapable of dealing with the jealousy and envy he said he felt since a child:

"Jealousy and envy… those are two feelings that would dominate my entire life and bring me immense pain. The feelings of jealousy I felt at nine-years-old were frustrating, but they were nothing compared to how I would feel once I hit puberty and have to watch girls choosing other boys over me."

He wanted women but he hated men, especially those he saw succeed that he believed to be lesser than him. Which is why four of the six people he killed were men. Five of seven if you count Rodger too. These weren't acts of misogyny but of revenge upon the entire world.

The feminist claims that these murders were motivated in any way by the men's human rights movement are without any doubt entirely unfounded and a pretty laughably shoddy attempt to scapegoat any opposing opinion on men and women and the state of modern society but their own.

On the other hand, perhaps someone should point out that the continued demonizing and vilification of all men (overwhelmingly emanating from feminism more than any other source) is the surest way anyone knows of to make a whole lot more Elliot Rodgers, and radical feminism in particular is basically a factory daily toiling towards no other purpose.

If you genuinely want to prevent more deaths such as these, sparked by rootless alienation and loneliness, consider leaving aside unfounded ideological models of 'male privilege' and 'patriarchal oppression' and try seeing the society that presently trivializes and mocks, ignores and dismisses all male disadvantage and suffering at every turn, instead of attacking those people trying to fix it.