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BuzzFeed's Reckoning

4chan celebrates journalist layoffs.

Jobless

Photo by Matthew Osborn on Unsplash

It's an age-old tale of good versus evil — downtrodden arbiters of truth rising up against the powerful corporations who spread hateful lies intended to oppress and censor them. This is the story of brave warriors, the oppressed white men of 4chan, waging battle against the seemingly unstoppable goliath that is the fake news media. Or at least that's how they see it.

This past week, over 1000 people working in media — writers, editors, etc. — were fired. HuffPost cut seven percent of its staff removing its entire opinion section. BuzzFeed cut 15 percent, wiping out all their national news writers, their health writers, most of their entertainment writers, and all but one of their L.G.B.T. writers. The technology, politics, and investigations teams have been kept in tact.

Officially, BuzzFeed claims these cuts are intended to lower costs and maintain corporate growth — BuzzFeed has decided their L.G.B.T. section, for instance, isn't as cost-effective as their technology section. But on 4chan, this is more than just layoffs. This is a long-awaited reckoning. This it the first step towards the "day of the rope."

The "day of the rope" refers to the public hanging of "race traitors." The concept was first presented in The Turner Diaries, an explicitly racist dystopian novel from 1978 about a race war that ultimately results in white nationalist rule (presented as a good thing), and has become a popular saying amongst white nationalist and alt-right circles. On 4chan, the phrase is most commonly invoked towards journalists, as journalists are seen as the greatest arbiters of liberalism, feminism, and everything else that radicalized white men in extremist bubbles view as a threat to their identities.

Naturally, BuzzFeed's and HuffPost's recent layoffs are cause for celebration on 4chan. Countless threads have sprung up on their /pol/ ("politically incorrect) board sharing tweets from fired writers and journalists, encouraging users to directly engage with them. As a result, the fired writers have been flooded with harassing messages, not just on Twitter but through e-mail and even Paypal.

Most of these messages have been mean, gloating memes. One popular refrain is "learn to code," a suggestion meant to denigrate writers' chosen career path. Alt-right darling James Woods has taken up the cause too, which seems weird considering he pursued a career in entertainment (in fairness, he did go to MIT for poli-sci, but chances are he has no idea how to code either).

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Some of the messages have been far scarier, mentioning the "day of the rope," sharing pictures of hanged corpses, and even outright threatening murder. Threats like these are par for the course for many writers and journalists, but they're usually sent in response to specific articles that trigger 4chan users, as opposed to general threats sent to multiple people. Imagine losing your job through no fault of your own, as the result of financial cuts made by your employer, and waking up to an inbox flooded with death threats.

Perhaps there really is a battle between good and evil — just not the one 4channers think. Perhaps the good guys are the writers and journalist following their passions, writing about their interests, and reaching hundreds of thousands of people every day with their words. And perhaps the angry dudes coordinating harassment campaigns, sending death threats, and screeching about white supremacy are actually the bad guys — extremists who nobody takes seriously, trapped in their own bubble, pretending they have impact by screaming into a void.

Then again, maybe us writers are screaming into our own voids too — ours just happen to have more reach.

Dan Kahan is a writer & screenwriter from Brooklyn, usually rocking a man bun. Find more at dankahanwriter.com

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Every "Man" Angry About Gillette Needs His Diaper Changed

It's called "toxic masculinity" because you soiled your pants.

Two days ago, Gillette, the razor company, released their new Super Bowl spot on YouTube.

Its title, "We Believe: The Best Men Can Be | Gillette (Short Film)," lets you know that this isn't just another commercial. No sir, this is a short film. Gillette isn't just about selling razors anymore. Gillette is about real issues affecting real men. Gillette is woke. So listen up, dude, because Gillette is slicing up some hard truths: toxic masculinity is bad.

Here's the deal: Pretty much nobody likes this commercial—sorry, short film. The problem isn't that it's offensive. The message behind it— that "boys will be boys" is a damaging sentiment that holds men to a lower standard, and that we should be better than that— is spot on. The problem is that it seems disingenuous and pandering coming from a company owned by Procter & Gamble. These issues are too important to be paraded out in a ploy to get us to buy branded razors.

That's not to say the people behind the campaign don't genuinely care about toxic masculinity and the myriad ways in which it negatively impacts both men and women. But if you're actually a woke dude™, you don't need a razor company to tell you toxic masculinity is bad; you already know. And if you're not a woke dude, you're probably not going to become enlightened by a corporation whose primary interest is making money.

Make no mistake, the ad is a bust, missing its target audience completely.

THAT BEING SAID...

Some men are mad about the campaign for a different reason: Gillette is clearly attacking masculinity.

Take professional waste-of-space Piers Morgan, for instance:

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Imagine seeing a razor commercial that basically says, "hey guys, let's be nice to each other and not sexually harass women," and thinking, "this is a global assault on masculinity." Imagine that headspace. You would have to be so delusional, so completely immersed in your own victim-complex, that you internalize any piece of commentary on a well-documented phenomena affecting most women as a personal attack.

But Piers Morgan isn't alone in crying about his manflake feewings being hurt by a commercial. Former talented actor and current total nut job James Woods is also getting in on the fun:

— (@)

Ah, yes, the "men are horrible campaign," the one that, after decades of powerful men getting away with sexual abuse, is finally holding some of them accountable. James Woods is right. Men should be mad! How dare we not be able to assault women unchallenged! Isn't that what it means to be a man? We spit and fart and beat people up and allegedly try to leverage our celebrity to pick up underage girls. And we'll be damned if a stinking razor blade commercial tries to take that away from us.

Some pathetic, non-famous dudes are also mad that their precious manhood is being cut off by big bad Gillette. They've been posting their outrage under #GilletteFAIL.

We're talking about pillars of masculinity here, men to emulate.

Guys who know that the most victimized men are the white ones.

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Guys who think "soyboy" and "cuck" are insults instead of confessions of deep-seated insecurity.

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Guys who definitely don't have manginas.

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And of course, guys who are protesting by not shaving their handsome, oh-so-manly faces.

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Let's be honest here. If you claim to value traditional masculinity, but then proceed to get so deeply shaken by a commercial that you need to cry about it on twitter, you are not a reflection of your own values. You are a whiner. You are a complainer. You are a little baby crying into a void and your diaper needs changing. So sure, the Gillette ad may be "virtue signaling," but to the toxic "men" who are so, so offended by it: you're proving their point.

Oh, and check out the video above because as bad as corporate pandering may be, toxic dudes are a whole lot worse.

Dan Kahan is a writer & screenwriter from Brooklyn, usually rocking a man bun. Find more at dankahanwriter.com

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