Take a look at the headline and picture above. Take a moment — and I mean this seriously — take a moment to decide what you think about it.
Okay? Okay.
This headline is not something I made up. It is a real “story” on a genuine “news” site (using both terms very loosely). The site is called Breitbart — a vanguard of what is known, euphemistically, as the “alt right.”
Well, that headline could just be clickbait, you might think. Maybe the article’s not so bad.
Judge for yourself: Here’s the article. A few samples of the text:
Women are — and you won’t hear this anywhere else — screwing up the internet for men by invading every space we have online and ruining it with attention-seeking and a needy, demanding, touchy-feely form of modern feminism that quickly comes into conflict with men’s natural tendency to be boisterous, confrontational and delightfully autistic.
And:
Women should just log off. Given that men built the internet, along with the rest of modern civilisation, I think it’s only fair that they get to keep it.
And:
Broadband access to the female internet will cost more than the male internet, since women love whining endlessly about the “pink tax” they supposedly pay. On the other hand, the female internet will only be 77 per cent as fast as the male internet. A bandwidth gap, if you will.
I trust you get the idea.
That’s just one article, you might think. Maybe the rest of Breitbart isn’t so bad.
Here are some other Breitbart headlines:
- Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy
- Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control Movement’s Human Shield
- After the Pulse Club Massacre, It’s Time for Gays to Come Home to Republican Party
I trust you get the idea.
Who’s responsible for all this? Who’s in charge of Breitbart?
Meet Steve Bannon:
He ran Breitbart (as executive chairman) from 2011 until a few months ago. The site exists in its current form because he made it that way. The headlines above genuinely represent the kind of message he is trying to spread.
Why should I care? you might very reasonably ask. So he’s an internet troll. So what? Why are we even talking about this guy?
I’m glad you asked.
See, it’s a funny story, because — haha, oh man, you’ll love this, I just found out — it turns out that…
THAT GUY IS THE TOP ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Just FYI.
Brian D. Buckley 
People are terrible — I can’t even correctly describe how I feel right now. I wonder if they know how many original female programmers there were, since “men created the internet.”
In recent news, I just learned that if I would just learn how to take & dish out harassment to everyone, then my life will be a lot easier.
Of course, the very first programmer ever, Ada Lovelace, was a woman. Y’know, if we’re gonna bring needy, touchy-feely “facts” into it.
“I can’t even correctly describe how I feel right now.” That correctly describes how I feel right now. While composing this post, I was almost shaking with rage.
More than ever, I believe that we have to do something to make this right.
On a better note: I just finished a book called “Rocket Girls” and it was about the women mathematicians & programmers who worked at JPL when they first started. It’s a really interesting history of women who specialized in engineering and math at a time when it wasn’t really an open field for them to join.
I’d highly recommend it, if you haven’t read it before.
Just added to my Amazon wish list. Thanks. 🙂
I’m not sure if our survey courses were the same, Brian, but I wonder if you remember the book ENIAC? Women were the vanguards of modern computing, perhaps not the Internet, but the male society wouldn’t exist in its form today without our better half.
As a conservative person, not entirely Libertarian and most certainly not Republican, I am genuinely saddened by what we’ve done to ourselves. Even if it could be argued that Trump is just a showman and not a fringe politician, the fringe is being installed as “leaders” of our government. Men like Bannon and places like Breitbart are there reason modern feminism exists.
Unfortunately I was assigned “Nickel and Dimed,” but I did get around to reading “ENIAC” eventually. You’re absolutely right.
I can’t tell you how encouraging your comment was for me. It’s true: This isn’t about liberal vs. conservative anymore. The Republican Party has mostly abandoned genuine conservatives. Donald Trump certainly isn’t conservative — he seems to have few clear, consistent principles of any kind beyond his own self-interest. I wish more people on the right had the courage to say so. Honestly, I’d consider myself a “moderate” rather than a “liberal” if the GOP hadn’t completely lost its mind over the last decade or two.
I’ve been talking to a lot of my friends about how we can make things right. Would you care to continue this conversation via email?
I’m open to any conversation with you Brian. Please reach out any time.