Revealing political profiles

The issue of men's rights has taken off over the past couple of years. It's big enough now to be very politically diverse. One of the major sites where men's rights is discussed is at reddit - the men's rights page there has 8,500 registered users.

However, it's worth knowing that some of the most active commenters there are far from being traditionalists. Recently someone asked for commenters to reveal their political affiliations and these were the results:

1. socially liberal Green voter
2. libertarian
3. Marxist
4. libertarian/anarcho-capitalist
5. left-leaning liberal
6. economically socialist/politically liberal approaching anarchist
7. classical libertarian
8. neo-conservative
9. classical Marxist
10. far left libertarian communist
11. libertarian
12. left wing socialist
13. very socially liberal, economically free market
14. anarcho-socialist
15. left libertarian, anarcho syndicalist

So we have libertarians, Marxists, social liberals and anarchists. Even if the general readership is much more conservative than this, as usual the most active participants come from the radical left.

That's a pity as it's likely to distort the movement. The far left types are likely to argue that men are lacking in rights because they haven't been "liberated" from their masculinity or their masculine role. They'll argue that the way forward is a social change in which gender distinctions are finally abolished.

The far left types - the Marxists, the anarchists, the radical left-libertarians - are also more likely to try to blame social conservatives for the problems facing men. That's a bit perverse as it's clearly been a liberal philosophy rather than a socially conservative one which has affected the position of men in society over the past century or more. And yet on many men's rights sites, it's not a liberally inspired feminism, but social conservatism and/or the remnants of chivalry which is thought to be the underlying problem.

That can have some strange consequences. It means that Laura Wood, who has written boldly in support of the male role within the family and society, is attacked more fiercely at some men's rights sites than the radical feminists who want to abolish any kind of distinctive or necessary paternal role within the family. (If Laura Wood is reading this, you have my sympathies - I hope it's reassuring for you that some of your attackers describe their politics as "classical Marxist" and "anarcho-socialist".)

(Another strange consequence is that it leaves the Roissyites as the better, more "realistic" wing of the men's rights movement - at least they get the drift of what has happened in society over the past generation, even if their response is to collapse into it.)

I don't believe that traditionalists should give up on the men's rights issue. It's a growing movement attracting men who are disaffected by the changes wrought by liberal society. And we can offer much more to these men than an assembly of Marxists, anarchists and libertarians.