Angry men on the internet are in a frenzy over this YouTube video of an altercation between a quick-to-anger Uber driver and his rude, defiant female passengers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f1c6ZTHIuo
The incident starts before the video does, with the Uber driving failing to pick up the two women at their desired location — a frustrating experience any Uber user can relate to. I, for one, go blind with rage if an Uber driver doesn’t stop within a 10-foot radius of where I dropped my pin:
Why the hell are you parked halfway down the block, Mr. Uber Driver, when the GPS device CLEARLY SHOWS that I am, in fact, WAITING RIGHT OVER HERE?!
So I understand the one woman’s annoyance, and it’s exacerbated by the driver canceling the women’s original trip, thus forcing them to reopen the app and order another ride. It’s a maddening process, but it in no way justifies her rudeness.
The woman wearing the choker comes in real hot, saying, “Don’t fucking cancel on us! You weren’t at our location,” the moment she steps inside the vehicle. Not a nice way to greet someone. She then screams her address at the driver, even after he makes it clear he’s already canceled their trip and accepted a different fare. Then he escalates the entire thing by yelling, “Get the fuck out of my car!” She responds by refusing to leave and challenging him to call the police, which he does.
Twitter is a tiny echo chamber. I'm not sure the left understands the monumental ass-whupping being dished out to them on YouTube.
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) March 14, 2017
I’m not sure why she would want to stay in a car with a man who’s clearly angry with her, let alone be driven home by him. And what did she expect to happen when the cop showed up? That the cop would arrest the Uber driver, or make him drive her home?
It’s generally not worth trying to understand the logic of a drunk asshole in the midst of a needless argument, and the whole incident should be probably regarded accordingly and forgotten. But instead, it’s become politicized — and not even for what the rude woman did, but for something her mild-mannered friend says. The driver calls the rude rider a “bitch” at the 2:45 mark, to which her friend, who’s been totally reasonable throughout the encounter, responds, “You’re talking to women here.”
That comment injected gender into the equation, and some men are now using it as proof that gender politics have become ridiculous and that women use feminism to subjugate men and justify their own shitty behavior.
That’s in large part why the video reached the front page of /r/videos, Reddit’s video sharing hub, on Monday, and the comments there and on YouTube — which has become a hotbed of alt-right politics — have an anti-feminist, men’s rights activist strain to them. Here’s a sampling [all sic]:
“u shoulda counter trolled her by saying: well u sexist msygonisitc women! i beleieve in equality not in 1950 women slavery, im a equalist therefore i treat women and men the same! .. thats would left them speechless .”
“‘You’re talking to women here.’ Fucking cunt”
“‘You are talking tom women.’ No, bitch, he’s talking to you. Why do these eople always have to point at their genitals and be like ‘respect me’?”
“who’s the beta white knight talking to the girl and helping her??”
“Have you EVER dealt with an incompetent bitch? You can only take so much. She thinks she will get a pussy pass.”
The comments speak to our current political moment, where even the smallest, most isolate events become plot points in some larger sociopolitical narrative. Every cultural happening is now a Rorschach test in which people see their own pre-existing political beliefs — in this case, the conservative belief that feminism has gone too far.
These aren’t the actions of one lone jerk. It’s tangible proof that Feminazis and their cucked male allies are waging a War on Men. They want to lock us up in cages and only use us for breeding purposes, like Mad Max but with the genders reversed! It’s true, Alex Jones talked about it on InfoWars!
These arguments are self-defeating, though. Men’s rights activists hate what they perceive to be sweeping, overgeneralized attacks on their gender, and say they want to be judged as individuals. Not an unreasonable request; yet they turn around and use the actions of one ill-mannered woman and her friend’s paltry, diversionary defense as an indictment of all women.
But that’s how things work in our current political climate. Drunk people on the internet used to be funny; now they’re just more fodder for the culture wars.
