When I first started lurking on this site >10 years ago, it was a cult. Right after candyjunkie. It shaped my worldview, good and bad. Nowadays things seem a lot more tame. Maybe I grew up. Maybe young guys are more impressionable. Maybe everything changed in 2012.

No, he was sentenced within the last few days, and knock off the name calling. My little note to Emma referred to downplaying what he did, and I said as much. He didn't only put his arm around a chick twice. That's not what happened. My and any other normal person's sympathy for a lonely man should end at the point where he decided to do it again. You can read and post about it more here if you'd like.

https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showt...hp?t=177633751

I honestly don't consider Vox to be "mainstream media", at least in the sense of their videos on YouTube (I don't read their site). Unless you are completely unreachable out of your viewpoints, I think you'll find their videos very well made, interested, well produced and fact based.

https://www.youtube.com/user/voxdotcom

When I think of mainstream media, I think of the big corporate owned news networks (NBC, ABC, FOX, OAN, MSNBC, etc).I'm aware of the phrase "toxic masculinity". I saw the Gillette commercial and I couldn't care less about it. I'm fully confident in my masculinity and things like the Gillette commercial don't bother me. I consider myself asex positiveegalitarian.

If that means promoting less bullying, less sexual harassment, less men who feel that women owe them sex or a relationship "just because" then you can call me an SJW "toxic masculinity" proponent.

But, I didn't invent the term and I don't use it. If you feel like a commercial for razor blades is infringing on your masculinity I'd say that's more of a problem withyoumore than whatever corporate Madison Avenue advertising is using to try and sell their products. If that's something that upsets you, you're just another person involved in the whole cancel culture fiasco.

If you want to be a man and act masculine no one is stopping you. If you're getting your queues on masculinity from MSM and what you consider to be "anti-male feminists" I suggest you ignore them and move on with your life.

Another thing you should consider is
A) Journalists get paid per article by the number of clicks they get on it. That incentivizes them to make clickbait headlines and to try and drum up social media outrage about a topic.
B) Corporations use this same tactic to attempt to make controversial topics so you will pay attention to them. Would you give a sh!t who makes your razor blade if certain companies promoted so called "masculinity" or "feminist values (or whatever)"? No. The whole idea is to get part of the social media cancel culture outrage tofocuson that brand. At the end of the day and you walk into a grocery store to buy a razor, are you really going to be so offended that Gillette wants men to teach boys not to be bullies or are you going to grab the cheapest or best reviewed or whatever razor is available there at the time.

I could go on and on, but I'll make one more recommendation and just say if you haven't already, read (not watch the movie - although the movie is great and covers a lot of the same ground) ofFight Club&Survivor- which are both great books by Chuck Palahniuk that deal with disenfranchised people who feel as though they've lost their masculinity through culture, society, etc. and how they deal with it, ending up with horrible consequences.

There's also a great article from Tolerance.org, which is run by the SPLC that explains the term "toxic masculinity" in depth if you care to take the time to read it.
https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/w...ic-masculinity

https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/al...eos-rebuttals/

^^ that's like 11(maybe more) videos doing in-depths rebuttals of Vox, demonstrating a consistent pattern of at best, rank amateur journalism with negligible research. And that's being EXTREMELY generous considering its 99% certain they know thast their info is wrong and post it anyway.

So yeah, my comment is harsh, but there's really only three options for someone who starts saying that Vox is great and anyone who doesn't like them is just politically biased.

ignorance, stupidity, and dishonesty.

So let me apologize and give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you fell into category #1.

However, that's not really an option anymore. Please educate yourself, even if you dislike Crowder, he provides a lot of sources for his claims, and you can check them all.


edit:
heres a (possible incomplete) list of Vox's attempts at censorship
https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAct...as_gone_after/

I didn't say it did or didn't bother me. I inferred it was attacking masculinity by association the actions of their narrow target demographic with what they portrayed in their advertising through shame which is a direct example that refutes your counter to Ernie's and my original point.

All the elements of a third wave feminist agenda are there including leadership that influenced and pushed the advertising. You can feel good or bad about it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Lunatic! It's good to see you. I honestly thought you had died or something man, lol. I'm all out of reps for today or I would throw you and a lot of other people some in this thread. HMU on a PM or Twitter or Email (or I can give you my IG or WickrMe contact) and we can chat.

Under this definition practically every online community would qualify as a cult.

- myfitnesspal -it is all about calories in/calories out
- dailkos -all the liberals all the time
- redstate -all the conservatives all the time
- zerohedge - all the doomers all the time
- fetlife - 'nuff said?

So people are self-segregating into like minded online echo chambers. Low bar for cult-hood IMO.

Yeah I see that now. That was fast sentencing. Think i actually posted in that original thread lmao

I think the main contradiction is that with cults there is some pressure that forces, coerces, or otherwise deceives the majority of the members for the sake of participation. No one forces people to participate here lol. It's not a gang where once you're in, you're in. You sign in, you sign off, post some tranny porn, get banned.

The Misc has been flooded with incels for several years and the forum pops up pretty often in incel-themed searches, so it's no surprise to see BB.com get a mention as a cult-ish space. Honestly it's sad to see after all these years a mod of all people in denial that not only we've served as a pit stop for sickos like Rodgers, but also thinking that the mindset is not cultivated either.

Yeah, between the daily barrage of "women are whores/evil", "should I kms if I don't look like Lachowski" and incels trolls like used car salesman and whoever the **** keeps posting undernourished Southeast Asian women, I can't possibly fathom why outsiders would think the site can seem like a cult.

It is sad. The influx of incels / forever alone virgin losers undermined what was once a thriving, fun online community of lifters.

Idk man. I didnt have a thread i responded to pop up in that whiny lil bitch thread until 42 pages deep. You could stick to certain threads like product threads and nutritition threads and not be involved with them

Thats different to a cult for me

bodybuilding.com has cult like behavior because it's an echo chamber of the same opinions and ideologies. Anyone who uses the misc regularly can't deny that's it's had an effect on how you view the world. Like, everyone here seems to have the same ridiculous opinions about everything even if those opinions are extremely rare out in the real world.

People are brainwashed by this forum and others like it into thinking the opinions they hold on various subjects are actually their own and not just the misc hive mind telling them what to believe.

- 'alpha' 'beta' definitions and standards for men. Young kids come on here and read that trolling and actually equate their self worth to how alpha they can be.

- 'sloots gon sloot' notion that all women cheat and have had more dink than men have pussiiees.

- lifting / looks standards. If you are not 200 lbs with 5% body fat and face like Cristiano Ronaldo, might as well not approach women. More pushed by the new wave incels on here.

- Race playing a part in quality of women you can get / quality of life. Some of it is true, women have race preferences but so do they have preferences about height, hair colour, income, body weight etc. etc. This forum makes men too hung up on race and 'ethniks' are chit on all the time (mostly trolling)

- 'cuck'. The judgement of any sort of action that they don't agree with instantly makes u a 'cuck'. Getting married = cuck. Buying dinner on a date = cuck. Picking her up and dropping her off = cuck.

All in all i feel young men come on here read this stuff and take it to heart and become a human being which they aren't and just put a facade on. Takes a toll on mental health for a lot of these who would have just lived happier lives and been more fulfilled if they hadn't taken the 'red pill' of this forum. Toxic place in general which breeds self centered, egotistical, down right cringe worthy ideas which young kids end up believing what life is supposed to be like.

My 2 cents about why vox thinks this forum is a cult.

This is the last post I'm going to reply to for the time being. I'll get around to everyone else's posts and replies later or tomorrow.I think you should watch the episode before you jump to that conclusion. I agree, bodybuilding.com is not a cult in the typical sense that we think of one. But it can be an echo chamber for people with similar views to reinforce what they already think and take them down a path of leading an even more negative lifestyle, viewpoints on women, other topics, etc, etc, etc.

The main point they were trying to make in the episode is that the traditional "cult" as we know it where there is a religious authoritarian leader that leads their flock to mass suicide or whatever is no longer necessarily one that applies to today's cultural zeitgeist. Their point was that people are turning to online mediums to propagate their viewpoints, reinforce negative stereotypes and so forth. The episode is only 30 minutes so it's worth the watch just to see what they're referring too.I think you're being a little over dramatic when you say it's leading to "the degradation of society". Although I don't agree with the right leaning point of view, I can respect and understand your opinion though. I feel as though OAN and Fox News have brainwashed the baby boomer generation into many provably false narratives and their straight up lies misinform millions of viewers on a variety of topics, including climate change, the Trump/Republican agenda, and etc.

Just as an example, both of my parents are college educated baby boomers who believe Trump is the absolute messiah and refuse to listen to any other viewpoint other than his, even when there is absolutely obvious criticism to be made against him. They believe climate change is a hoax, Trump's policies on tariffs, trade wars, making enemies with countries that are our allies is a good thing and so on.

I voted for Obama, but I still disagreed with him on a large number of issues and was willing to discuss his faults. I don't see that with Trumpists, at least in my experience.You're going to have to elaborate on that for me because the notion that a relatively small YouTube channel is "promoting social degeneracy (degeneracy? really?)" is completely absurd, IMO. Not all their videos are focused on politics or social issues.And they are.... ? You seem to be under the misconception that Vox is some deep state left funded propaganda network that's destroying the moral fabric of America and that's simply ridiculous. Since you didn't exactly provide your explanation of "what they are" this is my assumption of what you think they are and what they're doing. IMO, the more corporate and MSM is more of a corrupting factor to our political discourse and dividing us as a country into factions of left vs right and that there can be no discussion between these two groups because each side views the other as completely insane and beyond reach. I think that is an extremely dangerous mindset to have and is going to lead to us into "a house divided against itself cannot stand".

I'll lay my cards on the table and say I greatly dislike Trump and think he is terrible president, extremely corrupt, andshouldbe impeached (although he obviously won't). Nonetheless, I do agree with him on some issues. I agree with his isolationist stance and think the EU and NATO should be doing more work to help police problems of the world than we do. There's a few other things I agree with him on, but they slip my mind ATM. I have much more to say on him, but that's neither here nor there on the topic of this thread.

This whole political divide in this country has honestly given me a great deal of anxiety and I try to focus on the news as little as possible just to avoid getting upset or distraught about it. I just wish we had more John McCain's and Elijah Cummings in politics who could split partisan divide aside and represent their constituents and act in respectable manners to those who disagree with them. But, unfortunately, it seems like the new breed of politicians are simply there to divide and conqueror, regardless of the cost.I don't see any problem with any of those videos. Vox is obviously entitled to their opinion, and I haven't seen most of those videos, TBH. I mostly watch their entertainment videos. I don't feel like breaking each one of those down one by one to explain why they arecorrecton those viewpoints, but I will reiterate I agree with them and their viewpoints.Again, I'll have to have to you explain what you "think" Vox is. I made an assumption of what you think they are above, but you'll have to give me more detail. I think you're greatly exaggerating their reach, for one, and two, the idea that they are some sort of leftist propaganda network is ludicrous. I can show you plenty of more YouTube channels I watch that are extremely left leaning and honestly typically don't watch them.

I have a list on Twitter that I use for breaking news stories when they're happening, and although you might not agree with some of the sources I use, I've tried to find accounts that just deal with news as itbreaks. Breaking news is very hard to spin a bias against as it's happening simply because the information is coming trickling in. You're welcome to take a look and subscribe. I've tried to use sources from both the left and right to have a balance of news sources - and simply because some news sources get the scoop faster than other ones.

Breaking News:

Members on the list (so you can see the sources):

- also honestly, I need to go through and prune some of these sources because some of them are dead and no longer post, etc.

But in terms of general news I read just daily is mostly breaking news from wire services like the AP, Reuters, the BBC and whatever Google News wants to show me. I generally just read the headlines and not the actual stories themselves.

Regardless, this part of the topic has gotten way out of the scope of the original post. You're free - and I welcome you - to expand on your views on Vox and I'd like to ask you to provide some sources for your opinions on why they're wrong or whether you just disagree with their opinions. Why not narrow it down to a few that you think are particularly egregious (or whatever) and expand upon that, so we don't have to go through each video and debate each and every single topic.

I'd also like to try and push this thread back into the original topic of the post, which is that the idea that bodybuilding.com can be attributed as some sort of cult. As you can see from the tweet I posted from the producer of the video, he seemed to simply include it because he was under the (IMO) misguided assumption that it was Elliot Roger's favorite forum.

Not totally 'innocent' here. All i see is men putting other men down. Some incels killing women and being celebrated and ridiculous opinions being shared like it's normal.

This place is as toxic as Reddit. Breeding ground for mental illness.

One last thing I'll post that I thought was very interesting is basically the "incel manifesto". It's the full interrogation ofAlek Minassian, the Canadian man who drove a truck info a Vancouver street, killing 10 and injuring 16. He idolized Elliot Rodger as the "supreme gentleman" and in his confession he gives an overview of what the "incel revolution" would look like if they had their way.

The video is about an hour long, so grab some popcorn, but it's well worth your time to watch and a fascinating look inside the mind of some of these corrupt and sick incels who believe women owe them relationships and sex and what they will do if they don't get it. It's fascinating and quite eye opening what a problem this is becoming.

The Psychology of an Incel via JCS - Criminal Psychology

Me, the biggest chad on the misc

Wait, how big was his penis?

You need to understand that the modus operandis of the left is to suppress any thought that differs from their dogma. They will label the people that stray away from their church Nazis, Facist, misogynist, racist, etc.

If you actually pay attention, MSM, Hollywood, the news, Netflix, everything is heavily influenced by progressive (regressive) dogma.

I think it’s much more interesting that this thread is demonstrating how even active moderators still have no idea what’s going on here

Masculinity is an evil that feminists and soy boys that work at fake news sites like Voc find threatening. So they malign and attack it anywhere it’s permissible (even nominally). Hence, the idiotic claim that a message board is a cult.

This would be the worst cult ever. Most of the threads have some level of contention in them whether it’s LTV vs HTC, calling out posters for bad sports takes, or clowning people for relationship/dating stupidity. You don’t antagonize people you want to join a cult you want them all to drink the same Kool-Aid.

I just find it funny that anyone takes this place seriously.

the mafia types that own the media and hollywood (and vox for that matter) want to brainwash everyone into fitting in with their agenda. the idea that we can openly state our opinions probably bothers them a great deal, especially when you have guys who look up to the idea of being strong, red blooded americans.

george soros and his scum bag friends probably also hate the fact that there are so many people on this site that support gun rights.

I'd have to lol @ some liberal, out of shape nerd who probably cries about judging weirdos, judging the MISC.

i saw a couple vox vids before and they're horrible. all surface level reasoning with a lot of misinformation.

this is basically every vid

SPLC??? You mean the people that call Dave Rubin, Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, Ayaan Hirsi Ali Nazis?

Hey everyone, welcome to the bb.com party. Remember to grab some punch, and we'll all toast to zzyz at 9 pm sharp. No one drink it before then

Lol @ taking vox and netflix seriously. Hardly anybody agrees on misc. There are different opinions in every thread. You wanna talk about cults and cultist behavior? Look no further than the left wing media. These people are insane.