How Roosh V Is Playing Everyone In His Own Game of Extreme Sports

The national controversy started over Roosh’s thought experiment article “How to Stop Rape,” which appeared to advocate legalizing rape on private property.

Roosh was mischaracterized as being “Pro Rape” and the over 100 meetups around the world that were to be held were being called “Pro Rape Meetings” due to lazy reporting.

Yet Roosh really invited the shit storm against himself.

He only labeled the rather tasteless post as “satire” after the controversy blew up and the media focused their piercing gaze on it.

If you look at the original post on the Way Back Machine, it’s not labeled as satire, and it doesn’t read as satire, at all. Roosh in fact originally calls it a thought experiment, and that disclaimer is buried in the copy.

It also has a picture of what looks like a little girl looking like she’s about to be raped by an older man (which he since removed from his site).  The rapey picture is here.

I can easily see how the media could get confused on this, particularly since Roosh has other posts where he presents proposals quite seriously, such as not allowing women to attend college. And the article comments left by some of his loyal fans drip with anti-Semitism, ultra-nationalism, and almost a cartoonish amount of misogyny.

Yeah, the media is lazy in general, has tight budgets, and wants to make money (that’s capitalism for you, right, so can you really fault it?).

But while Roosh isn’t pro-rape and some good thorough journalism would bare that out, Roosh was still asking for controversy by painting a giant bullseye on his back. The post was never labeled “satire” as he claims, and he only removed the child-rapey picture much later after the fact.

(Just to clarify upfront, I am on Roosh’s side in the sense that the media witch hunt over this was lazy and silly. One can defend Roosh, and yet throw criticism at how he seems to purposely (or at least rather naively and stupidly) instigate all the shit to hit him like a ton of bricks.)

Don’t Feel Too Bad For Roosh

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t feel too sorry for Roosh.

He’ll sell more of his “Bang” books this way. After it blows over, he can go back to feeling like he’s repressed by modern capitalist-feminist society and go back to living like a king, traveling the world, and banging girls.

Roosh’s Brilliant Marketing Strategy

Here’s why I think they scheduled meet-ups in over 130 cities, all on the same day, and why they didn’t build it organically and over time…

Roosh had to have known or suspected that holding something so big and extravagant would possibly draw media attention.

Either the worldwide meetings take place, and victory can be proclaimed over their perceived enemies, or cancelling them unifies his fans and makes them feel more embattled and united.

What Roosh is doing is (step 1) deliberately provoking the media to pounce on a big juicy target, and then (step 2) painting oneself as a victim and (step 3) building a cult following from the ashes and (step 4) selling more books and online ads.

It’s brilliant marketing really, if you’re willing to take on the label as “the most hated man in the world”.

So Do Men Really Have It So Bad Nowadays?

Roosh isn’t oppressed by the media or SWJs or feminists, any more than he would be at any other point in history.

If his rape article were published in the pre-feminist and pre-Internet era, say the 1950s, in the local newspaper, the local populace would string him up by his balls. He’d still be a hated man. And hated by church-going, God-fearing social conservatives mostly.

Even me publishing “Seduction Science” would have been near impossible socially or politically 50 years ago.

In fact, men have *more* freedom now than ever.

More freedom of speech (as described above—you can post outlandish opinions and aside from troll comments, people don’t hassle you).

More freedom to travel (it’s cheaper and more convenient than ever).

More freedom to sleep with girls (it’s more socially acceptable than ever, pickup is socially acceptable, and even prostitution is more socially acceptable).

More freedom to have fun.

More freedom to deviate from both cultural norms and sexual norms (swinging, couple swapping, pickup, one night stands, sex with girls in foreign countries, etc).

More freedom to make money and be your own boss (online business, real estate, etc).

It’s really the best time to be alive for a man.

Things aren’t perfect, but men aren’t oppressed, at least not compared to any mythical utopian past era he’s fantasizing about in his imagination.

Roosh Broke The “Unspoken Rules”

There are some “unspoken rules” you generally can’t cross however, unless you make it extremely, *extremely* clear that it is purely joking. Like:

1. Sex with kids
2. Raping girls
3. Overtly racist stuff

Roosh should have known better to even flirt around with such subject matter.

99.9% of what he writes is maybe controversial, but it wouldn’t garner a media witch hunt against him.

But it’s that 0.1% of what he writes that breaks the “unspoken rules of the game”, and results in a mountain of shit coming down on him.

In any era, in any society, feminist or not, with SWJs or not, with a mass media or not, there will be people around that won’t tolerate individuals to cross that line. 50 years ago it would have been the townspeople sitting down with Roosh and applying social pressure on him through community shaming. Maybe the local town goons would break his knees, or the pastor would visit his Mom and have a talking with them. But *Something* would have happened to make it stop.

But since Roosh uses the global Internet to put out his message globally, he’s simply receiving a global response.

Roosh Became A Politician, And Got Skewered Like A Politician

Next up; once you become a public figure, it’s expected that you’re fair game to receive public media scrutiny. Whether that scrutiny is fair or unfair, you can expect it to hit you eventually.

For example, politicians running for President find themselves under the intense glare of the media. And yet it’s considered bad taste and taboo to film or scrutinize their children or spouses. Because their family isn’t in the public eye. And the media does a pretty good job of staying away from their children and spouses.

Roosh however deliberately, by his own volition, went on a number of high-profile television shows. Like the Dr. Oz Show.

Because of his mainstream media appearances, he to some degree became a public figure.

As soon as you seek out television publicity, it’s almost like you’re considered fair game by the media to go after you.

If he simply had remained more visually anonymous, the media wouldn’t have had a public personality to demonize. Notice how nobody else on Return Of Kingds has gotten skewered. Because they did not become public politicians by seeking television appearances!

Roosh, by seeking out television publicity and proclaiming himself the leader of a movement publicly to the world, knowingly made his own bed and now he has to lay in it.

The 3 Things Roosh Did To Create The Perfect Shit Storm

So Roosh did 3 things, that when all combined together into one soup, provoked the ultimate media firestorm.

1. He created a big, massive event held in 140 cities, out of the blue, that was bound to garner attention from the outside as an easy target.
2. He broke one of the “unspoken rules” that you just don’t go there (like rape, sex with kids), unless you’re really, *really* clear that it’s parody– making it appear like he supported raping women.
3. He sought out being a television personality and becoming a public persona, making him fair game for intense media scrutiny.

This is why I believe Roosh was, consciously or unconsciously, *trying* to provoke this sort of attention on himself.

Then he gets to show how he’s a persecuted victim, and look like a hero to a sub-niche of alienated, disaffected men.

He gets attention from the media, he gets more attention from a cult following that sees him as Jesus, and he sees a surge in book sales.

Meanwhile the pickup industry gets a bad rap, women are painted as the enemy in a Biblical battle between feminists and men, and the men’s right movement is painted as a bunch of kooks and loons. But at least Roosh gets his publicity and his thrills.

Evidence That Roosh Plays The Media On Purpose And Loves The Attention

His press conference to the media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD6ajfna7tE

If his goal is to throw gasoline onto the fire of provoking the media even further, he succeeded.

During the Q&A he’s pacing around.

He sounds exasperated.

He mocks their salaries.

He says to all the media people that “all” reporters are “liars” and “dishonest”.

He says that random girls are contacting him because he’s a celebrity now and suggests that he’s going to have sex with them.

That might all be very well and true, and this lot of sorry journalists look just lazy and unprepared, but it’s not what you’d typically say to the media to tamp down a media firestorm.

Compare that to Donald Trump, who actually knows how to handle the media. Trump will say something controversial (ie that Senate Republican John McCain isn’t a hero at all), and Trump will double down and hold the frame… yet Trump always keeps his cool and remains gracious to the audience he’s speaking to.

In short, Roosh doesn’t instinctively know how to make or keep allies or win people to his side.

In Summary…

Just to clarify, I am on Roosh’s side on this.

At least in the sense that the media witch hunt over their meetups and his article is completely ridiculous.

Nonetheless, it still seems that he created all this himself and he enjoys it.

In that sense, this is his extreme sport he’s playing. He’s playing women, he’s playing the media, and he’s playing men for attention. And I don’t feel bad for him anymore than I feel bad for an American Football player who loves playing his sport and gets tackled and suffers a hard concussion to the head.