An invisible search engine optimization tag that was promptly removed from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s YouTube videos after its discovery doesn’t amount to a scandal. The attempt to spin it into one, however, reveals society’s contempt for men and a collective inability to cope with criticism of feminism.
Global News
reported earlier this month that, since 2018, the Conservative leader’s online videos had been tagged with “#mgtow,” which stands for “men going their own way.” It refers to a loose movement of men online who choose to avoid relationships with women and focus on self-improvement instead. Poilievre’s office has since condemned the movement and removed the tags.
Global reported that the tags were generally recycled from one video to the next. This was confirmed by epidemiologist and data blogger Jean-Paul R. Soucy, who conducted
his own analysis. Based on what
he found, it looks like the tags were simply copied into subsequent videos after they were originally written, with only a few exceptions in 2018.
How did the tag get there? Poilievre’s team doesn’t know for sure. It could have been an edgy staffer. It could have been an external party (marketing and communications companies can optimize a client’s search visibility by tailoring keywords to bring in target demographics). It could also have been automatically generated.
The term “MGTOW” was most popular around 2017 and 2018. Google’s records
show it was frequently more popular than “metoo” — the feminist movement against sexual assault. In other words, there’s a good chance that the software Poilievre’s team was using back then could have automatically generated the tag. Regardless, the record shows that little attention was paid to his video tags over the years.
Canadian intelligence officials have warned that extreme misogyny can constitute a national security threat. But lumping MGTOW in with male terrorists would be like criticizing all Muslims because Islamic groups make up the majority of listed
terrorist entities in Canada. It’s unfair and divisive to paint a large group as violent criminals because of an extreme few.
That’s what happened in the House of Commons after the Global story was published, though. Members of Parliament admonished the MGTOW tag as if it were literal violence. Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen
characterized the movement as misogynistic, anti-feminist and predominantly male. Of course, it isn’t necessarily misogynistic to criticize feminism (it has plenty of flaws, and survey data
shows it’s falling out of favour with younger progressives and conservatives alike).
Another Liberal MP, Jennifer O’Connell,
said Poilievre had been trying to “connect with and target incel, right-wing, anti-women, violent rhetoric for their own personal and political gain” — people, she said, who promote the murder of single women. Which is like saying it’s murderous and violent for women to swear off dating men. Maybe it’s childish or maybe it’s completely rational, but either way, it’s not “anti-woman” to choose to be alone.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the Conservatives were “exploiting technology to proliferate hate.” That’s a stretch. Indeed, proliferating hate probably looks more like actively
funding a raging antisemite.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Poilievre of courting
extremists and the
far-right and demanded he
apologize for the invisible tag. “The Conservative leader has been purposefully using his videos to appeal to far-right misogynistic online movements,” he cried. “These are anti-women movements and they have had devastating real-life consequences.” Etc…
It shouldn’t be a risk for politicians to try to appeal to men
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