The critics of rpers are not so different from rpers themselves.

Tbp archives a lot of the more entertaining comments by rpers, but not as much attention is given to the often equally entertaining comments made by raging anti-rpers who busted into trp and got infected by the same machismo fever. The comments are usually deleted. Here is a typical one that I happened to have luckily quoted word-for-word in one of my replies before that comment was deleted by an rp mod:

I only go for intelligent, sweet, nice girls, I don't do fake tits/ tan, fake blondes etc... if they are your type getting them is easy, you just need shit loads of money. The girls I've been out with are brilliant, maybe you're just into cheap sluts? Or maybe you're a 14 year old virgin talking shit on the internet, which is what it sounds like.

By a self-proclaimed feminist.

Again, it's typical. I only chose this one of many because 1) I happened to have c/p'd in my reply before it was deleted like all the others and 2) it happened to score more points than average. It has both slut and virgin shaming (+2). It has the typical criticisms of "vain/superficial women" (tan, blonde, fake tits/tan, materialistic) (+3). It even offers a bit of advice on how to easily unlock certain kinds of women ("You just need shit loads of money") (+1). The language is also derogatory and offensive (I guess because it feels necessary or fitting?) (+1).

Regardless of whether these kinds of posts are right or wrong, they often just sound like rpers (similar language and thought processes). The main difference is that this stuff is coming from anti-rpers (feminists, bpers, and others). Different color banner.

Maybe they are just bad apples? Outliers? Clearly, they haven't gotten the memo posted by the moderate groups like /r/Feminism (see top post of all time, Me vs. Other Girls).

...

Not in my experience. The only thing that makes them outliers is their language. Their language just makes their hypocrisy more obvious because they're posting in trp. Trp has that effect on people, even anti-rpers. The thought process is still the same even outside trp, even in places like tbp and ppd.

Many of the ones I'm referring to deleted their accounts/comments, but if you've been around here long enough, you know what I'm talking about.

  • "Rpers are just going for cheap, vain women." (Who are those "vain" women, I'd ask.) "You know, lots of makeup..."
  • "Oh those are just damaged/flawed women." (Flawed in what ways?) "Uneducated", "Low IQ", and some other qualities that many women may have very little choice over.
  • Some of them even sound reasonable, "[They need to] Meet women outside of the bar/club/singles scene."

I don't even strongly disagree with many of these ideas, but as reasonable as all of these comments may be, they're not wildly different from one of the most common sentiments expressed by rpers... that there are certain women who are worse for relationships due to heuristics X,Y,Z, based on these sets of personal experiences, stereotypes, or facts/statistics.

Possible rationalizations:

  1. "Our heuristics are stronger than theirs." (In this case, it's not a critique of dehumanization, generalization, or offensiveness. It's simply a matter of one side claiming they have better sociological data than the other.)

  2. Simply put: "Our ideology is better." (In this case, promoting certain women over others may encourage results favoured by feminism.)

I've described trp many times as a fringe group, but I attribute that mostly to its over-the-top language / hyperbole. Once you remove that, rpers are not so different from even their most vocal critics (aside from the color of their banners). The underlying ideas and thought processes are similar and they are common.