Rape legalization advocate Roosh V called Monday for his “neomasculinist” supporters to “come out” for 43 meetings around the world on Feb. 6, his first attempt to connect with followers offline.
Hours after he tweeted a picture of his plane ticket to Australia for the meeting, almost 20,000 Australians signed a petition against his “misogynistic form of terrorism.” Roosh V, whose full name is Daryush Valizadeh, said that only heterosexual men are invited and told participants to film protesters so he could “exact furious retribution” and “tear them up” afterward.
RT @LizBroderick: The views espoused by Return of Kings are deeply offensive and have no place in Australia #respect #equality @smh
— Elizabeth Broderick (@LizBroderick)
February 1, 2016
Admittedly a serial rapist and popular among neo-Nazis, Roosh V started an online “men’s advocacy” group, Return of the Kings, which has up to 1 million users, according to the BBC—though most of the comments are from critics.
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His active Twitter account and blog target women, who he believes are biologically determined to follow men’s orders. One article argued that Aboriginees and Torres Strait Islanders have child sexual abuse and rape in their tradition, and a tweet said he would “rebrand” as a Syrian “for fast money and easy sex.” The website also has a “resident theologian” and a Scandinavia correspondent.
To all attractive Australian girls in age range of 18-22. I'm coming to your country and am free to meet for drinks. Email roosh@rooshv.com.
— Roosh (@rooshv)
February 1, 2016
The Return of the Kings will organize three “tribal meetings” in Australia, to which the police are already prepared to attend.
"Defending the right of free speech involves providing opportunities to people to express opinions which society appalls and rejects,” said Stephen Blanks, president of the New South Wales Council of Civil Liberties. “The right to free speech does not include the right to advocate violence in any way that may encourage actual violence against women or anyone else.”
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Roosh V and other Return of the Kings members discussed plans for founding paramilitaries in Eastern Europe in online forums, including partnering with other online voices like Iron Legion, which claims that “money and the left” are “masked villains that must be smashed.” They also post pictures and personal information about women for men that live nearby to stalk and threaten them. His self-published books encourage sexual assault, a user-submitted guide lists the best places in Ireland to assault girls, and he has said that he assumes all men rape every day.
Feminists took to social media on Monday to show Australia’s opposition, which Roosh V immediately advertised to show the level of polemical opposition against him.
And we're trending in Australia. pic.twitter.com/L6AJ14PcUj
— Roosh (@rooshv)
February 1, 2016
I love how I can trigger entire countries and get women clutching their pearls without stepping foot inside them. pic.twitter.com/jI4klcwfNT
— Roosh (@rooshv)
February 1, 2016