The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

400 Men Castrated by Cult?

Posted on | March 2, 2015 | 64 Comments

Surprisingly, this has nothing to do with feminism:

A man has been accused of encouraging hundreds of followers to be castrated in a promise for them to become closer to God.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, an Indian pop-star and telepreacher with a reported wealth of more than $50 million, is being investigated after he allegedly manipulated around 400 men to get their testicles removed — according to India Today.
One of his former followers who underwent castration seven years ago — named Hans Raj Chauhan — is one of the few to break the silence to speak out against him and the group.
“[The victims] were told that only those who get castrated will be able to meet God,” said Chauhan’s lawyer, Navkiran Singh, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Amanda Marcotte could not be reached for comment.

 

Comments

64 Responses to “400 Men Castrated by Cult?”

  1. John Bradley
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 5:47 pm

    …and that cult’s name? “The House and Senate Majority”

  2. Phil_McG
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 6:07 pm

    Wow. That is nuts.

  3. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 6:23 pm

    ISWYDT

  4. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 6:33 pm

    I actually take stories like this very seriously, because they point to a conflict between Darwinism and humanism. The larger that our population gets, the more that people will be disposable, but especially men. We’ve always been sacrificial, but that was because we were necessary, and now we’re not.

    It isn’t just India, with it’s 1.2+ billion. We are all unnecessary in a world of over seven billion, so it will be increasingly easy to convince men in particular to give up not only their fertility (which a vasectomy would do), but also their masculinity. We can only expect to hear more stories like this.

  5. RKae
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 6:51 pm

    Remember the Heaven’s Gate cult who killed themselves to join up with the Hale-Bopp comet? Those guys were castrated.

  6. Lazarus Long
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 6:52 pm

    However, the feminists have duly taken note and are envisioning the possibilities.

  7. RKae
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 6:52 pm

    Why exactly does our society look down on someone who would have himself castrated to get closer to God, but someone who has himself castrated because he’s under the delusion that he’s a woman… well, that guy’s “brave”?

  8. Phil_McG
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:01 pm

    We are all unnecessary in a world of over seven billion

    Eh… 7 billion is just a number.

    If you didn’t tell them, would the average person even know the global population is 7 billion? You could tell them it was 2 billion, or 20 billion. Unless they could look it up, they’d be none the wiser, because there’s no way for the vast majority to ever experience what the Earth’s population is, or for that number to be directly relevant to them.

    Which is a long winded way of me saying everything is local.

    so it will be increasingly easy to convince men in particular to give up not only their fertility (which a vasectomy would do), but also their masculinity. We can only expect to hear more stories like this.

    I doubt it. Most men are attached to their balls. India really is a crazy country, and ritual castration has a long history there. They do tons of other crazy shit too, like drinking cow piss and treating monkeys as sacred messengers of Hanuman. When I saw this blog headline, my first thought was “India”.

  9. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:14 pm

    Unless they could look it up, they’d be none the wiser, because there’s no way for the vast majority to ever experience what the Earth’s population is, or for that number to be directly relevant to them.

    Which is a long winded way of me saying everything is local.

    That is true — I had to look it up to discover that it’s been years since it went up from 6 billion — but that merely deflects the problem from population to urbanization, from quantity to concentration.

    India really is a crazy country, and ritual castration has a long history there.

    I did not know that, but it doesn’t affect my point about voluntary infertility (such as vasectomies or celibacy) and effeminization. Those can happen anywhere, such as the s?shoku danshi in Japan.

  10. robertstacymccain
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:26 pm

    Thomas Sowell once explained that the entire population of the world could live in Texas with room to spare. The idea that the world is “overpopulated” is absurd. All those Soylent Green dystopian scenarios of mass starvation have been proven wrong and why? Because human intelligence is the most useful of all “natural resources.” People who claim that the world is overpopulated never offer to help solve the problem by committing suicide, do they? Of course not: They consider themselves to be part of the solution. It’s the rest of us they consider to be problems.

  11. Gahrie
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:28 pm

    “Amanda Marcotte could not be reached for comment”

    Don’t worry about her, she doesn’t believe in God, so her testicles are safe.

  12. Zohydro
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:32 pm

    and gay…

  13. DeadMessenger
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:33 pm

    Bwahahahaha! Hilarious!

  14. Joe Guelph
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:35 pm

    Not just India. The widespread Skoptsy cult in Russia featured ritual self-castration up until the 1917 Revolution.

  15. Jeanette Victoria
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:36 pm

    Anyone remember the Heaven’s Gate cult they got castrated as well

  16. DeadMessenger
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:36 pm

    “…treating monkeys as sacred messengers of Hanuman.”

    Like Congress’s relationship with Obama? Or more like Obama’s relationship with Valerie Jarrett?

    No, SCOTUS’s relationship to POTUS. That’s the one.

  17. Jeanette Victoria
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:37 pm

    Opps I should have read further

  18. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:40 pm

    No. I saw the news. I saw recordings of them talking into the camera about how they were asexual, and although it has been many years, I trust my memory that much.

  19. DeadMessenger
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:40 pm

    Because the inmates are running the asylum.

  20. DeadMessenger
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:41 pm

    Being a woman, I can’t really imagine, but self-castration sounds like it would sting a bit.

  21. DeadMessenger
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:42 pm

    So they were the Michael Jackson cult?

  22. Jeanette Victoria
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:45 pm

    HeavensGate Members’Giggly’ After Castration http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/heavgate.htm

  23. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:52 pm

    That is such a good question that I’m going back and forth on it. He’s more known for his androgyny and the accusations of mal-sexuality. Plus, he purportedly has progeny.

    I’m actually inclined to believe that he was asexual, but that puts me in the “not a pedophile” camp, so don’t tell anyone. I could be ostracized.

  24. Zohydro
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:53 pm

    Haven’t you heard? The “Aces” are now also a colour of the rainbow now, too…

  25. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:53 pm

    I had heard, but I had forgotten!

  26. Zohydro
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 7:57 pm

    Too bad Jesse Ventura isn’t a member…

  27. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:00 pm

    Just imagine cutting your ovaries out, then subtract the disemboweling and keep the existential horror of removing your sexual identity.

  28. kilo6
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:01 pm
  29. Finrod Felagund
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:02 pm

    It’s difficult to ascertain, but your theory is reasonable. It was my impression that he never had an actual childhood so he spent a large part of his adult life literally trying to be a kid, and there wasn’t anyone he would listen to that would tell him that that’s just creepy.

  30. Zohydro
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:07 pm
  31. Finrod Felagund
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:07 pm

    I remember reading that. As I recall, his math showed that the entire population of Earth at the time could live in the state of Texas with a population density no higher than your average American suburb.

  32. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:08 pm

    Well, since three of the TOM mathematician brigade have the same intuition, I would place odds on it.

  33. Finrod Felagund
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:16 pm

    Okay, that’s both wrong and hilarious.

  34. Nan
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:37 pm

    I thought your focus was on the DIY aspect; get the time-life home surgery book and a buck knife and you’re good to go.

  35. Nan
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:38 pm

    Either he was a pedophile or hadn’t grown up.

  36. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:42 pm

    Exactly. I think that he never grew up, because I think that he was asexual and his wealth sheltered him from the normal consequences of abnormal behavior.

    I believe that there is such a thing as a “normal asexual,” because most have to navigate adult social rules, just without the usual urges — but Michael Jackson didn’t.

  37. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:45 pm

    That is very true.

  38. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:46 pm

    Ah…Isn’t sort of cruel that Indian dating/marriage pop up ads appear when you click on the underlying story?

  39. Jeanette Victoria
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:48 pm

    Ha!!

  40. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:51 pm

    If you want to delete one of your duplicate posts, edit it to a period, then hover over the post and go to the down-triangle on the right. If you just delete it, then it just changes your name to Guest.

  41. Colonel Haiku
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 8:59 pm

    Sing it out, Hans Raj! Hit those high notes!

  42. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 9:00 pm

    Yeah, but if I imagine it as “existential horror” then maybe they were traumatized. I actually never thought of partial hysterectomy as being that bad until now. Just a medical procedure, right? But when I make the analogy, I’m horrified.

  43. RKae
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 9:07 pm

    I’m going to say his “progeny” look nothing like him.

  44. Daniel Freeman
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 9:24 pm

    Wow, I just checked, and you’re right. They’re white! And “Blanket” has a speech impediment!

    ETA: I’m really surprised that this wasn’t enough of a controversy to reach my attention before now.

  45. Fail Burton
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 10:28 pm

    Where are they and the comet now?

  46. Wombat_socho
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 11:34 pm

    Neither could John Scalzi.

  47. Zohydro
    March 2nd, 2015 @ 11:42 pm

    Oophorectomy…

  48. jakee308
    March 3rd, 2015 @ 12:29 am

    We all know that Marcotte had an evil grin on her face when she read this story.

    Maybe even lol’d.

    Possibly an O.

  49. RKae
    March 3rd, 2015 @ 1:21 am

    Over the rainbow.

  50. Steve Skubinna
    March 3rd, 2015 @ 2:08 am

    At least they’re still alive, unlike the members of Marshall Applewhite’s Heaven’s Gate Cult.