Image via AP.

On Wednesday, the New Hampshire House Legislative Administration Committee conducted a review of comments made by Republican Rep. Robert Fisher, who was recently revealed in a Daily Beast investigation to be the creator of Reddit’s rabidly misogynist “Red Pill” forum, a men’s rights hellhole frequented by the likes of Milo Yiannopoulos. On the morning of the probe, The Daily Beast released a follow-up investigation indicating that Fisher had remained active on the forum under a different alias; among other things, that alias wrote that “feminists wish they were hot enough to be rape-able.”

Under the alias pk_atheist, the Beast initially reported, Fisher, apparently spurred by a bad breakup and frustrating dating experiences, lamented the supposed upper hand that women have in sexual encounters, obsessed over false rape accusations (“You can’t have sex with this many women without getting one”), claimed that he videotapes sexual encounters to shield himself from false rape allegations, and emphasized the exactly backwards notion that authorities are immediately sympathetic to sexual assault claims. Fisher had also previously railed against “the autonomy that feminism has afforded” women.

Following the report, party leaders including Republican Gov. Chris Sununu have called for Fisher to step down. Fisher has not obliged. “I’m not interested in letting manufactured moral outrage over some out-of-context non-quotes dictate whether I’m going to do my job in Concord,” he declared in a written statement last month. He admitted to saying “some injudicious things about the opposite sex following a bad breakup,” but denied being a rape apologist, claiming loftily to WMUR that that “was an out-of-context quote from a nearly decade-old debate about the failings of moral relativism.” He also claimed that he actually did not videotape any sexual encounters, “though I have often considered that it may be the best, or only, form of protection for men to prevent false rape accusations.”


“I am not disappearing. I will continue to stand strong for men’s rights and the rights of all,” he said in a statement to WMUR.


After some debate, which included Trump campaign advisor Rep. Al Baldasaro (R)—best known for the time he said Hillary Clinton should be shot for treason, also known for an alarming photo of his wife and her bridesmaids brandishing rifles that keeps showing up when you Google “Londonderry”—launching a stirring defense of “freedom of speech,” the NH House voted in favor of reviewing Fisher’s comments in today’s hearing. Interestingly, the Republican-led House pushed to also review social media statements made by Democratic Rep. Sherry Frost, whose tweets—“more terrorism is perpetrated by white men who claim Christianity than by Muslims in the USA,” and “The people (read; men) telling me to ‘calm down’ & ‘not take it so hard’ are making me homicidal”—seem like they must have been pretty triggering for Fisher and his male colleagues.

In her hearing tomorrow, a woman lawmaker who popped off on Twitter about white male supremacy and misogyny will face the same level of scrutiny as a rape apologist. “Hyperbole is not the same as vicious misogyny,” Frost told the Concord Monitor.


This isn’t the only sexism scandal that’s recently plagued the New Hampshire State House of Representatives; after a group of four male reps introduced a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for women to show their nipples, Baldasaro and Rep. Josh Moore harangued Democratic colleague Amanda Bouldin, who had criticized the bill. “If it’s a woman’s natural inclination to pull out her nipple in public and you support that, then you should have no problem with a mans inclination to stare at it and grab it,” Moore wrote. Baldasaro chimed in to tell Rep. Bouldin that “your nipple is the last one I would want to see.”

In April, State Rep. Debra Altschiller wrote an op-ed for the Monitor claiming that rape culture is “pervasive” at the State House, recalling that the vice chair of the Criminal Justice Committee joked about hiring prostitutes in Amsterdam during a hearing on sex trafficking. Altschiller also noted that the House voted to indefinitely postpone a bill that would repeal a current New Hampshire law allowing 13-year-old girls and 14-year-old boys to get married.


Fisher did not deny creating The Red Pill, but claimed that he does not currently moderate it; the Beast reported that pk_atheist made his last comment on the forum in October 2016. The House probe only covers comments made during the current legislative session, which began in January 2017. But just last night, the follow-up investigation from The Daily Beast indicated that Fisher had continued to publish deeply chilling content under the new moniker “redpillschool.”



Redpillschool, the Beast found, wrote that “being a man has become a financial liability” and feminists “fought for equality, but now they’re out for our rights.” Redpillschool displayed a similar obsession with videotaping sexual encounters, instructing the forum to put up a sign on their front door reading “‘Premises under audio and video surveillance, by entering this property you agree to be recorded.’” He felt that Donald Trump’s “grab her by the pussy” remarks were merely “off-color” and deemed his sexual exploits “consensual,” and claimed that women have a “limited and childish perspective” as compared to men; from his own much more mature perspective, “Every woman wants to be attractive enough to be raped. It’s like the pinnacle of male desire, when he can’t stop no matter what.”


In 2017, redpillschool engaged in an inquiry as to whether women ought to have the right to vote, giving the argument “some merit.” He decided that disenfranchising women is a “dumb idea,” but appeared to heartily agree with the extremely dystopian underlying implications:

Are they biologically unable to make decisions that help men? Perhaps so. But TRP has always been about how a man makes personal decisions to operate in an unfair universe where women have an upper hand. Advocating for “fixing” the universe instead of learning how to traverse it is a childish pipe dream. I happen to agree with the articles I put in my sidebar. Nobody needs to remind me what I’ve endorsed. If you check my post history, I’m one of the most vocal members regarding how women fucked the country with the vote. But now is the time to discuss pragmatism. Taking away the vote from women is a dumb idea. We could just tie up all women and keep them bound to chairs, only to untie them for long enough to make babies. That’s a stupid idea as well. Would it change the political landscape? Yes. But just because it changes the political landscape doesn’t make it a good idea. Dark enlightenment fanboys be damned.


In an interview with The Daily Beast, Fisher called the apparent connection between himself and redpillschool “categorically false.” Of the email address that ties him to the account and other related websites, Fisher said he hosts the websites of “a lot of people.”

In today’s hearing, Fisher was again unapologetic, referring “some injudicious statements” and claiming that it was “clearly not my intent for my words to harm anyone.” Under oath, he claimed again that he no longer posts on The Red Pill forum or uses any additional aliases, and said that the investigation into “out of context” comments was a “poor use of our time.” He passed around a not particularly long article he’d written on New Hampshire’s transgender bathroom bill as proof that he has dedicated his time this legislative session to important matters (The Daily Beast noted that he has refused to sit on a committee and only shows up to vote half the time).


“I have sat in emergency rooms with rape victims while nurses and doctors gather DNA evidence for possible prosecution,” Rep. Debra Altschiller said during her testimony. “I can tell you with certainty, rape is no joke. When you use it to fumble around with other rape apologists in chatrooms designed to discuss sexual strategies with other misogynists, you are not just participating in rape culture. You are grooming it, you are cultivating it, you are growing it.”