The internet has a fraught relationship with feminism. Hatred is rife.

On one side of a deep divide are a vicious, self-assured, pseudo-intellectual TERF rad-fem collective, who mostly inhabit the darker corners of tumblr. On the other sit moronic, loud, frat boy 4chan dwellers, who are taking to twitter to right the perceived wrongs done to them by a movement that they believe wants not equality, but the subjugation of all men.

It began, as many things don’t, on feminism.com. Male feminists had been sharing legitimate thoughts on female structural oppression in society, writing how they “are all opposed to all forms of misogynist behaviour and sexist attitudes; we support all women”. Lovely.

Then, swooping in with all the verbal grace and dexterous wit of a bag filled with cement, came the meninsts on twitter. Out, seemingly, to openly mock those who would address the structural inequalities of society and have it be a nicer place for everyone, a group hijacked the meninism hashtag, and flooded twitter with a range of hilarious ‘jokes’ for everyone to ‘enjoy’. Although deeply unfunny, casually misogynistic, and unfathomably stupid on every conceivable level, could these aforementioned meninists have unintentionally made a cogent point? Were they raising an important issue to feminists?

Are they right in resenting and parodying the way activists self-fashion their movements on social media in addressing inequality? To risk conceding a tiny piece of ground to the sort of dangerous idiot that came out with this – yes, they might have a little point, but it’s a point that’s made self-reflexively, and entirely without any actual thinking done on their part. Let me explain.

The internet fosters hate exceptionally quickly. Strong, vocal, like-minded communities emerge rapidly, and, most importantly, these communities are rarely, if ever, exposed to opposite opinions if they don’t want to be. Debate is, for some, at a bare minimum. Tight-knit groups on social media platforms are permitted to huddle in their insular communities, exposing each other to similar ideas constantly, and hearing little to no criticism unless they actively seek it out – which a notable few fail to do. The result is a positive-feedback loop as unassailably vast and imposing as Saturn’s ring. Views become gradually more and more radical – no dissenting voices means everyone is right, all the time, with little regard to what is actually being said.

Moreover those dissenting voices can be caricatured, straw men can be constructed at random, stupid becomes orthodox, heterodox becomes stupid.

Monocultures develop; people who express themselves the same, like the same stuff, and have the same opinions see the world as their enemy and, if motivated enough, do something about it.

Of course these groups are always small – I think of the awful Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists, of Men’s Rights Activists and now (probably as an offshoot of the MRA) Meninists. Meninists are the perfect example of a community monoculture leaking out onto a wider platform – and rightly being condemned for it. But, quite apart from being a gaggle of people who clearly (and perhaps intentionally) misunderstand feminism, they illustrate an important wider point.

It’s imperative that feminism, and indeed all social justice movements, don’t fall into the trap of becoming monocultures. They cannot exclude outsiders for the (unfounded) fear they are stupid, they cannot permit unquestioning acceptance of ridiculous dogma coming from inside the movement, they ought to keep in check pseudo-intellectualism and rhetorical tricks and make points clearly and concisely.

People inside activist movements have to be self-aware, and self-effacing – aware of how they sound to others, and aware that their movement cannot be just about them, not if it wants to find success in the world beyond their room.

Of course meninism has to go. Feminism is not, and will never be, about men. Men are implicated, sure, and things will undoubtedly improve for most men if feminism is successful. But feminism is about a woman’s struggle for emancipation and equality, not anything else. The sooner this is acknowledged, the sooner we can achieve change.

Yet feminism can learn from the stupidity of meninism, even if only through looking at the way it emerged as an idea. To seek out debate, to find out what your opponent is actually saying is, more than likely, worth your time, even if only to make them look a bit stupid. Don’t let the movement become a caricature, don’t set up straw men, don’t sit in an ivory tower.