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Never Apologize to Fascists (with Contrapoints)

matt bernstein

471,147 views

Last week, world-class athlete Simone Biles stood up to failed-athlete-turned-crybully Riley Gaines when Riley antagonized a transgender child to her 1.5 million Twitter followers. A harassment campaign, which has become a standard (and winning!) online strategy for online right, ensued against Simone. The comments flooded in, eviscerating the gymnast (and her sponsors) — “So you want my daughter to compete against boys?” “How many medals would YOU have if you competed against MEN?” And perhaps most jarring, “I guess you want other little girls to get abused the way you did.” Things flew off the handle and became severely detached from reality, as they so often do in these campaigns. Facing endless harassment, Simone apologized, and Riley has been taking a Fox News victory lap ever since. Today, Natalie Wynn (a.k.a. Contrapoints) returns to the show as we explore the anatomy of a moral panic, the harassment campaigns which fuel them, and why you cannot compromise with a fascist.

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CHAPTERS
0:00 intro
2:34 who tf is riley gaines
5:45 riley bullies a literal child for clout because that's what "saving women's sports" is about i guess
12:31 the trans sports moral panic
16:36 a Real athlete enters the ring
19:58 “a movement to protect women in sports” oh i'm sure
29:07 shoutout factor!
30:59 tangent: i actually know about gymnastics
38:15 DARVO
40:30 no YOU look like a man
44:56 shoutout blueland!
46:54 the anatomy of a harassment campaign
53:29 an apology that was destined to fail
1:00:06 what do we do about all this

20 Comments

@averyjeanne 1 year ago

My younger sister plays high school volleyball and last season they had a boy on their team. Not a trans girl, a CIS BOY. He was on the team because he wanted to play volleyball but the school doesn’t have a boys volleyball team. And guess what, the team ranked the same as they did the previous season when it was just girls! The gendering of youth sports is so ridiculous.

@Oel-lekkim 1 year ago

How dare a trans woman CRUSH Riley’s dream of losing to five cis women.

@personneici2595 1 year ago

I think we should ban all sports

@Diego-zz1df 1 year ago

Contrapoints not even a month later: "Actually, do apologize to fascists."

@pinktearose17 1 year ago

I’ve been in transition since 2009, work as a teacher, and was deemed “passable.” In 2016, someone from my old high school outed me at a work party my second year as a teacher at the school I was working at-I wasn’t even in attendance. The hate, vitriol, and harassment I received was unbearable, and despite my stellar performance reviews, my principal ghosted me. I’ve since moved on, got married, moved to a different state, and teach where no one knows anything about me. I hate that my trans identity could destroy everything I’ve worked for at any time. It sucks, but many of us do what we have to in order to survive, because as this video makes very clear, we have fewer and fewer people on our side.

@ivy-i5s 1 year ago

it is really crazy that maybe the biggest conservative talking point is that "every man is better than any woman"

@Okthanks-c4t 1 year ago

The idea that men are inherently so much better at every sport is so anti-woman it’s mind blowing

@cassielcruzchavolla809 1 year ago (edited)

Simone didn't even advocate for trans women in women's sports,she just defended a child who was getting harassments from adults and got so much hate, and her trauma used against her that she had to "apologise." It's vile that this happened to her. Grifters like Riley are not reasonable people they're just hateful.

@fluctuhate 1 year ago

Natalie, every time I hear you speak you blow me away. “If you’re a right wing woman you can’t be against patriarchy, but you can displace the target of your anger” 26:19 thank you for putting to words a concept I have been trying to understand for years.

@emilyfrench6839 1 year ago (edited)

And let's recognize the racial component with this. A Black woman having to apologize to a White woman for no good reason? This has Jim Crow vibes.

@Witch-Club-Seitan 1 year ago

The apology was 100% pressure from her sponsors to remain neutral

@FishareFriendsNotFood972 1 year ago

In good news, I didn't really know much, nor care much, about trans rights prior to the right having a melt down over it. I, like I'm sure many people, did not have any openly trans friends, and was not very informed on the topic. But the sheer obsession from the right peaked my curiosity and made it very clear to me how important supporting trans rights is to upholding ALL the progress for women that has been made in the last 100 years. So thank you, republicans, for turning me into a proud and very vocal trans ally!

@mossyfurby 1 year ago

I'm sorry but if someone used my abuser's actions against me to try and undo me and my morals, it would just bring up so many powerful and complicated emotions. People are wayyy too fucking comfortable crossing these lines online. I know cruelty is the point but damn. What the fuck man.

@pegendary 1 year ago (edited)

25:22 This tweet is fucking insane to me LMAO. Equivocating losing to trans women in sport to getting SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AS A MINOR BY YOUR DOCTOR is such an extraordinary level of tone deafness it's gobsmacking. The desperation to be a victim, and in the same breath diminishing the unimaginable trauma endured by another woman, is breathtaking.

@countdowntocake3233 1 year ago

Beyond raw talent, one of the main reasons Simone Biles is so successful is because she’s 4’8” 😭😭😭 trans women would absolutely be at a MASSIVE disadvantage in women’s gymnastics based on average heights alone 😵‍💫

@Sasquatch_sightings 1 year ago

25:40 Conservatives live for these kinds of “well what if the world was made of pudding, what then!!?” takes and it’s so exhausting.

@TheHorrorGuru 1 year ago (edited)

This isn't the most important thing but the way Riley Gaines described Simone Biles' apology as "groveling" is very revealing to me. She was the one demanding such a response, and when she got it she mocked the very idea that Simone would apologize by calling it "groveling." Apologizing in and of itself is even seen by the person demanding it in this context as weak. Another reason apologizing to fascists is pointless.