Never Apologize to Fascists (with Contrapoints)

A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein

Matt Bernstein

Society & Culture, News Commentary, News

4.9 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. Listen to bonus episodes on Patreon! Thanks to today’s sponsors! Work smarter, not harder, with Factor meals ready in two minutes at https://www.factormeals.com/fruity50off. Start managing your money better and cancel unwanted expenses at https://www.rocketmoney.com/fruity. Subscribe to Natalie on YouTube. Find me on Instagram. Find A Bit Fruity on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Okay. Fresh off the fifth place podium. Well, I guess there is no podium for fifth place.
0:06.8	Now you just stand there holding your award or like you take turns holding it because you tied.
0:16.1	Okay. Hello, hello and welcome back to A BitFruity.
0:23.1	This past Sunday afternoon, my best friend texted me.
0:27.5	Can you fill me in on the Riley Gaines Simone Biles' beef?
0:31.7	Now, as someone who is a longtime super fan of women's artistic gymnastics and unfortunately aware of Riley Gaines,
0:39.9	the concept of Riley Gaines' Simone Biles' beef is among my worst nightmares. And, after all,
0:48.8	what could the beef be? Just recently, after the Paris Olympics, Riley tweeted,
0:53.6	There's no other gymnast even close to Simone's level, and there likely won't be for a long, long time.
1:00.6	Some of her skills don't seem humanly possibly.
1:03.5	I don't care about her politics.
1:05.6	She's goaded.
1:07.8	Good.
1:08.6	That was good.
1:09.6	But care about her politics, Riley did.
1:13.4	And when Simone Biles stood up for transgender children against bullying last week,
1:18.7	in an albeit tepid way, Riley would unleash the full wrath of the well-coordinated online right against her.
1:26.2	Today, we're going to take a look at the
1:28.9	Riley Gaines, Simone Biles' beef of my nightmares and see what it reveals to us about the true
1:35.6	intentions at the heart of the trans athletics debate in heavy air quotes. We'll get into that.
1:42.0	And the way the online right conducts these Gamergate
1:45.9	style outrage campaigns to capture new audiences. Audiences like you or your unwitting friends or
	...

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