ContraPoints (2016- ) is a left-wing channel on English-speaking YouTube with over 700,000 subscribers. It is run by Natalie Wynn, a White transgender woman who lives in a gentrified part of Baltimore, Maryland, not far from Freddie Gray’s old neighbourhood.
Natalie Wynn:
“This is an aesthetic century. In history, there are ages of reason and ages of spectacle, and it’s important to know which you’re in. Our America, our Internet, is not ancient Athens – it’s Rome. And your problem is you think you’re in the forum, when you’re really in the circus.”
And so in 2016 she gave up on becoming a philosophy professor and joined the circus that is YouTube to do battle in the Marketplace of Ideas against the shitlords of the alt-right (neo-Nazis) and their army of comment goblins. Wynn started out as a self-described “old-fashioned cross-dressing pervert, like J Edgar Hoover” – and then in 2017 she started her transition as a trans woman!
Armed with a degree in philosophy and using mood lighting, set design, wigs, costume changes, the musical talents of Zoe Blade and loads of Patreon money, Wynn makes videos of her take on stuff like:
- What is race?
- What is gender?
- Baltimore: Anatomy of an Uprising
- How to recognize a fascist
- Hitting Nazis
- The left
- The West
- What’s wrong with capitalism?
- Jordan Peterson
- men
- alpha males
- incels
- pick-up artists
- rape culture
- TERFs
- non-binary genders
- aesthetics
- female beauty
The newer videos are generally much better than older ones.
Unlike most US journalists and activists, she is good at going beyond the sound bites and slogans to the ideas that underlie everything. And, unlike most professors, she can present those ideas in a way that is not boring or confusing. You laugh, you learn – you think.
Anita Sarkeesian, a brow-furrowing moralist on YouTube who dresses like she is your mother.
The left, she says, is too boring and moralistic to change minds. Feminist Anita Sarkeesian, a hate figure of Gamergate, is a good example. The left needs aesthetics: style, humour and creativity. And, instead of naming and shaming, it needs to take apart opposing ideas to show why they are wrong.
Here are some of the characters Wynn plays who take part in Socratic dialogues, listed here from political left to right:
Tabby – an anarchist trans catgirl who carries a bat and wears an Antifa button.
Abigail Cockbane – humourless, doctrinaire (and transphobic) feminist who wears a beret.
Justine – a bougie, White Liberal trans woman who likes to quote feminist Judith Butler.
The Doctor – presents the current science. Catchphrase: “Let’s watch an instructional video to learn more.”
Jackie Jackson – a right-wing libertarian, a take-off on YouTuber Dave Rubin.
Tiffany Tumbles – a right-wing, passable trans woman, a take-off on YouTuber Blaire White.
Freya the Fascist – dresses like a Nazi, talks like a Nazi, but says she is not a Nazi, a claim those on the right take at face value.
Lady Foppington – a scientific racist from the 1700s. Catchphrase: “It must needs be remarked…”
Not for all tastes: There seems to be a sort of creepiness that hangs over everything, personified by character Lenora LaVey:
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- alt-right
- White Liberals
- Antifa
- trans women
- gentrification
- YouTube
- sound bite
- political arguments
- Baltimore:
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Just when i was getting used to my friends calling me uberlib…
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There are some terms that people use that make me turn a deaf ear and walk away.
“TERF” is right up there with “reverse racism” for me giving folks the side eye. Right up there with men calling women “gold diggers.”
It speaks to a certain narrow or bigoted mindset and I cannot be bothered.
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It’s my observation that if one doesn’t have the language or isn’t informed it’s best to remain silent until one is better informed. At best I can say this is an interesting post.
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Today i learned the acronym TERF is Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. Learned something new.
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Terf was a google moment for me too.
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Thank you for this post. She’s awesome! It’s interesting to watch/listen as her own perspectives and self-image evolve.
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TERFs are feminists who believe you have to be born with lady parts to be a woman. Trans women, therefore, are just men in dresses. Abigail Cockbane is a TERF.
Here is the ContraPoints video on TERFs (from two years ago, not as good as some of her later videos):
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQPWI7cEJGs)
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TERF is a pejorative term just like friends zone. Neither one exists but a lot of people pretend they do because it makes them feel better.
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Abagond featuring another crossdressing freak. At least this one is amusing and witty.
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What is new?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporus
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A prediction:
Blinski on YouTube three months ago:
Blinski thinks Wynn is likely to sink into drugs, drink or suicide.
Blinski says he was much like Wynn five years ago: “bookish”, “spergie” (showing signs of Asperger syndrome, a kind of autism), “autogynephilic” (being trans as sexual fetish, something Wynn denies). Blinski was not able to go on as a trans woman long-term and so de-transitioned. Wynn, though, has already had some surgeries and is probably too far down that road to turn back.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF7Gl0qLpug)
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Beige Frequency on YouTube also thinks ContraPoints is headed for a crack-up:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXkCxsZG7zo)
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It seems like so many creative talents, regardless of medium, are struggling inside. That doesn’t negate their messages nor should it diminish our appreciation for their creativity.
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