Criticism or Bullying?

Contrapoints (VO): Last week, a transgender teenager named Milo Stewart uploaded a YouTube video titled: All Cis People are Transphobic (And You're Probably Racist, Too!) So, what do you think happened next? How did the YouTube anti-SJW community respond? Well, since it's a community that prides itself on it's cool-headed rationality and willingness to stand up for free speech, you might have expected a compassionate and measured retort. But you didn't expect that did you? And neither did I. Uagh [Comment 1: I think we can all agree that we wanna punch it really hard in its face!] Ahhhh [Comment 2: fuck, where's isis when you really need them] Faaack [Comment 3: I would totally fuck Milo right in his pussy].

[CONTRAPOINTS]

Contrapoints (VO): Milo's video inspired several mean-spirited video responses, but the one I want to focus on is the Amazing Atheist's. Before I dig in, I should say that TJ is by no means the worst Anti-SJW vlogger out there.He has a kind of self-awareness about himself,

TJ: ...but hey don't feel bad I barely have a penis either.

Contrapoints (VO): ...and about his audience,

TJ: ...these brainless flying insects.

Contrapoints (VO): ...that I respect. And that's really lacking in certain other vloggers I could mention [video of ThunderF00t]. In his video response to Milo, TJ even seems to realize that he's too smart to be saying the things he's saying. He almost seems trapped, like he's a hostage who has to cater to these dum-dums in the comments. And yet there he is, a grown man, publicly mocking a transgender 17 year old on the internet.

TJ (VO): [Imitating Milo] Hey guys, I may appear female, but I am in fact a non-binary trans person who prefers male pronouns. I am oppressed!

Contrapoints (VO): Welcome to the YouTube community, Milo. You're going to make a lot of friends here. There's obviously a difference between criticizing and bullying. But on YouTube bullying often tries to pass itself off as critique. There are a lot of claims in Milo's video that are debatable, for instance:

Milo: Even if you were raised by open-minded people you will still be psychologically affected by living in a society built on imperialism, which, by the way, created cis-normativity and hetero-normativity.

Contrpoints (VO): I don't know what that means. But if you really wanted to engage with Milo you might leave a comment like:

"That seems like an extreme claim, Milo. Why do you say that all cis people are transphobic?"

Contrapoints (VO): But if you look at the top comments on his video, they're not like that at all. Everyone is dehumanizing him and encouraging him to kill himself. You might say that everyone gets nasty comments, and that's true. But on Milo's video the nastiest, most personal, most, well, transphobic comments, are also the highest rated, which suggests that they're representative of the general audience. Notice that these people are supposedly so angry about the accusation of being transphobic, that they respond by being transphobic. It reminds me of the people who say that there is no rape culture that blames women for being raped, and, by the way, women are to blame for being raped. [record scratch] What else does it remind me of [sign saying: behead those who say islam is violent]? And this isn't even a real fucking photograph ''[original sign: behead those who insult islam]. This is real though [Comments section under Milo's video].'' IT'S SO REAL. So you say that trans people and feminists need safe spaces, because they're crybabies who can't handle criticism, but when you look at how terribly they're treated in free speech zones, the safe space thing starts to make sense. And besides, you all have your own version of safe spaces anyways. In this case the complete circle-jerk that is the comments section of Anti-SJW videos. I mean, just look at the difference between the ratings of SJW and Anti-SJW videos.

[Over Sargon of Akkad's, The Amazing Atheist's, and ArmouredSkeptic's videos there are applause]

[Booing over Milo's Stewart's, Jacq'd Up's, and Franchesca Ramsey's videos]

Contrapoints (VO): Which group of people is in a fucking safe space? Now I should say that there are some masochists, like me, who actively enjoy pain and humiliation.

[Contrapoints being hit with a crop on a bed]

Contrapoints: HARDER!

Contrapoints: [Cuddling a picture of Anita Sarkeesian] Mommy!

Contrapoints (VO): But I'm guessing that most of you don't enjoy being publicly abused and insulted by thousands of people. You predict that Milo will shut down his comments section and if he does you'll say it's because he can't take criticism and he hates freedom of speech. But how many of you cowards could sit through this kind of onslaught? How many of you could have sat through it when you were fucking 17? It's especially hard for me to watch this shit go down on YouTube, because I've been lead to believe that the people leaving and upvoting these comments are, in fact, nerds. And I thought nerds were bullied and abused by assholes and jocks [Biff from Back to the Future] in high school so you'd think they'd be a little kinder to other unfairly reviled people as a result. But they really aren't. These nerds seem incapable of genuinely asking themselves whether they're standing up to bullies or whether they've become the bullies themselves. Now I realize that Milo isn't communicating his ideas perfectly. He's using a kind of SJW talking point that go over well in activist circles, but don't work when your audience is deeply hostile to you from the beginning. Assuming Milo doesn't retreat from the shit-wave that just hit his channel, he'll eventually learn that you shouldn't say things like "I don't care about your cis-gender feelings", unless you're prepared for the locusts to descend upon you like the fucking plauge of Egypt. [Record Scratch] Wait a minute, "EdgypianSphinx"? Isn't that kind of like Sargon of Akkad? Jesus Christ, these people have disciples now.

[Aggressively pours alcohol]

Contrapoints: I can't stand this.

Contrapoints (VO): Back to TJ's video. It's not just the brainless fucking insects in his audience that are obtuse bullies. TJ himself mostly misrepresents Milo's arguments so that he can spend more time on mockery. The general trend now for Anti-SJW channels, is to berate and "pwn" some hapless feminist, rather than to really argue. Even the Anti-SJW titan TL;DR has complained about this recently, probably because he realizes it's becoming an embarrassment for the entire community he's part of. The sad thing about this case is that Milo actually had a point. There's some truth to the idea that everyone is racist, so long as you distinguish between explicit racial hostility and implicit prejudice and bias. This is a distinction that Milo himself makes.

Milo: Words like racist, misogynistic, and transphobic are not insults, nor are they stereotypes or generalizations. Rather they are facts about the way we are socialized in a Western society.

Contrapoints (VO): Now, I do agree with the Anti-SJWs that leftists should abandon the stupid habit of saying "Western society", like it's so much more evil than the progressive utopias of Russia, Uganda, and Saudi Arabia. But the kid is 17 years old and is trying out some new ideas, give him a fucking break. I mean he even clarifies his view when he says:

Milo: I talked mostly about Western societies because that is what I have the most experience with.

Contrapoints (VO): But TJ just responds with a racist caricature:

TJ: [Doing an impression of a Arab man] Behead the infidel! But first, let us rape her, to remind her that she is female. [Doing an impression of an African man] She is a witch, She eats tha poopoo!

Contrapoints (VO): Wait, why do people like this guy? Well the same reason they like this guy [Image of Rush Limbaugh]. But TJ should know better. In the end, TJ has little more to offer than a misrepresentation of Milo's argument.

TJ: You might think to yourself- "I'm not racist, I treat all people as if they deserve the same rights and same human dignity." Yeah, we've heard that lie before, racist! As far as we're concerned, you might as well be the Klansman, burning the cross and lynching the black people!

Contrapoints (VO): In a later video, maybe I'll take up the question of whether everyone has racist prejudices. But I probably won't use TJ as an antagonist in that video. He just doesn't have anything serious to say about the subject. He could have mounted an argument against Milo's claims, without attacking his gender identity and getting-

TJ: ...these brainless fucking insects in my audience!

Contrapoints (VO): -all worked up in a hate frenzy. But instead he has decided to appeal to the sort of person, for whom a fat kid falling in the mud and breaking his glasses is the height of comedy. And how's that working out for him? Just fucking fine. And I get that part of the fun of YouTube is watching personalities clash. I'm not saying that vlogs should be perfectly calm and rational. It's one thing when a belligerent asshole like me attacks another belligerent asshole like TJ. But when a belligerent asshole with hundreds of thousands of subscribers attacks an earnest teenager half his age and with a fraction of his audience, thereby inundating the small channel with a swarm of brainless fucking insects, who are not there to engage or contribute but to bully and torment, well, it's just kinda-

[Fart noise]

If you liked this video, please validate my self worth by subscribing and upvoting it. It's the only thing keeping me going, besides the booze.

[Contrapoints puts on a coat of lipgloss]

Contrapoints: Would ya fuck me? I'd fuck me!