The Situation
Added 2024-11-09 20:21:30 +0000 UTCI’m sure we’ve all (Americans, everyone else who’s affected) taken three days to wallow. The day of not getting out of bed. The day of substance abuse and doomscrolling. The day of playing Skyrim for 14 hours. I don’t feel ready to get up and face the situation, but I think I’d better.
I’m not very interested in the various autopsies of “what went wrong.” The Democrats were too woke. Or not woke enough. They should have turned to the camera and specified they’re the exact kind of communist I am.
Trying to reason with or about the American public feels like trying to use Kantian ethics to explain to Ted Bundy why he shouldn’t kill you.
Reason won’t save us. Probably the best thing that could happen now is if SNL runs a sketch implying that Donald is a tinydick babyboy cuckold on the leash of the Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 would be scrapped the next day.
I’m grasping for crumbs of solace here. Elon Musk, RFK Jr., JD Vance—probably some pleasure will be had watching all these vampires suck each other dry. The Republican Party is a cult of personality, and the personality is 78 years old. We’re waiting for one miserable old man do die, and then we get another chance to replace him with something less horrible.
In the meantime things will get very bad very quickly. 2025 is not 2017. This time Trump is backed by a detailed plan to remake the government in his image, and by a Supreme Court that has granted him immunity to do anything he wants. He’s also likely to appoint two more justices, meaning that for the rest of my life the judiciary will be ruled by this man’s ghost.
I’ve been trying to figure out if there’s a future for me in this country as a trans person in media, and if there are any plausible alternatives. I’ve updated my passport and other documents in case I need to leave quickly. More realistic scenarios include a blanket ban on gender-affirming care, in which case I’ll have to hope I’m protected by the blue state I live in, or resort to DIY methods.
Project 2025 plans to criminalize pornography, and it defines all LGBT-affirming content as pornography. So there may be some threat to my career. It’s possible I’ll have to take down a lot of videos and avoid “promoting” anything L, G, B, and/or T in the future. If making videos is even still viable or worth doing at that point.
I’m aware that I’m very far from those most vulnerable to these things. More likely scenarios involve total bans on schools teaching anything about LGBT existence, bans on using students’ chosen names/pronouns, etc. In which case non-institutional online content will be among the only resources young LGBT people have. And in that case, I’d better step it up, not pull back.
We could spiral about this forever. I know these thoughts are inadequate. How could they be? I haven’t scratched the surface—reproductive rights, mass deportation, Ukraine, replacing vaccination with colloidal silver or homeopathic essence of bear brain or whatever else RFK Jr. thinks is medicine. Etc. etc. etc.
Today I’m going to get back to work on the video I’ve been making since April. It’s not explicitly about The Situation, but... it’s not unrelated.
Thank you all as always for supporting me, and for supporting each other. Stay strong.
-Natalie
Comments
Hello Tasha , I’ve selected you for my sᴘᴇᴄɪᴀʟ ɢɪᴠᴇᴀᴡᴀʏ! ᴋɪɴᴅʟʏ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀᴄᴛ me ᴏɴ my ᴛᴇʟᴇ•ɢʀᴀᴍ ʜᴀɴᴅʟe TheContraPoints
ContraPoints 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫
2025-12-07 10:14:33 +0000 UTCno shame in having a tiny dick. it's a weird cultural thing where everyone is fine to make fun of it and cite it speculatively as the reason for bad action (hypothetical overcompensation).
Shannon
2025-11-07 19:54:07 +0000 UTCI’m really curious if you will follow through with the statement you made in one of your videos. You said that if Trump doesn’t leave power when he has to (and he is very much actively saying that he plans on staying for a third term) you would unironically become Tabby, a radical, antifa, leftist. I wonder if you would, because of recent statements you’ve made. In the past you’ve said that you support radical movements, that they help by doing things like shifting the overton window to the left, but at this point you certainly seem to think that they are entirely “pointless” Also, you said that you didn’t know how marxists would view you, because you aren’t really proletariat or bourgeoisie… Marx talks directly about people like you, the artists. It’s not like Marxism only puts people into two categories, I would assume that you’d know this, as you seem very well read in political theory. So I can only assume your statement came not from ignorance, but simply a way for you to say “look how ridiculous and nonsensical leftists are!” So I really doubt that you would actually stop being a socdem and become even a demsoc, but definitely not a radical leftist, no matter what Trump does, even if he goes full Hitler.
Tasha & Bellx
2025-07-10 05:38:03 +0000 UTCNatalie, I just joined this community, so I'll just say, keep doing what you do for as long as you are safe enough to do it. It is important work. It is meaningful work. It is art, which may be more important than anything else. And it leads the way toward a more nuanced way of, not just thinking, but of being. You always surprise me. Which is priceless. And you have a true, generous heart. I need all the truth, and all the heart, I can get.
Rebecca Cook
2025-04-22 00:15:41 +0000 UTCHere’s a quote by ContraPoints from an AMA streamed in Oct 2021 that appears pro-Israel because it suggests the left is unfairly fixated on criticizing Israel, implying that Israel is getting singled out: “It’s an obsession, and it’s kind of unusual in the sense that the left generally in the United States doesn’t care what other countries are doing, but they intensely care what Israel is doing.”
Avery
2025-03-25 03:50:36 +0000 UTCNatalie, I’ve followed your work since 2017 because I believed in your stance against racism, fascism, the dangers of reactionary politics, and the ways bigotry festers in online spaces. Your work has even helped me on my own queer journey, giving me language and perspective to understand myself in ways I hadn’t before. But your silence on the genocide in Gaza has been deeply disappointing. As someone whose people are being slaughtered, it’s hard for me to care about anything else, let alone muster sympathy for concerns that completely ignore Palestinian suffering. You’ve mentioned Ukraine, yet for over a year, you haven’t addressed the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. That silence speaks volumes. And what’s even louder is the reaction from your fanbase— many of whom are not just indifferent but outright hostile, attacking anyone who dares to call this out. The fact that you’ve cultivated an audience that responds to genocide with racism, Islamophobia, and harassment should make you seriously question who you’re appealing to with your apolitical distancing. As a queer POC American, I understand the fears you’re expressing, but in comparison to a genocide happening in real time, these concerns feel incredibly frivolous. You built your platform on deconstructing white supremacy, exposing dog whistles, and challenging the complacency that allows systemic violence to thrive—yet when it comes to Palestine, that same critical lens is nowhere to be found. Anti-fascism can’t be selective. After all these years of following your work, it’s clear you’ve fallen short when it mattered most.
Avery
2025-03-25 03:13:36 +0000 UTCBye
Sophia Azaria Applen
2025-01-11 02:28:24 +0000 UTCContinue doing media Natalie !now more than ever is when it's needed, put your crown back on, as you said, step it up, don't tone it down <3 You have a place in Paris if you want (although changes need to occur here aswell ...)
Mathilda
2025-01-03 14:02:11 +0000 UTCAs a politicized person who comes from the Third World, whose countries and societies get fucked by the U.S. Te*rr0r State, either through bombs, sanctions, vetoes in U.N. "interventions to restore democracy" (which we all know mean invasions), I am extremely DISAPPOINTED in your stance, Contrapoints, and most of these comments about your ignorance and apathy concerning the U.S. T*e*rr0r State actions in Occupied Palestine, in Lebanon, and the rest of the colonized world! To quote Malcolm X: "You cannot solve the Mississipi without solving the Congo," and to quote Aime Cesaire, "Nazism is colonialism come home", you just CANNOT solve your internal far-right problem without trying to solve its external colonial impacts, including genocide of an indigenous people, which is exactly what the country you're living in right now is built on! Genocide of the Native Americans! (Also that the word "American" comes from Amerigo Vespucci an Italian settler/colonizer WOW lol). I am extremely frustrated by Americans' selfishness, to not speak up enough against your state's actions messing up and destroying other peoples' futures, lives, homes, countries, families, identities, completely robbing half the world of our destinies. And you have the audacity to write bullshit like "Democrats are too woke/not woke enough" as they have continued the genocide for the last 14 months. It shows that you value your life more than the life of an oppressed person in Gaza or Beirut. I am UNSUBSCRIBING because there has been enough time you could have spoken up more, now I don't even consider you a leftist / socialist / woke anymore, you're just yet another white 'American' (t)girl who cares more about your white privilege than working towards true collective liberation. Keep on making your pop-culture analysis about Satanism or whatever, the pseudo-left loves to eat this shit up, to make themselves feel smarter or whatever, games and cakes to keep you busy as the colonized worlds burn under your t3rr0r state regime.
Punk Dinosaur
2025-01-03 12:42:17 +0000 UTCLove your show! Raising my sub from $2 to $10. You've really improved my life 💖
April Ward
2024-12-17 19:35:50 +0000 UTCI'm sorry for what's happening to all queer, women, people of colour and immigrants in USA. I'm Brazilian, long-time fan of contrapoints and recent suporter on patreon. I was shocked when Trump was first elected but I was sort of less surprised this time. Maybe after surviving Bolsonaro's presidency here (" tropical trump") was somehow a prelude to the damages of far right taking power worldwide. Nonetheless I reckon the fear, anger and hopeless feelings that can overcome us when rights - and life itself- are threatened. Brazil's politics and far right movement is heavily influenced by USA and so many countries can be affected by Trump's administration. I hope we can summon strength and gather with our loved ones to resist such difficult years ahead.
Viviane P.L.
2024-12-05 18:05:35 +0000 UTC
