Quotes from work
ContraPoints

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.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints
Source: The Aesthetic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1afqR5QkDM, published 2018-09-19

“I think that this is a piece of a strategy. Um, it’s not a whole strategy. And I certainly don’t claim to single-handedly achieve much on my own. I’m just dealing with opinions.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Miscellaneous, Contrapoints Is De-Radicalizing Young, Right-Wing Men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nrz4-FZx6k (Vice News, 2019)

“Facts don’t matter to people as much as people think they do. People don’t believe because of facts and evidence—they believe things because it’s a part of a story that they tell themselves. And so, I guess part of what I’m doing is understanding those stories, and understanding psychologically why are these stories being told.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Miscellaneous, Contrapoints Is De-Radicalizing Young, Right-Wing Men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nrz4-FZx6k (Vice News, 2019)

“I’m bringing it up because it’s just an arbitrary example of a cycle that it seems like our culture repeats about once a week: somebody makes a joke, some people are offended by the joke, and other people are indignant about the fact that those people are offended. The cycle usually gets framed as a battle in a culture war that’s supposedly going on between generation snowflake, easily triggered, humorless PC cucks, and badass, edgy, nothing-off-limits free-speech truth tellers. Now if this really is a culture war between two sides, then I am a double agent, because I’m a generation snowflake PC cuck who loves dank edgy memes, and I’ve found myself on both sides of this type of conflict many, many times. So on the one hand, when I see the internet roasting a comedian for some shitty trans joke my inner snowflake wants to watch the bastard burn. But my inner edgelady knows how it feels to be dragged across Twitter over a joke. And as someone who basically writes jokes about controversial topics for a living, I appreciate how difficult it is to maintain the mildly sadomasochistic character of comedy while also keeping your moral compass from getting too jittery.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), The Darkness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtj7LDYaufM (2019)

“So look: I really don’t want to shame men for feeling anxious about dating trans women, because I mean I was anxious, too, in the other direction. But I do want to shame men for treating trans women like their dirty little secrets. And I do want to shame men for dehumanizing us and voting away our rights by day, while jerking off to shemale porn by night. I do want to shame men for refusing to date us because they’re not fucking strong enough to shoulder one hundredth of the burden of stigma that every trans women carries every moment of every day. I do want to shame men for attacking their trans girlfriends because they couldn’t stand being treated like a gay man for five minutes. That is pathetic. If you’re so worried about proving you’re a man, why don’t you start by standing up for the women you love, you chickenshit cowards.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), "Are Traps Gay?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbBzhqJK3bg (2019)

“We tend to pass particularly harsh moral judgment on sadism, but sadistic violence isn’t even necessarily the worst thing that can happen to people. There’s also the quieter structural injustices that lead to millions of people starving, or workers throwing themselves out of windows at the iPhone factory, or the lowkey normalization of sexual assault in supposedly civilized countries, none of which requires so much as a single cackling maniac. So in order to think about this intelligently, we have to weigh the risk that revolutionary violence will spin out of control and lead to sadistic mayhem, against the risk that our complacency with the injustices of the status quo will make us quiet enablers of more subtle but equally unjust forms of violence. And I don’t feel confident enough to say which one I think is the bigger risk.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), Violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmsoVFCUN3Q (2017)

“So basically what I think is that in a free society, different people will have lots of different sexual lifestyles. Some people will want to settle down and get married, and that’s fine. Some people will wanna have a fucking baby, and that’s also fine—someone needs to have the fucking babies. But some people won’t want to do that: some people will wanna dip their balls in hot wax and pour wolf’s milk all over a stranger’s face, and that’s fine, too. Some people won’t want to have sex or romantic relationships. Point is, all these things carry emotional risks: you’ve got heartbreak, loneliness, excruciating boredom—this is just the human condition. And no matter what you do, you have to take emotional risks. But as a society, we could make sex less risky for women by ending rape culture and slut-shaming, and instituting all-you-can-eat birth control. Hence, you know, feminism. And there are also things that we can do as individuals to be safer, kinder, and more responsible. If you do choose to have casual sex, things are gonna go a lot better for you and your partners if you try to remain honest, open and communicative about what your intentions are. And for God’s sake, use a condom—do not get pregnant or get anyone else pregnant. That’s a real downer, this… echoing God’s act of creation by bringing new life into the world. It’s disgusting!”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), Is Casual Sex Bad for Your Soul? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKrbvLkbHu8 (2017)

“I like to think that I’m strong and beautiful and nubile, and in control of every situation except when I choose not to be. But, it’s much easier to get away from the victim mentality when you’re not a victim. Also, we should recognize that fighting for fair treatment is not the same as having a victim mentality.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), What Makes a Trans Chick “Cool”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spHCEBTqaUE (2016)

“To fascists, the pursuit of individual happiness must be subservient to the health and success of the race. So in a sense, traditionalism is a much more collectivistic philosophy than Communism, which only demands communal ownership of the means of production. At least in theory, Communism doesn’t tell you what gender to be, or who and how to fuck.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints

“When I try to psychoanalyze myself, I find that my desires to look female, to look feminine, and to look beautiful are not exactly the same, but they're woven together so tightly that it's kind of difficult to untangle them.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

psychoanalyze https://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/Psychoanalysis
ContraPoints

“I see myself as sort-of the left’s ‘immune system’; no more than that.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Miscellaneous, Contrapoints Is De-Radicalizing Young, Right-Wing Men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nrz4-FZx6k (Vice News, 2019)

“Seriously though, some of the feminist advice given to women is borderline psychopathic. You know, like, “Never take ‘no’ for an answer! Always take what you want!””

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

This is like rapist advice.
ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), Pop Feminism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3glomsCM5mU (2016)

“Existential angst is often a disease of privilege. If you're actually being oppressed you have a struggle. You have something to fight for, and therefore a purpose, but for a lot of men their lack of purpose puts them in search of a struggle.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints

“It's boring and immature, like when someone says he wants to watch the world burn. You only get to watch when you have the privilege of not being on fire. It's edgy but it's not the darkness. The darkness is finding a way to laugh about being on fire.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

Source: The Darkness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtj7LDYaufM, published 2019-03-02
ContraPoints

“So when you reduce bigotry to a caricature of pure hatred you obscure that bigotry is a deeply human problem. Sometimes people criticize me for empathizing with bigots but I believe that understanding bigots is the best defense against becoming one yourself because when you dehumanize the villains you become unable to recognize the villain within.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints

“I feel like trans culture is just so obsessed with reassuring ourselves that we’re valid, that we sometimes forget that the end goal of a political movement is not validity, it’s equality.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints

“I look inside myself and ask, do I feel like a man, or a woman, and the answer is that I feel like shit.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints
Source: Non-Binary Genders https://aardvark-lily-k2lz.squarespace.com/transcripts/archives/non-binary-genders, published 2016-09-30

“To be a famous woman is to constantly have every part of your body and soul subjected to endless critique. You know, if you're one pound overweight they call you "fatty."”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

If you're one pound underweight they say you have an eating disorder. And if you're exactly the right weight? They call you a fatty with an eating disorder!
J.K. Rowling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gDKbT_l2us, published 2021-01-26
ContraPoints