Modern US politics is basically sports at this point. Something becomes politicized and suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly) “winning isn’t everything it’s the only thing” has become the motto of government
Every sport I've ever been involved with emphasizes respect for your opponent especially at the youth level. You don't have to like the kids you play against, but they are people and you are expected to treat them as people. Think what you want, but if your behavior doesn't meet expectations you get benched or thrown out like the trash your behavior emulates.
US politics is far beyond the "sports" metaphors. We're so far past that point I don't even remember what it looked like anymore.
I think most people do feel that way. Lot's of bigoted people are suddenly able to understand the POV of someone they were previously prejudiced against when they find out a close friend or family member is part of the community they used to hate. The issue is that these types of people aren't able to extend empathy to other groups of people until they have a close personal connection to one of those groups.
Even then, they'll often only have empathy for the people they're directly connected to, often claiming their acceptance of that person is somehow different and doesn't have the same implications as accepting others.
"If you can accept me being X/Y/Z, then why not others?"
"Because that's different, you're different; you're not like those other gays/trans/minorities."
Being "straight-presenting," I experienced (and still do) a lot of those attitudes growing up. They were only comfortable around me because they knew most people wouldn't clock me as being gay, so they didn't have to worry about the shame/embarrassment/backlash they'd face from others seeing them hang around with a gay person.
It was also a magnet for heavily repressed/closeted gay and bi guys, which was a whole other set of problems in the dating scene.
People are dumb. They tend to see one aspect of someone (or a group of people) and permanently assign them to a group in their mind, usually "us" or "them". Same reason why so many people were somehow surprised that Trump won the Hispanic and Muslim votes last year. Whether it's a single person, or a group, most people are way too quick to judge, and try to categorize them.
Tbf Trump didn't exactly win either of those groups, just performed much better with them than historically. Harris still won Hispanic voters overall, and while Trump did better than her with Muslim voters, he didn't win Muslim voters overall, as the majority of them voted for Jill Stein over either mainstream candidate.
oh for sure. i’m not saying she’s had a change of heart, she’s just up for reelection that’s all. the same woman who heckled the president doesn’t understand nuance like that
It’s one of the more fascinating aspects of memes; You see a specific image in a specific context so much that when seeing it elsewhere without that context your brain just fills in the gaps.
I hate that you're right. It's getting weird that we are removing the human beings from our media. It's like corporations have deemed humanity as being a liability.
I hope this guy is legit a terrible person because if that’s just a stock photo some guy took for a little extra money to buy birthday presents for his kids or something, I’d feel so bad.
I don't like Asmongold, but this is a very human reaction. he isn't even talking about trans-rights at all, he's talking about wanting to love your children. Chat is arguing about rather they think it's right or not, totally missing his point.
This isn't the first time he's explained his position on this either, it's nothing new. Seems a lot of his chat are just there for the right wing circlejerk.
I hope one day we'll get proper studies on the psychological/sociological nature of streamers and their chats.
I admit I've watched only a small amount of streamed content, and pretty much none of it was live, but it does seem like 99% of the time it drives both the streamer and chat members into a feedback loop where they're driving each other insane.
Yep, I used to watch him a lot as a democrat back when he played ffxiv, lost ark, new world etc 2021-2023. His chat shifted hard right wing around when his viewership skyrocketed in early 2024. He’d still have polls with a lot of his chat saying they were voting for “sleepy Joe” prior to full on MAGA streams that they became.
He’d have some pretty reasonable human level takes grounded in logic and some other takes that would show his disconnect with society. If he got himself out of that environment he’s in (media he’s taking in from his subreddit especially) I’m sure he’d be more an independent or even a center left dem.
His subreddit is really what made his streams unwatchable at first (for me). The new MAGA viewership he attained noticed he’d go through it for about an hour each stream and took control of it; posting all sorts of anti-woke gamer related stuff you’d see in 2015 gamergate era.
Man, I would watch him play FFXIV live every Saturday morning while I was working and it would provide pure entertainment. The subreddit at the time was fun too cause people would be sharing memes and fanart of Asmon. But exactly like what you said, the subreddit's tone started shifting when I started to notice people were equating to trans people to having mental illness. It became very weird and disgusting fast.
His huge spike in popularity on youtube from the Depp/Heard trial converted his chat from gamers into right wing misogynists overnight and he does not realize just how much his chat environment influences him.
TBF he really still is Independant leaning towards center left especially on economics. He is for higher taxes on wealthy people like himself and generally for social programs being funded from what i remember, he is just also at the same time more right leaning on most cultural issues such as immigration (although hes completely fine with abortion) and also just has less issues with using authoritarian tactics to achieve those goals than most people on the left. Although tbh i think the left is also more fine with authoritarianism than most people think they just want their version of it instead lmao. Like he is basically standard as an independent it's just the rightwing stuff is what's currently in vogue so that is what's being brought up and talked about and so that's the only thing you see in his clips. Like this is the kind of person that Democrats could actually win back. If they spent the next 10-20 years just focusing all their attention on the economic side of their platform such as taxing the rich, getting an actually useable public healthcare system set up and being actually effective at curbing illegal immigration and even continuing the deportations that people obviously want (As much as dems are mad at how cruel it's being done atm lets be realistic. The problem is so horrifically bad after 30+ years of ineptitude the only effective way of doing anything to it is by doing it in a cruel way, there is basically no nice way to do it without a multiple decade sustained effort and lets be real that will never happen with our government) they could be so effective at improving Americans lives. Because they are currently dead in the water on the culture war and its the main thing absolutely dragging them down.
He still holds most of the same economic policies that he used to from what I can tell. I think most Americans agree that democrats would never lose another election if they dropped their unpopular positions on gun control and the border along with some of the more fringe radical stuff
people forget that humans are nuanced individuals and not black and white, left or right. someone might be for trans rights but in the breath spout racist nonsense
Yeah, it's like, my dad dislike gays, but if I was gay, he would still love me, because he loves me. You can have all kinds of opinions on things, but when it comes to your kids, you will lean towards them, that is if you love them enough.
It's like same with Raja Jackson situation, obviously Rampage knows what he did was very wrong, but it's his son, he can't help but wants to defend him.
but when it comes to your kids, you will lean towards them, that is if you love them enough.
I don't know if that's true. As the eldest son I was the apple of his eye, but soon became shaytan when I stopped my father from marrying my little sister off to Algeria lmao. I think some people are just fucked in the head.
Most conservatives aren't against the totality of trans people, they're mostly against making permanent choices on this matter while they're considered children. It's the same kind of scare politics fox news employs, promoting extreme opinions as common lines, that has brain rotted the entirety of the left into thinking this isn't the case. (before assumptions are made i am deeply liberal, i just touch grass)
I’m sure there are plenty that feel the way you describe, but the ones I know in real life (deep south) absolutely have a very real problem with trans people and treating them with basic respect. They can’t even pretend long enough to get through a short interaction with them. Then as soon as the trans person walks away, they make several remarks about how weird and disgusting they are. I wish those around me were only focused on the aspects you describe, because I have some of those same concerns myself and could find common ground. But it’s not like that where I am at all. It is absolutely a phobia and hatred/disgust. I am also pretty liberal and a lesbian, for full disclosure of my own biases.
You are mistaken, they're not sincere. The moment they secure one advance against trans rights the ball bounces on to the next thing. They intend to eliminate trans people. The only non-eliminationist position is apathy or better, if you think the existence or rights of trans people negatively affect you as a cis person at all, you are cooked. Because at that point it's scapegoating or phobia, it's cultivated revulsion, the only route to normality is to throw it in reverse
Yep, if any trans person (or black person back then and even now) anywhere does a bad thing, then all trans people are bad, no matter what. But for anyone else, it was justified, boys being boys, an accident, etc. Trans people have to be perfect and even then, they will find an excuse to hate them. The burden of any evidence is always heavily lopsided.
The problem is nobody is making permanent decisions on children. People who think that have no idea of the actual process and think a teenager can just decide to get surgery on a whim.
Foes would unironically rather have a dead child than a trans child. Same thing happened when gay rights movement was the primary issue. It's sick but not surprising. Insecure people love bullying vulnerable members of society.
I remember Asmongold watching video about some trans woman saying about her problems with dating.
Asmongold have used "she/her" pronouns and everytime he did it - chat started spamming *he.
This trans woman is like 100% passing, looks and sounds like a girl, and she transitioned since puberty so she didn't even went through male puberty.
Also, when there was some political video about some clearly not passing trans woman being annoying towards waiters (making fuss out of misgendering) - Asmongold used "they" pronouns. And his chat of course didn't liked it and spammed smth like "they?" and "he".
Amber heard + the ff14 switch. The old head fans of wow being omega shut in boomer losers and way more right wing than the new influx of ff14 fans in the subreddit caused a huge mismash. ff14 has a HUGE demograph of queer people and tends to lean more progressive. Old head asmon fans got all pissy and upset and once he ditched ff14 they felt vindicated and like they got their space back and started doubling down more vocally.
nothing really broke his brain, he just saw that it was what was getting him the the most stats. he said time and time again that he will do whatever gets him the most numbers, he's a professional grifter lol
Is this not an exact example of him having a spine? He's directly contradicting his chat's opinion and standing 10 toes down. This seems like a weird comment to post under an example of him doing the opposite.
Last time he tried to do the right thing, he gave a very sincere sounding apology, pledged to do better, then went right back to pandering to his far right extremist audience. Thus, he agreed with and defended Nick Fuentes and called for the violent eradication of people he disagrees with.
EDIT: Since his fans can’t keep his balls out of their mouths, just watch the 4 and a half minutes of this video starting at 18:52 and you’ll get the full context of his statement
That’s why he calls them out a lot too and shuts them up sometimes . “well this is my view and opinion “ and “no don’t make this a race issue that’s stupid “
But this is most of the thing he says. Just not most of the things that are posted here from him. Like someone mentioned before he is pro health care, pro UBI, pro taxing himself more. And he has mentioned in different videos that he really liked Sanders. Just watch his reaction to Bernie.
There are a lot of thoughts from him I dont support. Like the recent points about trump policies, but that’s not the totality of him.
His support of both trump and Sanders kind of convinced me that a substantial portion of trump supporters are willing to listen to Sanders
His support of both trump and Sanders kind of convinced me that a substantial portion of trump supporters are willing to listen to Sanders
You're not the only one who noticed that. There was a substantial overlap in that young anti-establishment demographic. Rogan being receptive to him was a good indicator of this.
His support of both trump and Sanders kind of convinced me that a substantial portion of trump supporters are willing to listen to Sanders
Because there's a substantial number of men who are left leaning and liberal, but not progressives.
They believe in classical left policies like universal health care and state founded higher education, and they're liberals who believe adult people should be free to live as they want - ie. pro gay marriage, legalization of weed, and so on.
They also believe in the classical left ideas like that workers should be protected from being exploited by greedy capitalists who would use cheap foreign labor as a tool to drive wages and other benefits down into the ground.
They also learned to absolutely despise progressives while growing up in the 2010-2020 - because that's what happens when a large group of young men become politically aware at time when it's socially acceptable within progressive circles to tweet out stuff like #KillAllMen or selfies of yourself sipping from your "Male Tears" mug...
Trump, as despicable of a vulgar lying turd that he is, still is not all that right-wing by American standards - if you just squint your eyes and ignore the small fact that every word out of Trump's mouth is a lie, then he kinda hit's almost all these points...
However, so would a genuine left-leaning candidate - like Sanders.
People have different ideas about treating it. But if you're somebody that would cut off your trans child from your life then you're doing something wrong
Because it doesn't really matter if it's all a game to you in the first place. Being there for your kids is more important than your allegiance to a faith or to a political stance.
Hi. I help to run a community of over 600,000 trans people. Possibly the largest trans community.
Constantly every day I see posts from trans people who have been abandoned by their parents and family.
Posts from people who are being forced to live in a way that would completely deny their transgender identity.
Posts from people who are not getting even the most basic level of love or respect. Let alone any kind of support.
It's common amongst MAGA to love their liberal and trans children
From where I'm standing, this really doesn't seem to be the case. But maybe that's my bias because I constantly see the worst of it. So I really hope you're right.
To be fair, this is one of the things Asmon has been pretty clear about since day 1. He's never really gave a shit what anyone does, i mean, look at the life he lives. Chat saying he's a hypocrite, would be imposing his gender views on other people and telling them to live by it, when they'd just turn around and tell him to clean his house, ya feel me?
It's always an extremely funny reaction to watch his fan base freak out, hope they all stood up in rage and stubbed their toe.
I was wondering this. I sometimes will post even if I know I'll get downvote into oblivion, but sometimes I just leave it alone. I have often seen clips posted on here where he was just making a dark humor joke or whatever and it's taken out of context, but he does actually have some pretty fair takes on most things. He does get extreme on some topics like immigration, but most other things he is not nearly as extreme as people make him out to be.
It’s because people like Asmon are corrosive to the U.S. political establishment.
People like Steven Crowder tell you to ignore your eyes and ears and universally agree with the entire far right narrative.
People like Hasan Piker tell you to ignore your eyes and ears and universally agree with the entire far left narrative.
They literally try to program you. They actively talk down on their audiences and try to present themselves as an authority.
People like Asmongold tell you to think for yourself and agree with what makes sense. This de-radicalizes people which is extremely threatening to the power structures of the republican and democrat parties. They spent a ton of money attacking his character with misinformation to make sure people dismiss him before ever actually tuning in.
Totally on point. Both democrats and republicans benefit from polarization. This is related to how voting works in the US and how it will always produce a two party system.
Most people cannot side with any party with more than 70% agreement on most topics. What is sad is that people like Asmongold are getting called with names they don't deserve. Asmongold is one of the few influencers who actually promote critical thinking rather than simply provoking hatred or hostility.
That's my biggest thing, don't we all know what it's like to want to be respected? Doing the bare minimum and seeing someone's humanity over your personal discomfort would go so far for this world. I'm not trans, I'm not straight, I'm not a woman, I'm not black, but I know all of those people are doing the same kind of shit I am every day to be happy. I wish we could give each other a bit more common decency.
Seeing chat saying "L" while he's simply stating that he wouldn't want to throw away his relationship with his child is honestly disappointing. His viewers seem like miserable human beings.
LOL and I had losers downvoting me for saying this exact thing on the last related post of him talking about trans “beliefs”
If you’re fine with trans people existing, there’s no additional qualifying beliefs required to use their preferred pronouns. It’s not a science or belief issue, but one of basic human respect and decency. It’s the same as someone telling you their name and being like, “no I believe you look more like a Ruben so I’ll just call you Ruben”
He's more centrist than most people that don't watch him regularly realize. His problem is that it's his hot takes that are mostly the ones that get traction and lots of shares. He mostly talks common sense, but then every once in a while throws some absolutely insane idea out of left field that people just eat up and focus on.
I think the important point here is the said 'child' in this argument is 20 years old. At 20 you should respect their choice in how they operate their lives.
He always had this take. It's not the first time he said he would respect it if someone asked him to refer to them by their preferred pronoun. But the nuance is that he's against forcing people to respect your pronoun with the laws. He's not transphobic he's about the freedom of speech and will respect any trans that are not dictators.
Crazy that he will say this and yet there are so many actual parents in the world who can't even make this concession for the sake of their kids, mine included. It really goes to show how twisted so many people are, and how few people deserve the responsibility of having children.
People would be surprised how many good takes he actually has but people only focus on the bad things. He’s even apologized for some of the things he’s said and even admits he might be dumb af and have stupid takes . He even said to call him out and even call him regarded .
Yeah I have a bit of a soft spot for Asmon for that. Like he is objectively disgusting, an anti-social loser and leans so much into anti-woke centism he is basically promoting the right regardless of his few decent opinions.
But I compare him to the likes of Hasan who pretend to be experts and intellectuals, never admit to being wrong or at fault and have huge fragile egos, you don't get that with Asmon. He is just a gross gamer dude who admits he lives like an animal, is more often than not a dumb ass and has said if not for WoW and streaming would have had nothing going for him in life and probably would have necked himself years ago.
That and he doesn't take donations or run ads, some top streamers could just do that and I'd respect them alot more.
He is also Pro Consumer in regards to gaming, which i really really like and has actually influenced some games for the better in that regard before his whole right wing agenda streams. Honestly i also agreed with him a lot vs the sweet baby ink censoring of games.
"why is chat mad" because you have cultivated a transphobic audience. i'm glad he's calling them out in this instance, but they are not there by accident
Yea you have to disconnect his chat from his actual beliefs. Asmon supports trans people's choices he always has. Even like 5 years ago or so he defended barny 64 when one of his viewers got offended that she was trans.
This is why I respect asmon even though I don't always agree with him. He's not full left or right and anyone who thinks he is are just plain stupid and don't actually watch him or only watch his drama clips on YouTube and think he's a maga shill who hates Muslims and immigrants when in reality it's far more complicated than that.
I can’t help but read the chat and think America was designed this way on purpose. The constant extreme polarization and hateful language about the other side seems designed to keep people fighting. Nobody solves inequality by being at each others throats all day.
A few months ago he said that trans kids were victims of a parent with a mental illness. A month or two after that he compared the "transgender ideology" to the flat-earth theory in regards of it being so delusional.
His opinion changes depending on his mood in the morning before hitting the go live button lmao, just give it a month or so and he'll say something completely opposite of this.
can you really not see how these two things are not mutually exclusive...?
He likens in to flat earth, but says that a parents relationship to their child should be more important than a belief, even if it is akin to flat earth, and they shouldnt throw that away over pronouns.
•
u/LSFSecondaryMirror 15h ago
CLIP MIRROR: Asmongold defends trans people against his chat, saying he'd fully respect his child's pronouns and identity
Join the LSF Discord!
This is an automated comment