Daring to go where no public intellectual has gone before... costumes and quick cuts and memes, oh my!
It's 2022 and times are tough: the world continues to experience tremendous economic fallout from a deadly pandemic, the consequences of climate change are rapidly intensifying, and political tensions in the United States seem to get worse with each passing year. Throughout US history, public intellectuals have arisen during times of upheaval to wield their influence and help frame conversations of societal importance. Think Ralph Waldo Emerson or James Baldwin - these individuals used their penetrating intellect to sway public opinion toward a more just society. One could argue that figures comparable to Emerson and Baldwin still exist today: Noam Chomsky and Cornell West both continue to do excellent work in their respective fields. But alas, they and their contemporaries are growing older and will not be with us forever. When prolific writer and radical thinker bell hooks passed away in December of 2021, it caused me to sit back and wonder: in these times of great difficulty, who will the torch be passed to?
It would seem I am not the only one pondering the role of the public intellectual going forward; this discussion arises in Stephen Macks’s blogpost “Are Public Intellectuals a Thing of the Past?” and Elizabeth Mitchell’s article for the Smithsonian titled “What Happened to America’s Public Intellectuals?” Mitchell concludes her article saying:
“This moment of deep ideological division will likely see the return, right when we need them, of the thinkers and talkers who can bridge the emotional divide. But this time they will likely be holding online forums and stirring up podcasts.”
As Mitchell alludes to, social media now dominates as the main disseminator of information: it is the new town square. Therefore, any candidate looking to take up the mantel of public intellectual in 2022 has unique challenges not faced by any who came before. Nowadays, based on the influence of sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, two critical things have happened: people are less trusting of information from new sources, and attention spans are shorter than they ever have been. This poses a series of issues which, spelled out in simple terms are as follows: no matter how intelligent or credentialed you are, you cannot exert influence over someone if they do not trust you. But how do you go about getting someone to trust you if you cannot hold their attention?
Enter Natalie Wynn, a witty and irreverent 33-year-old transgender woman, who at first glance, is an unlikely choice as a successor to the likes of Noam Chomsky or bell hooks. Wynn is a self-proclaimed failed academic, having dropped out of pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at Northwestern in favor of starting a YouTube channel named Contrapoints. Wynn did so based on a desire to combat the alarming rise of neo-Nazis and fascist ideologies that were circulating on the internet during the Gamergate era of 2016. Through her body of work on YouTube, Wynn has arrived at a remarkable strategy for addressing the barriers to becoming a public intellectual in the modern era, while producing thought-provoking essays on some of the most relevant and controversial topics of our time.
Wynn solves the attention span dilemma by grabbing in her viewers with eye-catching aesthetics and fast paced humor, building extravagant sets and donning outlandish costumes. Her videos are works of art, carefully crafted to entertain while still managing to enhance her message. In her video on “canceling”, she places herself in a bathtub surrounded by heaps of trash to symbolize the way that public figures are effectively thrown away when they transgress online. She adeptly references internet memes and culture, using editing to keep a lively pace. In her video about envy and its role in perpetuating human misery, she references Sigmund Freud’s theory of human development, sociologist Helmut Schoeck’s "Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior", and the character Squidward from the TV show SpongeBob SquarePants. Wynn uses each of these references in different ways: the two academic ones to serve as intellectual building blocks for her overall point, and the pop culture one to give her audience a familiar and visceral touchstone to drive home what she is trying to say. With this approach, Wynn has crafted a formula perfect for the current moment with flashy visuals that serve to strengthen her argument while holding her audience’s attention.
Once everyone is listening, the next challenge becomes gaining trust. To achieve this, Wynn sets out to research the views her opposition holds and genuinely understand them. Because despite all her pageantry, where she truly shines is in her penchant for nuance and subtlety. While other internet figures scream past each other, using strawman arguments to destroy their opponents and any goodwill that might arise from the discussion, Wynn manages to break down the most polarizing topics with a surprising amount of empathy for all parties involved. She often inserts Socratic dialogues between invented characters into her videos and plays out their arguments, engaging with each side’s deeply held beliefs and answering their concerns in good faith. This strategy garners trust from her audience because they feel seen, understood and taken seriously.
Using these methodologies, Wynn has done deep dives into such topics as: trans exclusionary radical feminism, the criminal justice system, the inefficacy of public shaming, and the importance of voting. In case you haven’t realized by now, she is a leftist who advocates for economic and social reform to improve the lives of the average person (proletariat). But what sets her work above her peers is that instead of just rehashing popular leftist talking points, Wynn focuses on the ways in which individuals reinforce systems of power. She holds herself and her audience accountable for how we all contribute to the unfortunate state of the world. Her self-aware and often meta-analysis invites her audience to look within for change, giving much-needed agency to a group of disaffected youth that can so easily turn to nihilism.
As a trans woman, Wynn understands firsthand that the transgender community faces discrimination and a lack of basic human rights such as access to healthcare and safety in public spaces. With that unique perspective, she leverages her platform to highlight these issues and engage with those who view trans people as perpetrators rather than victims. In her video “Gender Critical” she examines the views of trans exclusionary radical feminists and addresses their concerns about trans access to women’s spaces. She exposes the emotional, often irrational arguments of well-respected feminists like Germain Greer, who claim to be making balanced and reasonable claims about biology. But rather than shame this demographic of people for being emotionally biased, she engages with their pain and uses it as a teaching moment. She astutely observes that identities are commonly formed through trauma and suffering, and gatekeeping often results because the person attempting to claim a certain identity is not perceived to have experienced the requisite pain. Wynn highlights examples of this across communities, calling for internal reflection and acceptance. Ultimately, Wynn succeeds in compassionately engaging with talking points that aim to dehumanize her, while extracting universal lessons about human nature that break down divides.
In the wake of the worldwide protests prompted by the horrific murders of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other black folks at the hands of the police, Wynn produced a video called “Justice” about the criminal justice system. She engages the idea of abolishing police and prisons, while recognizing the need for a free society to have a system for accountability and appropriate consequences. The video examines the philosophical question of justice, distinguishing between concepts like retribution, which is driven by punishment, and utilitarianism, which focuses on preventing violence and promoting better future outcomes. Wynn highlights the human drive for emotional catharsis as a motivator in the way systems of power are implemented and upheld, asking the audience to look within and examine the deeper drivers of our agendas.
Continuing with the theme of accountability and justice, Wynn made a video titled “Canceling”, which examines the practice of public shaming on social media in the name of holding an individual responsible for wrongdoings. She acknowledges that what people say online has an impact on others, and everyone should be open to critiques for the things they choose to put out into the world. However, Wynn sheds light on the deeply problematic nature of the canceling phenomenon by detailing her own experience with being dogpiled on social media. Wynn explains how the facts of an inciting incident get easily abstracted on sites like Twitter where context is often neglected. Then once the topic is trending, guilt is presumed, and the person is offered no chance at forgiveness. Wynn critiques this trend toward collapsing nuance in favor of black and white perspectives that condone excommunication from the human community, arguing that it does nothing to advance society or bring about a more just system. Again, Wynn forces her audience to face their contributions to a problematic system, inviting them to be more compassionate in the process.
Ahead of the 2020 election, Wynn put out a video called “Voting”, which was (you guessed it) about the importance of voting. But rather than put out a blanket message about the value of representative democracy, she approaches the topic specifically speaking to leftists disillusioned with ineffective electoral politics in the United States who believe that voting is pointless. Many of these young ideologues view politicians as indistinguishable from each other because they all uphold the same oppressive systems of power. In her response, Wynn recognizes the partial validity in those statements: most politicians have no interest in dismantling the systems that give them power. But she also highlights the important distinctions between how different parties use that power and calls out the unproductive nature of a defeatist attitude when it comes to change. Wynn, as always, manages to meet people where they are and encourage them to be more productive members of society.
Wynn has thirty video essays posted on the Contrapoints YouTube channel with eighty million total views; all of them are equally in-depth, astute and relevant to today’s issues. Each video boasts tens of thousands of thoughtful comments chewing over the material, with many remarking that not only did they watch the video from start to finish, but they have also seen them multiple times. I am among them, having watched all her essays, often replaying them for my friends and family in order to discuss them afterward. This is the kind of discourse we need in these divisive times: one which champions self-reflection, civility and thoughtfulness.
Though her audience is the largest among those who produce leftist video essays on YouTube, her reach is somewhat limited in comparison to the usual notion of a public intellectual. Yet, there is something to be said for a small but potent reach rather than a large and diffused one. The trend of influencer marketing, which preferences allocating advertising dollars to smaller internet creators who have a stronger connection to their audience, provides substantial evidence to suggest that voices like Natalie Wynn are making a significant impact on the audience they have cultivated.
Still, in recent years, the Contrapoints channel and Wynn herself are beginning to gain more mainstream traction. She has been the subject of articles for The Guardian, The Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times. Most recently she will be featured in Chelsea and Hilary Clinton’s upcoming Apple Doc Series ‘Gutsy’. Arguably the most notable, however, was her publicized online conversation with Noam Chomsky about the future of the leftism in the United States. As far as the passing of the torch goes, perhaps Wynn is not so unlikely after all.
Comentarios