The Vile Goop Oozing out of Gwyneth Paltrow

Health
News

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October 3, 2019

The Vile Goop Oozing out of Gwyneth Paltrow

Oh, Gwyneth Paltrow: why are you the way you are?

Perhaps the only nice thing I can say about her is that I appreciate the Welsh spelling of her name, but only because everything Welsh looks like it’s misspelled. That, and she wore the Rescue Armor as Pepper Potts in Avengers Endgame. It was pretty dope; I’m not going to lie:

*Two guesses where the ARC reactor is located.*

Anyway, Gwyneth made the news a few years back saying this gem:

“You come across [online comments] about yourself and about your friends, and it’s a very dehumanizing thing. It’s almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing, and then something is defined out of it…”

No, Gwyneth, being famous will not give you a pass to use anything us Veterans go through as a comparison for your wealthy and privileged life. This is Bullshido though, and you know Phrost didn’t give me a soapbox to criticize her just for silly comments. So, follow me down the rabbit hole as we explore the offerings in her online store, “Goop.”

*Middle-Age Mutant Celebrities II – Secret of the Ooze*

I’m sure you’ve already heard of this store because it was in the news a few years back being fined after the Food and Drug Administration warned people not to use their Vagina egg products. These were said to balance. “hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent uterine prolapse, and increase bladder control.” They were rocks. I mean, precious stones but, she sold rocks to have people shove inside them.

*not even going to bother to fucking caption this*

I would assume getting fined would cause someone to take a good hard look at their products and revamp everything. It seems like they’ve just doubled down. I’m going to go through, and cherry-pick the best insanity.

Their Wellness shop link shows a half-naked lady strategically covered, so that’s where I clicked first. Some of the first things I’ve noticed is a product line labeled “Sun Potions.” “He Shou Wu, Ashwagandha, Mucuna Pruriens (Dopamine Bean?) and Cordyceps.” I have no idea if any of this works, but who sells potions in 2019? Scrolling further, I find “Chaga,” “Reishi,” and “Cordyceps Mushroom Elixir Mixes.” Again, who sells elixirs in 2019? This is weird stuff.

Instead of putting rock eggs in your body, she now sells water bottles with quartz and amethyst rocks in them…!? I guess she’s cheated the system. Good on her..?!

Now, this is where we start getting weird with it; “Chill Child – Kid Calming Mist.” They’ve already got this. It is called Chloroform (DISCLAIMER, DISCLAIMER, THIS IS A JOKE IN 2019! ONLY A JOKE!) According to the description it is “Rosewater with essential oils of lavender, chamomile, geranium, and jasmine—smells so grounding that it just might bring your wild child back down to Earth for a minute!”

*A young Harvey Weinstein out for a night on the town*

Who in their right mind sprays a kid in the face to calm them? No, wait. What in the hell did I just read? This says to **spray their aura.** I’m not kidding; it says, “The instructions say to spritz around your kid’s aura, but if you don’t know where their auras are exactly: Just spray around them.”

*A handy, holistic, “Shut The Fuck Up Spray” for parents*

How much worse could it get? Well, right next to this bottle is another product, “Psychic Vampire Repellent Protection Mist.” I am not, nor have I ever been, so entitled, that I could get rich, making up shit like this. Why did my parents give me reasoning and a sense of fairness that denied me the ability to steal from foolish people?

This page has a lot of vibrators on it. Like, a lot! And they all have pretty funny names; “The Frenchman, The Fireman, The Tennis Coach, Kip, Fin, Pom, Intimate Wellness Solution.” I’m not trying to shame her. I mean, get after it, Gwyneth. I honestly think this might be the most healthy products in her store.

But, then I found it. Priced modestly at $3,490.00 the, “Lelo Olga. The Gold Dildo.”

*Please allow 9 business days for our employees to stop laughing*

I guess rich people love to fuck themselves. I’m so glad my grandfather fought in World War 2, and my great grandfather fought in World War One so that they give the rest of us a lineage of sacrifice in defending this great nation so that a rich actress could get richer selling solid gold dildos.
Continuing on: more elixirs, a bamboo toothbrush (is this a thing?) a vibrator necklace WAIT WHAT? This is a vibrator you can wear around your neck in public. Who the hell wants to see that? Oh, and it is also gold. It is hard not to get bitter at seeing this decadence when I’m eating cheap noodles on the daily, and trying to survive after opening a comic shop all the while on the budget of a disabled veteran. I’m concerned the world might need another plague.

*“Did we mention it’s USB re-chargeable?”*

Oh, look, “Anti-pollution drops.” Why are we not dumping this stuff into Lake Erie?

Tarot cards too because why not? Finally, something that looks like a nailgun but might be for massages labeled, “G3PRO”, which I can’t help but notice sounds like C3PO.

*This isn’t actually something they sell (believe it or not), I just got tired of going to their website*

That’s just the “Wellness” section. There is an enormous amount of stuff here from clothing to beauty products. If I knew anything about actual chemical compounds and health, I imagine I could have a field day in the beauty section breaking down why a lot of this could be pseudoscience. I will say, so many of these beauty products are labeled Goop, and I can’t imagine smearing a product on my face that was one letter off from Poop. It is so weird that this is a brand name.

Anyways, everything here is beyond expensive. Earrings tend to be in the thousands and even sweat pants, labeled “Skinny Pants” run at about $95. As a fan of capitalism, I can’t hate her for high priced fashion. If she’s getting paid over this nonsense, god bless her, but as a fan of science, I do hate her “Wellness” section. There is a lot of products that seem like absolute bullshit. I mean, if you buy her 100 dollar sweat pants, at least you have got sweat pants to wear. If you buy her Child Calming Aura Spray all you’ve got is a spray bottle of scented water and broken dreams.

*GOLD PLATED GAY FROG VIBRATOR NECKLACES*

Social Media Shenanigans – September

News

Steve Mix

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October 1, 2019

1

I have a habit of tracking social media trends and flavors of the week, mostly because I’m a festering ball of cynicism. So here is the shenanigans I witnessed over the last couple of weeks. The outrage machine was rocketing full speed down the tracks with a boiler threatening to explode, so it was good for some laughs.

Also for those of you that don’t know me, I hate hypocrisy, but I love chaos so clearly I’m a hypocrite myself.

The Princess Bride Meltdown

Last week the Sony Pictures CEO told Variety that they were considering a remake for the 1980s movie, The Princess Bride. My Facebook feed erupted like someone had split an atom. Folks were ranting about how it shouldn’t even be considered and that this was “Sacred Ground!” Now I should preface this by saying, it is one of my favorite movies, but I’m not opposed to Hollywood reviving old franchises. This is how we get new things to celebrate in Fandom, and I never quite understand the outrage surrounding these things.

What did entertain me though; the same people crying foul over The Princess Bride remake seemed to be the same people making fun of folks for disliking the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. If I’m honest, I liked that Ghostbusters movie too even though people were losing their minds over it. I love delicious hypocrisy more though, and this stuff was so thick you could sip it on a winter morning, overlooking a snowy valley named “Indifference.”

During the midst of this, they announced a sequel to the Last Starfighter. No one was outraged, so someone needs to tell the Last Starfighter fans that they’re breaking protocol.

The Double-edged Sword of Greta Thunberg

*Now that we think of it, if you don’t really follow social media, you’re not going to have any idea wtf this means.*

This trend I did not understand. A young gal named Greta Thunberg appeared before the United Nations and delivered an impassioned speech on climate change, activism, and the failings of our world leaders. She was able to talk about cleaning up the environment AND rip on politicians. In my opinion, this is a win-win but oh lord, did social media lose its mind over this one.

Folks started posting that her parents were manipulating her. Grand assuming statements like, “There’s no way a kid who is 15 years old would be concerned about the environment.” Now, I have a 15-year-old stepdaughter, and she is actually concerned about the environment, along with eating healthy, and she’s just now getting interested in politics. Folks kept ripping on this poor kid like she was the second coming of Saddam Hussein and I could not figure out why.

The duplicity of it all was most of my friends who were taking part in this narrative were also the ones who championed Soph. She is another girl about the same age as Greta who says controversial stuff and favors most rhetoric of the right. I couldn’t figure out how the side in favor of helping the environment was seen as child abuse while the other side of the coin was “Oh, that’s just youtube comedy.” (Except Soph has since been tossed off Youtube.)

Look, even if you don’t agree with climate change, why would you be opposed to cleaning up our planet? Are you concerned that if we remove the floating great pacific garbage patch that we’ll have nowhere to live when the world floods? I always thought Captain Planet villains were cheesy in overly dramatic ways, but some of you are proving me wrong. Short of silly conspiracy theories, I can’t see anything wrong in wanting a cleaner world. Also, I love that she was able to rip on world leaders. I honestly think that part should be celebrated.

Tekashi69 Dimed out the Bloods.

Like all of them.It turns out 48 years in prison is the breaking point for a hard as nails, tattoo-faced rapper with multicolored chicklet gum for teeth as Tekashi69 dimed out everybody. Tekashi69 (just typing this name makes my eye twitch) named members of the media as Bloods. He named hip-hop artists I had never heard of before this event. He named neighborhoods for having ties to them. His testimony prompted a lot of folks to call him out for snitching. Even Snoop Dogg went out of his way to point out in a tweet that his superfriend Martha Stewart did time in prison and she never ratted anyone out.

Then to everyone’s utter amazement, Tekashi69 turned down witness protection. I mean, really, where is a guy with all those tattoos on his face going to hide, anyway? Post Malone’s house is the only place he could ever blend in. He plans on getting out and making more records. I think the only record in his future is the world record for quickest murder by a gang in prison.

Rest in peace Takeshi69. I’m sure heaven likes rainbow glitter teeth, but I think rats go to hell.

The Potential Impeachment of President Trump

This one wasn’t so much hypocrisy as it was pure flaming chaos. If you don’t know what is going down because you’ve been living on a desert island for the past 20 years, I’m sorry; welcome to 2019! No flying cars but, you can have Gamer Girl Bath Water delivered to your home.Anyways, there is an active inquiry into impeachment against President Trump. If you need a recap, I prefer Philip DeFranco:

Now look, I’m a fart smelling centrist because I hate everybody, so I don’t usually have a dog in this race. In fact, I hate discussing politics. However, I’ve seen some insane stuff from this administration — everything from the war on the media to fictional civil war battles. So, I’ve been over this President for a long time. I’d be perfectly happy to see him leave the Oval Office but, look, let’s be real a minute. President Trump creates controversies. He handcrafts them, almost hourly. He hands them to the media on ivory pedestals that are labeled “Serious madness within” and somehow he dodges every single event.

It would be nice to see him held accountable for anything, just once, but I’m not holding my breath. I think I have actual fatigue from watching this dance play out hundreds of times now so; I’m just going to wait and not be shocked in the least when he somehow ducks this mess.

Social media has been exploding over this scandal, and I don’t have anything negative to say about this trend. I have always felt that the people have to question the President and we shouldn’t blindly follow any leaders, ever. Some folks don’t agree, but that’s because some folks love political tribalism. They love dancing to politician’s fiddles and swallowing every morsel of dogshit the bi-partisan blaming media vomits down their throats. That’s not my jam, and clearly, I’m a little bitter about it.

Anyways, that’s your wrap up for social media shenanigans. If I missed anything, I’m sorry, but I’ve only got so much salty veteran in me that I notice the significant trends.

03 Martial Arts Episode: Omega and Battlefields

Bullshido News

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September 16, 2019

1

03 Martial Arts Episode: Omega and Battlefields

A lot of you have been asking us to do martial arts-related stuff, so we changed things up a bit this time for you. Here’s an episode of “The Art of Fighting BS Podcast” featuring a conversation between Michael “Omega” MacDonald and Sam “Battlefields” Fields—both of which you’ll recognize from the Bullshido forums.

Sam is a martial artist, MMA journalist, and kangaroo boxer from Australia (two of those are true, we’ll let you decide which). Mike runs Valhalla MMA out of Santa Barbara, CA, and is the definition of an old-school MMA veteran, coming up in the sport from the days of UFC 1. He has a fight record of 17 – 3, and has been known to break people’s hands with his face.

The Art of Fighting BS Podcast on Stitcher

The Art of Fighting BS Podcast on Spotify

The Art of Fighting BS Podcast on iTunes

The Art of Fighting BS Podcast on Google Play

Join the discussion on this episode in the Bullshido Forums.

Click below to play in this window:

Debunked: the Inuit Frozen Poop Knife (No, Really)

News
Science

Phrost

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September 12, 2019

0

Debunked: the Inuit Frozen Poop Knife (No, Really)

In 1998, Anthropologist Wade Davis published Shadows in the Sun: Travels to Landscapes of Spirit and Desire:

“There is a well known account of an old Inuit man who refused to move into a settlement. Over the objections of his family, he made plans to stay on the ice. To stop him, they took away all of his tools. So in the midst of a winter gale, he stepped out of their igloo, defecated, and honed the feces into a frozen blade, which he sharpened with a spray of saliva. With the knife he killed a dog. Using its rib cage as a sled and its hide to harness another dog, he disappeared into the darkness.”

Since then, the story has gone on to become somewhat of an ~~urban~~ arctic(?) legend. But according to a team of researchers, that story, is shit:

*Posted as an image given its inherent value as a meme.*

The Case For Real Zombies

This is not the first time Davis has been caught both promoting sketchy claims based on questionable methods, and then having those claims successfully spread into the public consciousness. In the early 80’s he promoted a theory that tetrodotoxin—a neurotoxin derived from puffer fish—was the active component in Haitian “zombie powder”. He went on to push this idea in the 1985 book The Serpent and the Rainbow, which went on to be the basis of a feature horror film directed by Wes Craven.

Of course, there was little evidence to support this idea, and tests on examples of “zombie powder” revealed insignificant if any quantities of the toxin. Furthermore, even if there had been significant quantities, the pharmacodynamics of TTX involve blocking sodium channels to cause paralysis or death, neither of which induce a zombie-like state of compliant slavery as was the assertion.

The Fuzzy Science of Ethnography

Ethnographic research is a staple of the social sciences, but whether or not it qualifies as actual science—much like the method itself—is a matter of opinion. Unlike experimental or other means of collecting data to identify correlations or even causal relationships, ethnography introduces a much higher degree of subjectivity and bias.

In a nutshell, the process involves one or more researchers essentially embedding themselves with the subjects of their study to closely observe them and gather data. (Think Jane Goodall, but instead of chimpanzees, furries.) On the surface the process seems reasonable, and has been used to produce interesting and useful studies about the lives of people.

But it’s also highly dependent on the ability of the researchers to dispassionately study their subjects, and to be mindful of the possibility of introducing bias into their study at all steps of the process. In one sense, it is more a method of narrative building and storytelling than it is a process by which a falsifiable hypothesis can be confirmed and reproduced.

Take for example the 2011 study by Vacarro, Schrock, & McCabe entitled Managing Emotional Manhood: Fighting and Fostering Fear in Mixed Martial Arts. (Sci-hub link) A few minutes into reading the paper yields the obvious conclusion that the ethnographers simply have no perspective on what they’re studying. Furthermore, by framing everything within the perspective of upholding masculinity norms, they completely misattribute pre-fight jitters to fear rather than the more parsimonious, biological explanation of anticipatory surges of adrenaline; something anyone who has actually been in a fight would understand.

And even worse, both the bias towards a pre-determined conclusion about masculinity and the researchers’ ignorance of Mixed Martial Arts are highlighted by the simple fact that female fighters exist, and could not give a single frozen shit about whether or not they are doing the emotional work to process fear in accordance with expectations for their masculinity.

TL;DR

Ding-dong anthropologist with a history of publishing dumb shit, again gets his shit debunked.
More ethnographers need to be punched in the face
People who’ve used the word “ethnographer” in a sentence don’t need TL;DRs.

Sources

Eren, M. I., Bebber, M. R., Norris, J. D., Perrone, A., Rutkoski, A., Wilson, M., & Raghanti, M. A. (2019). Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 27, 102002. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.102002

Vaccaro, C. A., Schrock, D. P., & McCabe, J. M. (2011). Managing Emotional Manhood: Fighting and Fostering Fear in Mixed Martial Arts. Social Psychology Quarterly, 74(4), 414–437. https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272511415554

02 Gun Control and the Second Amendment – The Art of Fighting BS Podcast

Bullshido News

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August 22, 2019

51

02 Gun Control and the Second Amendment – The Art of Fighting BS Podcast

The second episode of Bullshido’s “The Art of Fighting BS Podcast” is a topic that comes in the wake of what seems to be a spike in mass shootings in the last few weeks.

Joining us to discuss the topic is former Marine combat and weapons instructor and soon-to-be graduate of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Derek Debus; who is also the author of our “No-BS Guide to the Second Amendment and Gun Control“.

In the studio with us for the episode are Phrost, Submessenger, and JnP for what we consider to be a reasonable discussion on the topic with information that should be useful to anyone, regardless of their position on civilian firearms ownership and/or regulation.

Your Thoughts on Gun Control and the Second Amendment?

Don’t forget to chime in on the Forums with your opinions, or leave a comment here, but honestly, nobody reads them. (Did I mention we have actual Forums?)

Click the Play button below, or listen on:

01 Obesity: Fat Shaming vs. Fact-Checking – The Art of Fighting BS Podcast

News
Podcast

Bullshido News

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August 13, 2019

0

01 Obesity: Fat Shaming vs. Fact-Checking – The Art of Fighting BS Podcast

With obesity now constituting a national, and even global health crisis, discussing the subject from the perspective of science, and evidence-based medicine takes on a special urgency so we can all work towards genuinely effective solutions.

Our guest for the podcast is Dr. Jason Goldsmith, and the discussion spans the spectrum of reasons why we simply can’t seem to tackle this huge problem, including a behind-the-scenes look at the healthcare industry from the vantage point of a practicing physician.

Listen Now:

The Fundamental Attribution Error of Fitness

Phrost

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August 11, 2019

3

The Fundamental Attribution Error of Fitness

“Damn, that dude is an absolute unit. Must be nice to have those genetics.”

“Look at that skinny tranch, I’ll bet she doesn’t even have to count calories.”

If you’ve caught yourself thinking either (or both) of these, we’re not going to come straight out and call you an asshole, but we’ve got that waiting on deck just in case.

The Fundamental Attribution Error – When Your Brain’s the Asshole

It’s something we all do in one form or another. Without getting too far into the weeds on the psychology behind the phenomenon, the Fundamental Attribution Error¹ is basically when you assign blame to others based on their personal characteristics, while judging your own actions based on the particulars of the situation. It’s a nifty frickin’ concept which, on its surface, seems to explain so much about… well… everything. Heck, it may even provide an answer to the age-old question of “why we can’t have nice things”, like space travel and stable economies and world leaders whose hair doesn’t look like it was used to mop the floor of a public restroom.

In a honey-roasted nutshell, it works like this:

Imagine you’re driving down the street on your way to work, listening to NPR or Amon Amarth or the Bullshido podcast or whatever, but you get stuck behind someone going at least 20 miles an hour under the speed limit. What’s worse is that they seem to be taking the same turns as you, and you can’t get around them. Of course you immediately assume they’re an asshole—distracted, probably looking at makeup tutorials or sharing minions memes about it being “wine o’clock”. When you finally get to pass, you find yourself having to literally sit on your hand to ensure you don’t give them a one-fingered rating of their driving ability as you pass.

Later in the day though, you’re driving home slowly and carefully because your backseat is filled with grandma’s antique heirloom china plates, and— not possessing any self-awareness whatsoever—can’t understand why everyone’s cutting you off rudely. They must all be assholes. Why are there so many assholes on the road today?

Good Luck vs. Hard Work

Having now met our quota for using the word “asshole” in this piece we might as well get to the point. (The quota was 7, if you don’t want to count.)

Unless you’re intimately familiar with a person’s family back to a few generations, or are some kind of nosy genotyping cyborg from the future, the chances that you can accurately assess the genetics of some random person walking past you—especially at the gym—are about as good as the chances of you landing a flying kick in a streetfight.

Sure, there are some visible traits that are easy to attribute to inheritance rather than individual lifestyle choices, such as bone structure or height. And while to an extent they’re also dependent on factors such as childhood nutrition, they’re not things you can train in the gym.

But other than those kinds of things, you simply don’t know, which means assuming that person’s physique or athletic ability is the product of genetics over hard work, makes you… an…

See You Later, A-hole/Hater

No grown adult who wants to be taken seriously should use the word “hater” in a sentence without irony, but we find ourselves in the unenviable position of that being the most direct way to explain this. People who make a habit of dismissing the successes (or gainz) of others exist in a pre-defeated state of mind that attempts to reconcile their lesser status with that of the person to which they are—often unconsciously—comparing themselves. Or in other words, like your father should have told you, while it’s easier to tear someone else down than build yourself up, the former doesn’t accomplish the latter; in fact, it just makes things worse for you.

That’s because person’s sense of their own self-efficacy—the internal assessment of whether or not you can be effective at accomplishing something—actually influences whether or not you can accomplish it². This isn’t some magic mental supplement that allows you to transcend physics with psychology like an anime protagonist, but it will help get your lazy ass off the couch and into the gym.

But when you don’t possess that state of mind, indeed when you’ve convinced yourself that everyone else was born lucky (unlike you) not only are you making it significantly harder to justify even bothering to try, but even if you do your attempts are going to be less effective. Why? Because, again, you’re underestimating the amount of work most, if not all of those people you’re comparing yourself to, put in to get there.

TL;DR – Where Are The Memes Bro?

*Chads at least read the entire f’n article*

The relationship between mental weakness and physical weakness is a lot like the urban legend about the relationship between Marilyn Manson and Marilyn Manson: a feedback loop that nobody wants to see, but everyone will judge you for.
You’re not a genotyping cyborg from the future.
You might be an asshole; we’ll see.

*You can’t even assume THIS guy is an asshole; maybe he was just out of clean shirts?*

Editor’s Note: The scientific merit of correspondence bias is being revisited right now as a part of the broader replication crisis in psychology³, but for the purposes of explaining our point in this article (tell your brain to STFU and lift), it works just fine.

Sources and More Reading

You Are A Badass

Phrost

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August 4, 2019

0

You’re a badass.

Yes, you, reading this right now. You’re not adapted for this world. You’re better suited for living in a small band of friends and family, surviving day-to-day. You’re adapted to have kids in your teens, to most likely die before you’re 40, and to always be on the lookout for your next meal or for the predators who want to make you theirs. You’re meant for a short life filled with intense moments, both highs and lows—fighting for your life, sitting around a fire with everyone you love, huddling together for warmth or sharing stories.

Instead, you wake up every morning in a warm bed, within safe walls, with the faintest awareness something is wrong, with the whisper of a longing ache. You put on some version of a uniform and prepare yourself to sit in traffic so you can buy things to try to fill this ache, to take trips so you can get away from it, to come back home and watch other people’s stories to distract yourself from it.

No matter what you do though, it’s still there. No matter how “good” things are, no matter how safe and well-fed and comfortable you are—and your guilt for feeling this just adds to the ache. But you keep getting up every morning anyway, facing a world you know in your bones is wrong.

Because you’re a badass.

Rodin's Fallen Caryatid — *The Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone, Auguste Rodin 1840-1917*

CrossFit Orders Affiliates Off Facebook and Instagram

Fitness
News

Phrost

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May 29, 2019

0

CrossFit Orders Affiliates Off Facebook and Instagram

The popular sport/exercise program/physical therapist’s goldmine has exploded across the world over the past decade and its rise can be correlated with the emergence of centralized social media platforms like Facebook and image sharing services like Instagram.

Or in other words, bragging that you “hit Fran so hard you met Pukie the Clown” is much more efficient when you can force it on your co-workers or high school friends, and compensating for a lack of parental affection is greatly empowered when you can share semi-nude pictures to an audience of thirsty creepers itching to slide into your DMs.

*The Crossiest-Fittiest image we could find for this* *article…*

But in a statement released on their website Thursday, the corporate organization behind CrossFit took action in response to Facebook disabling a popular CrossFit-associated group:

Recently, Facebook deleted without warning or explanation the Banting7DayMealPlan user group. The group has 1.65 million users who post testimonials and other information regarding the efficacy of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. While the site has subsequently been reinstated (also without warning or explanation), Facebook’s action should give any serious person reason to pause, especially those of us engaged in activities contrary to prevailing opinion.

Facebook and its properties host and oversee a significant share of the marketplace of public thought. To millions of individuals and communities across the world, Facebook and its properties remain the platforms where ideas and information are exchanged. Facebook thus serves as a de facto authority over the public square, arbitrating a worldwide exchange of information as well as overseeing the security of the individuals and communities who entrust their ideas, work, and private data to this platform. This mandates a certain responsibility and assurance of good faith, transparency, and due process.

It’s worth noting CF is explicitly taking a principled stance on this; the group in question wasn’t directly affiliated with their brand. What’s also notable is that this may be the first instance in which a (reasonably) major brand essentially de-platformed itself. De-platforming is a contentious issue these days, with the line between freedom of speech and private ownership particularly murky when it comes to arguably monopolistic services like Facebook and Twitter; so large that denying service in the form of suspensions, bans, or account deletion, can be easily perceived as a form of censorship.

*Screenshot of the missing CrossFit page on Facebook*

It remains to be seen whether this move will result in meaningful change with regards to censorship, or blow up in the face of the sport and its participants. Or maybe it’ll just reduce the number of avoidable injuries.