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Riley Gaines video ‘owning’ libs removed by TikTok: ‘I literally didn’t say a word’

August 20, 2023 | | Print Article

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines exceeded at “owning the libs” with a reaction video that got pulled from TikTok where she “literally didn’t say a word.”

The outspoken advisor for the non-profit organization Independent Women’s Forum has remained relentless in her effort to bring commonsense to the fore on issues around transgenderism. To that end, she used one of the most powerful tools in exposing any ideologue: their own statements.

TikTok took issue with that and Gaines posted to X to report that a less than 30-second video of her eating cereal while listening to an individual describe themselves had violated one of the social media company’s guidelines.

“This video just got removed from my tik tok for violating community guidelines but I literally didn’t say a word,” wrote the former University of Kentucky athlete.

In the original TikTok post that she had uploaded, Gaines could be seen nodding along and making an occasional face as the individual who introduced themselves as Cody rattled off a veritable smörgåsbord of self-identification.

“Hi there. I’m Cody, pronouns e/em/eirs or xe/xem/xyr/xyrs or really and neopronouns that aren’t ze/hir/hirs,” began the video.

“I am a white, transmasculine, femme, nonbinary, temporarily mostly able-bodied, (quick breath), neuro-divergent, obsessive compulsive, chronically ill, culturally Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, nonmonogamous, demilowromantic, greydemibisexual, survivor of acute and complex trauma, (another breath), millennial and cat parent in mental health recovery.”

Gaines herself had noted when she originally shared the same post to X at the beginning of August, “Poor cat.”

Supporters of Gaines lined up with reactions to the video’s reported removal from TikTok, including podcast host Megyn Kelly how responded, “Perfectly done at every level.”

Another user opined tongue-in-cheek that clearly the swimmer must have violated some Orwellian-style thoughtcrime and as such it was far from a victimless crime. “Yeah but you THOUGHT about it so. Someone somewhere is crying.”

Others couldn’t help but get stuck on the possibility that it was the breakfast choice that had sunk the ship on the video. “Who knew eating cereal while female was against community standards?” one asked while another replied, “Is there some sort of list of what foods we are and aren’t allowed to eat?”

Gaines’s willingness to push back against leftist ideologues has played out in her sidelining her own plans to pursue dentistry to advocate for women’s rights and the protection of children from indoctrination at events and on Capitol Hill in sworn congressional testimony, even when doing so has come at the risk of personal danger to herself.

It took little effort for others to find humor in the swimmer’s reaction to the TikTok video while others weighed in with their own takes on the word salad that left some with headaches.

Kevin Haggerty
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