He wasn't the only one.Simone Biles, sorry, The Olympics isn't about you, it's about winning for America. Clay Travis, a radio host, insisted that Clay apologize to her team for not being there when they needed her. Piers Morgan wrote in The Daily Mail: "I don't think it is courageous, heroic, or inspiring to quit," Piers wrote.Amber Athey, a conservative writer, joined the chorus. She insists that a champion is one who perseveres even in tough situations.It seemed odd to question whether Biles is truly a champion, given that the 24-year old Black woman won four gold medals in the last Olympics. This set the record for the most women have won at one Games. This was in addition to the 19 gold medals, three bronze medals and three silver medals she won at other international competitions. She became the first American gymnast to win five gold medals at the 2019 world championships.This was once a proud moment for American conservatives. Simone Biles is now a symbol for everything that the right now loathes. It is a story.It is not a new attempt to politicize sport. Donald Trump attempted to use peaceful protests against police violence to his advantage by tweeting dozens of attacks against NFL players. Trump wrote that if a player wants to make millions in the NFL or other leagues, then he or she should not disrespect the Great American Flag. He or she should also stand for the National Anthem. If you don't, YOU'RE FIRED. You can find something else to do.Ex-Vice President Mike Pence left an NFL game following players kneeling during the national anthem in a highly choreographed media spectacle. After players and teams publicly supported Black Lives Matter, the MAGA-verses backlash against the NFL and NBA grew. Black athletes were told to keep their politics to themselves.Recent attacks on the U.S. Women's Soccer team have been intensified. Trump encouraged his supporters at his weekend rally last weekend to boo the American soccer team for losing a match due to wakeism.That was a bizarre thing in and of itself. But this is why the attacks against Biles are so strange.On the surface, there wasn't a culture war flashpoint. The attack on the gymnast was not sparked by protests on her part. There is no conservative principle in her concern for her mental well-being.Even though the attacks lack a cohesive idea, they have an increasing familiar form. The real fetish of the right, despite all the rhetoric about individual liberty, is toughness.Weak men are those who display emotion, particularly when they cry. Young women who are unable to perform are often quitters. It doesn't matter if they have a strange obsession with machismo or strength. Look at Trump's rebuke Wednesday to the RINOs he claimed helped Democrats pass the infrastructure deal: It is a loss for the USA, a terrible agreement, and makes Republicans look weak, stupid, and not responsive to constituents.This may sound familiar.What is good? asked Friedrich Nietzsche. Anything that increases the sense of power, the will-to-power, and the power within man, is good.What is evil? What is evil?Trumpists such as Sebastian Gorka have made this a constant theme. He insists that both the Left and NeverTrumpers who hate Trump hate him because he's a mans man and an old school leader in every meaning of the word.Although Trump being described as a mans man might seem absurd, the attitude is indicative of the change in the right's focus from an organization ostensibly about ideas, values and principles to one that is invested in owning the books and upholding racial, and gender standards.Biles is an unimportant individual in this brave new world that glorifies toughness. She is an instrument of national greatness and her real humanity is an afterthought.It is why her critics don't spend enough time discussing the possible role that stress, pressure, and a history sexual abuse played in Biles' decision. This would make it difficult to view her as a person. For critics like Charlie Kirk, this is completely irrelevant.This is also the new ethos of the right. Adam Serwer famously stated that Trump's America is all about the cruelty.It is not only the cruelty that is the problem with Trumpism in its late stages. Insensitivity is encouraged; compassion is denigrated as weakness.We are left with this moment in absurdity, where a symbol for American excellence and American greatness, is being ridiculed by bloated white men-children because it is weak.They decided Simone Biles was everything they opposed.This is so revealing!
