Is it just me, or has the whole world gone completely batshit crazy in the last month?
There is no escape. We are in the madhouse up to our eyeballs.
Everywhere you turn, it’s insanity.
And “backlash.” There is no “backlash.” It’s a made up, bullshit, journalistic word meaning, “unimportant people disagree with something insane, raise an ineffectual protest online.” Up there with “Republicans pounce.”
So I went up to Dartmouth/Hanover, for respite, and mostly found it. But not 100%. I’ll describe the this more fully later. For the most part, I saw the “nice America” that the World Cup visitors couldn’t get over. Details to come.
It seems there’s a drama a minute at the WNBA. This is 100% the Caitlin Clark effect. Even if it isn’t about her, it’s because of her. No one would know who Sophie Cunningham is if she weren’t a teammate of CC.
I wonder if she didn’t open a can of worms with her comments about men competing with women in sports that might harm her career with the Fever and with the “W” after this season. She has a one-year contract. I doubt she’ll be renewed next year.
It might be all for the best for her personally if her basketball career ends. I’m nearly 100% sour on this league, although I keep tuning into games because of Caitlin Clark — I just can’t quit her — I find her playing mesmerizing. I waver between thinking that CC might be the beginning of turning this league into something professional and watchable, and then I see the machinery that cranks into gear when another drama hits, and I say: “No, impossible.” The WNBA is like the universities: irredemably woke.
Sophie’s brave to speak out but bravery can be foolhardy. Caitlin Clark needs this controversy like she needs a hole in the head. I am disgusted with Megyn Kelly and Matt Walsh, who’ve called her a “coward” for not speaking up forthrightly on the subject.
Fuck those two. Kelly, as I’ve said many times, is a complete piece of shit1, but Walsh is different. I do enjoy his satirical takes and probably agree with him 90% of the time, but he’s over the line here. He risks nothing by speaking up. It’s his job. He’s monetized controversy.
Caitlin has had — still has — a massive weight on her shoulders. The pressure on her has been horrific and contra Billie Jean King, pressure isn’t always a privilege. Sometimes it’s a total drain.
Caitlin has stepped into many big moments but the constant interrogation on race must be soul-destroying. Although I’ve been watching the Fever since 2024, when CC was drafted, I wasn’t as aware as I should have been that before and after every game the players must meet the media.
And in these Q&A’s CC was consistently badgered about race. Consistently. Never-endingly. And her “I’m just here to play basketball” was twisted into callousness. She was put in the impossible position of answering for every jerk with a cell phone. She was forced into groveling.
So a pattern formed: Caitlin is assaulted. Her assailant screams “racism” - and Caitlin must issue what amounts to an apology for the racism her assailant allegedly experienced.2
This is so fucking grating, annoying, wearing, soul-sucking. I just got tired.
But I kept watching.
Now another drama happened, this one in which Sophie was fouled by a known thug: “Dijonai” Carrington. Carrington has a history of violence. She has eye-gouged, she has pulled hair (a little harder and a neck could be broken), and now this3:
LOOK AT THAT ARM. It is fucking wrapped around Sophie’s face. She didn’t have to do that. That is not a basketball move. It’s legal to intercept a ball, like this:
No physical contact, no violence, just a clean block. Here’s the film.
Not like this.
She was out to wound. This is assault. This is battery. This is violence.
She got a Flagrant 2, was ejected, and went to the locker room and put up a message on Threads.
She then pivoted on X and claimed the above had nothing to do with the foul in a long, rambling word salad.
Her cheer squad got in on the act4:
I am sick of this shit.
First: assault another player. Get ejected. Go to locker room. Break a rule: no tweeting after an ejection. Break the rule. Make an allegation. Slither away from it and accuse someone else of misconstruing what you meant. This is called deflection, blame-shifting, gaslighting, and evasion. Combine that with her histrionic behavior and propensity to violence and you have a ticking time bomb. I’m not a diagnostician but this sounds bad.
The only way to deal with people like Jemele Hill is to fire them. Take away their platform.
That’s not likely to happen.
Like Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, New York Magazine, and Hasan Piker, we’re stuck with these vicious degenerates.
Why am I even paying attention to this?
One, Caitlin. I ride or die with her.
Two, it’s related to the rampant decay in the rest of our society.
Sorry for sounding so disjointed. I’m in that kind of mood.
Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. So I’m OK with Nathan Cofnas for appearing on her show to tell the world about Jason Arday. It’s an important subject and she has reach (for good or ill). But if he appears on Tucker Carlson, I’m off his team.
The video was worse - this was preceded by a kick right in the groin - and the hand on throat wasn’t a punch. As you see, the hand isn’t in a fist. Thomas used Clark’s throat for leverage - to rise up. A physician on another Substack pointed out that this could have been fatal. Alyssa Thomas is bigger than most men: 6’2”, 203 pounds. Pushing off on someone’s throat with that big hand could have killed Clark. So what did Thomas do? Launch into full victim mode, which forced the WNBA to apologize to her. It’s a never-ending cycle of racial bullying.
Sophie made the layup. Respect.
There are many like her. This is just one example.
Sorry, people would know (do know) who Sophie Cunningham is. There are people who can name perhaps 5-10 WNBA players, she would likely be among them.
Granted, the average person can name one (Clark) but people who watched at all knew Sophie
The Whole. Darn. World.