Raygun’s breakdancing was ridiculous, but so are the idiotic conspiracy theories about her
I was actually pretty excited to watch the breakdancing competition in the Olympics before this ridiculous controversy, because I have always been into hip hop music. I even tried to breakdance myself as a leetle Latino when I was a kid growing up.
I was also shocked by the ridiculous and insulting performance by Rachael Gunn, dubbed “Raygun,” the dancer for Australia. In fact I tweeted about it pretty early on before it became a global phenomenon:
https://twitter.com/SooperMexican/status/1822017633136578776
This guy actually blocked me over my tweet, he’s what I am responding to:
Breaking is all about positivity. We lift each other up. I know it's hard for people on twitter to understand a world where you aren't trying to cut each other down, but it's sad to see so many people trying to laugh at someone's set, regardless of how impressive it may be.
— Scott Tolinski – Syntax.fm (@stolinski) August 9, 2024
I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about, because I am in my late forties and I was there when breakdancing first came out, and it has ALWAYS been about getting in each other’s face. It’s kinda wild to have this young dude whitesplain breakdancing to me, an he didn’t really take it well when I pointed that out.
White people, do NOT make an Olympics event out of something taken from black culture without expecting that you'll be savagely torn apart by black Twitter
— ¡El SooperMexican! ن c137 (@SooperMexican) August 9, 2024
Anyway, some people say Raygun was an insult to the real breakdancers. Some people say she shouldn’t have been there at all. I agree with those voices.
But as much as I thought the whole thing was ridiculous, the dumb morons on Twitter ran with it and made it into a much worse thing, as usual.
Somebody just made up this story that Gunn and her husband somehow swindled their way into the breakdancing olympics and it’s a big conspiracy. And of course people retweeted it and spread it without checking to see if it was right, because they love that crap.
Gunn has come out and said that the “hate” has been “devastating” to her, and I have to say that people reposting idiotic conspiracy theories without checking them certainly makes her a sympathetic character.
Here’s some Australians defending her from dumb conspiracy theories:
People online just can’t help themselves. Even when there’s a genuine criticism to be made, we cannot resist believing the dumbest and most extreme conspiracy theories, which ultimately undermines any reasonable criticism.
I still think Australians have a right to investigate how it was that this bizarre weirdo got onto that stage and embarrassed herself and them. But, it doesn’t help to lie about it so that she can take advantage of the attacks to defend her performance.
Here’s her full comments about what happened:
Sure. Why not.