July 8, 2025 • 27 mins
Cancel Culture is going strong... at least, in the world of reality TV. Love Island USA star Cierra Ortega is having her life destroyed after unhinged fans dug up old Instagram stories where she used an offensive word. I break it down in this episode of the Brad vs Everyone podcast. Plus, MAGA influencers revolt after the Trump administration flip-flops on the infamous Jeffrey Epstein case.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Love Island USA contestant Sierra Ortega abruptly exited season seven
of the show after two of her social media posts
from twenty fifteen and twenty twenty three resurfaced.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Cancel culture is still going strong in the bizarre world
of reality TV, where the show Love Island is descending
into utter chaos. We're going to break this down and
so much more on today's episode of the Barred Versus
(00:32):
Everyone podcast, our daily show where we take on the
craziest ideas from across the media, the Internet, and her politics,
all from an independent perspective. Guys, thanks so much for
tuning in and bearing with me in my new apartment adventures.
We have to talk today. I am I am personally
not a reality TV girly. I can't really get into it,
(00:53):
but I've heard so much about this show Love Island
that started in the UK and now has a US
veryon But the only parts of it that actually interest
me are the politics and cancel culture adjacent to traumas
consuming the fan base and actually destroying people's lives in
pretty sinister ways that we're going to talk about today.
(01:17):
And it's interesting because I do believe this. But I
had started to believe that cancel culture was on the wane,
that the peak twenty twenty era of Twitter mobs destroying
people's lives was over. And it's not over, but it's
definitely less powerful than it was. But one bubble where
it seems to still be going incredibly strong is the
(01:39):
wild world of reality TV, where some obsessive people online
seem to have a bizarre dedication to destroying people's lives
for minor faux pause or social transgressions from years ago
that they can dig up to destroy contestants on a
(01:59):
reality TV show, with very little regard for the proportionality
of the consequences or the mental health of anyone involved.
And the latest is a saga involving a woman who
was just axed from the current season of US Love
Island because in past Instagram posts she used a derogatory
(02:22):
word to describe her eyes that refers to Asian people,
and apparently for that unforgivable sin, she was unceremoniously kicked
off the show and dragged by the entire Internet, even
having her life threatened and a torrent of hate upon
(02:43):
her to the point where her parents have spoken out,
We're going to watch a video from CNN recapping the controversy.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Love Island USA contestant Sierra Ortega abruptly exited season seven
of the show after two of her social media posts
from twenty fifteen and twenty twenty three resurfaced that appeared
to show her using a racial slur. In both posts,
or Teka appear to use language offensive to Asian people
while describing cosmetic procedures she wanted to get. According to
(03:11):
the Daily Mail, fans took to social media prior to
Ortega's departure sharing their outrage over the situation. Or Teake's
former castmate, Beldasha Walker is Asian American and posted on
her Instagram story saying she was quote incredibly heartbroken to
find out what her fellow Islander said, also adding quote
it is my hope that this situation can help shed
(03:32):
light on how big of an issue anti Asian hate
actually is. Former Bachelorette star Jen Trand posted a video
on TikTok expressing her thoughts on the controversy. I've ripen
in a world where I did want to get rid
of my eye shape. I wanted to get rid of
all of my Asian futures because I was othered Growing
Up or Tega's exit was announced on the show in
a voiceover which stated she left due to a quote
(03:54):
personal situation. This comes just a week before the season finale.
When asked about the exit, a representative for the streaming
platform Peacock told CNN, quote, we won't be providing a
comment or take. As parents spoke out about the quote
cruel messages their daughter has received leading up to her
departure from the show, they posted this message to her Instagram, saying, quote,
(04:16):
We're not here to justify or ignore what's surface. We
understand why people are upset, and we know accountability matters,
but what's happening online right now has gone far beyond that.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
So I have thoughts not as somebody who is particularly
invested in Love Island, I am not, but just as
somebody with a little bit of common sense who sees
this stuff for what it is. A lot of it
is a witch hunt. A lot of it is people
taking out their frustrations in life on random people on
(04:49):
the Internet, as we'll get to but also some of
this is just like plain old corporate cowardice. I really
have no respect for the way that Peacock handled this.
What do you mean you just whisked her off the
show for personal situations? No, if you kicked her off
because of her old Instagram stories, say so. And if
(05:10):
you didn't say that, you didn't like, stand on business,
have a little bit of backbone. People are going to
be mad at you no matter what. These unhinged corners
of the Internet are never going to be content with you.
So stop trying to play kate Reddit threads and unhinged
TikTok users and either take a stand or don't. But
I really don't respect this, like measily mouthed, wishy washy
(05:34):
no comment approach that they're doing. It's just really dishonest.
We all know she was kicked off the show because
of this controversy. But if that's what's happening here, say
that and stand on business and explain why, like walk
us through from point one to point two to point three.
How saying a offensive word on an Instagram story years
(05:56):
ago means that she can't be on a reality TV
data show, Like, explain the logic. They don't want to
because there isn't any because the math isn't mathing. I mean,
but I don't respect the cowardly way they handled this whatsoever,
And I'm just once again struck by how incredibly soft
our society is. Like, this is not a nice word.
(06:19):
The word, if you're wondering, is cchi and k why
she should not have used the word in the way
she did to like joke about and belittle her own
appearance and talk about her eyes and the cosmetic surgery.
It wasn't a nice thing to do. And you know,
I think she should probably apologize for it and say, listen,
I won't talk like that again. There's nothing wrong with
(06:39):
being Asian, but people say not so politically correct things
sometimes in the real world. Sometimes people even say mean
and naughty words. And it's not the frickin end of
the world. It is not some cataclysmic safety threatening event
that endangers the other contests on this show, like at
(07:01):
most they could have addressed it. I just having a
one on one with her, and she says, you know,
I just wanted to apologize to the Love Island community.
I use these hurtful words in the Instagram story a
couple of years ago. I'm sorry, I won't do it again.
I have no hate love to all of y'all. And
then they move on it's really not that deep, and
society is so fricking soft, at least social media is,
(07:24):
and so many of these young people that tune into
these shows show me on the doll where the mean
word hurt you, Like really, I hate to break it
to y'all, but all across America, every single day, probably millions,
but definitely hundreds of thousands of times mean words and
unkind things are said and done, and we should all
(07:47):
try to be nicer, We should all try to treat
everyone equally and kindly. But it's not that deep. It's
not the end of the world. It doesn't permanently scar
or disfigure you that some random woman and you'd never
heard of before this show said on an Instagram story
a word that hurt your feelings though you didn't see
it at the time, Like, please identify for me the meaningful,
(08:12):
real world harm that was done by this Instagram story
in twenty fifteen and twenty twenty three, she did it
as well, like I'll wait because the most that could
have happened, from my logical extrapolation, is that some Asian
people might have sawn her story and been like, oh,
(08:32):
that's not nice, and then scrolled and like that's it.
Is that something worth destroying someone's life over. It's not great.
Like I'm not saying it's a good thing to do
or that she shouldn't apologize. I'm just saying it's not
that deep. And the only rebuttal that the activist types
who went after this woman in really unhinged ways that
(08:53):
we're going to document seem to have is you can't
speak on this. You're not Asian. You don't know what
their truth is. It's like, I don't need to be
because I have logical, critical thinking skills and I'm an
individual capable of independent thought. And they are also falsely
suggesting some sort of consensus among Asian people. A lot
of Asian people either don't care, didn't notice, or are like, yeah,
(09:17):
she shouldn't have said that. But the reaction here is
wildly disproportionate. I mean, we should be so clear. She's
been getting death threats, she's been being doxed, she's being harassed,
her family is being harassed, her career is basically over,
and she's lost hundreds of thousands of followers all over
(09:38):
a not so nice word she used in a couple
Instagram stories Like that is not proportionate. When you talk
about any form of consequences or accountability, the word they
love to use, it should be in some way proportionate.
This is not that I want to take a look
at some of these TikTok videos where people are quite
literally taking glee in this woman's entire life collapsing because
(10:03):
she said a word that hurt their feefees. And before
you hit me with the it's a serious slur, okay,
say that it is. To put it in context, I'm gay.
If somebody said the f slur about gay people or
called things that's so gay or any of that in
Instagram stories from a few years back, I would have
the exact same response that it is not that deep,
it's not nice. They probably shouldn't do that, maybe they
(10:25):
should apologize, but keep it moving, and it's not the
end of the world, and it's certainly not worth destroying people,
disqualifying them from participation in society for life threatening their
lives or harassing their parents. So yes, I would have
the absolute same energy applied to myself or my own community.
(10:45):
Now let's take a look at some of these videos,
because it's kind of chilling the way that some of
these social media users are taking glee in the downfall
of this woman's entire life. Take a look at this
first one video has more than six million views.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
After Sarah getting kicked out of the Island slash villa,
I can't help it but think about the fact that
she lost her chance of winning fifty K. And not
only that, but she literally lost her job because Sierra
was one of the few people that came in here
with a job of being a content creator like slash influencer,
(11:22):
so she also lost that. She lost Instagram followers, she
lost her chance of like working with brands, she literally
lost everything, which is a little lesson for influencers and
content creators that no matter how much you erase, whatever
you do or say will always come back and hunt
(11:43):
you in the back. Because literally that's what happened with Sierra,
because that girl did not just lose her chance of
winning Love Island or winning the money, No, she lost
her job. She lost what gets her money, like basically
lost her whole reputation, which I'm here for because you
don't play around with racism. But that's wild because like
(12:06):
in two days, she literally lost everything.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So the woman that made this video and most of
the people in the comments are basically like gleeful that
this woman, Sierra, her whole life has been turned upside
down because you don't play around with racism. Lots of
people actually do, like it's actually okay to joke about things,
even sensitive topics. Not everyone is perfect, Not everyone is
(12:32):
one hundred percent politically correct all the time, and it's
really not the end of the world. I'm just struck
by this because when you find yourself reveling in someone
else's downfall, that's never great. That's usually not a sign
of a psychologically healthy person. And the way that this
went down where this woman is like sequestered on Love Island,
(12:55):
she doesn't have her phone or anything, she doesn't know
any of this is going on. Then she urges from
this sequestering and her whole life has been destroyed, is
like kind of insane. Take a listen to another video explaining.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
This Love Island is actually black mirror if you're Sierra.
Because think about this. She goes on the show, it
ends up being the most viewed season of the show.
When she was going into the show, she was like,
I'm gonna be so prepared. I have all this media training,
I have all these other influencer friends have friends with
other people who have been on the show before, like
I'm more ready than anybody. She makes a strong connection
with the guy that she picks right away, okay, and
it lasts for weeks. She gains a million followers. Everything's
(13:32):
going great, but because she doesn't have her phone, she
has no idea that the whole country is actually shipping
her man with her best friend, and not a soul
is defending her. He's mom's up on the internet like
Alandria brings out the best in him. No one's defending her.
But then it gets even worse because then she gets
exposed to even for her racist pass, for her racist
present because she like Ben's standing on that after people
(13:53):
pointed out to her. She gains and then almost immediately
loses her a million followers, and then she gets a
show tap in the middle of the night, like hey,
you got to get up and go. She's about to
get her phone back and find out that nobody is
siding with her romantically or ethically, that every single famous
person she has cultivated a friendship with has now condemned
(14:13):
her publicly, that her parents are now in charge of
her social media accounts which are dipping like crazy, because
she's going to be able to look at the analytics
and see that spike and that steep descent, and that
her parents, for whatever reason, chose to turn the comments
back on, so she'll be able to hear directly from
everybody if she wants to. It really is almost like
a genie witch, where like, in a very twisted way,
she did get everything that she was expecting. You know,
(14:37):
there's a lot of talk about her, there's a lot
of buzzer around here. She's all over the news, but.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
None of it has played out the way that she expected,
which is like sort of what a genius wish is right,
where it's like you wish for a million dollars and
you know, you get a million dollars, but it gets
dropped on you by crane.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
It's fascinating to me because the backlash has been so
severe that even some of the ultra woke pro cancelation
Asian influencers are like concerned about Sierra. Let me read
you this post from TikTok Cancel culture these days is
actually insane. I fully agree on removing Sierra from the show,
(15:14):
fully agree on her losing followers, brand deals, her job,
et cetera. But I, as an Asian woman, am nervous
for her when she gets her phone back and sees
the amount of death threats and sheer bullying that people
normalize because they power trip over canceling people, Like I
fear you don't actually care about the racism, you just
want an excuse to harass people openly. So I mean,
(15:36):
I'm glad this particular individual doesn't want Sierra to kill herself,
which apparently thousands upon thousands of people on the internet
genuinely do want and are encouraging her to do. But
there is something a little bit cognitively dissident about saying
cancel culture is crazy. I'm happy that this woman's entire
life is being destroyed because of an offensive word in
(15:59):
two instagrams stories, but like, the death threats are a
bit much, we shouldn't be rooting for her to delete herself. Like, Okay,
I mean, I'm glad you have some limits, but you
understand that destroying someone's entire life is not that much
better than like, I mean, it's not as bad as
(16:21):
encouraging them to kill themselves. But this still isn't good.
Like you're still doing the cancel culture right, but it
is telling that it got so extreme and so severe
that even the cancel culture warriors started to like feel bad.
Because you guys should know, this is an important piece
of context that there have been several suicides in connection
(16:42):
with the UK version of the Love Island Show. Now,
suicide is a complicated topic. It is very, very rarely
just due to one event or one factor, but the
stress and cyberbullying that was accompanying the show was involved
in multiple of these situations as a piece of the
I think that's fair to say from what I read
in news reports about it, and I certainly hope that
(17:05):
doesn't happen with Sierra, but it's a real possibility we
have to talk about when you again engage in such
disproportionate consequences. For someone from her perspective, it may understandably
feel that her entire life is over and that she'll
never be able to do anything ever again. And while
that probably isn't true, it's an understandable way to feel,
(17:25):
and it's the kind of feeling that can drive people
to dark places and places where they feel helpless and
make really tragic decisions. So I'm low key rooting for her.
I mean, I don't support what she wrote on the
Instagram stories, but I still just don't accept the notion
that it's really that deep, or that it's some irredeemable
thing no one can come back from and their life
must be destroyed again. Also, she's not running for president
(17:48):
of the United States, Like, she's not trying to be
the CEO of a massive fortune five hundred company. She
wants to post Instagram videos and go on reality TV
shows and do brand deals with like lip gloss companies.
And we're saying you can't do that because you posted
an offensive Instagram story years ago. Give me a break,
(18:09):
Like what? And I actually think it's this last part
of this post here that touches on something meaningful. People
don't actually care about the racism. They just want an
excuse to harass people openly. That is it for me.
That is what this saga and others like it revealed.
They had another similar incident with another contestant a little
(18:29):
while back. And when you see this kind of thing,
I think people have a huge amount of anger built
up frustration and resentment and jealousy and inadequacy and lack
of self esteem and so these keyboard warriors who go
back and dig shit up on someone from two thy
(18:50):
fifteen because they are just petty and spiteful, Like that's
a psychosis. That's not something a psychologically healthy person who's
content with their own life takes the time to do.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
So.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I worry about this saga, and not just because of
what it means for this one woman, though I do
feel bad for her, but because of the genuine mental
illness and social sickness that it reveals among thousands, tens
of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens
(19:23):
who are engaging in this digital witch hunt for sport
and for entertainment, destroying people's lives as digital entertainment from
the people who think they're like woke, progressive, loving, tolerant people.
It's really quite something, and I'm disturbed by it. What
(19:43):
do you guys think, especially the Love Island people who
tune in, especially the Asian people who tune into my show.
I want to hear from you as well, like, please
don't interpret me as this saying that like saying slurs
about Asian people is good or Okay, I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that this is wildly disproportionate, is not
motivated by like actual wanting to see people grow or
(20:05):
change or promote coexistence, and is basically just like woke
people collecting scalps for fun and then destroying people's lives
while patting themselves on the back thinking they're like stopping racism,
even though it's not addressing any of the real issues
with race in this country. Some Instagram story from years ago,
(20:26):
what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.
Hit that leg button while you're at it, and make
sure you subscribed if you aren't yet, Remember to send
in your voicemails for my voicemail Friday episodes with your
wo car stories, your personal life, certain scenarios you want
my advice on, or questions you have for me that
you'd love to hear me answer, and I'll listen to
some of those for this Friday's episode. Up next, we're
going to take a look at a story that is
(20:48):
tearing apart the world of maga, particularly online maga influencers,
and that is the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey
Ebstein case. Now, I am not a huge person who
has dived down this rabbit hole or knows a ton
about this. But there is one aspect, particularly about Attorney
(21:09):
General Pam Bondi, that I want to touch on first. Though.
The TLDR of this is that the Trump administration, it's reported,
has come to the conclusion that there is no list
of Epstein clients, the people you know that he did
his shady business with involving minors, and that there was
no large scale blackmail ring, and that he did in
(21:32):
fact kill himself. And what makes this particularly sus is
that multiple high level officials in the Trump administration before
they entered the government, were on the war path saying
none of that can be true. We're going to get
in there, we're going to release all the files. And
they get in there and they're telling a very different story.
And there's many theories as to why that's happening. But
(21:53):
the MAGA base is very committed to what they see
as getting justice on this issue, and so a lot
of them are criticizing the Trump administration over this, even
though they otherwise support them. CNN put a compilation together
of some of the backlash that I think is interesting
that also features the comments that got Pam Bondy in
(22:13):
so much hot water. Right now, let's take a look
at that.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
This is especially about the most transparent administration ever.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
What on earth is going on? Was Pam Bondi set
up by deep state FBI career officials?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Is she stupid?
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Is she so click thirsty that she got out over
her skis trying to make news?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Be in a Fox News star?
Speaker 6 (22:36):
Pam Bondi all of it, All those videos were saying, yeah,
she's seen the videos, it's all coming out, and then
now it doesn't exist.
Speaker 7 (22:41):
I mean, what what did Jeffrey Epstein case?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
You do not know all the details of this thing.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I promised there are a lot.
Speaker 8 (22:48):
Of really obviously powerful.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
People this part you know, but the specific names we
may not.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
There were so many individuals that were hidden and kept
secret and not been held accountable.
Speaker 8 (23:03):
What you're going to see, hopefully tomorrow is a lot
of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients.
Speaker 8 (23:16):
Well that really happen. It's sitting on my desk right
now to review. That's been a directive, remember that Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
So what happened to the Epstein client list that the
Attorney General said she had on her desk.
Speaker 9 (23:29):
Well, I think if you go back and look at
what the Attorney General said in that interview, which was
on your network on Fox News, go aha.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And Roberts said, doj may be releasing the list of
Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen? And she said
it's sitting on my desk right now to review.
Speaker 9 (23:45):
Yes, she was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork,
all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.
That's what the Attorney General was referring to. And I'll
let her speak for that.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
This seems like unforgivable behavior. How could she give us
those Phase one binders that contains nothing while bragging about
the cover sheet that she made the most transparent administration
in history and tell us that the sdn Y had
the real goods. The binder was just proof of a
deep state cover up. That was the real story she
told us, only to now say sorry, there's nothing. If
(24:16):
I'm President Trump, I wouldn't tolerate it. She's a liability
to him. She's not worth it.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So this is some serious tea, because give them credit,
they are criticized like MAGA influencers are calling out Trump,
are fighting with the administration over this, like they are
not behaving in a cult like or blindly tribal manner
where they just accept whatever the narrative is. I mean
a few of them are, but the ones you just
erarned from are like calling out the Trump administration. And
(24:44):
I guess what I would say is that I don't
know the truth. I don't really know what the truth
is and isn't about the Epstein case. But I do
know that there's a credibility problem with the Trump administration
now on this issue because they have done multiple one eighties.
They went in there and said they were going to declassify,
I expose everything. Now they're in there and they're saying
(25:06):
there's nothing to declassify, there's nothing to expose. They went
in there on the record, so many of the top
officials saying, you know, he didn't kill himself. This is
a cover up. We're going to release the client list.
Now they're saying he did kill himself. There is no
cover up. There was never a client list. But now
they're saying there was never a client list. Although you
just heard Attorney General Pam Bondy say that the client
(25:28):
list was on her desk to be reviewed in a
Fox News interview. So did she lie then? Was that
a lie? Or is she lying now? Are they lying
now when they say there is no client list? I
don't know the answer. I just know that there is
therefore a very serious credibility problem. And this was pointed
out by the independent journalist Isaac Sahl, who runs Tangle News,
(25:48):
which I like a lot. He wrote in a tweet,
I honestly think Attorney General Pambondy was either lying a
few months ago to rev up the mega bass and
conspiracy theorists, or she's covering something up now because of
whatever info they actually have. Either way, credibility is totally
shot and the anger is justified. The conservative commentator Eric
Erickson also wrote, Pam Bondy looked the American people in
(26:10):
the eye and said she had the Jeffrey Epstein list.
Now she says there was never a list. Pam BONDI
should be fired for lying to the American public repeatedly.
That's honestly what I'm thinking here. I don't know the
truth about what happened. I don't even really want to speculate,
because it's not something I know a ton about, but
I think that the way the administration has handled this
(26:31):
is obviously obviously incoherent and chaotic and destroying credibility and
trust even among their most fervent supporters. So if they're
really the most transparent administration in history, which I doubt
but that's what they say they are, then there should
certainly be some accountability for people lying to the public
(26:52):
and making promises that they then decided not to fulfill.
What do you guys think have you followed this controversy?
You know in the comment That'll be it for today's
episode of The Barred Versus Everyone podcast. Thank you all
so much for tuning in. Please do make sure subscribe
if you aren't yet, remember you can subscribe to the
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like subscribe YadA YadA yah, and send in your voicemails
(27:16):
for voicemail Fridays. And with that, guys, we'll talk again soon.
Love Island USA contestant Sierra Ortega abruptly exited season seven
of the show after two of her social media posts
from twenty fifteen and twenty twenty three resurfaced.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Cancel culture is still going strong in the bizarre world
of reality TV, where the show Love Island is descending
into utter chaos. We're going to break this down and
so much more on today's episode of the Barred Versus
(00:32):
Everyone podcast, our daily show where we take on the
craziest ideas from across the media, the Internet, and her politics,
all from an independent perspective. Guys, thanks so much for
tuning in and bearing with me in my new apartment adventures.
We have to talk today. I am I am personally
not a reality TV girly. I can't really get into it,
(00:53):
but I've heard so much about this show Love Island
that started in the UK and now has a US
veryon But the only parts of it that actually interest
me are the politics and cancel culture adjacent to traumas
consuming the fan base and actually destroying people's lives in
pretty sinister ways that we're going to talk about today.
(01:17):
And it's interesting because I do believe this. But I
had started to believe that cancel culture was on the wane,
that the peak twenty twenty era of Twitter mobs destroying
people's lives was over. And it's not over, but it's
definitely less powerful than it was. But one bubble where
it seems to still be going incredibly strong is the
(01:39):
wild world of reality TV, where some obsessive people online
seem to have a bizarre dedication to destroying people's lives
for minor faux pause or social transgressions from years ago
that they can dig up to destroy contestants on a
(01:59):
reality TV show, with very little regard for the proportionality
of the consequences or the mental health of anyone involved.
And the latest is a saga involving a woman who
was just axed from the current season of US Love
Island because in past Instagram posts she used a derogatory
(02:22):
word to describe her eyes that refers to Asian people,
and apparently for that unforgivable sin, she was unceremoniously kicked
off the show and dragged by the entire Internet, even
having her life threatened and a torrent of hate upon
(02:43):
her to the point where her parents have spoken out,
We're going to watch a video from CNN recapping the controversy.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Love Island USA contestant Sierra Ortega abruptly exited season seven
of the show after two of her social media posts
from twenty fifteen and twenty twenty three resurfaced that appeared
to show her using a racial slur. In both posts,
or Teka appear to use language offensive to Asian people
while describing cosmetic procedures she wanted to get. According to
(03:11):
the Daily Mail, fans took to social media prior to
Ortega's departure sharing their outrage over the situation. Or Teake's
former castmate, Beldasha Walker is Asian American and posted on
her Instagram story saying she was quote incredibly heartbroken to
find out what her fellow Islander said, also adding quote
it is my hope that this situation can help shed
(03:32):
light on how big of an issue anti Asian hate
actually is. Former Bachelorette star Jen Trand posted a video
on TikTok expressing her thoughts on the controversy. I've ripen
in a world where I did want to get rid
of my eye shape. I wanted to get rid of
all of my Asian futures because I was othered Growing
Up or Tega's exit was announced on the show in
a voiceover which stated she left due to a quote
(03:54):
personal situation. This comes just a week before the season finale.
When asked about the exit, a representative for the streaming
platform Peacock told CNN, quote, we won't be providing a
comment or take. As parents spoke out about the quote
cruel messages their daughter has received leading up to her
departure from the show, they posted this message to her Instagram, saying, quote,
(04:16):
We're not here to justify or ignore what's surface. We
understand why people are upset, and we know accountability matters,
but what's happening online right now has gone far beyond that.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
So I have thoughts not as somebody who is particularly
invested in Love Island, I am not, but just as
somebody with a little bit of common sense who sees
this stuff for what it is. A lot of it
is a witch hunt. A lot of it is people
taking out their frustrations in life on random people on
(04:49):
the Internet, as we'll get to but also some of
this is just like plain old corporate cowardice. I really
have no respect for the way that Peacock handled this.
What do you mean you just whisked her off the
show for personal situations? No, if you kicked her off
because of her old Instagram stories, say so. And if
(05:10):
you didn't say that, you didn't like, stand on business,
have a little bit of backbone. People are going to
be mad at you no matter what. These unhinged corners
of the Internet are never going to be content with you.
So stop trying to play kate Reddit threads and unhinged
TikTok users and either take a stand or don't. But
I really don't respect this, like measily mouthed, wishy washy
(05:34):
no comment approach that they're doing. It's just really dishonest.
We all know she was kicked off the show because
of this controversy. But if that's what's happening here, say
that and stand on business and explain why, like walk
us through from point one to point two to point three.
How saying a offensive word on an Instagram story years
(05:56):
ago means that she can't be on a reality TV
data show, Like, explain the logic. They don't want to
because there isn't any because the math isn't mathing. I mean,
but I don't respect the cowardly way they handled this whatsoever,
And I'm just once again struck by how incredibly soft
our society is. Like, this is not a nice word.
(06:19):
The word, if you're wondering, is cchi and k why
she should not have used the word in the way
she did to like joke about and belittle her own
appearance and talk about her eyes and the cosmetic surgery.
It wasn't a nice thing to do. And you know,
I think she should probably apologize for it and say, listen,
I won't talk like that again. There's nothing wrong with
(06:39):
being Asian, but people say not so politically correct things
sometimes in the real world. Sometimes people even say mean
and naughty words. And it's not the frickin end of
the world. It is not some cataclysmic safety threatening event
that endangers the other contests on this show, like at
(07:01):
most they could have addressed it. I just having a
one on one with her, and she says, you know,
I just wanted to apologize to the Love Island community.
I use these hurtful words in the Instagram story a
couple of years ago. I'm sorry, I won't do it again.
I have no hate love to all of y'all. And
then they move on it's really not that deep, and
society is so fricking soft, at least social media is,
(07:24):
and so many of these young people that tune into
these shows show me on the doll where the mean
word hurt you, Like really, I hate to break it
to y'all, but all across America, every single day, probably millions,
but definitely hundreds of thousands of times mean words and
unkind things are said and done, and we should all
(07:47):
try to be nicer, We should all try to treat
everyone equally and kindly. But it's not that deep. It's
not the end of the world. It doesn't permanently scar
or disfigure you that some random woman and you'd never
heard of before this show said on an Instagram story
a word that hurt your feelings though you didn't see
it at the time, Like, please identify for me the meaningful,
(08:12):
real world harm that was done by this Instagram story
in twenty fifteen and twenty twenty three, she did it
as well, like I'll wait because the most that could
have happened, from my logical extrapolation, is that some Asian
people might have sawn her story and been like, oh,
(08:32):
that's not nice, and then scrolled and like that's it.
Is that something worth destroying someone's life over. It's not great.
Like I'm not saying it's a good thing to do
or that she shouldn't apologize. I'm just saying it's not
that deep. And the only rebuttal that the activist types
who went after this woman in really unhinged ways that
(08:53):
we're going to document seem to have is you can't
speak on this. You're not Asian. You don't know what
their truth is. It's like, I don't need to be
because I have logical, critical thinking skills and I'm an
individual capable of independent thought. And they are also falsely
suggesting some sort of consensus among Asian people. A lot
of Asian people either don't care, didn't notice, or are like, yeah,
(09:17):
she shouldn't have said that. But the reaction here is
wildly disproportionate. I mean, we should be so clear. She's
been getting death threats, she's been being doxed, she's being harassed,
her family is being harassed, her career is basically over,
and she's lost hundreds of thousands of followers all over
(09:38):
a not so nice word she used in a couple
Instagram stories Like that is not proportionate. When you talk
about any form of consequences or accountability, the word they
love to use, it should be in some way proportionate.
This is not that I want to take a look
at some of these TikTok videos where people are quite
literally taking glee in this woman's entire life collapsing because
(10:03):
she said a word that hurt their feefees. And before
you hit me with the it's a serious slur, okay,
say that it is. To put it in context, I'm gay.
If somebody said the f slur about gay people or
called things that's so gay or any of that in
Instagram stories from a few years back, I would have
the exact same response that it is not that deep,
it's not nice. They probably shouldn't do that, maybe they
(10:25):
should apologize, but keep it moving, and it's not the
end of the world, and it's certainly not worth destroying people,
disqualifying them from participation in society for life threatening their
lives or harassing their parents. So yes, I would have
the absolute same energy applied to myself or my own community.
(10:45):
Now let's take a look at some of these videos,
because it's kind of chilling the way that some of
these social media users are taking glee in the downfall
of this woman's entire life. Take a look at this
first one video has more than six million views.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
After Sarah getting kicked out of the Island slash villa,
I can't help it but think about the fact that
she lost her chance of winning fifty K. And not
only that, but she literally lost her job because Sierra
was one of the few people that came in here
with a job of being a content creator like slash influencer,
(11:22):
so she also lost that. She lost Instagram followers, she
lost her chance of like working with brands, she literally
lost everything, which is a little lesson for influencers and
content creators that no matter how much you erase, whatever
you do or say will always come back and hunt
(11:43):
you in the back. Because literally that's what happened with Sierra,
because that girl did not just lose her chance of
winning Love Island or winning the money, No, she lost
her job. She lost what gets her money, like basically
lost her whole reputation, which I'm here for because you
don't play around with racism. But that's wild because like
(12:06):
in two days, she literally lost everything.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So the woman that made this video and most of
the people in the comments are basically like gleeful that
this woman, Sierra, her whole life has been turned upside
down because you don't play around with racism. Lots of
people actually do, like it's actually okay to joke about things,
even sensitive topics. Not everyone is perfect, Not everyone is
(12:32):
one hundred percent politically correct all the time, and it's
really not the end of the world. I'm just struck
by this because when you find yourself reveling in someone
else's downfall, that's never great. That's usually not a sign
of a psychologically healthy person. And the way that this
went down where this woman is like sequestered on Love Island,
(12:55):
she doesn't have her phone or anything, she doesn't know
any of this is going on. Then she urges from
this sequestering and her whole life has been destroyed, is
like kind of insane. Take a listen to another video explaining.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
This Love Island is actually black mirror if you're Sierra.
Because think about this. She goes on the show, it
ends up being the most viewed season of the show.
When she was going into the show, she was like,
I'm gonna be so prepared. I have all this media training,
I have all these other influencer friends have friends with
other people who have been on the show before, like
I'm more ready than anybody. She makes a strong connection
with the guy that she picks right away, okay, and
it lasts for weeks. She gains a million followers. Everything's
(13:32):
going great, but because she doesn't have her phone, she
has no idea that the whole country is actually shipping
her man with her best friend, and not a soul
is defending her. He's mom's up on the internet like
Alandria brings out the best in him. No one's defending her.
But then it gets even worse because then she gets
exposed to even for her racist pass, for her racist
present because she like Ben's standing on that after people
(13:53):
pointed out to her. She gains and then almost immediately
loses her a million followers, and then she gets a
show tap in the middle of the night, like hey,
you got to get up and go. She's about to
get her phone back and find out that nobody is
siding with her romantically or ethically, that every single famous
person she has cultivated a friendship with has now condemned
(14:13):
her publicly, that her parents are now in charge of
her social media accounts which are dipping like crazy, because
she's going to be able to look at the analytics
and see that spike and that steep descent, and that
her parents, for whatever reason, chose to turn the comments
back on, so she'll be able to hear directly from
everybody if she wants to. It really is almost like
a genie witch, where like, in a very twisted way,
she did get everything that she was expecting. You know,
(14:37):
there's a lot of talk about her, there's a lot
of buzzer around here. She's all over the news, but.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
None of it has played out the way that she expected,
which is like sort of what a genius wish is right,
where it's like you wish for a million dollars and
you know, you get a million dollars, but it gets
dropped on you by crane.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
It's fascinating to me because the backlash has been so
severe that even some of the ultra woke pro cancelation
Asian influencers are like concerned about Sierra. Let me read
you this post from TikTok Cancel culture these days is
actually insane. I fully agree on removing Sierra from the show,
(15:14):
fully agree on her losing followers, brand deals, her job,
et cetera. But I, as an Asian woman, am nervous
for her when she gets her phone back and sees
the amount of death threats and sheer bullying that people
normalize because they power trip over canceling people, Like I
fear you don't actually care about the racism, you just
want an excuse to harass people openly. So I mean,
(15:36):
I'm glad this particular individual doesn't want Sierra to kill herself,
which apparently thousands upon thousands of people on the internet
genuinely do want and are encouraging her to do. But
there is something a little bit cognitively dissident about saying
cancel culture is crazy. I'm happy that this woman's entire
life is being destroyed because of an offensive word in
(15:59):
two instagrams stories, but like, the death threats are a
bit much, we shouldn't be rooting for her to delete herself. Like, Okay,
I mean, I'm glad you have some limits, but you
understand that destroying someone's entire life is not that much
better than like, I mean, it's not as bad as
(16:21):
encouraging them to kill themselves. But this still isn't good.
Like you're still doing the cancel culture right, but it
is telling that it got so extreme and so severe
that even the cancel culture warriors started to like feel bad.
Because you guys should know, this is an important piece
of context that there have been several suicides in connection
(16:42):
with the UK version of the Love Island Show. Now,
suicide is a complicated topic. It is very, very rarely
just due to one event or one factor, but the
stress and cyberbullying that was accompanying the show was involved
in multiple of these situations as a piece of the
I think that's fair to say from what I read
in news reports about it, and I certainly hope that
(17:05):
doesn't happen with Sierra, but it's a real possibility we
have to talk about when you again engage in such
disproportionate consequences. For someone from her perspective, it may understandably
feel that her entire life is over and that she'll
never be able to do anything ever again. And while
that probably isn't true, it's an understandable way to feel,
(17:25):
and it's the kind of feeling that can drive people
to dark places and places where they feel helpless and
make really tragic decisions. So I'm low key rooting for her.
I mean, I don't support what she wrote on the
Instagram stories, but I still just don't accept the notion
that it's really that deep, or that it's some irredeemable
thing no one can come back from and their life
must be destroyed again. Also, she's not running for president
(17:48):
of the United States, Like, she's not trying to be
the CEO of a massive fortune five hundred company. She
wants to post Instagram videos and go on reality TV
shows and do brand deals with like lip gloss companies.
And we're saying you can't do that because you posted
an offensive Instagram story years ago. Give me a break,
(18:09):
Like what? And I actually think it's this last part
of this post here that touches on something meaningful. People
don't actually care about the racism. They just want an
excuse to harass people openly. That is it for me.
That is what this saga and others like it revealed.
They had another similar incident with another contestant a little
(18:29):
while back. And when you see this kind of thing,
I think people have a huge amount of anger built
up frustration and resentment and jealousy and inadequacy and lack
of self esteem and so these keyboard warriors who go
back and dig shit up on someone from two thy
(18:50):
fifteen because they are just petty and spiteful, Like that's
a psychosis. That's not something a psychologically healthy person who's
content with their own life takes the time to do.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
So.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I worry about this saga, and not just because of
what it means for this one woman, though I do
feel bad for her, but because of the genuine mental
illness and social sickness that it reveals among thousands, tens
of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens
(19:23):
who are engaging in this digital witch hunt for sport
and for entertainment, destroying people's lives as digital entertainment from
the people who think they're like woke, progressive, loving, tolerant people.
It's really quite something, and I'm disturbed by it. What
(19:43):
do you guys think, especially the Love Island people who
tune in, especially the Asian people who tune into my show.
I want to hear from you as well, like, please
don't interpret me as this saying that like saying slurs
about Asian people is good or Okay, I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that this is wildly disproportionate, is not
motivated by like actual wanting to see people grow or
(20:05):
change or promote coexistence, and is basically just like woke
people collecting scalps for fun and then destroying people's lives
while patting themselves on the back thinking they're like stopping racism,
even though it's not addressing any of the real issues
with race in this country. Some Instagram story from years ago,
(20:26):
what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.
Hit that leg button while you're at it, and make
sure you subscribed if you aren't yet, Remember to send
in your voicemails for my voicemail Friday episodes with your
wo car stories, your personal life, certain scenarios you want
my advice on, or questions you have for me that
you'd love to hear me answer, and I'll listen to
some of those for this Friday's episode. Up next, we're
going to take a look at a story that is
(20:48):
tearing apart the world of maga, particularly online maga influencers,
and that is the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey
Ebstein case. Now, I am not a huge person who
has dived down this rabbit hole or knows a ton
about this. But there is one aspect, particularly about Attorney
(21:09):
General Pam Bondi, that I want to touch on first. Though.
The TLDR of this is that the Trump administration, it's reported,
has come to the conclusion that there is no list
of Epstein clients, the people you know that he did
his shady business with involving minors, and that there was
no large scale blackmail ring, and that he did in
(21:32):
fact kill himself. And what makes this particularly sus is
that multiple high level officials in the Trump administration before
they entered the government, were on the war path saying
none of that can be true. We're going to get
in there, we're going to release all the files. And
they get in there and they're telling a very different story.
And there's many theories as to why that's happening. But
(21:53):
the MAGA base is very committed to what they see
as getting justice on this issue, and so a lot
of them are criticizing the Trump administration over this, even
though they otherwise support them. CNN put a compilation together
of some of the backlash that I think is interesting
that also features the comments that got Pam Bondy in
(22:13):
so much hot water. Right now, let's take a look
at that.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
This is especially about the most transparent administration ever.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
What on earth is going on? Was Pam Bondi set
up by deep state FBI career officials?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Is she stupid?
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Is she so click thirsty that she got out over
her skis trying to make news?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Be in a Fox News star?
Speaker 6 (22:36):
Pam Bondi all of it, All those videos were saying, yeah,
she's seen the videos, it's all coming out, and then
now it doesn't exist.
Speaker 7 (22:41):
I mean, what what did Jeffrey Epstein case?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
You do not know all the details of this thing.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I promised there are a lot.
Speaker 8 (22:48):
Of really obviously powerful.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
People this part you know, but the specific names we
may not.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
There were so many individuals that were hidden and kept
secret and not been held accountable.
Speaker 8 (23:03):
What you're going to see, hopefully tomorrow is a lot
of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients.
Speaker 8 (23:16):
Well that really happen. It's sitting on my desk right
now to review. That's been a directive, remember that Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
So what happened to the Epstein client list that the
Attorney General said she had on her desk.
Speaker 9 (23:29):
Well, I think if you go back and look at
what the Attorney General said in that interview, which was
on your network on Fox News, go aha.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And Roberts said, doj may be releasing the list of
Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen? And she said
it's sitting on my desk right now to review.
Speaker 9 (23:45):
Yes, she was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork,
all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.
That's what the Attorney General was referring to. And I'll
let her speak for that.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
This seems like unforgivable behavior. How could she give us
those Phase one binders that contains nothing while bragging about
the cover sheet that she made the most transparent administration
in history and tell us that the sdn Y had
the real goods. The binder was just proof of a
deep state cover up. That was the real story she
told us, only to now say sorry, there's nothing. If
(24:16):
I'm President Trump, I wouldn't tolerate it. She's a liability
to him. She's not worth it.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So this is some serious tea, because give them credit,
they are criticized like MAGA influencers are calling out Trump,
are fighting with the administration over this, like they are
not behaving in a cult like or blindly tribal manner
where they just accept whatever the narrative is. I mean
a few of them are, but the ones you just
erarned from are like calling out the Trump administration. And
(24:44):
I guess what I would say is that I don't
know the truth. I don't really know what the truth
is and isn't about the Epstein case. But I do
know that there's a credibility problem with the Trump administration
now on this issue because they have done multiple one eighties.
They went in there and said they were going to declassify,
I expose everything. Now they're in there and they're saying
(25:06):
there's nothing to declassify, there's nothing to expose. They went
in there on the record, so many of the top
officials saying, you know, he didn't kill himself. This is
a cover up. We're going to release the client list.
Now they're saying he did kill himself. There is no
cover up. There was never a client list. But now
they're saying there was never a client list. Although you
just heard Attorney General Pam Bondy say that the client
(25:28):
list was on her desk to be reviewed in a
Fox News interview. So did she lie then? Was that
a lie? Or is she lying now? Are they lying
now when they say there is no client list? I
don't know the answer. I just know that there is
therefore a very serious credibility problem. And this was pointed
out by the independent journalist Isaac Sahl, who runs Tangle News,
(25:48):
which I like a lot. He wrote in a tweet,
I honestly think Attorney General Pambondy was either lying a
few months ago to rev up the mega bass and
conspiracy theorists, or she's covering something up now because of
whatever info they actually have. Either way, credibility is totally
shot and the anger is justified. The conservative commentator Eric
Erickson also wrote, Pam Bondy looked the American people in
(26:10):
the eye and said she had the Jeffrey Epstein list.
Now she says there was never a list. Pam BONDI
should be fired for lying to the American public repeatedly.
That's honestly what I'm thinking here. I don't know the
truth about what happened. I don't even really want to speculate,
because it's not something I know a ton about, but
I think that the way the administration has handled this
(26:31):
is obviously obviously incoherent and chaotic and destroying credibility and
trust even among their most fervent supporters. So if they're
really the most transparent administration in history, which I doubt
but that's what they say they are, then there should
certainly be some accountability for people lying to the public
(26:52):
and making promises that they then decided not to fulfill.
What do you guys think have you followed this controversy?
You know in the comment That'll be it for today's
episode of The Barred Versus Everyone podcast. Thank you all
so much for tuning in. Please do make sure subscribe
if you aren't yet, remember you can subscribe to the
show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts,
like subscribe YadA YadA yah, and send in your voicemails
(27:16):
for voicemail Fridays. And with that, guys, we'll talk again soon.
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