Although, Hans has cheated in the past, I believe that he probably beat Magnus fair and square. Magnus acted inappropriately after losing without sufficient evidence. Magnus did wrong imo.
The sexual harassment of Hans Niemann
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orinoco_w wrote:
You make an excellent point. Not having sufficient information myself I have left my opinion unresolved on the matter of the cheating, but I must plead guilty to having been one of the laughing audience WRT the gossip about anal beads (which was never a real consideration to my thinking but just funny because of toilet humour). I thank you for this sobering post and I will endeavour to be a better human being.
Sorry @orinoco_w I didn't mean to shame anyone for laughter, I expressed myself poorly in that way. I think laughter is a natural and healthy human behavior, is somewhat involuntary, and doesn't simply correlate to what a person thinks or believes - it's more complex. I very well may have gafawed the first time I heard the sex toy suggestion also - probably because shock is one of the things that sets off my funny bone.
I also don't know how much to blame any individual joker. I believe in freedom of expression. I think It's hard to say for sure that any particular joke about Hans was wrong. But somehow combined together they become this torrent that I genuinely worry may have adversly affected Hans' mental health.
People are dumb sheep who blindly follow whatever everyone else follows on the internet.
Yup. There is no proof that Hans cheated. Otherwise, FIDE would have him banned already!!!
It's the part of this whole sordid affair that bothers me the most: The jokes and sometimes actual allegations that Hans cheated using a sex toy.
It's so deeply inappropriate and wrong.
Imagine being 19 years old. Your whole life all day every day is chess. You're at a tournament all by yourself. You have just accomplished a dream come true - beating the world champion with black. The world champion makes a cryptic tweet and withdraws from the tournament. And suddenly social media and traditional media are filled with rumors that you cheated. Many people are absolutely convinced of it; that it must be true.
But on top of this, the number one speculation about how you cheated, is that you did so using a sex toy; that you were using one during the game. Some people are genuinely suggesting you did this, it seems like everyone else is joking about it. People who you have met, know, have to face in person in the chess world, are joking about it.
Innumerate accounts on social media and on chess websites impersonating and mocking you appear. Strangers make videos like this: https://twitter.com/killersundymann/status/1579526300813123594 And this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkXDhw-TuGw
Imagine if a 19 year old female player had been joked about, slash genuinely accused of, cheating in a tournament, using an inserted sex toy, after beating Magnus... The feminists and woker media outlets of the world would have absolutely lost their collective minds. But Hans is a 19 year old male, so crickets from them.
And through all of this Hans manages to keep playing.