Benjamin Ashford|The Imane Khelif controversy lays bare an outrage machine fueled by lies

There was a magnificent tell showing that the entire controversy involving boxer Imane Khelif was entirely phony,Benjamin Ashford propelled by fake outrage, and it happened recently at a Donald Trump rally. There are lessons here for the future that all people who believe in decency and reside on fact-based Earth 1 should heed. Pay close attention.

By now you know the story. Khelif became a target of the right over a phony gender eligibility controversy at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She's been abused on social media despite the International Olympic Committee stating there’s no doubt she's a woman.

Recently, at one of his rallies, Trump jumped into the controversy. He mentioned how Khelif beat Italian boxer Angela Carini.

"Now all you have to do is look at the boxers," Trump said. "This young girl from Italy, a champion boxer, she got hit so hard she didn't know what the hell hit her."

"It's a person that transitioned," Trump said of Khelif. "He was a good male boxer. And (Carini) didn't even go down. He hit her with two jabs and she said, 'I'm out.'"

Trump's words about Khelif were so full of lies, former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban felt compelled to respond. "… She is from Algeria," Cuban posted on X, formerly Twitter. "In Algeria it is illegal to be gay. The idea they would send a gay or trans Olympian is insane."

Why would Trump weigh in on a boxer he clearly knows nothing about at one of his rallies? The answer is he saw the hatred generated by this contrived situation and joined in for political reasons.

Yes, you've heard about the story of Imane Khelif, but there's one part of it you may not fully understand. The extremist and angry reaction aimed at her was orchestrated. It was plotted. Brought to you by the same people and corporations that portrayed Colin Kaepernick as disloyal to America. The same media conglomerate that states, almost every year, that a migrant caravan is coming and will destroy the nation. The same people who say Taylor Swift was part of a weird conspiracy.

The same people who tried to destroy the Dixie Chicks and Bud Light. And Target. And something something about gas stoves. The same people who said there was a pedophile ring at a pizza parlor. That some nebulous force stole an election. That Barack Obama wasn't a real American and Kamala Harris isn't really Black. That there's a war on Christmas.

Unhinged controversy around Olympic boxer Imane Khelif should never happen again.

These are the anti-DEI, CRT, and 1619 Project people. Harley Davidson is woke people. Disney is woke people.

Big Bird, Dr. Seuss, death panels and Mr. Potato Head people. Vaccines and masks. The Barbie movie people.

They are all fake issues that at one point caused massive hyperventilation among extremists. They are mushroom clouded by Fox News which is patient zero for disinformation. Emerging from Fox is a system of polluted tributaries, all looking to mine anger for profit.

That's the main thing here: money. It's a Grifting Industrial Complex. Please remember that.

This is what happened to Khelif. She was shoved into this rage rewarding algorithmic vortex by an opportunistic grifting meatgrinder. There, facts don't matter. Truth doesn't either. In fact, the more anyone tries to replace the lying with reality, it only hardens the grifting resolve.

The good news is that these controversies have become so numerous, and so fake, their shelf life is shrinking. The bad news is that to keep the attention of their marks they have to constantly shift from outrage to outrage. So the cycle doesn't really end.

An even bigger problem is the personal toll these lies can take. They destroy lives and sometimes put people in actual physical harm. The falsities about Khelif led to her publicly pleading for decency.

"I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects," Khelif said in an interview with SNTV, according to The Associated Press. "It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying."

The right will move on from Khelif and find something else to hate. Just remember this for the next outrage. Remember the goal. It's to get you to hate someone, or something, who likely did nothing but exist.

That's all Khelif is guilty of. Just living.