On Sunday, motivational speaker Tony Robbins posted an apology for a string of tone-deaf comments he made last month about the #MeToo movement, including a suggestion that some women are using the movement as a way to gain "significance."

"I teach that 'life happens for you, not too you' and what I realize is that while I've dedicated my life to working with victims of abuse all over the world, I need to get connected with the brave women of #MeToo," he wrote.

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Although the "Unleash the Power Within" event to which Robbins refers took place in March, the comments only started to circulate on Friday, when NowThis posted a clip of a video taken at the seminar.

After Robbins praised disgraced casino owner Steve Wynn, who has been accused of sexual misconduct, a woman named Nanine McCool pressed the life coach about his views toward the #MeToo movement. Robbins was happy to elaborate.

"If you use the #MeToo movement to try to get significance and certainty by attacking and destroying someone else, you haven't grown an ounce," he said. "All you've done is basically use a drug called significance to make yourself feel good."

Later, he argued that by speaking up, women are hurting their chances of employment, noting how powerful men have told him that they have hesitated to hire qualified women who were attractive because it's too big of a risk.

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At one point, Robbins descended into the audience, told McCool to hold out her fist, and started pushing her down the aisle, as if to prove some sort of point about the futility of fighting back. To her credit, McCool was not intimidated, and continued to challenge Robbins.

Robbins was widely excoriated as the clip made its way around the web. "I was made aware of this video BEFORE I ever saw it because Tony Robbins people reached out to do damage control within 24 hours," #MeToo founder Tarana Burke tweeted. "They wanted to 'give me context' apparently. I don’t need any. I have eyes. The full video is 11 mins. And it’s gross. Bravo to this woman."

She added that Robbins' "misogyny runs deep," calling the fact that he would tell a story about how the #MeToo movement prevented his friend from hiring attractive women rather than calling out the man's sexism is "all you need to hear."

Tarana Burke Getty Images

Robbins' views pose a particular problem considering how much influence he wields over his followers. He's made a career out of persuading people that he can turn their lives around, and his seminars often cost thousands of dollars to attend. In I Am Not Your Guru, the 2016 Netflix documentary about his "Date With Destiny" seminar, one woman admits she sold all of her possessions, including her furniture, to cover the event's near $5,000 price tag. When people who are vulnerable to begin with are taking such a huge financial risk to learn from Robbins, they can't afford not take everything he says as gospel.

So when Robbins—who is confident, assertive, and physically imposing—starts waxing idiotic about the #MeToo movement, it can be difficult for attendees to override their predisposition to accept whatever their guru-for-the-day tells them and consider his comments critically.

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When McCool began to question Robbins last month, he had the audience in the palm of his hands, leading them along by repeatedly asking them to raise their hands in response to a series of questions. But McCool did not give in, and as she continued to challenge Robbins, a larger and larger portion of the audience began to realize that she was right, and that what Robbins was saying was unacceptable.

"What you're seeing is people making themselves significant by making someone else wrong," Robbins said of the #MeToo movement to McCool. "There's nothing wrong with that. It just won't make you happier. It won't make them better, it won't make you better."

In McCool's case, fighting back by proving someone else was wrong did work, just as it's been working for the women of the #MeToo movement who are fighting back by taking down their abusers. This new reality is something with which Robbins and his friends will have to come to terms.

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