Monday 29 Jun 2020

Hamburg

 

FC Aerial Pyramid

 

Back when they announced that players could kneel or stand for the anthem as they chose, it was patently obvious that the end result would be pressure to conform, to kneel, to avoid the firing line, avoid being attacked by the brainless mob.

I was roundly dumped on. Ridiculous. Could never happen. Everyone would respect individual decisions.

So yesterday Rachel Hill (and others, but the cameras showed only her) made a personal decision to not kneel during the anthem. And what happened?

Well, duh. She has been so savagely attacked on the interwebz that the owner had to Tweet about it to try and chill it out a bit. It's terrifying: you will conform or we will destroy you.

In other words, the obvious result.

The anthem has to go. Its probably too late for poor Rachel, who will be hated on forever for making her own decision for her own private reasons, none of which likely involve hating anyone or being a Nazi.

People are outraged because Hill was not sent out to address the media so that she could be interrogated. She must be made to testify, most likely apologize and admit to being a terrible person who needs to be "educated".

For the sake of the next person who has their own private personal feelings about our country and our flag, reasons which may not satisfy the Twitter mob, the anthem has to go. No other choice.

Rachel Hill and Jaelene Hinkle are object lessons, lessons which no player can afford to ignore.

 

Appeasement to the mob is getting rid of the anthem. Appeasement to the Seattle and Portland mob was the iron front flag being aloud to fight Nazis from violence against..... Meanwhile in Portland and Seattle plenty of violence going on.....just haven't seen any Nazis.

 

Wish there was still neg rep.

 

I have been saying that the anthem should go 2 decades ago. It has been long past time. So on that, we agree. I will simply point out that Rachel Hill and Jaelene Hinkle are not object lessons for anything. Players who did not conform to the flag protocol have been getting the business for decades by those who are now claiming to be victims of the new reality. Black athletes who dared run afoul of it were run out of their sports going back more than half a century. Right here on bigsoccer, there were pretty fierce debates, just within the last couple years, about Jozy Altidore's failure to hold his hand over the heart or sing the anthem, even though he was standing the entire time. So making Hill and Hinkle out to be the faces of what is wrong with the anthem being played is a pretty big stretch when weighed against the history of (particularly) Black players who have faced much greater consequences for decades for taking their own stand when it comes to the anthem. Hell, a certain recent NFL quarterback might want to have a word with you if you believe that Hill and Hinkle are the best examples of victims that you can come up with. I wish you had seen the light when people like HIM were in the firing line, as opposed to only seeing the light now, when the tables have turned ... but better late than never, respectfully.

 

1) You have no idea what light I saw or when I saw it and its presumptuous and arrogant to say otherwise.

2) You obviously don't know who Jaelene Hinkle is.

3) Which players exactly are "claiming to be victims of the new reality"? Where are they claiming this?

4) I have no recollection whatsoever of Altidore and his hand. He can hold it over his heart or stick it in his pants and hold his johnson for all I care. Please show me where I have ever said otherwise.

5) Your effort at point missing is impressive as is your specious lecture.

6) I know little and care less about the NFL in general and Colin Kapernick in particular.

 

1) see your #4 and #6.
2) google works. I looked her up before writing the first time. Your point?
3) I didnt say THEY claimed to be victims. But you already know that.
4) to tie back to #1, when there was an allegation that Altidore was not properly respecting flag protocol, at the national team level of a sport you obviously watch, you have no recollection. However, somehow you are keenly aware of this story, but not Altidores. But I am sure that your politics being more in line with their actions has NOTHING to do with that disparity in what you say you are aware of.
5) oh no, I am keenly aware of your "point."
6) i saw your original answer to point 6. You know the one in which, after saying you had no interest in Kaepernick, you then went on a diatribe about how he sucked and made an implication that he did it for the money. Again, telling, in light of you making the case that I am wrong for believing you only care about this issue because the flag anthem impinges on the rights of those agreeing with your politics now, despite Kapernick being actually run out of the league for his position.

Bottom line, I have seen your politics on this site over the years, just as you have seen mine. While you assuredly have just as much right to them as mine, the notion that you pushed that these 2 players are the face or object lessons of anything is silly. The object lessons already happened, over and over and over (to for the most part players of color who decided to buck the majority group's opinion, but not exclusively), and from your own answers, you didnt seem to care ... until now.

 

⁴

This is all very interesting I'm sure.

1) Don't tell me what I do and don't recall. Thanks.

2) Hinkle has nothing to do with the national anthem, standing, kneeling or squatting. She took a principled stand on another topic and has paid a serious price. The point, as you surely understand, is that you can't point the finger at MLS owners or USSF or the big, evil US of A as being horrible oppressors of people who don't toe the mark on one issue but be OK with people not showing sufficient deference to the SJW line. Remarkably, for such an open minded person as yourself, this seems not to bother you.

Equality for me but not for thee indeed.

3) Which brings one back to my main point, which is that none of this has anything to do with soccer. You seem to want to argue that I am in favor of banning the ridiculous kneeling thing. Which I care very little about except in general terms, being a personal display that has no place when you're supposed to be about the team.

The anthem ceremony is part of the event that someone else is paying to stage. Agreeing to be part of the deal, ie accepting money, means you play by someone else's rules. you don't get to pick and choose which parts of the event you want to participate in.

Which is why, as was my initial and ONLY point, MLS should just do away with it. The rest of this is all you deciding to argue with someone you apparently agree with, which is very peculiar.

4) Yes, I deleted an additional paragraph, but if you're going to reference it, at least tell the truth, although that seems to be a challenge you're not always up to. I simply said that a) Kapernick has made a fortune out of being oppressed and b) his anthem antics aren't a problem because of what he was saying but rather that he made his statements on someone else's platform.

He can make all the speeches and commercials and lead all the demos he wants. Go with God, Colin. But the NFL owners have billions invested in putting on an event and you can't just hijack that event, that crowd, the TV screens, for your own purposes. The NFL doesn't let you wear your kids' initials on your shoes or let 1/4 of shin show above your socks. A Super Bowl winning QB was fined serious dollars for wearing an unapproved headband. NFL games - and MLS games and US games - are not yours to do with as you choose. They don't belong to you.

You don't like it, start your own league.

But I deleted that part because I knew it would give you an opportunity to change the subject. Which it did. You're welcome.

 

Okay