On Sunday we found ourselves neck-deep in yet another "worst thing EVER" regarding the Trump administration when the Bronzed Ego decided to use a speech to supporters in Alabama, and a subsequent Tweet-storm, to scold the NFL on its players kneeling or protesting what they view as institutional racism during the National Anthem.
The NFL, naturally, used the outrage over this to pump themselves up as some kind of athletic "Global Force for Good" in communities, on the civil rights front-line and (apparently) for the rights of dogs everywhere to pee. If pressed, and they weren't by the media anyway, no one at the Shield would dare admit, even in their most unguarded moments, that they viewed this as a god-send coming on the heels of Aaron Hernandez CTE findings and during the middle of Cowboy running back Zeke Elliot's kerfuffle involving domestic violence.
Nope, the NFL is here for you, your communities and, when they're honest, for those multiple Billions of dollars that you gift them out of your pocketbooks every year in the way of tickets, merchandise sales, TV rights, tax credits, stadium subsidies, extra overtime for police to provide security for the team etc. The NFL wants you to know that they give greatness to you and just ignore all of the other stuff.
In a way, the explosion by the Bronzed Ego was a success. It's going to suck up all of the oxygen and distract you from things that aren't going so swimmingly for him. If the man knows anything, it's how to wag the dog.
Which brings us to my problems with all of this. Namely, that the four groups of people who are central players in this mockudrama are the four that I'm least likely to provide any gravitas to when setting my moral compass.
Athletes: Other than playing the sport they play, I don't really want to hear anything from athletes. I don't give their political or social views any weight, nor do I care who they voted for, what their issues are, or how they think America should be ran. You're being paid an awful lot of money to play a game. And while I respect your right to free speech, I also retain the right to pretty much ignore what you say, even if I agree with it.
Entertainers: Same as with athletes. You can rant, rave, come up with catchy slogans, shed a tear when talking about the plight of the unfortunate (as you do) and it's not going to change my opinion one iota. If I decided to boycott every entertainer, musician or personality that held a different political view than me would be able to watch TV, go to movies or listen to music at all. The thing is though, I don't care. Darren Arnofky's mother! wasn't an unmitigated piece of crap because of his and Jennifer Lawrence's odd politics, it was an unmitigated piece of crap because it was stupid and it sucked, was clumsily told, and was nothing more than Arnofky's hatred of religion force-fed down your throat. It lacked both subtlety and nuance, which always makes for a bad movie.
Journalists: The hot takes from the media over this have been epic. Even Politifarce is chiming in trying to convince us that NFL ratings are not way down, after two solid years of the same media (and the raw numbers) telling us that they are. Journalists love to use breathless exclamations such as "must-read" and "powerful" and (my favorite) "important" to describe works of their peers. When you get right down to it however those rarely apply when dealing with columnists, or opinion. Where those do apply is in honest-to-God watchdog, investigative reporting, but you don't get much of that any more. The journalists in this mess are just trying to increase eyes on their product, and that includes the network broadcasters for these games who are making damn sure to broadcast every detail of every national anthem, with a special focus on the players 'serious' faces while someone sings the vocal-cord strangling anthem in the background. "Courage".
Politicians: I've said it many times on this blog, I've no use for politics or politicians. I am comfortable making the blanket statement that every politician is in it for themselves, and their sole job is to increase the power and influence of their position. Every.single.one. Oh sure, they'll argue this, they're scream and drone on about "public service" and that crap but when you really get down to it, when you judge their views and actions, it's very clear that they view themselves as the ruling class and everyone around them to be ruled. this extends, for the most part, to the Federal, State and local bureaucracy as well.
So here you have an issue that bundles up the worst of societies actors, and dumps them on the public in one big disgusting opinion bomb, complete with a thorny racial issue to boot. I've stated before on this blog, and on many different places, my belief that there is such a thing in America as "driving while black" and it sucks. I don't claim to understand or be able to truly understand how that must feel because, being Caucasian myself, it doesn't apply to me. I also get that slavery was never properly addressed in this country, and I too am puzzled with the losing side in a battle (The Confederacy) is given such a large place in writing the history of it. (you don't see plaques and statutes to Nazi heroes in Germany for example). Part of the reason, I'm sure, is the uncomfortable position the War Between the States places us in.
Slavery was an evil institution, but does that mean, as with Nazism, that all those who fought for the Confederacy were evil as well? And do we now transfer the sins of the forefathers to their descendants as many are wont to do in this issue? I haven't researched it (honestly I don't feel I need to) but I'm positive that at least one side of my family owned slaves in the past (they owned cotton farms after all) but the other side I'm pretty sure didn't because they were all poor. but does that mean that I'm guilty by association?
The logical answer is no, of course not. But increasingly society seems to say yes, you are. And that is the crux of all of this. These are heady issues that should be discussed intelligently, and rationally between the few remaining adults in America. Unfortunately it's being conducted, largely on Twitter, Facebook, the media (who are desperately looking to profit off of it) inside the confines of a professional sports league who's using it to distract from some very real problems and by a President who simply doesn't know any better.
In short: It's the worst sort of problem involving the worst sort of people none of whom have a vested interest in actually seeing it solved. You can always bake more bread, and you can always build another ring for the circus.
Huzzah!
