Monday, May 20, 2024

Those Rules No Longer Apply

Mike Finger, a sportswriter, offered political commentary recently.  He announces his confusion about whether sports figures are supposed to be political or not.  When Kaepernick knelt on the field, the howls were that he should just play the game and not get political.  However, now that Harrison Butker is commenting on politics, those same folks are cheering.  Butker's jersey is flying off the shelves.  Shouldn't it be a blanket policy about staying out of politics?   If it was still 2016, maybe those folks would have agreed.  However, over the last 8 years, the kneeling epidemic spread to virtually every sport and all the requests to keep politics out of the various games were ignored.  The fight to keep politics out of sports was lost years ago and, accepting the new rules, the opposing view is now joining the fray.  There is no point in following a rule that only one side obeys.  Of course, the other side would love if their opponents continued to shut up while letting them break that norm.

On another topic, Finger wonders why golfer Scottie Scheffler is being treated as a hero for clashing with cops.  Again, wasn't the rule to obey authorities and cooperate with the police.  Yes, again, Mike is living in a past that no longer exists.  Cops are only too happy to arrest citizens who defend themselves from criminals while simultaneously releasing those same criminals without bail.  The rule of law is a farce and it is hard to respect those who selectively enforce laws.  Too many people remember how police would shut down churches for violating COVID quarantine while at the same time ignoring a huge protest march.  It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

A civil society where most entertainment is apolitical, and people obey authority is gone.  Can it be revived?  I certainly hope so.  America used to be a high trust society.  No one realizes the benefits of a high trust society until the trust has been trashed.

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