I generally think the “anti-woke” brigade is full of nonsense, but I did find the 7-match suspension for a soccer player in England a bit over the top. He made a slightly racist joke about his Korean teammate (basically the “they all look the same” joke). He apologized profusely, his teammate forgave him and said it was all good. It seems to me that at that point the lesson has been learned and progress has been made towards making it clear that racist jokes, even mildly racist ones, aren’t cool.
But now the league is suspending him for 7 games. Is that “lefties”? Well, no I suppose not. Is it “unjust”? I guess not by the letter of the law, and he probably didn’t help his cause by denying the charge, even though it was clear and on tape. But I think it probably falls in the basket of “things done in the name of anti-racism that probably hurt more than they help”.
It’s nice to finally be able to put a name to something I first noticed a few years back. I have a few friends who are very far to the left who have a habit of blaming capitalism for all of our woes from pollution to racism and sexism. These are generally the same type of people who will look at you with a straight face while explaining that Kamala Harris is just as much a fascist as Donald Trump. My working theory is that many of these people feel as though there is no place for them within the current system and they want to tear it down. Thus all societal ills stem from the system in place. Get rid of capitalism and you end racism, pollution, sexism, and bad breath.
That’s how it is Marat, that’s how she sees your revolution.
They have toothache and their teeth should be pulled. Their soup’s burnt, they shout for better soup. A woman finds her husband too short, she wants a taller one. A man finds his wife too skinny, he wants a plumper one. A man’s shoes pinch, but his neighbor’s shoes fit comfortably. A poet runs out of poetry and desperately gropes for new images. For hours an angler casts his line, why aren’t the fish biting.
And so they join the revolution thinking the revolution will give them everything; a fish, a poem, a new pair of shoes, a new wife, a new husband, and the best soup in the world! So they storm all the citadels and there they are and everything is just the same; no fish biting, verses botched, shoes pinching, a worn and stinking partner in bed, and the soup burnt.
And all that heroism which drove us down to the sewers well we can talk about it to our grandchildren… if we have any grandchildren.
No, he used a racial slur (that people are claiming isn’t racist, but I don’t speak Spanish and I’m not from that culture) and then undermined his “I didn’t mean it that way” by making the “they all look the same” joke.
UEFA are fighting a horrible problem with racist fans, so they are taking a hard line with players and coaches.
Players are under tremendous pressure to say “it’s all good, we are friends”. Anyone who is a visible minority on a sports team will tell you stories about this.
My first impression is that the men on this list are old. I don’t think a single one is younger than me, and I’m not young. But that’s the thing: I’m not young or a man, I don’t know why none of these men appeal as role models. I mentioned one possibility in my first post: the left is no longer rebellious and countercultural, it has become the moralising establishment, and that does not appeal to young men.
But I’m just guessing based on what I’ve seen actual young men say. You’ll have to go find some and ask them if you really want to know, and speculating is of limited value if you don’t.
I almost made a similar list, with the point that everyone I was listed was over the age of 40, and many of them have an AARP subscription. It’s pretty hard for folks over the age of 40 to be immediate role models for teenagers.
So, you’re not wrong, but also I’m not sure how well they’ll function in the role that they need to function in. Also, none of them have the massive following that Taylor Swift or Andrew Tate has.
What kinds job jobs do these young men have? Are they jobs that pay very little and have no room for advancement? I’m not here to point fingers at anyone. I’m pushing 50 and I really don’t have my finger on the pulse of todays youths. There’s obviously a problem here but I’m not really sure exactly what it is so I don’t know how to fix it.
Do you have any reference to the actual slur? The only reporting I can find talk about asking about a jersey and then the “could be his cousin, they all look the same” quote. I never heard any reference to a Uruguayan/Spanish slur. If there is more context I’d love to hear it.
Because I’m quite sure in my past I’ve made the “all look the same” jibe about any number of races, and the inability of people from one culture to distinguish people from another is an actual scientific fact. So I’d be a bit relieved to know that there is more to it than what is reported.
I totally agree on the battle being fought, btw. The abuse Vini Jr and others deal with is shocking, and I’m glad that clubs and leagues are cracking down on it. But I do think there is a difference between the two (again, unless I’m not finding the full quote/context), and when everything is lumped in one bin it actually makes the battle harder.
We need to be really careful with this. Plenty of people think the economy is terrible even as their own finances are just fine:
The reason for this disconnect isn’t really clear to me. But I do think that the right-wing machine has been very active in convincing people to ignore their own lying eyes. Nothing encapsulates this as well as JD Vance’s photo op:
You’re right, I was reading the BBC report and conflated their reporting of another incident with this one. Same story was contrasting two incidents and the disciplinary outcomes of each. My apologies.
Which, if Vance is quoting the price of the eggs in his hand, a 24 pack, makes the eggs he’s buying $2 a dozen saving Vance $2 over buying two cartons of eggs.
(My bolding.) This is a great way of looking at the situation, and points up the major impact that siloed information had on the election results. Democrats must keep this in mind in all post-mortems about ‘what we could have done.’ They did work hard to reach non-Base voters in ways unheard of in previous decades–podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. And I know they prioritized door-knocking (the efficacy of which is still unknown and probably awaits detailed study).
But the stranglehold of FoxNews/Sinclair etc. was nearly impossible to counter.
Yes. The branch of leftism that welcomes One-Uppers—those whose joy in life is “correcting” people, scolding them, and attempting to shame them—needs to send the One-Uppers to therapy to get over their counter-productive hobby.
It IS possible to discuss topics (e.g. “is it okay to watch Gone with the Wind?”) without indulging in self-righteous one-upping. It IS possible to discuss all topics of interest to those on the left without indulging in self-righteousness of any kind. And we need to be aware of this messaging dynamic. (Even if the right does, disingenuously, keep crying “woke!!!1!” no matter what we do or say.)
This is a great idea. However…I’m no expert on Andrew Tate but I gather that the foundation of his appeal is that he flatters his audience and tells them they have a natural right to rule over their ‘inferiors’.
No Democratic equivalent is going to tell an audience that.
The Right has been making use of this feature of human psychology forever. Tell people that they are the righteous ones, the True Americans (or whatever), the ones who should be receiving deference from the lower orders. Many humans crave that kind of flattery and will vote to get more of it.
A left-leaning (potential) inspirational figure for disaffected young men isn’t going to be able to tell them that they deserve to be served and kowtowed to by their inferiors, because that’s simply not a left-wing way of looking at humanity. We don’t divide people up into castes (not as a matter of principle, certainly).
Maybe there’s something that could be substituted for right-wing flattery, and be just as attractive. But human psychology is the same all over. Some people crave a diet of flattery and grievance. Can they be reached by offering something more emotionally healthy?
Yes. Speaking anecdotally, at age 36 I am hardly a “young” man by any definition anymore, but I’m actually earning less per year now than I did at age 23, adjusted for inflation, despite having been in my career for twelve years.
Pee Wee Herman briefly had a line of food products aimed at children. Rather than things packed with sugar or salt, they were healthy alternatives. The line did so badly most people don’t know it ever existed.