Woke Sports -- Why Do We Still Watch?

American Thinker ^ | 5 Nov, 2022 | K.M. Breakey

[MtnClimber]

For American men, watching sports is a way to bond with pals, vicariously live out athletic dreams, and escape life’s pressures. It’s certainly no place for lectures.

In a perfect world, sports and politics would never mix, but our world’s far from perfect. In the ’60s, athletes like Muhammad Ali began using their platforms to draw attention to societal woes. Back then, it was frowned on, but in 2022 it’s more feature than bug. The slippery slope wins again -- the Disease of Wokeness is consuming sports top to bottom.

The NFL was the first to catch a serious case, and with Kaepernick’s help, it metastasized rapidly. He was a mediocre QB and an astonishingly ungrateful person. But credit where due, he saw his path to fame and fortune and went all in -- he took a stand against racial injustice and police violence against blacks.

Just one problem -- the racial injustice he railed against didn’t exist. Smart people like Heather MacDonald have demonstrated this repeatedly. Didn’t matter one iota -- the truth means nothing under Woke Doctrine. The NFL was off and running, as was Kaepernick. He signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Nike to push false, destructive narratives.

The kneeling abomination took hold. Championship teams began pointedly skipping White House visits, and other leagues followed suit. The Golden State Warriors pre-emptively (and amusingly) declined their White House invitation. The MLB moved its Allstar Game from Atlanta over Voter ID concerns. Imagine requiring ID to vote. Oh, to be so oppressed.

[FlingWingFlyer]

According to the Fetterman Pee Wee Fan Club, there wouldn’t be a World Series without immigrants. I thought they came here to pick grapes and watermelons.

[AAABEST]

“We” don’t.

“We” have lives and don’t sit around making our enemies rich - like the quisling scabs who post NFL threads on FR.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Beat me to it!

[faucetman]

I don’t. No more NASCAR, no more football (of ANY kind), no more baseball.

Never watched golf, basketball, or soccer.

[The Duke]

You couldn’t pay me to watch any sport that has become even 1% politicized, or one news network that pushing liberalism even the slightest bit.

[DoodleBob]

For American men, watching sports is a way to bond with pals, vicariously live out athletic dreams, and escape life’s pressures...Again, I ask, why do white men watch?

Once again, American Thinker demonstrates that they are vying with Gateway Pundit for the prize of Worst Alleged Conservative Webstie.

After reading that nonsense first sentence (more on that later) I thought "that's got to be coming from a woman." Then I found a picture of the writer...

hmmmm...

Continuing, any jackwagon who dares to speak for ME better get it right. Right out of the box, Ms Breakey gets it wrong on multiple dimensions.

First, most of us aren't engaged in sports bromances - the last time I watched a sports event with "pals" was in College in my fraternity, and most folks under 30 watch TV on their phone in isolation nowadays. And even if I DID watch the game with friends, is that really deserving of tacit ridicule by K.M. Blazer?

Second, we are routinely told by alleged conservatives that Millenials etc are whipped snowflakes - a claim I dispute on empirical and other grounds (for another day). But if that's true, then there is no vicarious sports watching for that age bracket...aren't they all feminists who dream of becoming a ballerina, K.M.? As for us older guys, ESPECIALLY Deplorables, we aren't the embodiment of living in the past/Glory Days/peaked in high school losers. That's the domain of the DNC. But even democrats I know don't watch the Cowboys because they still harbor dreams of being Roger Staubach (well...maybe they want his real estate business, but that's another thread).

Third, escapism....wrong again. Yes, it can be a diversion. But...Let me tell you WHY we watch sports (aside from the animal spirits that get unleashed): we pick up things we can use later. For example, we pick up strategy, and we see in real time how strategic plans work or don't work. We ingest sports because there are awesome lessons to be learned, analyzed, considered, and ultimately enacted in our own professional and personal lives. NOBODY will EVER do the corporate equivalent of throwing a goal-line slant pass at the end of a Super Bowl when you have a steamroller in the backfield. Even in minor league or HS sports, you pick something up.

Now, given all this, why would we stop this educational process, because senior management decided to bend a knee and some "guy" in a blazer said so? Exactly. I don't work for you, and I didn't sign some Loyalty Oath. I can watch sports and never buy another Nike product again. Losers like this writer are whining, because some of us rebels aren't down with their Master Plan to kill sports, a plan destined to fail and a plan that's ill-conceived from the get-go.

Finally, when the heck did much of this nonsense become about White Men? Last time I looked, white guys are doing pretty well. Oh sure, there are leftists who rant, and there is CRT. I can read. But at work and across family and friends and just walking around, white guys aren't being lynched, shouted down, demoted, and frankly have nice homes and families.

Rather, it's triggered snowflakes like Ms Breakey who see themselves under attack...the "white men are under siege" Eeyores sound like feminists who rant that men are out to rape them 24/7. They're no different from losers of any race, creed, national origin, etc who blame their own failures on their race, creed, national origin etc.

The irony is that, for people so worried about the trans movement, some conservatives seem to have completed their transition to Johnny Fontane.

[muir_redwoods]

I haven’t watched a single NFL or NBA game in the last three years. I see very few MLB games and I’ve never been much of a hockey fan.

It used to be considered good manners to keep issues of politics and religion to oneself. I guess looking for good manners among professional sportsball thugs is a fools errand.

[Grampa Dave]

Elon just learned the most important thing to remember when dealing with the woke mob!
Jesse James

The bottom line for politics in modern America is this:
You never try and appease the woke. Ever. You don’t even try to try appeasing them.

Because — and this is an ironclad rule, as good as gold — the woke do not want to be appeased. The whole point of their politics is to be perpetually angry, disaffected, dissatisfied, furious, unrelenting, unforgiving. That’s just the way it is. Their entire mode of doing politics depends upon never ceasing their outraged, performative wokeness.

Dealing with the woke mob is therefore pretty simple: You pretty much ignore them. They don’t have anything of any substance to add to the discourse aside from furious, inchoate rage and pointless screaming.

Listen to more reasonable voices. Form your business decisions around them. Surround yourself with rational, thoughtful moderates and conservatives and liberals. Heck, you can throw in some very conservative and very liberal thinkers, too, so long as they’re not woke, which is another thing entirely.

Bottom line: Just ignore the mob. Trying to appease them will only make things worse.

https://notthebee.com/article/elon-just-learned-the-most-important-thing

[Agatsu77]

I stopped watching basket ball after high school, Stopped watching baseball 10 or 15 years ago and football shortly after.

T do not miss any of it. Who wants to watch professional woke racist morons? Very few of them manage a 3 digit IQ.

[ScottinVA]

Haven’t watched an NFL game since 2016.

[Afterguard]

we don’t

[Fester Chugabrew]

I have this uncanny ability to watch sporting events while ignoring, or laughing at, their whacked out political antics.

[Zuriel]

**It freed up so much time and brain space. Definitely raised my quality of life.**

Yep, found that out 39 years ago. TV was old and having screen problems. It was just the wife, our 2 yr old, and myself. We tried doing without it, and after a time found ourselves busy doing more creative things. The second child came and that gave us more to do. Those kids learned to be creative as well, and were avid readers.

They ended up playing on state title winning hs football teams. Now 41 and 37, they have continued to follow football, but because of learning the value free time, they aren’t glued-to-the-tube guys.

[Delta 21]

“We” dont.

[Starboard]

Its amazing how much valuable personal time and energy some people devote to sports, often to the detriment of other far more important things in life. I just don’t see the payoff.

[tomkat]

Oh, I still watch some college football (psu alum) and the TNvGA game oughta be a good one !

[9YearLurker]

BTW — here’s a fantastic 2010 interview with Alan Watts which covers lots re: cultural control and the globalist agenda we’re dealing with today, including the planned role of sports:

https://banned.video/watch?id=6365990a3ab68a1461f8d104

(I’d crank the speed up to at least 1.5x for viewing.)

[MtnClimber]

OK, thanks for the link.

[LRoggy]

I don’t see any comparison between today’s woke snowflake athletes and Ali’s stance

I think a lot of us here who hate the Ukrainian war will now look back at Vietnam the way we did then. Ali grew into a man that genuinely gave back to society

Colin Kaepernick is a world class grifter

[dfwgator]

Ali was a Reagan supporter.