OK, I've rounded the bend. I no longer care whether pro football players take a knee during the national anthem. It's a disgrace that the underlying reason for their behavior was based on a lie about what happened in Ferguson that day the police officer shot the black guy. But that belief in a lie is there, whether we like it or not.
In any event, taking a knee is probably more tolerable than burning the flag. As we all know, burning a flag is a Supreme Court sanctioned method of protest. And a certain news channel, whatever the motive, cheapened the national anthem by playing it on weekend mornings preceding the start of their live programming. Are we supposed to stand up at our breakfast tables while it plays? I'd like to see a hidden video showing what the staff and crews of that channel do while it's playing.
Along these lines, Tim Carney carefully eviscerates the argument that the millionaire sports stars don't have any basis for complaining in Being rich and privileged doesn't undermine the protests by Colin Kaepernick and other NFL player. That, he explained, was because Kaepernick stated at the outset that he was doing it for others, not himself. Well, it would be nice if he could also acknowledge that the black-lives-matter movement was based on a lie. But that's probably asking too much. Being a fan of Fidel Castro means being able to accept a lie as truth.
Or as Jason Brennan implies in How Kneeling Athletes Reveal the True Nature of Politics, the kneelers may just be showing allegiance to the tribes with which they want to identify. Perhaps not coincidentally, it's the same tribe to which most of the others in the entertainment industry also identify.
They can do whatever they want. And on weekend mornings I'll continue to remain seated, eating my porridge, and reading the morning paper as the cable news channel plays the national anthem.
Editor's note: Whoa! You're some kinda alt-libertarian.- Robo-ed.| |Hmm. Maybe. - Sleepless.
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1:26 PM 9/28/2017
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