Recently John Oliver reminded us about the term Whataboutism. This is the practice of avoiding what is happening in the moment by shifting focus to some other, often marginally related controversy. This is a key tenet to how at least one major news outlet (Fox News) deals with situations that distress their viewer base. They obfuscate. They make what is a clear situation unclear. They ‘muddy the water’ so we can no longer get to the bottom of what is real. The problem is we are, as a whole, allowing small entities to direct entire narratives down a path that ultimately furthers their own goals without any interest in the truth or any sense of fairness. This is happening time and time again and what was once a burgeoning double standard is now the core standard for how stuff is.
I’ll just start with Kaepernick. The QB has (un)officially been blackballed from the NFL. The sheer number of trash QBs starting in the league is proof of that. I call this the NRA effect. That is to say a very vocal minority of individuals has taken control of the narrative and made it so no team is willing to absorb the social pressure of having him on their team. It is worth more to them to lose and stay away from him than it is to win and see his circus come to town. What is that circus? He took a knee during the national anthem and became the polarizing voice of that protest. Of course, the protest was seen by a small number of people as anti-american or, specifically, anti-military. Here is a quick fact: We don’t pledge allegiance to the military. We never have. The pledge, which is also performed at schools across the nation, did not become about soldiers until Kaepernick took a knee and someone wanted to redirect the discourse. Take this quote from a Sports Illustrated investigative report on the situation, “the Defense Department paid over $700,000 to the league between 2012-15 to be its propaganda machine. In the process, the national anthem at NFL games has become synonymous with paying respect to the military.” Here is another of the facts behind the situation: Kaepernick was not at all attempting to disrespect the military. He stated, “I have great respect for men and women that have fought for this country,” before going on to explain why exactly he was taking a knee and what that represented.
It didn’t matter. People are sheep and are often herded by the loudest voices. Those voices instantly made this an attack on the military. Though the embattled ex-qb has repeatedly said that this is about injustice in America. Think about that for a second: the US Military doesn’t maintain peace in America. They handle threats from abroad. He has been talking about internal issues from day one. So how is this at all about them? If it is about them then it is about their ability to make the flag raising about them, which it also is not. The military serves the flag and we are honoring what they serve not them in are salute to that flag. I have great pride and respect for our military and I honor them. I don’t do it by saluting the flag. I do it by saluting the service and saluting the individuals.
More to come here.
Some Thoughts:
- Love is hard. real hard.
- Still worth every moment.