Bloodying the Nose of the Woke Sports Entertainment Complex, or the Last Great Act of Defiance
Disney took a blow to its midsection in the form of a 2.4MM subscriber exodus – might the NFL, and the other pro sports entertainment leagues be next?
Apparently, the most unholy alliance between the woke religion and black culture has assumed control, if not ownership, of that embarrassing spectacle known as the Super Bowl Halftime Show. You know, where privileged woke black “entertainers” (a term I use most loosely), seek to be as shocking, as provocative, as disrespectful, and in some cases as hostile as possible to everyone else, but especially to white people (or so they seem to think – maybe hope?).
If you weren’t aware that black privilege existed, you do, now. To illustrate, we have this from some ink-stained wretch named Mike Freeman in USAToday.
Some points he makes are valid, like this one:
The Super Bowl has become not just a game or a party, but also in some ways a mirror for us all. It reflects what we love, what we believe in, what we hate, what we want, what we don’t.
Others are not, like this:
What’s that saying? When you’re used to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
It would appear that the main point Mr. Freeman (who is black) is seeking to make is that if you are white, you should be upset. What he seems to be saying to any and all readers who may be white is, “What was once yours is now ours, you white racist bigot!” Can you imagine a white person writing a piece like that in praise of WASP-hood? Would he get away with it? I think not.
If I cared about the NFL, the Super Bowl and its halftime “entertainment,” I might take offense at the thumb-in-the-eye tone of the piece. Then again, it’s his column, he gets to be as ignorant as he likes. I actually stopped giving a rat’s behind about the Super Bowl, its halftime show, and the NFL in general, long ago, so when I read a piece like this, it is with an amused detachment.
What does bother me about his “argument,” and how he frames it, is that by privilege, he means white privilege, the implication being, “anything that I believe is owed to black people by white people.” I can guarantee, without qualification, there is not a single white person who feels oppressed as a result of the woke-black-culture axis assuming ownership of the spectacle that is the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Regarding the headline, “Super Bowl 57 is the Blackest, most woke Super Bowl ever. Sorry haters!” If decent people everywhere hate anything related to that which has been represented to be black culture over the last four decades, it’s the glorification of rape, prostitution, illicit sex; drug use and abuse; mayhem and the murder of cops; wanton violence against white people and those of every other ethnicity; black-on-black gangland and domestic violence; an almost constitutional inability to be responsible and accountable for one’s own actions; and instead, a conditioned response to blame white people for it.
Most of the aforementioned are problems that can and do arise in any community across the nation, regardless of ethnic constitution but for most, they are not its defining characteristics. They are not the hallmarks of any other ethnicity’s common culture – they are not shared ethics in most communities that are not impoverished and not under the control of Democrat politicians who happen to be overwhelmingly black. Examples of such communities would include but are not limited to Compton, Watts, Austin (in Chicago), Englewood, Woodlawn, Culmer, Overtown, or Liberty City. Call it racism if you like, but the anecdotal evidence and contextual data does not paint an inaccurate picture.
One of the most vile, loathsome developments to come from the woke religion through BLM in particular, its adherents, and those sympathetic to the “movement” is a much more enthusiastic embrace of tribalism – loyalty to the tribe before accountability to one’s self – group identity over that as an individual. In the Age of Woke, group representation is what matters – why, just last week, identity-hire Karine-Jean Pierre said as much in announcing that the new White House communications director would be the first openly homosexual (*yawn*) person in the role, when she exclaimed, “…in this White House, representation matters.” Indeed, it does – it matters because it is a much more efficient way to discriminate against those you identify as your political and cultural enemies, especially when you have carte blanche to do so based on immutable genetic characteristics.
Is the triumph of wokeness, in all its manifestations, really inevitable? Honestly, I have no idea. The notion that it will eventually implode on itself through self-consumption, while quaint, smacks more of whistling past the graveyard, wishful thinking than it does of a likely outcome. If one reads any conservative writers, one sees no shortage of outrage toward wokeism and its adherents, and after a while it begs the question: Is there nothing to be done about it? Yes, there is – quite a lot, actually. The most obvious problem, though with rare exception (see former President Donald Trump, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis), is that the ones who are best in a position to stand up, push back, and truly and genuinely speak truth to power, refuse to do so. God only knows why.
There was a time now seemingly long past when professional sports entertainment actually brought together people from virtually all walks of life. It came to a grinding halt when the spineless, feckless commissioners and executives of MLB, the NHL, and the NFL allowed themselves, and their leagues to be bullied into submission by the aforementioned professional victim class (the NBA was there already, whoring itself to Communist China).
These unprincipled windsocks surrendered all too willingly to the demands of black opportunists and the rainbow authoritarians to preach the gospel of victimhood at the hands of white privilege, and white supremacy; to re-educate white game-day and season ticket holders of each team in each league about what awful people they were.
So, up went the banners around the stadiums, on top of the dugouts, along the baselines, on the scoreboards in the outfields, messages in the chalk on the sidelines and in the end zones, at center ice, on the boards around the rink, and on the court declaring that black lives matter, and that racism must be stopped. Yes, it was utterly and infuriatingly insulting.
Yet, I didn’t find it offensive. It just made crystal-clear what I had suspected to be true since that hapless grifter QB decided to kneel for the national anthem – the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, MiLB, NASCAR, the PGA, and the NCAA D1 don’t care about my demographic despite it being guys like me that made every one of these leagues what they are today. No, they have only one constituency they care about, only one that they fear – the woke.
The leagues, and the local teams don’t care about us, the hardcore fans who purchase those tickets (never mind that we don’t think twice about forking over anywhere from the low to middle triple digits for a couple tickets to a non-marquee game – we’ve been doing it for twenty, thirty, forty years). They don’t even care about the corporate sponsors who will lease those richly appointed suites in the very top tiers of the stadiums built with your tax dollars and from which the owners and league are reaping obscene profits. What the leagues care about is complying with the marching orders they receive from their corporate legacy media partners and the woke clergy.
The leagues don’t care about anyone except their woke masters because they don’t have to – the commissioners and executives of these leagues know that their respective fan bases will continue to purchase their league’s streaming entertainment packages, and we won’t give a second thought to the fact that these leagues are funding BLM, Planned Parenthood, NAMBLA, Antifa, and a host of other virulently anti-American organizations. Like parasites, these groups are dedicated to destroying this nation, everything it ever stood for, and everything it represents.
Now, consider this question: If the ones who are best in a position to actively and most effectively oppose and check its advance won’t act, what can I do?
The answer lies in you refusing to lend your time, and your financial resources to the advancement of the woke agenda through its pro sports entertainment proxies.
This is remarkably simple, but despite the ease with which it can be done, most simply refuse, or cannot, because they are like junkies. They are addicted to their pro sports entertainment, and truth be told, they cannot imagine a world where they don’t spend Sunday all but isolated from their wives and kids, in front of their gigantic-screen TVs, watching a ball game, consuming chicken wings, pizza and beer while the images display constant reminders of their sins against wokeness as they fall asleep in their recliners, and paying through the nose to do so, they have been so thoroughly conditioned.
Stop paying to see millionaires in short pants play a game. Paying your hard-earned dollars for sports entertainment through NFL Red Zone and Sunday Ticket, the NBA League Pass, MLBdotTV and MLB At Bat, NHL Center Ice, et al. is endorsing their support of all that is in direct opposition and hostile to everything in which you believe.
It isn’t just your money, though. It’s also your time. Your time, and your money are the most effective tools you have at your disposal – use them.
I know it sounds and seems ineffectual, and these are small actions that by themselves, seem insignificant. When combined, however, the impact can be extraordinary.
From the 00:00:43 mark to 00:00:51.
Disney is laying off 7,000 employees because 2.4 million (and counting) individuals decided they were no longer going to pay to be insulted and have their kids’ minds poisoned. Do you really think any of them knew how many others were doing the same? What do you suppose might happen if any one of these leagues loses a third or more of its subscribers every season for three years straight? Might they begin to wonder why?
If you have the resolve to walk away from such an innocuously self-destructive habit, you’ll be amazed at the result. You’ll re-connect with your spouse, and with your kids. You’ll re-discover your neighbours. You’ll be more productive – cleaning your garage, getting yard work done, painting your house, spending time outdoors, doing instead of watching. Playing eighteen holes of golf instead of streaming them.
I will not discount that ultimately, we each may be the mouse in the image below:
…but if you’ve ever wondered what you can do, this is it.
Thank you, dear reader, for your attention, and indulgence.
I’ve said it since I saw this all bubbling up 10-15 years ago. Equality isn’t good enough for them. Nor is equity or opportunity or even advantage. They want complete control and revenge. Not for something that happened to them but for something they’ve been told is happening to them. They’ve been handed shackles and when they put them on themselves they beam about being told how splendid they now look in their beautiful new bracelets. If you have a spine, this is the time to start using it.
This largely summarizes my feelings.
I used to be a super sports fan, especially baseball. I love baseball. But massive overlap of Team Woke-Team Covid Venn Diagram has been so disappointing.
I was eagerly watching the first ball game of the pandemic-shortened season. A great matchup, Yankees at Nats (Nationals Stadium is a splendor, architecturally, and anchors a newly revitalized neighborhood of DC), future HOFer Max Scherzer is on the bump, he goes into his windup and... a BLM graphic is suddenly superimposed upon the back of the mound. I literally went numb.
I only watched long enough to see 2-hitter Giancarlo Stanton smack a ball all the way to Anacostia and then I turned it off. I've been ambivalent toward almost all sports since.
I'm getting antsy this year for the O's, I must admit. This would be a difficult habit for me to kick. Mrs. Pi's a good sports fan, frankly, but we both have soured on the messaging. It's not just the halftime show but the commercials, the music, and the clearly-targeted audience despite what I have to believe is their much more meager purchasing powers - which is supposed to be the goal of advertising.
I even had a pretty big dustup with my brother in law about Kapernick, since you've referenced him. He insisted that the only reason he wasn't back in the league was because of racism. I countered that even Michael Vick made it back into the league. When he was 34 and a ghost of the player he was 5 years prior. "Know why? Because he could still play. If Kapernick could play ball, he would be."
But even he chose to channel his energies into being a victim when he basically won the Genetic Lottery: tall, athletic, not unattractive (I'll reserve judgment), and a millionaire at 25. He instead chose to wear the Pig Socks and pretend he'd been a victim all along.
I think you're right. I might have to abstain. I'm going to wince every time I'm watching and I have to endure yet another woke declaration.