Colin Kaepernick sits during National Anthem

[Nithavela]

Notice how quiet it got the moment someone mentioned "respecting veterans" in a way that required some semblance of effort and more than mere lip service? We get THAT a lot, too.

Well, what do you expect. You are used up tools. No one wants to care for used tools. Where's the sense in that?

 

[timewerx]

Not for anything else, I wouldn't stand up for the national anthem either if it did not offended a lot of people.

Standing for a national anthem's got idolatry written all over it.

 

[Tallguy88]

Be specific. How could he have protested in a way that would both catch your attention AND meet with your approval?

Just releasing a statement would have probably worked. That's what Michael Jordan did. I saw it, read at, and agreed with it. My opinion of Jordan is no less because if it. But he's a classy guy and I don't think he would ever do something like Kaepernick did.

 

[Tallguy88]

Given the way Americans are always claiming their country is the best ever because "freedom", this is particularly ironic. Getting someone fired because you disagree with their opinion seem like the opposite of freedom to me.

You can dislike who you want, and boycott any business you choose. Trying to cause actual harm to someone for having an opinion that doesn't harm anyone, though, is, well, kinda monstrous, frankly.

It's exactly what happened to people by the other side during the debates about gay marriage, transexuality, etc. People tend to voice their opinions and at least threaten a boycott of people they don't like.

Now I'm not calling for any kind of boycott or firing. I'm not a 49ers fan and I think Kaepernick is on the downhill, so it's best for my Chiefs if he stays. Improves our chances.

But I still disapprove.

 

[Tallguy88]

QFT. Especially since we're rarely actually asked how we feel about such things, just invoked when convenient.

You want to respect veterans? How about lobbying your representative for better health and social care for them? Trust me, most veterans are far more concerned about things like that than whether or not someone stands up during a flag raising.

Who says I haven't? My dad is a vet and the VA is the only health care he gets.

 

[Tallguy88]

Notice how quiet it got the moment someone mentioned "respecting veterans" in a way that required some semblance of effort and more than mere lip service? We get THAT a lot, too.

Sorry, I was asleep. I tend to do that at 2am when you first posted.

 

[Albion]

People respect figures like Francis of Assisi or Gandhi or Mother Teresa because, although they take a stand against injustice, they don't do so while living the life of the 1%. People, in other words, are put off by hypocrisy almost more than by any other human failing.

 

[Albion]

This one seems easy enough to handle. The management of the 49ers should honor their QB's decision by allowing him to remain seated...through the playing of the National Anthem, during practices, and throughout all games. That's if they can't get out of their contract with him, of course.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

People respect figures like Francis of Assisi or Gandhi or Mother Teresa because, although they take a stand against injustice, they don't do so while living the life of the 1%. People, in other words, are put off by hypocrisy almost more than by any other human failing.

So, rich people should keep their mouth shut about social injustice or even about the poor because they are rich. Is that right? And because they are rich, they should be shamed and silenced because they have a lot of money and this obviously hinders them from empathizing with other people or showing compassion toward people who are less fortunate than they are. Am I understanding this kind of logic correctly? I know some rich people who show compassion toward people who are less fortunate than they are and they also stand up against social injustice. I wonder if I should tell them they have no idea what they are doing and shame them into stopping because they are rich.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

This one seems easy enough to handle. The management of the 49ers should honor their QB's decision by allowing him to remain seated...through the playing of the National Anthem, during practices, and throughout all games. That's if they can't get out of their contract with him, of course.

He should be punished and publicly shamed for exercising his freedom of speech and freedom of expression?

Huh... I wonder if the people who feel this way feel the same way toward a particular loud mouth candidate who insults pretty much everyone whenever he opens his mouth.

 

[Albion]

He should be punished and publicly shamed for exercising his freedom of speech and freedom of expression?

He made the choice to sit, not the management.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

He made the choice to sit, not the management.

You did not answer my question.

Should he be punished and publicly shamed for exercising his freedom of speech and freedom of expression?

 

[Albion]

So, rich people should keep their mouth shut about social injustice or even about the poor because they are rich. Is that right?

No. However, I'll respond to your post if you ask about something I actually did talk about.

 

[Albion]

You did not answer my question.

Yeh, I think I did.

 

[SummerMadness]

People respect figures like Francis of Assisi or Gandhi or Mother Teresa because, although they take a stand against injustice, they don't do so while living the life of the 1%. People, in other words, are put off by hypocrisy almost more than by any other human failing.

That makes absolutely no sense, your amount of wealth does not mean you cannot have an opinion on police brutality nor does it mean that you cannot be a victim of police brutality.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

No. However, I'll respond to your post if you ask about something I actually did talk about.

You implied that it was hypocritical for someone in the 1% to take a stand against injustice.

So I asked you if rich people should keep their mouth shut about social injustice or even about the poor because they are rich.

People respect figures like Francis of Assisi or Gandhi or Mother Teresa because, although they take a stand against injustice, they don't do so while living the life of the 1%. People, in other words, are put off by hypocrisy almost more than by any other human failing.

 

[Albion]

That makes absolutely no sense, your amount of wealth does not mean you cannot have an opinion on police brutality nor does it mean that you cannot be a victim of police brutality.

I agree. Of course, what you say here isn't what I wrote, so maybe that's why you say that it didn't make sense to you.

 

[Albion]

You implied that it was hypocritical for someone in the 1% to take a stand against injustice.

No. I didn't. You've taken it upon yourself to "pencil in" what you want the hypocrisy to be.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

No. I didn't. You've taken it upon yourself to "pencil in" what you want the hypocrisy to be.

Then please enlighten us with what you really meant when you said...

People respect figures like Francis of Assisi or Gandhi or Mother Teresa because, although they take a stand against injustice, they don't do so while living the life of the 1%. People, in other words, are put off by hypocrisy almost more than by any other human failing.

 

[Albion]

Then please enlighten us with what you really meant when you said...

It's not having wealth that is the issue. It's the hypocrisy in pretending that while you hold onto it, you are helping the masses of the oppressed by sitting down during the National Anthem. You had my real thinking in the fact that I made reference to Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and Mother Teresa in my post, but you disregarded that entirely, for some reason.

Let's take an example. There's a Hollywood actor (whose name escapes me at the moment) who is what some people would call an environmental nut. BUT he rides his bicycle everywhere, heats his house with solar panels, is a vegetarian, and so on. He at least puts his stated principles into his life. Now, compare that with the likes of Al Gore who has become a millionaire all over again by flying around the world, logging tens of thousands of miles and burning how much fuel, pouring pollutants into the atmosphere....in order to tell people to worry about and do something about climate control. And he's not the only one. See the difference? When Colin K. actually does something significant to alter the situation that he says he cares about, I may see the matter differently,