Interesting column by A. Abrahamson. Does anyone in the US realize the world that may not want to listen to our protests?

Runner10287 wrote:

Like any American athletes have the balls to protest real injustice around the world. It’s all about protesting made up boogeymen in the US for fun and games and retweets

For real. Look how fast the supposedly progressive NBA players changed their tune when Daryl Morey spoke against China. Athletes, for the most part, ‘protest’ when it’s convenient and popular. There are obviously exceptions, but I can’t imagine any American athlete with significant sponsors going out of their way to piss off China. Not to mention that China’s human rights problems don’t stop any of these athletes from accepting Nike money, building their brand on Tiktok via their iPhone, etc.

It’s a first amendment right! Do you hate America and the constitution???

Good ol' Alan Abrahamson, squarely the proverbial white moderate.

https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/0*epunYwCybTWCwpuM.jpg

This is comical. The author of this article clearly does not understand the meaning of the word "protest."

Can anyone give me some background about Alan Abramson? If I recall, he advocated letting Russia back into full participation even after it was revealed that they had falsified the data showing they were back in compliance on anti-doping. Does he have an employer or ideology that explains why he so often seems to support causes that are so unpopular?

I realize that I probably sound like just the kind of arrogant American he is complaining about, but I'm not trying to shut his voice down, just understand it. I'm genuinely curious if anyone can give me some background about Abramson and his worldview?

The Unkle wrote:

Well Gee.

WE wouldn't want to put anyone in the position of seeing a protest that they don't want to see.

+1 for taking a knee.

I think this opinion has some roots in the post-Soviet era Olympic movement. The dueling boycotts of the 80s left deep scars and was for a time an existential crisis for the Olympic movement. The fear was that the West and the Soviet block would split the Olympics in two and have parallel games from there on out. The solution for many was to make the Olympics strictly an athletic event and keep politics completely out of the competitions. I think that is a much better argument than this idea that the rest of the Olympic movement does not want to hear US athletes protest about BLM or a hypothetically woke athlete that goes beyond domestic US affairs and speaks out about Chinese oppression of the Uyghurs.

If the athletes did not want any political expression during the game, I think the US would be obligated to go along with that. But it is clearly the sponsoring governments who do not want any political expression at the games. And this is not due to the fear of another East/West split, but due to the fear of having athletes be an effective voice against oppression on the international stage. So, Abrahamson's article is a pretty convoluted take that seems to be more motivated by a knee jerk "everything the USOC does is bad" position than a real analysis of the issues.

NoVan wrote:

Can anyone give me some background about Alan Abramson? If I recall, he advocated letting Russia back into full participation even after it was revealed that they had falsified the data showing they were back in compliance on anti-doping. Does he have an employer or ideology that explains why he so often seems to support causes that are so unpopular?

I realize that I probably sound like just the kind of arrogant American he is complaining about, but I'm not trying to shut his voice down, just understand it. I'm genuinely curious if anyone can give me some background about Abramson and his worldview?

You're not wrong in basically stating "consider the source." He has the chops as a journalist and writer, a Northwestern grad (and lawyer) and USC professor and has won many awards for his writing, if not the Pulitzer. His CV reveals that he is firmly embedded in the Olympics power structure. I vaguely recall seeing his work via 3 Wire Sports previously and it always seemed to conform to some establishment interest or perspective. He's certainly more conformist than Bob Costas.

Armstronglivs wrote:

With threads like this we see that America hasn't changed much since Mexico '68 and the protests by Smith and Carlos.

Only the looniest or the most naive liberals in the US believe that America has not changed since 1968. And most of them are in high school or college. What's your excuse?

With absurd posts like yours, we can confirm what we all already know: You get your deliberately uninformed view of America - a country half way around the world from you that you've never set foot in - from whatever internet source can selectively feed your obsessive need for America-bashing. Incredibly, that includes an anonymous message board on a running site, in addition to the obvious cherry picked CNN headlines.

Armstronglivs wrote:

With threads like this we see that America hasn't changed much since Mexico '68 and the protests by Smith and Carlos.

That further proves my point. They protested legit racism. But it’s not 1968 anymore no matter how hard the woke try to make it so.

The writer clearly doesn't understand that 99% of Americans don't give a f*ck or want to see Americans protest.

Runner10287 wrote:

Armstronglivs wrote:

With threads like this we see that America hasn't changed much since Mexico '68 and the protests by Smith and Carlos.

That further proves my point. They protested legit racism. But it’s not 1968 anymore no matter how hard the woke try to make it so.

You're right about one thing; racism today isn't "legit". But it never was.

The Shaler Flash wrote:

Armstronglivs wrote:

With threads like this we see that America hasn't changed much since Mexico '68 and the protests by Smith and Carlos.

Only the looniest or the most naive liberals in the US believe that America has not changed since 1968. And most of them are in high school or college. What's your excuse?

With absurd posts like yours, we can confirm what we all already know: You get your deliberately uninformed view of America - a country half way around the world from you that you've never set foot in - from whatever internet source can selectively feed your obsessive need for America-bashing. Incredibly, that includes an anonymous message board on a running site, in addition to the obvious cherry picked CNN headlines.

The protests in American cities throughout the year - the biggest since 1968 - were about what?

Sham 69 wrote:

I'm a minority who lives in the U.S. I would't want to live anywhere else, and America is NOT racist.

You appear to be in the minority of voters who supported a white-supremacist President.

Getting free stuff after the doors were smashed.

It must be nice to have grown up in the US and not know what an actual broken country looks like :)

Armstronglivs wrote:

The Shaler Flash wrote:

Only the looniest or the most naive liberals in the US believe that America has not changed since 1968. And most of them are in high school or college. What's your excuse?

With absurd posts like yours, we can confirm what we all already know: You get your deliberately uninformed view of America - a country half way around the world from you that you've never set foot in - from whatever internet source can selectively feed your obsessive need for America-bashing. Incredibly, that includes an anonymous message board on a running site, in addition to the obvious cherry picked CNN headlines.

The protests in American cities throughout the year - the biggest since 1968 - were about what?

You know exactly what the protests were about. And no matter how much you exaggerate and spin it, it still won't even come close to equating societal conditions in 1968 to societal conditions in 2020.

What we DO know is that your posts are always uninformed and obsessive, no matter what calendar year it is.

If you want athletes to wear the US flag and win medals on behalf of the country you might as well allow them to exercise their "constitutional rights" that we brag about globally.

Sham 69 wrote:

I'm a minority who lives in the U.S. I would't want to live anywhere else, and America is NOT racist.

You're a minority in thinking that America is not racist. It is. It was founded on that very principle.