People argue about what is the appropriate response to the national anthem ritual.
Nobody's talking about the appropriateness of the national anthem in the first place, prior to pro football games.
People say, kneelers are politicizing an event where people just want to relax, eat hotdogs, drink beer, and scream for a favorite team, in order to forget about their 40+ hour work week grind.
But the anthem already politicizes the event!
Worse, the politicization became more acute in 2009, in the NFL, when branches of the military used a tax payer funded budget to induce the players to come out of the locker rooms, and subject themselves to a public ritualistic loyalty test for fan consumption and owner enrichment (they have been paid to induce the players come out of the locker room).
I say the anthem at games appears for the same reasons the players were induced to come out of the locker rooms in 2009 and publicize their faith in a dubious symbol that nobody really knows what it means: exploitation.
The anthem, if it was meant to find some grounds of unity before players took sides in a game, no longer serves as a point of unity. So, it must be banished.
Other points of unity should be found, if unity is seen to be that important a ritual prior to taking sides in a game.
Can't anybody think of something that would unite everybody?
Otherwise, why not make up a song for each battle the U.S. has fought for the last 200 years and see how everyone takes sides on the issues surrounding that battle?
One game could be dedicated to all the battles in Syria, for example.
Why insert something so divisive into a light hearted game?
Nobody's talking about the appropriateness of the national anthem in the first place, prior to pro football games.
People say, kneelers are politicizing an event where people just want to relax, eat hotdogs, drink beer, and scream for a favorite team, in order to forget about their 40+ hour work week grind.
But the anthem already politicizes the event!
Worse, the politicization became more acute in 2009, in the NFL, when branches of the military used a tax payer funded budget to induce the players to come out of the locker rooms, and subject themselves to a public ritualistic loyalty test for fan consumption and owner enrichment (they have been paid to induce the players come out of the locker room).
I say the anthem at games appears for the same reasons the players were induced to come out of the locker rooms in 2009 and publicize their faith in a dubious symbol that nobody really knows what it means: exploitation.
The anthem, if it was meant to find some grounds of unity before players took sides in a game, no longer serves as a point of unity. So, it must be banished.
Other points of unity should be found, if unity is seen to be that important a ritual prior to taking sides in a game.
Can't anybody think of something that would unite everybody?
Otherwise, why not make up a song for each battle the U.S. has fought for the last 200 years and see how everyone takes sides on the issues surrounding that battle?
One game could be dedicated to all the battles in Syria, for example.
Why insert something so divisive into a light hearted game?
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