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I never followed the Indians because I followed the Reds instead. But this is no news I wouldn't expect in our age of crazy evil. As should be obvious now, the point is to engrain in our minds the idea that anything and everything, every name and every word, associated with the history of the United States is evil and unforgivably racist. That way the growing number of younger Americans who also believe the same about such things as the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, equality, liberty and freedom of speech can be added to.
Just who is behind this or why is open to speculation. My guess is simple numbers. If 10% of the non-Western world wants the Western world exterminated, that's half as many people as live in the whole of the Western World. And since these vast global mega-corporations value the bottom line, it's not hard to see where they will fall if push comes to shove.
In the meantime, priming up and coming generations to rejoice when the whole of the Western Tradition, the United States, and the Western Democracies have been put to rest is the end goal. When everything from legal documents to insect names to sports franchises are associated with evil and need eliminating, the rest won't be much of a problem.
Those who don't like this trend? Easy. Stop giving the corporations doing this your business, or apparently it doesn't bother you that much.
I'm always disappointed with the names. How about the Ohio (or, if necessary, Cleveland) Grassmen? Or use any of a wide number of extinct megafauna. Or the Cleveland Cleavers or the Cleveland Claymores. Cleveland Claustrophobes? Probably not. It's not safe to name a team after any group of people.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Redskins, I favor "Swamp Monsters" for their new name. After all, D.C. is the swamp, so they should have some fun with that. The actual "swamp monster" should be an alligator snapping turtle, a truly awesome-looking critter that should be a mascot of more teams; this would also be a kind of nod to the nearby University of Maryland Terrapins. Second place goes to "the Pork Barrels", with a logo of a pig having a barrel as its body.
As a cultural question, these are probably far less important than whether Han shot first. (Of course he did.) I'd just like to see some creativity, which seems to be in short supply these days.
In fairness, Guardians isn't nearly as lame as some of the new names I've heard. Though we thought it would be fun if they renamed the team The Savages, just to see if someone would take the bate.
DeleteOn second though, today "Grassmen" would imply they were all high on weed. That may be accurate, but it doesn't make for a great logo.
ReplyDeleteThey can call themselves anything they want because as soon as they started taking a knee I stopped watching all together.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I have ever watched much professional sports. I used to think that college sports at least had a real connection to the university community -- or at least that if I squinted hard enough, I could pretend they did. That illusion is harder and harder to maintain, and frankly, the universities themselves are no longer anything to be proud of.
DeleteI'm fine turning the TV off of millionaires who hate the country that made them rich. I'm still OK with college sports, to a point. Though the corporate taint is beginning to reach there as well.
DeleteI was the same way until rather recently, when it became clear that college sports was a mess of pottage for which I was being asked to sell my birthright.
DeleteYep. We're increasingly of that mindset too. There used to be a thick line between college and pro, and that line has been thinning for years.
DeleteMichael Kinsley a generation ago remarked on fad-driven name changing as a manifestation of the onanistic quality of corporate culture. His example was United Airlines, which went from United Airlines to UAL Inc to Allegis to United Airlines. Donald Trump's remark when they changed their name to 'Allegis' was 'sounds like the latest world-class disease'.
ReplyDeleteNote, other-directed fad driven people do this. Other-directed fad-driven executives allow HR and corporate communications to jerk them around. Other-directed fad driven people on philanthropic boards allow the woke-tard staff to ruin organizations. Our elites are awful.
Note that a century ago, the two most popular sports in America were baseball and boxing. Boxing's now a niche interest, because it got so gross. I'm hoping 50 years from now the NBA and the NFL will be no more consequential than the World Boxing Council is today.
I doubt this decision will bring in new fans to baseball who weren't already there. But the decisions are likely a matter of money. Continuing with the 'trash America' trend appears to be what corporate interests see as the best thing for the bottom line.
DeleteI doubt their marketing analysts told them to do this.
DeleteI dunno. I find corporations don't do many things they think will cost them money. I'm reminded of Bernie Goldberg who used to insist something was up because news outlets were being partisan all while losing readers and viewers. I assumed then there was something behind it, since they wouldn't go out of business for a cause. And decades later, they haven't. Something is keeping them afloat, and that something is like the companies here - something making money even if it seems to our eyes it wouldn't be.
DeleteI don't really think so. To take a non-controversial example, there is nepotism. It's most obvious when it is (fairly) literal nepotism, with close relatives being put into positions of power (or at least drawing huge salaries), but in a more general sense it could be applied to the promotion of friends and sycophants. There is no doubt that this actually happens -- it is easy to come up with examples -- and it equally clearly puts the personal interests of the bosses above the corporate interests. It's also not that hard to find cases in which a contract puts the interests of a corporate officer at odds with those of the company. Every contract should make it clear that ONLY what's good for the company is good for the CEO, but it's not always that way in practice. Then there's the fact that, beyond a certain level, money is no longer used for necessities like food, shelter, and clothing; it's just a status marker, and there are other status markers that might be more important or lower-hanging fruit. This doesn't just apply to business, of course; it is more universally human. Take celebrity marriages, for example. The motivation SHOULD be love, but often enough it is publicity and cross-promotion.
DeleteBut let's bring this back to sports with a concrete example. There was no business argument for Jerry Jones firing Jimmy Johnson. There has never been a business argument for Jerry Jones hiring himself as the Cowboys' general manager. He did those things because he COULD and because he thought they would make him feel superior.
Wokeness is entirely about feeling superior to history and tradition.
True that. I've said this whole 'wokeness' is merely a generation with little to show for its time on Earth condemning people in the past to avoid looking at our own track record.
DeleteAs for businesses, yes, that's true. People in companies will sometimes do the strangest things that appear detrimental to the bottom line even when it becomes obvious. But I think we're seeing something more, since I doubt so many companies would be making the same mistakes that lead to the same consequences. Not that it's impossible. I just think in this case they feel it is in their best interests to advocate for the elimination of the Western Christian tradition and American experiment. And on a global scale, which so many things now are owned by much larger, global corporate interests, it's not hard to imagine what those benefits might be.
Some of them are true believers, some are opportunists, and some are scared of being canceled.
Delete"And on a global scale, which so many things now are owned by much larger, global corporate interests, it's not hard to imagine what those benefits might be." Sure, you can think that about MickeyCorp (formerly Disney) or Google or Microsoft, but it's hard to apply the same reasoning to Mozilla, or the Cleveland Indians, or your favorite university, or Mark Shea.
DeleteI'm sure you're right there. I doubt you could point to a single reason that explains it all. The mega-corps, however, are tipping the scales. Not that Wall Street was ever averse to promoting the common bad when it came to money, but seeing so many jump on the post-Western movement has hastened the inevitable demise. Others, however, are likely jumping on board for a host of reasons, but always mindful of the winds of change.
DeleteHere we have the definitive commentary from Strong Bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU8zh9OJgIA
ReplyDeleteNumbnutzes have to pay off the local roller derby team as the roller derby team held the trademark to 'Cleveland Guardians'.
ReplyDelete