Post by bubbs on Sept 27, 2017 15:52:23 GMT -6
Kaep should have planned a better way to protest.*
Trump should not have incited.
That's pretty much how I feel about it. Come at me!
*I think the timing/anthem is the biggest problem here. Using the flag for protest has a pretty good precedent: www.mtv.com/news/2927782/black-flag/ even within the church: blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/evangelical-history/2016/06/20/the-church-and-the-american-flag/
Fine I'll say something real about this, because I'm so sick of people talking past each other on the internet, and maybe if I give my opinion here on this forum it will fix things. I understand the principles of symbolism, of assigning bigger meaning to an act. In Jimmy's video, the example of a march not being anti-traffic is a good one. A soldier saluting the flag is another. It means something deeper than the literal act.
For Kaep's protest, he chose to sit and then kneel during the anthem. Stupidly, I believe. It was stupid because that activity already carries with it meaning. If someone says, "Please observe a moment of silence for person X who was killed in this way," and you start screaming "LA LA LA LA" during the moment of silence, it will be taken as a disrespect to Person X. You can say afterward, "Well actually, I was protesting _____," but the act already carried meaning. This is why people like Jim Brown, who basically agrees with Kaep politically, disagreed with kneeling during the National Anthem. "Don't piss on my boots and tell me it's raining."
I found it ironic that people were upset that the kneel down now means something different than Kaep and others intended (many were sharing these takes on twitter). The kneel this last week just means opposition to Trump, or at least opposition to his take that the players kneeling were "sons of bitches." So we now have a third meaning to the kneel-down. That makes things easier.
And Kaepernick getting permission from one ex military man doesn't change that it has a meaning to everyone watching. He basically found an activity that would divide America further, that would allow someone like Donald Trump to point to his actions and not his ideas. So well done, Kaepernick. Your protest was misunderstood from the beginning because it was stupid and now has been hijacked by centrists. Good job, good effort.
Trump should not have incited.
That's pretty much how I feel about it. Come at me!
*I think the timing/anthem is the biggest problem here. Using the flag for protest has a pretty good precedent: www.mtv.com/news/2927782/black-flag/ even within the church: blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/evangelical-history/2016/06/20/the-church-and-the-american-flag/
For Kaep's protest, he chose to sit and then kneel during the anthem. Stupidly, I believe. It was stupid because that activity already carries with it meaning. If someone says, "Please observe a moment of silence for person X who was killed in this way," and you start screaming "LA LA LA LA" during the moment of silence, it will be taken as a disrespect to Person X. You can say afterward, "Well actually, I was protesting _____," but the act already carried meaning. This is why people like Jim Brown, who basically agrees with Kaep politically, disagreed with kneeling during the National Anthem. "Don't piss on my boots and tell me it's raining."
I found it ironic that people were upset that the kneel down now means something different than Kaep and others intended (many were sharing these takes on twitter). The kneel this last week just means opposition to Trump, or at least opposition to his take that the players kneeling were "sons of bitches." So we now have a third meaning to the kneel-down. That makes things easier.
And Kaepernick getting permission from one ex military man doesn't change that it has a meaning to everyone watching. He basically found an activity that would divide America further, that would allow someone like Donald Trump to point to his actions and not his ideas. So well done, Kaepernick. Your protest was misunderstood from the beginning because it was stupid and now has been hijacked by centrists. Good job, good effort.
