Fox News Complains Olympians Aren’t Wearing Their Patriotism On Their Sleeves
Via Andrew Sullivan, perhaps the dumbest Fox News piece I’ve ever seen:
As for why you’re not hearing “USA! USA!” chants at the Olympics, perhaps that’s because they’re being held in the United Kingdom, you morons
It’s all pretty dumb—although I do confess that I find it odd that they’re not wearing red, white, and blue unis and warmups. Aren’t they all supposed to wear their Chinese-made Ralph Lauren duds?
@James Joyner:
I think Nike had the contract for most of the athlete uniforms for events. Lauren did the Opening and Closing Ceremony stuff
I didn’t even manage to watch the segment in its entirety. Such stupidity is unbearable.
All I can think of when I see our athletes on the medal podium is “why is the US Olympic team entirely drawn from West Point this year?” even the lettering on the back of the jacket screams Army fashion design
@Russell:
Why do you hate our troops?
The funny thing is that he was essentially making the same argument Obama was with the “you didn’t build that” speech.
@Murray: I think you are trying too hard to find something to be angry about. I have no idea how you could read my comment on the color and style of a warmup jacket as hating anything. I didn’t even say that I didn’t like the style, just that it reminds me of Cadet colors and styling.
@Russell:
I thik you need to adjust your sarcasm detector.
As somebody in the host country, I find this line of argument completely bizarre. It is true that English football crowds are often very noisy and triumphalist (it’s also true, incidentally, that this has tended to be inversely proportional to how well we’re actually doing). But at no point has the atmosphere at the Olympics been remotely akin to that which holds sway at a football match. Nor have the spectators acted in a similar manner. It’s apples and oranges.
American athletes appear to be well liked by their peers and they have won significant praise from the British public for the manner in which they conduct themselves and their abilities in competition. Their success stands on its own merits. The idea that the situation would be improved in any way by large crowds of Americans – in a manner pretty much unique among the spectator nations – bellowing “USA!!!! USA!!!! USA!!!! USA!!!!!!!!” whenever an American athlete does something praiseworthy is unbelievably stupid. All it would do is earn the USA a terrible reputation and add a massive element of tension to proceedings. It’s just rude.
Even allowing for the fact that much of what is written about the Olympic Spirit (or whatever) is self-serving rubbish, I just find it very sad. The idea that it’s not good enough to win, that every effort must be made to demonstrate “exceptionalism” by publicly rubbing the noses of the other competing nations in the dirt, is unworthy. A little graciousness goes a long way in these situations.
Put down the remote Doug. Step away from the TV and nobody gets hurt.
Seriously Doug, don’t you know watching Fox News is intellectual suicide? Much less painful to pick up a .38 and pull the trigger.
I thought the right was against political correctness.
@Scott:
The American right has had a dicey relationship with the Olympics recently.
@Anthony:
What? Are you suggesting we aren’t loved for our loud displays of jingoism? If we don’t shout slogans directly into the face of every foreigner we encounter, how are they supposed to know how superior we are?
Shouldn’t the anchor bimbo have a stars and stripes scarf? And how about a similar do-rag for the bald guy?
I don’t even bother to mock FOX anymore. You can’t even satirize it because it’s such a farce. It’s The Onion that takes itself seriously.
Those are bold words…
I’m doing my part to support our Olympians – I purchased American Flag decals for placement on my neighbor’s math lab, and on my Black Tar Heroin Emergency Supply Kit.
@al-Ameda:
Why do you hate arithmetic?
@Anthony:
You obviously have not seen the Polish fans at the men’s volleyball games or other countries fans cheering for their national teams. To argue that the U.S. are worse is laughable.
Nike seems to believe that it is OK to make U.S. athletes into “global icons” that are disconnected from the U.S. while other countries such as Great Britain has nationalistic uniforms.
For those who haven’t seen these videos I would recommend them In my opinion the U.S. has handled the whole “guests to the world thing” exactly right this year. With good grace, humour and style.
No wonder Fox is up in arms. They fucking hate style. It’s what those libruls do.
@de stijl:
Because I love calculus.
Does that help?
An a par with Palin insisting that she is more patriotic than most pundits because she wears an American flag lapel pin.
Yet another low mark in the shallow cesspool of superficiality and self-righteous indignation known as FOX News.