The media spin on Kaepernick is ridiculous and just hype to build up on the current "raxcial issues" etc in the US (which are also significiantly overhyped). The overwhelming majority of Americans get along perfectly fine with ALL their neighbors of any race, creed, color, religion...we work with each other, do commerce with each other, go to school and sporting events and casinos and amusement parks and etc etc etc with everyone of any [fill in the blank] group with NO PROBLEMS....and then the media finds and incident, sees blood, and decries the entire nation as biggoted, etc.

Now comes Kaepernick.

Fuck him. He's a thrid string QB about to get cut. He needs media hype. His sudden awareness of social issues is *sadly lacking* in that th emulti-millionaire has no demonstrated evidence of caring prior to this...i.e. ANY activity, statement, donations, etc....it's just Kaepernick seeking glory.

THEN comes the bogus media response....OHHHHH...Americans HATE Kaepernick...Look at all the "Patriotism", etc etc etc with lots and lots of posts and tweets by social Media Conservatives decrying Colin, and the media reporting on those tweets.

What is NOT reported is that while many people are using the free speech to decry Kaepernick as a fool (which he is)....what is NOT reported is that MOST Americans, even while perhaps saying Kaepernick should leave and find a better country, etc as they issue the hyperbolic responses, ALSO say...

...."But I would fight for his right to say whatever idiociy he wants....because THAT is what America stands for..."

And THAT is the "pariotism" (if that in fact is what it is) that is NOT reported....because hideous rags like WashPo don't want to report on the gentle side of Patriotism and America...the one in which TOLERANT people disagree, and freely express their disagreement, BUT EMBRACE THE IDEA THAT YOU CAN STILL DISAGREE IN AMERICA.

Fuck the Washington Post. Useless rag not worht the paper (or electrons) it is printed on.

Fuck Colin Paperneck for being the obvious fraud that he is, even as I support his right to be a flaming douchebag...especially because it is soooo enjoyable to mock the festering clown for the hypocrite he is.

I think standing for the anthem and putting your hand on your chest and taking your hat off is just mindless symbolism.that crap doesnt make you a good american.

Frankly I dont think when soldiers died they were thinking about much of anything other than hoping they and their buddies lived. the last time someone died for freedom was WW2.

ask yourself: when we sent thousands of black men to vietnam in disproportionate numbers do you really think they were proud to die for America in that place to fight communism?

I refuse to sponsor Washington Post's liberal propoganda by going to the link, but what does vilifying cops have to do with patriotism.

Weird, I'm kinda agreeing with brainbomb.

"The overwhelming majority of Americans get along perfectly fine with ALL their neighbors of any race, creed, color, religion"

The overwhelming majority of Americans, especially white Americans, don't have very many neighbors of other races, creeds, colors, and religions.

Given that the morons who run the NFL are talking about him never playing again, when they're perfectly happy to have rapists and murderers take the field (without exaggeration), it is an example of how insipid and shallow U.S. "patriotism" is. (Anywhere else, say Germany, it's be called by its right name: nationalism) As one vet put it, "I served to protect his right to free speech, not to protect some stupid song."

Here, where America likes to make pretty noises about being the Land of the Free and all that nonsense, yet continues to brutalize large portions of its populations. There isn't any vilification of cops here that cops don't richly deserve. It isn't just the few bad psychopathic apples, it is the many many cops who will lie cheat and steal to cover up their crimes. Chicago has the right idea in firing all the cops who covered up crimes. When the police kill nearly as many Americans per capita as the gangs do (and more, by some estimates), we have a problem. Damn straight he should protest that, as should we all.

The difference between the mindless "patriots" who couldn't even tell you whats in the Bill of Rights and probably don't agree with them, and Kaepernick, is that Kaepernick actually takes the founding ideals of this country seriously. He is far more American than the false "partiot" yahoos who think that the US is a brand of T-shirts or something.

"One of the ironies of the way some people express their patriotism is to brag about our freedoms, especially freedom of speech, but then brand as unpatriotic those who exercise this freedom to express dissatisfaction with the government’s record in upholding the Constitution. "

yep. People who profess a love Constitution have rarely read it and even more rarely understand it.

its only big news with the #tcot types and their associated Concerned Facebook Liberals who get all their news from the Daily Show and have no purpose in life but to be Concerned about them, rather than actual politics. They're foils of each other.

Admittedly they are several million people but intellectually and politically both groups are irrelevant

There's a debate about the anthem, a debate about standing, a debate about policing, and a referendum on Kaepernick's character and motives. Some of these matter more than others.

Good Lord Thucy my good man! I agree with you in your characterization of the Social Media Liberals who have no real concern other than that to which they are instructed to be concerned.

The irony, Oh Big White Liberal on His Mighty Salvation Horse, is that YOU are exactly that Liberal -- instructed to be concerned for <Cause X of Group Y>, and then unnecessarily being concerned about ALL in <Grop X> because you are told to, and therefore insultingly being concerned with <GROUP> rather then < ACTUAL INDIVIDUALS IN NEED REGARDLESS OF GROUP>....You are EXACTLY the Liberal that first and foremost classifies all humanity by <GROUP> and then proceeds to <ASSIGN NEED BASED UPON PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS>, thus demeaning the capabilities and status of <INDIVIDUALS> --- because Only <BIG WHITEY THUCY> can <SAVE ALL WHO BELONG TO NON-WHITE GROUP>

that was fun, and should be especially annoying for the readers.

Krellin, isn't Kapernick the starting QB for the 49ers? Which would mean he isn't about to get cut and has little reason to do this to "seek glory" or as a hail mary?

Vashta.....uhh.....NO. he's not the starter, and all indications are he is in danger of getting cut. He sucks.

Oh, right, there's also the "who's gonna start game 1" debate. Which isn't really a debate; Blaine Gabbert will start and Kaepernick will be #2 (though apparently a number of 49ers fans would rather see him put out to pasture and bring in their 3rd-string QB as the backup).

/sportsball

I was thinking wait a minute, if you cant stand colin k, then you must REALLY hate christina aguilera, I mean its one thing to not stand, its another to not even get the lyrics to the song right....

ohhh shes white. nevermind. carry on.

"what does vilifying cops have to do with patriotism."

Considering that this country was founded by a bunch of cop-killers who were pissed off about police brutality and malfeasance (among other issues), the answer is "quite a bit".

"Is this big news in the US?"

Yes. It's been yuge. Just about every newscast I've over heard has not just mentioned it, but discussed it in detail. It's the perfect non-news news story. It gets good ratings, keeps the public neatly divided into opposite camps, has no real effect on anyone's lives, and doesn't risk pissing off anyone important like reporting real news does.

If some guy starts burning flags (on his own property, legally) screaming about how awful black people are and puts up signs for "woman's suffer-age" (because if you have a sign, YOU SHOULD MAKE IT A PUN)

THAT... would be exercising your rights. Therefore... it's patriotic? ehh... it's how YOU as an individual define the term in relation to what you believe the ideals of your nation are.

When Kaepernick doesn't stand for the anthem because he thinks black people are being systematically hunted down by cops and shot to death, you can't say that's unpatriotic as FACT but as OPINION.


but it's definitely retarded, i'll tell you that much

Maybe if the cops started hunting down your friends and family for sport you wouldn't find it "retarded." (Where do we find these boors?) YOu wouldn't last a day if you got treated the way black people are treated.

Thanks guys, all very interesting.

Especially Krellin for this line: "And THAT is the "pariotism" (if that in fact is what it is) "

Which at first i misread as this wonderful tautology: "And THAT is "pariotism" (if that in fact is what it is)"

This is America where people are judged to be unAmerican for not standing for the anthem, not wearing those little American flag lapel pins, not agreeing with Trump, not worship God, the American flag, and apple pie, ….

It's all about the symbols and not the substance. God bless the American advertising agencies.

If he doesn't like America, he can not participate in sports sponsored in part by the US government and played on American soil, and he can emigrate to Africa, where I'm sure the unracist police would treat criminals kindly.

@leon1122
"If he doesn't like America, he can not participate in sports sponsored in part by the US government"

that's not even slightly true.

@Ogion

"This is according to FBI data, which also found that 40 percent of cop killers are black. According to Mac Donald, the police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black than a cop killing an unarmed black person."

http://www.dailywire.com/news/7264/5-statistics-you-need-know-about-cops-killing-aaron-bandler


Listen Ogion, you can preach to me all you want that cops are racist AND MANY OF THEM ARE. MANY COPS ARE RACIST BASTARDS.

Now since that's out of the way, you need to realize that this is not systemic. The policemen who are shooting black kids who are unarmed for no reason, are:

SECONDLY
black men are more likely to be killed by BLACK COPS, and the vast majority of black men who are shot are ARMED.


OTHER various facts:
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf


police violence affects black people disproportionately to whites, but NOT because of racism. Look at the statistics across ALL diversities: the problem is socio-economic, NOT racial.

I deal in fact. YOU deal in the world of the media, where the best selling story becomes the only reality there is. Talk about blacks being oppressed economically? THAT we can discuss. this we can not.


DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS, WITHOUT OPENING ALL LINKS AND READING EVERY WORD. I won't have discussions with people who won't entertain the other side of the argument. those aren't discussions worth having.

some of my original post got deleted, but it's all from this article, that was weird sorry

http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=82

leon:
"If he doesn't like America, he can not participate in sports sponsored in part by the US government and played on American soil, and he can emigrate to Africa, where I'm sure the unracist police would treat criminals kindly."

Of course, as we all know, black Americans sign a solemn agreement upon finding any measure of success, saying that they will never ever engage with the institutional problems of a system that happened to benefit them personally. Conveniently, removing legitimacy from black Americans who attain the means to speak out and be heard means never having to hear about those problems.

JamesYanik:
"Look at the statistics across ALL diversities: the problem is socio-economic, NOT racial...Talk about blacks being oppressed economically? THAT we can discuss. this we can not."

These two statements are incongruous. If the problem is economic (true in large part) and blacks are oppressed economically (true in large part), then the problem is racial.

Anyway, I'm here with a parallel perspective from a different black athlete who I deeply admire. Y'all have fun tearing it down, I guess.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/jabari-parker-chicago-gun-violence/