The
site AllOnGeorgia published a column earlier this week by Josh Brown. It was
terrible, which makes it perfect for the first of our ongoing series inspired by
the great Fire Joe Morgan blog in which we critically deconstruct the points
made and try to make some sense of them.
What used to be a tough country is
dwarfing into some strange soft glob of apologies and hashtags. In 1944, 18-22 year old men stormed the beaches of
Normandy, France under heavy artillery, swimming through a sea of red, watching
their best friends die. In 2015, 18-22 year old men are fighting bad stuff on
Twitter.
Clearly we need to be at war or something.
I mean, it's not like our country hasn't been in a continuous war in Iraq and
Afghanistan for nearly 15 years. Clearly our country has gone soft. We need to
be in perpetual war so that we have a never-ending stream of 18-22 year olds
fighting and dying. More than 4,400 Americans died storming the beaches of
Normandy but those who survived were tough. We need more of that in our country
Our country is getting soft. No wait. It’s been soft, actually. It’s getting softer. And
softer.
Our country was strong D-Day.
Perhaps even until the end of World War II. I don't have a date for exactly
when the softness first started. Maybe after Vietnam. I can't be bothered to
actually quantify my justification for when the softness began but it's
probably around when I needed it to be soft for a flimsy justification for this
piece of garbage I'm about to write.
Look at American sports. Remember
when Richard Sherman talked trash to Michael Crabtree
and every dork with a cellphone lost the plot and called Sherman an uneducated
thug? Sherman proclaimed that he was the “best corner in the game” and called
Michael Crabtree a “sorry receiver.” During the aftermath of this on social
media, you would have thought Richard Sherman had threatened to bomb the entire
city of New York or something. Now, it’s really cool for an athlete to be
overly nice and thank the Lord after a game. Being confident, aggressive, and
talking down to your opponent is now frowned upon.
Who uses the word "dork"
anymore? I'll tell you, dorks do. They are the only ones still using this word.
And the outrage certainly had nothing to do with the racial overtones. An a
angry black man yelling to a pretty white reporter had nothing to do with the
outrage. It used to be cool to be a badass, now it's not. It used to be cool to
say "far out" and " ya dig" and now it's not. Times,
they are a changin and the author here doesn't like it one bit.
Disrespect, that used to be cool, but now it's not.
Can you imagine if Muhammad Ali
boxed in 2015? These poor frail reporters and sports bloggers would hate him
and think he was just too darn mean. They would tweet things like, “Ali
offended another fellow boxer by calling him ugly. #AliShouldBeFined”
The same Ali that went to jail
rather than go to war? That's the guy you want to now use for the example of
toughness? The man who was vilified for evading the draft and eventually sent
to prison for refusing to go to war. That guy is the one you want to use as an
example of toughness when you just got done telling us that kids are soft today
because they didn't go to war? And if Ali boxed in 2015, he'd be the same as if
any other boxer boxed in 2015. He'd be largely ignored by the media because
that's where boxing is in this country.
Nothing says “our country has
reached it’s softest and most delicate state yet” like the recent “No Bullying”
phenomenon. If you have a kid or know a kid in the public school system,
you’ve had some sort of exposure to this silly campaign. You even see it at
little league baseball games. Teaching your kid to not bully others is a good
thing, but teaching them how to put a bully in a chokehold is more
important. If you’re a bully, are you really going to visit Obama’s
no bullying website and educate yourself on how not to bully others?
Remember kids, violence is always
the answer. If someone is violent towards you, ignore what Jesus said and
simply respond with violence. It's what a Man would do. Not Jesus, mind you, or
Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi or others who won major changes in their
society through non-violent means. Ignore them. Instead, respond to violence
with violence.
My friend Gorg brings up a great point in regards to the softness of this once strong country of ours. Gorg says that “causes” are a big contributing factor to the softness of America. I think Gorg is right.
People need causes to make
themselves feel better. They
start a cause, make a bunch of bumper stickers, create a website and a hashtag
(#stopbullying) and they believe that they are making a difference. It makes
them feel good. Dedicating a week or a month to a cause gives people a
sense of accomplishment. Let’s be brutally honest here. Did a cancer awareness
hashtag save your family member’s life? People actually think that
#stopbullying is going to stop bullying. People actually think that
#cancerawareness is fighting cancer. And as of late, people actually think that
#stopISIS is actually going to stop ISIS.
Well, let's see, I googled
"cancer awareness saved my life" and it seems that Amy Robach, the
Good Morning America anchor, credits "Breast Cancer Awareness Month"
for saving her life. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm glad Robach didn't
die. You may feel differently and want her dead. That's on you, but the whole
"if it saves one life, it's worth it" can be true, and in this case,
it did save a life. No, it wasn't a family member, but I'm able to look beyond what
can only benefit me and determine if something is good or not. But carry on
with the idea that knowledge isn't important and spreading awareness about
something isn't necessary.
The abandonment of teaching children
how to win is also making our country even softer. I grew up playing baseball. Not the expensive travel ball
stuff… I’m talking about the normal city leagues. I had coaches who would
actually get mad at us, show emotion, and yell at us when we made stupid
mistakes. These days, if a coach yells at a 10 year old, he’s fired.
Furthermore, back then, every team didn’t get a damn trophy. The first place
team got a trophy. Sometimes, the second place team got one, too. But, it was
always agreed upon that the second place trophies were much smaller than the
first place trophies.
The history of youth sports was never about winning. Youth sports were originally designed to give kids something to do so they wouldn't get in trouble. And I don't know where the author lives, but all the youth sports coaches here are volunteers doing the best they can. They're not going to get "fired." And the stated goal of most county recreation departments is to foster love and enjoyment of sports, not winning. The idea is that kids will enjoy the sport and continue exercising through adulthood. But with obesity rates continuing to rise, yelling at kids and making them not enjoy the sport seems like a great way for America to continue to become soft.
In 2015, literally every team gets a trophy and is told, “Great job!”
If your kid’s baseball team sucked
last year and came in last place, you shouldn’t tell them that they did a great
job and you shouldn’t take them to Pizza Hut to celebrate an incredible season.
You should tell them that they came in last place, and teach them what they
need to do in order to never be in last place again.
The author's biography says he's a
baseball fan, so he of all people should understand the team nature of baseball
and how one kid can't make a team great. Yet because the team didn't win, I
shouldn't tell a kid he, individually, did a great job. By this measure, I
assume the Braves' coaches are telling Freddie Freeman how he's a loser and
what he needs to do differently to make the Braves winners.
Being tough used to be cool. Things
like Rambo and fast cars were cool. Bo Jackson was cool. The Ninja Turtles were
cool because they took zero crap from anyone. Now, it’s really cool to be safe.
Look at new Honda commercials. You’ve got some frail guy in a white lab coat
talking about Honda’s safety rating. “Safety” has consumed our culture. “Be
safe.”, “Have a safe trip!” Safe. Safe. Safe.
Are we really comparing Bo Jackson
and the Ninja Turtles to a Honda commercial? No one, not even Honda, is touting
their vehicles in those commercials as cool. They're saying "hey, you're
taking your kid to his baseball game, if something happens, you don't want her
to die, do you?" This may be the single dumbest argument in this entire
article so far, and that's impressive considering the dumpster fire this word
salad is.
Donald Trump has recently captured
the media when his bravado and insults at other candidates. If you think Donald
Trump is a big ole meany face, then don’t read any of John Adams writings and
don’t read anything about Theodore Roosevelt. Whether you like Donald Trump’s
ideas about government or not, you have to admit, Donald Trump is a man. A real
man.
Remember, to be a "real
man" you need to insult people regularly. That's what makes a man a
man.
Our country has become so soft that
we cannot make fun of people anymore. There
are some people in this world who NEED to be made fun of.
We appreciate you writing
this column so you can be the poster boy for people who need to be made fun of.
People who loot and burn down a CVS
after a cop shooting should be made fun of.
Those people should be arrested.
Here in Georgia, people who fly the old Georgia state flag because
they think the new Georgia state flag (which was the actual flag of the
Confederacy) is not “Confederate like the old flag” should be made
fun of.
People should be made fun of for
flying any flag that fondly looks upon a failed attempt to leave this country,
on this we agree.
People who wear their pants below
their butt while exposing their underwear in public places should be made fun
of.
Wouldn't
it have been easier to just say "people different from me should be made
fun of?"
Islam, a religion that demonizes
women and calls for the killing of homosexuals, should be made fun of. But no.
It’s 2015, and we cannot make fun of anybody or anything because we are taught
to tolerate everything.
Judaism's holy book calls for the stoning of
adulterers and Christianity's holy book calls for women to remain silent. But please, tell
me more about how Islam should be singled out for ridicule.
Am I advocating that we bully others
and walk around slinging offensive insults at everyone? No, of course not. But,
I do think we need to change. The first step should be to start raising men
instead of boys.
Really, you're not
advocating that we bully others and walk around slinging insults at others?
Didn't you just get done praising Donald Trump for doing exactly that? The
entire premise of this column was that we need tough men, men who cool and
violent and cool. Now you're trying to walk it back and say that's not the
case? A real man stands by his opinions and doesn't try to qualify them. You
don't see Trump doing that and you were very clear that he is a real man.
Physician, heal thyself.
