On Kneeling, Standing, and other controversial positions

A few years ago, I went on a nice vacation to various countries in Southeast Asia.  On that trip, I went to Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and I ended up in Bangkok, Thailand.  It was an airfare deal where you could do a certain number of countries for a certain price and I had already gone to Japan and China on previous trips, so there was really no other country in that region that I wanted to visit.  I didn’t really want to go to Thailand, but it fit the deal, so I did it.

I hated almost every second I spent in Thailand.

I have nothing against Thai people or even Thai food although seriously can you have ONE fucking dish that doesn’t burn your asshole afterwards?!?  I also understand that Bangkok is the capital city and, as such, is a completely different experience from the beautiful beaches in the south.  I get it.

Do you remember The Hangover Part II?

Was there any scene AT ALL in that movie that was set in Bangkok that made you say, “Gee, that looks like a beautiful place to visit”?

No.

The vast majority of the city looks like the picture above.  The major exception are the malls.  The malls in Bangkok are glorious and modern and awesome.  I spent entire days at the malls eating delicious (AND CHEAP) food and catching movies.

At the beginning of every movie, they would play a short film praising the virtues of the King and they would also play the Thai national anthem.  The custom was/is to stand during this.

Keeping in mind that I hated the country and couldn’t wait to get the fuck back home, what did I do?

I STOOD THE FUCK UP.

Why?

Because it’s a sign of goddam respect!  So many fucking people and NFL players always talk about someone disrespecting them and you know what, motherfuckers?  You need to give respect to get respect!

I understand that many people are not happy about how things are or how minorities are treated in this country.  As a minority, I get it.  HOWEVAH, as a naturalized American citizen, it bothers the shit out of me that people born in this country that have never experienced what it is like to live in third world countries where things are REALLY bad decide to shit on their country’s symbols.

This country went through this already with the flag-burning debate.  Yes, it’s protected speech under the First Amendment, but that doesn’t mean you should do it.  When people do things like burning flags or kneeling during the national anthem, whatever message they want to get across gets lost because many people are greatly offended by those acts.

If NFL players really want to do something about the issues that an unemployed QB was protesting about, they should put their money where their mouth is and support political candidates that agree with their views and create companies that fight against the injustices in this country.

The only speech that matters and gets things done in this country is money.  It’s always been that way and it always will be.

Of course, Roger Goodell is as tone-deaf as always.  He is jumping on the latest bandwagon and is “supporting” the players’ right to free speech.  His ability to alienate the NFL’s fanbase is limitless.  Since when does he give a shit about players’ rights?  Fucking never!  All he is doing now is trying to gauge the public’s reaction and going with whatever seems more popular.  Right now, the protests have been well-received, but the backlash is coming and Goodell will do the quickest 180 you’ve ever seen.  Just watch.

My chosen team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, chose to stay in the locker room during the national anthem as they could not unanimously decide whether to do a protest or not.  Supposedly it was for the team to show unity.  In reality, it was a stupid decision.  All it did was show them to be cowards.  Except for one guy whose jersey is now the #1 selling jersey on the NFL website:

BTW, his parents were born in Spain.  What does that tell you?

UPDATE: The Steelers have issued a clarification on the players’ intention.  It was still a dumb decision and HOW THE FUCK DO YOU LOSE TO THE BEARS?!?

Getting on knees and marching in protests doesn’t do a goddam thing to change things.  Like we saw with Trump’s travel ban, the actions that really enabled change were done by the lawyers that went to airports to file lawsuits.  The millions marching didn’t do a fucking thing.  The donations to the ACLU did.

We are past the days where public displays of disagreement change policy.  The Republicans have gerrymandered enough districts so that they can safely ignore what millions on the coasts say.  The only things they pay attention to is lawsuits and money.

If you really feel that strongly about an issue, do what I suggested above and put your money where your mouth is.  Leave the kneeling to Jerry’s “friends”.