If You Say Things Loud Enough

Life is full of confusing contradictions, but if you ignore them, and yell loudly enough you can still convince people that whatever you’re yelling must be true.  The key is to take all things out of context and impose your unique world-view and then speak loudly and often about how abhorrent a democratic republic founded by old white men really is, and how much better would be a socialist state (presumably founded by someone other than old white men -- although an old white man is the loudest voice right now).

This past week Nike chose to begin a controversy over a design choice on a pair of overpriced sneakers.  I presume they are operating under the theory any free advertising is good advertising.  A theory made popular during the Trump campaign of 2015-16.  I agree with Mike Rowe, Nike has every right to do what they want and listen to whoever they choose.  The same holds true for its customers.  Since we are not yet the totalitarian government some would have us become, there are sufficient alternate vendors willing to offer displeased customers other options.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the opposing sides won’t yell at each other across the vast chasm of the internet.  There has been and will continue to be, a flurry of tweets, Instagram’s, and FaceBook outrages back and forth.  The Betsy Ross flag has become a DNC talking point among the racially motivated leadership, and facts really no longer matter.  I imagine each side will declare victory in a few weeks when the loudest voices move on to some other outrage.

As one of the central voices in the Nike decision Colin, I used to be a quarterback, Kaepernick tweeted out a quote from the abolitionist Fredrick Douglas that supposedly said, flat out, America and its flag was not his America or his flag. Unfortunately, there are old white men who had actually read the whole of the Fredrick Douglas speech that Mr. Kaepernick quoted and pointed out that the removal of context for the speech clearly implied a false position for Mr. Douglas.  Unfortunately, Mr. Douglas is not available for comment, and the people who admire Colin, I used to be a quarterback, Kaepernick for his woke courage won’t listen to the old white men who corrected him, and the people who like the old white men, don’t like Mr. Kaepernick to begin with, so as I said, it’s really just standing on either side of a street yelling at each other.  No minds will be changed.