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themiddle54 wrote:That image predates Ferguson.

I don't think we're disagreeing here. All I meant was that the most immediate image of St. Louis and race relations in the public mind--its legacy, if you will--is Ferguson. Passan refers to it, and the news and popular culture are saturated with it. Even the new James Baldwin documentary I am Not Your Negro--which is terrific, by the way--uses footage from it.

themiddle54 wrote:Sports comments sections are the Citizen Kane of comments sections. The people there are kind of nuts but they're generally pretty well informed. Unlike politics comments sections where people are legitimately nuts and can be highly and willfully uninformed.

That's a fair comment, but based on my memories of CardsTalk and that awful politics section, it's like calling Peter Dinklage "Hercules" when comparing him to a gerbil. That's not a criticism of you, by the way.

themiddle54 wrote:Ballplayer: here's my idea on politics.
Plumber in the comments sections, commenting on politics: Stop commenting on politics and just do your profession.

Yup.

Chris Long's replies to some of the people who commented on him not going to the White House via Twitter were great. To the guy who said that he should stick to sports he replied (paraphrasing), "You aren't exactly a state senator so why are you commenting on politics?" It seems like he also looked at recent Tweets from the people and called one guy out for constantly re-Tweeting inaccurate BS from Fox News if I remember correctly.

The argument some of the "stick to sports!" people are making (and not one I agree with) is that celebrities, athletes, entertainers, etc. don't live or converse among "real" people, so they are out of touch and their opinion means less. The other argument seems to be that an athlete being outspoken about an issue will bait the media into covering that rather than sports. This is a little more defensible, but still misguided in my opinion.

Well, the 1% who control our elected government officials all too often don't live or converse among real people either so they should start attacking them too!

tlombard wrote:Well, the 1% who control our elected government officials all too often don't live or converse among real people either so they should start attacking them too!

Yeah, it's a really stupid argument. The idea that people who travel across the world, interact with people of different faiths, color and cultures live in a bubble and don't know "real" America is pretty, pretty stupid.

Farewell Friends wrote:The argument some of the "stick to sports!" people are making (and not one I agree with) is that celebrities, athletes, entertainers, etc. don't live or converse among "real" people, so they are out of touch and their opinion means less.

A lot of people who make this argument have voted for a movie star (Reagan) and reality tv star (Trump) for president.

Farewell Friends wrote:

tlombard wrote:Well, the 1% who control our elected government officials all too often don't live or converse among real people either so they should start attacking them too!

Yeah, it's a really stupid argument. The idea that people who travel across the world, interact with people of different faiths, color and cultures live in a bubble and don't know "real" America is pretty, pretty stupid.

It would be borderline insane/sociopathic for Fowler, who is married to an Iranian-American woman, to not have an opinion on a ban preventing his wife from seeing her family. What he said was honest, simple, and in no way inflammatory. I don't get the anger, but then, there are a lot of angry people in our country now.

Farewell Friends wrote:The argument some of the "stick to sports!" people are making (and not one I agree with) is that celebrities, athletes, entertainers, etc. don't live or converse among "real" people, so they are out of touch and their opinion means less. The other argument seems to be that an athlete being outspoken about an issue will bait the media into covering that rather than sports. This is a little more defensible, but still misguided in my opinion.

Of course, most people who say "stick to sports" usually do so to athletes they disagree with. The ones they agree with they tend to applaud for speaking out.

obucard wrote:

Farewell Friends wrote:The argument some of the "stick to sports!" people are making (and not one I agree with) is that celebrities, athletes, entertainers, etc. don't live or converse among "real" people, so they are out of touch and their opinion means less. The other argument seems to be that an athlete being outspoken about an issue will bait the media into covering that rather than sports. This is a little more defensible, but still misguided in my opinion.

Of course, most people who say "stick to sports" usually do so to athletes they disagree with. The ones they agree with they tend to applaud for speaking out.

ie: the cult following of Tim Tebow. Dude can talk politics and religion all he wants because he's not one of the "out of touch" athletes.