The Politicization of Everything -- Is Escapism Even Possible Any More?
Tired of politics? Want to escape for a while? Maybe talk sports, take in a movie, play a computer game, or go to a show. Well good luck.
Over the last year, I have turned off ESPN Radio, which I used to listen to all the time, because I got bored with all the discussion of politics and social justice. It wasn't even that I necessarily disagreed with the content, it is just that I was tuning in to listen to discussion about the merits of various NFL defenses and not some ex-jock's views on politics. If I want politics and social justice, I have other sources for those (I actually think there are some fascinating race and gender issues in sports, I just don't need to hear about them in every damn show). The same thing is happening in almost all entertainment fields. Over the last month at least a third of Engadget.com's blog posts have been purely about politics with no technology hook at all. If you go to a Broadway show, there is a chance you will get lectured on social justice by the actors. And God forbid one tunes into a music or movie awards show and expects to, naively, see non-political content about music and movies. You can't pay me enough to watch the Oscars any more.
August Hurtel:
Yes. And they are not going to shut up now.
January 30, 2017, 11:12 amJ_W_W:
Yep, see my comment in your last post.....
January 30, 2017, 11:12 amErikTheRed:
On the plus side, comedian Doug Stanhope has forever dropped the mic on the endlessly stupid discussions of gay athletes in the locker room. With this take I think we can consider the subject dead and buried.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/queer-showers/id1160052770?i=1160052932
January 30, 2017, 11:17 amjs4strings:
I'll pile on, this is how I feel exactly. So tired.....
January 30, 2017, 11:59 ammogden:
Your wish to escape politics is simply an expression of your privilege. In Leftyworld, it's all force-fed politics, all the time. Otherwise, you're not really one of us, are you, comrade?
January 30, 2017, 12:00 pmdisqus_00YDCZxqDV:
Time to crack open the Clint Eastwood "Dirty Harry" box set and a couple of bottles of Trappist
January 30, 2017, 12:01 pmdrobviousso:
Agreed. I follow a very small contingent of football writers on twitter. They are all intelligent and insightful. I gave up ESPN and whatever years ago when they went full "embrace debate."
For the last three months, they've all had their brains eaten and only want to talk politics on twitter. When people complain, they say things like "I'll never be silent while [jews like me] are under attack" or "If you think basic equity isn't important, you can stop following me now."
Well, I detest any kind of racial violence or inequality... but sometimes I just want to read about Matt Ryan's AYPA to his #2 and 3 receivers. Is that really too much to ask?
Outrage fatigue is a thing.
January 30, 2017, 12:26 pmIke Evans:
I realize Coyote is trying to avoid taking a political angle in his talking point (kudos to him) but it is worth noting that the politicization of sports is driven 90%+ from the left. Conservatives just want to watch football. Liberals insist make it political when people like Kapernick refuses to stand for the anthem.
January 30, 2017, 12:54 pmMatthew Slyfield:
Really, you don't think playing the national anthem at a sporting event is political?
January 30, 2017, 1:13 pmMars Jackson:
I think this echoes the feelings of 90% of the U.S. population right now. As is usually the case, the loudest 5-10% are getting all the attention right now, and many athletes and entertainers feel the need to use their forum to express their views. I believe many of them do this, not with pure motives, but to show their political "purity" to others in their field or to show their "fans" how liberal they can be. The problem is that they are alienating 50% of the country which pays for their product.
The problem for these entertainers is that they are doing this at the absolute worst time for their fields. American box office is losing more and more money every year in favor of smaller products distributed straight into homes for a lot less money. We are in an era where there are not longer true "movie stars" as computer graphics and smaller stories on TV take over the medium. NFL ratings have been down for a large majority of this past season. Rumors have it that Disney is looking to unload ESPN as it has become a money-losing part of the company where it was one of the most successful parts a few years ago. These political stances are turning more and more people off at the time when people are ready for politics to move to the background, and it will continue to hurt the bottom line of these industries in the long run.
January 30, 2017, 1:16 pmMars Jackson:
It's not political as much as it is nationalistic.
January 30, 2017, 1:24 pmDavid in Michigan:
Amen! Media fatigue/outrage fatigue. I believe it's a growing phenom...... But the media is all about getting viewers, listeners, and clicks that bring in the advertisers dollars. They have found something that has worked well for this (social justice, faux indignation at just about everything) and will not stop until they have destroyed themselves.
January 30, 2017, 1:43 pmCraigNCowartEsq:
Totally agree about sports radio. Shut up with the moralizing lectures and just talk sports!
January 30, 2017, 2:04 pmIke Evans:
Not really. Liberals and Conservatives love the anthem. Only liberals use it as an excuse to make a political statement when we otherwise are simply interested in watching people play a game.
January 30, 2017, 2:20 pmMatthew Slyfield:
While not all politics is nationalism, all nationalism is politics.
January 30, 2017, 2:31 pmalanstorm:
That's a bumper sticker, not an argument.
January 30, 2017, 2:32 pmMatthew Slyfield:
The national anthem itself is a political statement.
January 30, 2017, 2:32 pmPlaying it before an even is a political statement.
Mars Jackson:
Not really. You can love your country without loving its politics. The two do not go hand in hand. Nationalism can be political but that doesn't mean it is always political.
January 30, 2017, 3:04 pmJ_W_W:
But it is so much tradition now that everyone in general accepts it.
Oh wait, Progressives hate and disdain and ....... attack tradition.
January 30, 2017, 3:17 pmJ_W_W:
ESPN's ratings are showing that it is NOT working to get viewers....
January 30, 2017, 3:18 pmJ_W_W:
I'm pretty sure I'm waaaaaay past fatigue on this thing.
I am in fact going to commit to illegally downloading content from Hollywood. Because while they are vocally supporting and advocating ignoring laws they don't like (hello Sanctuary cities), I'm going to ignore the laws they do like (like copyright). If laws don't really matter..... Bonus both immigration and copyright are enforced by ICE, so... at least thats consistent.
And don't bother me with "you should be a law abiding citizen". I DON'T EFFING CARE ANYMORE!!!!
January 30, 2017, 3:21 pmQuincy:
Just another symptom of the progressive totalitarian impulse. Flood every media channel with progressive political content so it becomes literally inescapable. It's a crowdsourced Ministry of Truth.
January 30, 2017, 5:10 pmIke Evans:
The Anthem before a game is a simple celebration of the nation that is more diverse, tolerant and charitable than any other nation on the planet. I'm not sure what is political about that.
January 30, 2017, 5:53 pmMatthew Slyfield:
Everything.
January 30, 2017, 6:38 pmMatthew Slyfield:
I'm no progressive. I'm a libertarian. I think the federal government (and most state governments) should be cut in half.
January 30, 2017, 6:40 pmMatthew Slyfield:
I have no objection to the national anthem. That it's not objectionable doesn't make it not political.
January 30, 2017, 6:41 pmkidmugsy:
The answer is music. I enjoyed the pop of my late teens/early twenties but I don't listen to it any more though I occasionally warble fragments. The best stuff is, to my ears, the classics (especially Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) and early jazz, starting from the earliest recordings and piano rolls through to the small group swing of the 30s.
Few words, and those are nothing to do with the endless jabber of politics.
January 30, 2017, 6:43 pmMatthew Slyfield:
"You can love your country without loving its politics."
Yes, but try doing so without wanting to replace those politics you don't like with different politics more to your liking.
January 30, 2017, 6:44 pmesoxlucius:
I don't understand why hollywood thinks we care about their views on politics. At what point does the mocking sink in? Oh, if Hillary just had *one more* celebrity endorsement from Beyonce she would have won! Gag me. Trump may be a clown but the left has vagina shaped hats. Who exactly am I supposed to take seriously?
January 30, 2017, 7:01 pmMercury:
Lighten up Francis.
The proper observance of rituals such as this this is the mark of an exemplary person.
So says Confucius and pretty much anyone who has articulated the values of Western Civilization over the last 3000 years.
January 30, 2017, 8:55 pmMercury:
Ah, the "Everything Is Political" wing of the libertarian movement.
Snowflakes with a slightly higher melting point I guess...
January 30, 2017, 9:19 pmmlhouse:
That is one of the biggest advantage of the free market place. A transaction in the free market, unlike every other system of political economy, does not create future obligations between the parties of the transaction. The buyer purchases, and the seller sells, the commodity at an agreed upon price were both parties value what they receive in the transaction more than what they gave up.
The political opinion of the opposite end of the transaction is meaningless, as is yours to them. Progressives believe in the politicization of everything to create that obligation to others in the transaction or potentially in the transaction. You owe them political fealty, or you will suffer in the marketplace.
January 30, 2017, 11:28 pmjohnmoore:
It is the left that is doing this, not the right. I just cancelled my Lyft account because they took a big stand on the temporary via ban, which has nothing to do with their business. If I could find an alternative to Google, I would drop them for the same reason. Ditto, Apple.
For the hard left, everything has always been political. The wave of politicization we have seen lately just demonstrates that the hard left has replaced the more moderate left.
January 31, 2017, 2:49 amWilliam Woody:
My escape is the local classical music station. Apparently it's the only place on the dial I can turn to in my car that doesn't have politics interjected into it. (Even the rock music stations break with "news" which amounts to more political nonsense.)
January 31, 2017, 6:49 amTodd Ramsey:
Not to mention my Facebook feed.
January 31, 2017, 7:05 amrxc:
I go sailing, on my own boat. No one to harrangue me. The only PC issues I have to deal with involve the holding tank, which is not really a problem any more. You are out in the desert, but here on the east coast we have something called the Intracoastal Waterway, 1000 miles from Miami to Norfolk (and extensions beyond the ends). Just a large ditch filled with water, passing thru nice towns with lots of good food. Peaceful anchorages to watch the sunsets, and even some educational facilities, if you really feel the need. Take your own music to listen to as you navigate at 6 kts.
The bridge tenders can be very charming, and there are relatively few jerks on the water. They can almost always be ignored.
January 31, 2017, 8:04 amMatthew Slyfield:
Not everything, but certainly there is absolutely nothing apolitical about a national anthem and its use in ceremonies.
January 31, 2017, 3:38 pmMatthew Slyfield:
Nothing about that goes against certain such rituals being inherently political.
January 31, 2017, 3:39 pmRay:
I dropped my NBA League Pass subscription after they decided to nose in on politics in Charlotte. It didn't help that my team has been mired in a quagmire of ineptitude for the last decade either...
The "Cloud" people who run these sports leagues and the networks which broadcast them all just live in a bubble and are completely out of touch with main stream America.
January 31, 2017, 7:41 pmJust Thinking:
Hopefully, there are some unifying aspects of our country that transcend politics. In my upbringing, Republicans and Democrats shared the same classroom and were equally enthusiastic about the national anthem, the right to vote, service to country, the protection of individual liberties, and charity. (Perhaps the last item was actually private charity, but we all believed in charity.) We live in a much poorer society if such attributes are now political.
January 31, 2017, 10:30 pmJ_W_W:
The political middle ground has been burnt to a crisp and the earth salted so it will never grow again.
January 31, 2017, 10:34 pmJ_W_W:
Use DuckDuckGo for all your searches. They don't track everything and work as good or better than Google. I switched when googles lefty bias became inescapable. Oh and their number of searches per day has been waaaayyy up lately.
January 31, 2017, 10:37 pmano333:
'And God forbid one tunes into a music or movie awards show and expects to, naively, see non-political content about music and movies. You can't pay me enough to watch the Oscars any more."
I'm surprised you could watch them at all even without the political content. At least the political stuff is something that actually impacts normal people. Anyway, I think it is great that folks are using their prime-time exposure to decry the current administration.
February 1, 2017, 6:13 amjohnmoore:
That works for searches. Then there's mapping, email, calendar. And, I sell and app on Android, so I am dependent on google for that no matter what else. And, it means I need to use Android devices - another Google dependency.
I am starting to think that anti-trust action should be taken against Google and some of the others, because they are essentially monopolies, and their creation of walled garden ecosystems is meant to make it hard to leave. Apple is in the same category.
February 1, 2017, 9:15 amCC:
One fallout from politics completely taking over the news, is that one no longer can find out anything about what is going on in the world. Every news show all the time is outrage about something.
February 1, 2017, 9:49 amIt baffles me how ESPN and hollywood seem to believe that all of their customers are hard left. Do they not grasp that perhaps half the country might find their views on politics wrong, abhorrent, idiotic or annoying? Do businesses really think that they only do business with people who agree with the extreme left or who voted for Hilary? Seriously, don't alienate half your customers if you want to stay in business.
J_W_W:
True. Although you do have the choice of the iOS monopoly lock in or the Android monopoly lock in ;-)
February 1, 2017, 9:53 amjohnmoore:
Yeah, except I do not even have that choice due to my business. I live on Apple computers and Android mobile devices.
February 1, 2017, 10:02 amMatthew Slyfield:
The only item in your list that was ever not political is charity.
While the there was a time when Republicans and Democrats agreed in general on protection of individual liberties, there was never a time when they were in full agreement on which liberties should be protected.
February 1, 2017, 12:57 pmJust Thinking:
It would be sad to live in a world where one thinks that the national anthem is political. I pity those who live in that world.
February 1, 2017, 2:25 pmRecovering libertarian:
I see, you're one of those tiresome libertarians.
February 1, 2017, 4:09 pm