ETA:
Not just heading the ball but football has a concussion problem. A couple world cups ago I saw about four different players spark out and play on such that they would have been hauled ashore in rugby. Gaelic football is terrible for that too. The shoulder charges are obviously terrible.
Honestly Iâm glad our daughters hate field sports.
Eschaton
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Iâve Got The Feeling That Something Ainât Right
The Trump years have taught me that a lot of powerful people (in various power tracks) donât much believe in the fundamental importance of the consent of the governed. Democracy, I guess you could say. Sure we point at the authoritarian right, but many in the self-appointed Center see pesky voters as an impediment to what they imagine is good governance. They gaze at the militarized racism of the right and a mild redistributionist âsocial justice warriorâ left and declare them to be just the same. Both just different flavors of âpopulism,â you see, which we know is very bad indeed.
The core belief of this authoritarian centrism is concern for minority rights. Not the rights of marginalized minorities, but of the elite and powerful. The establishment of a false meritocracy is how they justify it, with legacy admissions to the most elite institutions and widespread basic nepotism the most obvious manifestations of this basic lie.
Though the whiteness of that supposed meritocratic elite might be of secondary concern - they arenât quite the gauche racists that are the MAGAs - it is an inevitable outcome, given the hereditary power structures in our country. An unwillingness to let new people into the ruling elite excludes racial and other minorities from that power structure, even if racial exclusion isnât the primary purpose.
The authoritarian center finds much more common ground with the MAGAs. The joke is they hate socialists more than they hate fascists, but really itâs more that they are friendly fascists who tolerate the racists, who ultimately donât threaten them as long as they pipe down a bit, and despise the socialists who do.
We do get the entertainment of the provisional members of the club, who mostly will never get the engraved membership card, screeching about the evils of the twitter mob coming to cancel them, not understanding that if they were ever truly going to be members of the club then the twitter mob couldnât touch them. Nobody has managed to cancel Henry Kissinger, after all.
Words like âfascistsâ are inflammatory, and inspire pedantic rebuttals, so feel free to substitute your own. I usually find such debates to be deliberate distractions.
No conclusion here, just some idle thoughts for a Tuesday, with the death of David Dinkins reminding us that the very racist Giuliani managed to maintain respectability for so long, as we are faced with the inevitable rehabilitation and promotion of many of the members of the Trump administration (but not Trump, never actually a club member).
Hell yeah.
âThe authoritarian centerâ that never defines itself as such. Thatâs white liberalism for ya. With a few token non-white and other-minority faces sprinkled in as camouflage.
Thanks, great stuff.
It must be difficult for parents to worry about TBI, CTE, or worse. Injuries in many sports can be fatal*. Still, Iâm glad to see players like Megan Rapinoe and Georgia Page inspire girls and women in field sports as they increase in popularity around the world.
Athletes are finding new ways to combat these risks associated with sports. Theyâre promoting more research, pushing for better solutions, and passing on what theyâve learned to the next generation. Hopefully more teams and leagues will improve on recommended medical protocols, regulations, and equipment - along with better healthcare for players whether theyâre active or retired. Then we might see fewer listed here because of chronic conditions or injuries from their playing days.
*Couldnât help but notice this URL contains the terrible tendency of some journalists and media outlets to describe the deceased in terms of other people. Too many stories about Margaret Varcoe referred to her as if she didnât have a name.
â Ed was the recipient of the Evans Scholarship back in 1963, while attending Northwestern University â a scholarship awarded to golf caddies â a family storyline which served as inspiration for the Danny Noonan character in Caddyshack when Brian Doyle-Murray co-wrote that iconic screenplay," the statement continued. âEd and all five Murray brothers are members of the Caddie Hall of Fame, as well â something all the boys take pride in, as this game helped shape their lives.â
41 posts were split to a new topic: RIP Diego Maradona
Lots of great discussion here. Moving it to its own topic so it doesnât crowd out any other celebrity deaths.
I loved this guy.
Sat next to him one time when I was earning a crust as an extra.
We even traded lunch - he liked my chicken mayo sarnies.
He offered me his lunch.
Fucking Dairylea cheese triangles and Toblerone.
âFather of the Indian IT industryâ, Tata Consulting Services founder F. C. Kohli passes, aged 96
Mr Faqir Chand Kohl, the founder of Indiaâs largest IT services company Tata Consulting Services and a pioneer of the nationâs IT industry, passed away last week aged 96.
F. C. Kohli, as he was known, founded Tata Consulting Services (TCS) in 1968 to provide services to other arms of the sprawling Tata empire and to other customers.
i did not realize he was still living. i recall that the protagonist of bonfire of the vanities was selling giscards, an obscure french bond named for dâestaing.
