XPost: rec.sport.soccer, alt.politics.homosexuality, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   Once again, the US women’s national soccer team (USWNT) is generating   
   headlines and, as has become all too typical, the publicity has nothing to   
   do with their on-field performance. Instead, players are courting   
   controversy for a pointless refusal to sing the national anthem before   
   their World Cup matches.   
      
   Such protests have become dismally commonplace in recent years. Longtime   
   USWNT player Megan Rapinoe, for example, has been demonstrating during the   
   anthem for years, and she stated in 2019 she did not believe she would   
   ever sing it again. In 2021, those protests also reached the Olympics,   
   where several American athletes engaged in demonstrations during anthem   
   ceremonies.   
      
   Of course, all of this raises an obvious question: why even bother   
   representing a country whose anthem has come to symbolize something so   
   detestable? It should go without saying that any athlete using their   
   status as a representative of the United States to publicly bash it   
   conveys a vulgar ingratitude. Moreover, it’s disingenuous – none of these   
   women will be packing up and moving to another country anytime soon. And   
   it’s also utterly shameless, the behavior of petulant, entitled children   
   lashing out for attention.   
      
   Nevertheless, perhaps the reason such stunts have become so typical is   
   because they are so effective at garnering the attention their   
   perpetrators appear to crave. What is marketed as a kind of courageous   
   stand against the powers that be ironically results in endless adulation   
   from those very same powers. The mainstream media cheers. Politicians   
   award Presidential Medals of Freedom. Stunning and brave, it is not.   
      
   In fact, many on the USWNT seem to consider this kind of political theater   
   to be the team’s primary purpose. They don’t appear to be doing a good job   
   promoting soccer – these antics relegate discussion of the actual match   
   results to a few fleeting paragraphs at the end of much American coverage.   
   It is almost humorous to consider how little coverage of the US women’s   
   soccer team seems to care about the US, women, or soccer.   
      
   Sadly, such absurdity is not limited to this year’s World Cup. Like the   
   USWNT, most of America’s formerly respectable institutions – its leading   
   universities and businesses, the military and Hollywood – have been torn   
   from their putative missions and instead commandeered to tear down   
   America’s traditions, disparage its history, and debase its pride on the   
   global stage. For America-hating ideologues, nothing gives them more   
   pleasure than to subject the rest of us to this perverse self-   
   flagellation.   
      
   However, as illustrated by Anheuser-Busch’s debacle earlier this year,   
   most Americans don’t appreciate being the target of such obvious and   
   overwhelming disdain. So it should come as no surprise that many are   
   simply tuning the competition out altogether. According to a recent poll,   
   only 10 percent of US adults said they planned to watch the women’s World   
   Cup with any regularity.   
      
   It’s really a shame. A good women’s national team could have done a lot   
   for their country, their sport, and women’s athletics writ large.   
   Unfortunately, instead, they seem to be more interested in currying favor   
   with the ruling class. Win or lose, that will be the ultimate headline   
   coming out of their World Cup performance.   
      
   Terry Schilling is the president of the American Principles Project   
      
   https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/soccer/if-the-us-women-s-team-can-t-   
   respect-the-national-anthem-they-don-t-deserve-to-represent-america/ar-   
   AA1eufPp   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)