World Cup, cry baby athletes, and poor sportsmanship

[wendybeth]

As I said before- two idiots with bad reputations trash talking and head-butting each other is hardly worth anyone here getting up in arms over. They are now considering taking away Zindane's MVP award, so it would appear the Europeans don't consider it a valid reason to physically attack someone.

[Alex]

Of course he should have laughed it off. But I also find it understandable that he didn't. I don't feel you're a heartless racist. However, you have frequently argued positions on this board not from points of fact but from points of emotion. That something is right simply because it feels that way to you. So I will say it is suprising to see you reject that the words were offensive simply because they weren't offensive to you.

And if the award is stripped it is just for PR reasons. It isn't like somehow over the last three days the head butt has somehow become less appropriate that the decision needs to be reconsidered.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Of course he should have laughed it off. But I also find it understandable that he didn't. I don't feel you're a heartless racist. However, you have frequently argued positions on this board not from points of fact but from points of emotion. That something is right simply because it feels that way to you. So I will say it is suprising to see you reject that the words were offensive simply because they weren't offensive to you.

That's me, I lead with my emotions. But I also know when something is funny and this is one of those times.

And how does a person come to the conclusion that something's not right? By how it feels to them. Everyone does it. It's not exclusive to me. Steph is offended because she thinks it's offensive, I'm not offended because I think it's not offensive. Plain and simple. People don't come to conclusions about things by analyzing it to death.

That word is ineffective period. I liken the word 'terrorist' to 'Communist' in the McCarthy era and 'witch' in Salem's heydays... It alludes to someone that people want us to be afraid of and shouldn't be.

I often have a hard time not sympathizing/empathizing with people. But in this instance, it's not deserving of either from me...

[Alex]

Well, there's where we are fundamentally different. How I feel about things is about the least important aspect in how I reach a conclusion.

That word may be ineffective to you, but you still got upset when you felt someone had implied that gays are more likely to commit arson. For you, terrorist is a word that is used in the context of 9/11 and the ensuing political battles. For Zidane it has a different context of the decades long strong between France and Alergia and an awful lot of violence.

The question isn't whether I would be offended or if you would be offended but whether there was reason for Zidane to be offended. You don't think so, so you find what happened to be unwarranted and bizarre. I do think he had reason so I find what happened to be unwarranted if understandable.

Nobody (here) is saying he was justified but I find it somewhat bizarre to say he was unjustified in being upset. And equally bizarre to equate what (reportedly) was said to a punchline from a bad Steve Martin movie.

I'm sure it is just that I lack a sense of humor that allows me to see the humor in a racial epithet and retaliatory violence.

[Not Afraid]

WOULD YOU 2 JUST GET A ROOM!

[scaeagles]

I understand various peoples from various cultures would find various things from various others offensive that I may not.

To me it isn't whether words spoken are/were offensive to anyone. It is an issue of responding to words with violence, specifically looking at this context, no in terms of responding to specific verbal threats. If someone threatens my kid and is in position to do it, I'll take action, no doubt. Someone calls me....whatever it may be....a toaster whore, perhaps....I'm not going to respond violently.

I wonder if there are people who would find it understandable that Zidane took violent action in response to ebing offended that have a hard time with military responses to miliary action. For example, with the newest kidnappings in Israel, this time of two soldiers by Hizbollah (sp?), how many would urge restraint to this violent action? Violence for violence to some is not understandable. Violence words is understandable, though?

It is not my intention to say that anyone here finds what happened acceptable. I am just thinking aloud.

[Alex]

I find both understandable. I don't find both appropriate.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

This topic reminds me of the discussions I had with friends (both on-line and off) after Columbine. Specifically, that we could empathise to a certain degree with Eric and Dylan's reactions to years of taunting. Many of my friends are considered geeks (a badge I now wear proudly) and most of us were taunted in high school. Some of us, relentlessly. In reacting to the actions of Eric and Dylan, the universal response among us was "I don't condone what they did, but I sure can understand it."

I'm not a fan of fütbol, but everything I've ever seen on TV about it suggests that it's more than just a pastime for most countries. To say passions run high is an understatement. (English Hooligans, anyone?) So when I see an incident like this, it seems pretty mundane when compared to the crap I've heard about before.

Isn't trash-talking pretty much part of every team sport? Why is this particular dust-up getting so much attention? Is it because it may have been a deciding factor in the outcome of the final game? Is it because he used the word "terrorist"?

[CoasterMatt]

Make It Like Zidane

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

Make It Like Zidane

You beat me to it! 1.1 million views. Wow, that's a lot.


Re: Columbine

What’s missing from this litany is any sense of how the culture on the ground contributed to the massacre at Columbine High School. It’s easier to crack down on nose rings than to confront a system that assigns status in proportion to gender conformity, relegating boys who can’t meet the standard to the ranks of America’s most despised minority: that legion of failed men known as "faggots." That’s what the ruling jocks called members of the Trench Coat Mafia. If they’d been out and proud, no doubt the treatment would have been even more severe; a gay student from a nearby school told one reporter he had been pelted with rocks by his peers. But at Columbine no one dared to be openly gay. So the "fag" treatment was reserved for kids like Harris and Klebold who didn’t make the macho grade.

Source