It’s hard to deny that Olympics are pretty interesting. Even if I don’t really watch them intensely, I have to admit that the idea of countries from around the world, coming together, and giving the world a chance to see all of the greatest athletes in the world, all in one place, is pretty darn cool. Countries gathering into a single city, representing their home countries as individuals, but representing humanity as a whole. Countries fade, and in its place you see people sporting for the sake of the game. Well, unless you live in America.
I don’t think I’ve really touched upon my disdain for this country here on 64Digits that much, but something that really drives me nuts is it’s pride or patriotism. Team USA, Team USA, Team fucking USA. Is that really all that is going on over in London? No. No it’s not, but for all that we see, it may as well be. Sure, I can understand that a lot of people are interested in the sports we compete best in or even just barely compete, but what about all the other sports that some of us haven’t even heard of? Sure, I can understand an interview with the American team that just lost a water polo match, but how about the fucking people that just beat them? Just because they aren’t American doesn’t mean they aren’t amazing. We rarely get to hear about the other people. Every single time, when they have nothing to show, the empty space is filled up with all these dramatic background stories of people who are competing for America; sometimes they replay them, or sometimes they just fill the space with more ads. Have you seen some of the countries these people come from?! I’m all for seeing the guy triumph out from the broncs, but god damn there are countries with people who make it out with just as many tribulations, if not more. I want to see them, know their story, hear their voices, see their faces, and fucking acknowledge their existence, not as a person from another country, but as a person.Pride should exist though, don’t get me wrong, if we are going to get that awesome interview with the Polish or Australian guy, I don’t give a shit if he or she talks about his or her love for the country they represent. Hell, they should give a shoutout or a challenge to America, let us know that we can be beaten; maybe then I’ll be on the edge of my seat. We need to see that there is pride for other things out there besides America. For us Americans, pride is shoved down our throats at an abnormally high level; it’s almost like America has compensation issues. Every single freaking commercial it’s some stupid company comparing themselves to olympians or talking about how they “help them reach their goals.â€? “Team USA,â€? it says at the bottom of the commercial, “Proud Sponsor of Team USAâ€? or (I love this one) “Official <noun> of the Olympics.â€? Even then, if they are the official something of an international event they still put an extra amount of American-esque flag patterns all around their logo and the traditional “Team USAâ€? at the bottom. Yeah, go McDonalds, way to represent America by being Olympics official choice of food, I’m sure athletes from all over the world are raving about American food by now.35,442It’s the attitude really that is the problem here. We got to be number 1, number 1, number fucking 1… when we really aren’t. Maybe we can at least look close to number 1 at the Olympics, because we sure as hell suck at everything else. Whenever I say that, someone always likes to add “but your country have the best militaryâ€? as either: an act of kindly reminding me another reason to hate this country, or because of stupidity. Frankly, a military that does more harm than good (it occasionally does good, I looked into this), and gets an unnecessarily large amount of funding from a government that can’t afford it, it is the worst organized military in the world, in my opinion.I love you, so much :(Everyone already knows about America’s poor attitude though, this is nothing new. Really the Olympics, or the way that America approaches it, is just an example of the stupidity behind this country’s attitude. So nothing really has to be said, since really it’s just part of something bigger that will probably never go away or at least until the baby boomers die. Still, I just wish I got to see something, as international as the Olympics, from a world perspective and not from a spoiled country.
"Team GB" isn't much better. Thanks to our neighborhood public service broadcaster the BBC monopolizing all of the Olympics coverage, it's like a socialist fucking nightmare over here.
It isn't as bad as it was during the Queen's Jubilee, but it's still a bit frustrating. After the opening ceremony, all we heard about was how unabashedly brilliant it was, the best Olympic opening ceremony there has ever been, etc, etc. As if any of the presenters are even allowed to give their honest, unaffiliated opinion. Simply put if they can't give a genuine response, I think they should avoid the use of that particular rhetoric.Then there was this thing about empty seats at the Olympics and how this was a major catastrophe. What kind of shit? People bought the right to use those seats, if they don't want to use them, that's their right. What's not to understand? Instead we decided to fill them with soldiers and whatever other members of the public sector we could get our hands on, the kind of thing you'd expect from an oppressive regime, as if that wasn't a hundred times worse. You must attend. You must attend. You must attend. And you must like it.It really wriggles my cashews.tl;dr, but some focus on American sports is a given in american media. Especially considering USA is huge when it comes to summer olympics, and have so many athletes competing. Covering everything would be a lot to cover, I guess?
I don't disagree with the lot of that. America is a crucible of conflicting interests though, granted it's also where interests morally ignoble and financially beneficial to the select few prevail, but it is more complex than you're giving credit. Some of us still want to see the future out, and not just the immediate one. Most Americans are undeniably misinformed and complacent, yes, but people abroad make the mistake of thinking the U.S. government acts directly at the peoples' behest. It doesn't. Our government is fucked.
Our society is getting there, but we haven't lost all our civility and we can still function day to day unlike less fortunate countries. I'd like to think making poor spending choices constitutes saying a nation's society is broken, but we haven't reached that societal standard internationally as an entire race just yet. I think you'll notice there are a lot of broken societies by your own standards if you look at what most first world countries are spending their money on. Oh, healthcare? Damn, got me there. As for that last part, I didn't have the power to do anything. I don't vote on the budget. I live in a republic. Anyhow, I hope I didn't come off rude. I guess I'm still kinda proud of my country despite everything you're saying being largely true.Managing the United States of America is basically like herding 300 million sheep into a ring of fire through which can only be seen the pitch black darkness of the unknown, except the only tools at your disposal are a nuclear warhead and an obese, lame, blind sheepdog which does nothing but attempt to hump the shit out of the sheep and occasionally fetch sticks.
or something297 million cats and 3 million cat salesmen.
I'm not really interested in the Olympics other than inconsequential trivia, like how Palestine has an Olympic team. Will the Americans refuse to recognize them if they're matched together somehow? And Wikipedia says North Korea's in 9th place! HA! I do remember reading something about how the government did a shitty job overpaying for a private security company only to have nobody show up, but I guess that's to be expected with the neoliberal regime in the UK these days (and every day since May 4th, 1979). Bleh. Uhh, so, national pride then? Well I don't really think nations should exist at all so I don't really know what I can say. Patriotism is the last refuge of tyrants? Or was it scoundrels? I forget how the quote goes. Hmm. I guess I'm all for self-determination in most cases, so anti-colonialist nationalism and third-world nationalism (like Ho Chi Minh (by which I don't mean the fascist authoritarianism, I just mean the resistance against the Americans and French)) I can get behind, but that's not what we're talking about. Just how many fucks do Americans give about the Olympics? Are people going to shit themselves if China leaves with two more medals than we do? And really, who gives a shit about some people running up and down a track when, holy shit, yesterday Kofi Annan quit as the UN special envoy guy for Syria and the government took out the last rebel strongholds in Damascus?You can say America sucks all you want, but remember that it's the rest of the countries in this world that made what it is today. We have people from every country living as "Americans".