64Digits

Olympics in America

Posted by Ferret on Aug. 4, 2012, 4:39 p.m.

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.

35,442

It’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.

Comments

Charlie Carlo 12 years, 3 months ago

If Red Faction taught me anything, it's that that is a terrible idea.

Cesque 12 years, 3 months ago

My 2 cents (2 grosze, actually, to be patriotic):

Quote:

The Olympics somehow disgust me.

First of all, does anyone seriously believe it's about fair competition? At this point, we might just as well legalise drugs in sport, less hypocrisy and maybe we'll get augmented people to run the 100m in 5 seconds after all. Maybe it'd make sport contribute something to medical research.

Second of all… child "athletes" spending their entire lives on doing the same thing over and over again for people's amusement and self-delusions of achieving something fuelled by their coaches.

Third of all… I think the Olympics badly organised. It's just mashing every single sport into one event, sports which have nothing to do with one another, and use completely different scoring. And the winner is decided by a number of medals, so I can't even exactly tell if a certain number of medals per country is a lot or not. I'm sorry, sport which doesn't have winners and losers is just boring.

Personally, I'd prefer the Olympics if they were just about "physical" sports like running or swimming. I don't see team sports like volleyball fitting in.

Quote:

Thanks to our neighborhood public service broadcaster the BBC monopolizing all of the Olympics coverage, it's like a socialist fucking nightmare over here.

Isn't that the fault of the Olympics Comittee, though, and how broadcasting rights are handled? Over here, it's pretty much the same, only the two major public TV channels can broadcast the Olympics. Any footage. You can't even show clips on other channels.

Quote:

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".

That's not a cultural achievement anyone should be grateful for, it's really just a natural consequence of being a world superpower flooding other countries with its art and business models. 100 years ago that'd be the British Empire and in 50 years, maybe it'd be China.

Quote:

I wish there was a country of unpatriotic, self-loathing realists with socialized medicine and a lively art scene.

I'd move there. Maybe we should start one?

Let's begin by invading Slovakia, I heard them admit their military sucks.

My whole life I've seen "patriotism" as a form of bizarre secular religion resulting from misplacing feelings people used to have towards their families to a social construct on a scale of incomprehensible size whose existence is nothing else than a public consensus about it being something existent and worthy of unquestioned respect. And somehow, nobody ever analyses it or questions its existence. You'd think someone in the modern world should. But I always felt like I was the only heretic around.

It's a funny thing when you realise from the point of view of the Universe, you're just a homo sapiens occupying a certain geographic area, speaking a particular language, and being influenced by a certain culture. And that's where it ends.

Yes, I want my country to succeed economically, yes, I want its citizens to be happy and enjoy a high standard of living, yes, I believe my government should act in the interests of my country and protect its situation internationally. I thought this was patriotic enough, but "patriotism" is something entirely different according to all definitions I could find. Patriotism has nothing to do with politics. And I pretty much wish the same to all countries.

I kind of wish we lived in a world organised by cultures, Diamond Age-style.

Charlie Carlo 12 years, 3 months ago

Couldn't their startups be completely annihilated when a hurricane decides to show up? This sounds like a shitty plot for a shitty sci-fi novel.

Toast 12 years, 3 months ago

Quote:

I wish there was a country of unpatriotic, self-loathing realists with socialized medicine and a lively art scene.

I'm gonna go ahead and post this again

JuurianChi 12 years, 3 months ago

Quote:

The anti-Japanofag man we've come to know as Rez would consider going to Japan?

Well, currently it's one of the few places that isn't overrun with stupid things that as we americans dislike, unless you happen to be a japan-o-fag (wut?), because then you're probably gonna have a bad time.

MMOnologueguy 12 years, 3 months ago

I'm going to go ahead and ignore the chronology of the comments and just sayhifnlagdnmkj69t45nwe8h

Quote: 2007uppensteve

Now, interesting thing that unfortunately hasn't been covered too much. A bunch of Silicon Valley entrepreneur-types have invested in the idea of founding independent, modular, floating city states in the Pacific, which would be located roughly 30 miles off the coast of California. The purpose of these would be to create a haven for entrepreneurs interested in founding startups without being held back by things such as the immigration laws of the US: http://mashable.com/2011/08/17/peter-thiel-seasteading-institute/

Oh fuck no. These people are right-wing Libertarians, I'd be surprised if they use this as an excuse for anything other than ignoring labor laws and evading taxes.

Quote: serial kiler

Military suddenly got the ability to spy on citizens? Great. Why are you worried? Do you have something to hide? Breach of privacy? Okay, would you rather let the terrorists run free because they're under the guise of a citizen?

This is that devil's advocate thing, right? Decades before the PATRIOT Act had passed they were doing the same shit (illegally) against the civil rights and antiwar movements, and earlier still, against the socialists, anarchists, and trade unionists (it's part of the reason socialism never really took off in the US). Increased police powers are always used to suppress dissent. Not that they wouldn't just break the law anyway if they weren't granted these powers. I guess these kinds of things just make it a little easier.

Quote: steve again

Quote: me

Well I don't really think nations should exist at all so I don't really know what I can say.

I agree. I think the idea of a nation is really obsolete. I think a form of government that balances local rule (cities and counties) with loose global rule would work much better. I question how realistic that is though.

It is realistic. Realistic to expect the combined forces of the world's superpowers to crush it by force. Other than that, and the immense task of displacing state power and democratizing industry, there's no reason it shouldn't work at least as well as the present system (which isn't saying much)

Quote: murderin

This is what I usually say, too. The problem with SOPA isn't that it's a terrible idea altogether, it's that it's poorly executed. I'm supportive of protecting copyrights and digital media, and that's why I've stopped pirating.

But, but, property is theft? The major film studios are some of the largest corporations on earth and they don't need any more money than they already have?

Quote: more steve

Laws such as SOPA, NDAA need to be fought against.

And ACTA, ACTA is pretty bad too I haven't heard much on the internet about it from any Europeans. To be fair though, I don't speak European.

Cesque 12 years, 3 months ago

Someone continue this discussion, it was cool.

Charlie Carlo 12 years, 3 months ago

Radda radda America.

Radda radda Olympics.

Taizen Chisou 12 years, 3 months ago

Radda radda radda radda…. Olympics in America.

I was watching this the other day, and decided only to vote for countries with attractive competitors.

The Olympics might as well be Mr. / Mrs. World to me this way :V

JuurianChi 12 years, 3 months ago

Quote:

Someone continue this discussion, it was cool.

Grr, I haet 'merica…