Simone Biles lacks grit. She gave up. All this and more from guys who would end up bawling like toddlers if they had to spend even a single day committed to the physical and mental regimen an athlete like Biles spends a lifetime doing.
I'm also, well, amused isn't the right word, but noting that the same people who have been loudly yelling "AMERICA FIRST!!!!" for the last 6 years while humping flags and proclaiming their True Love for America are simply ecstatic when American athletes lose because they do not agree with the political views of those athletes.
As a clumsy, uncoordinated fat guy myself, I'd just like to say that even though I have little interest in sports, at least I respect the talents of athletes, who do things I could never do and make sacrifices I'd never be willing to make. If Simone Biles is taking a break from the showbiz meat grinder, whether temporary or permanent, then good for her. I wish her all the happiness in the world.
Absolutely true, and the denial of reality itself in favor of one’s own narcissistic view of “how the world SHOULD be” is such a key part of it. I thought about this in relation to the 1/6 testimony yesterday and Elise Stefanik’s remarks that NANCY PELOSI bears responsibility for 1/6. It’s really all variations of the same thing and comes from the same place: I could compete for an Olympic medal if I wanted to, I can say Trump won the election if that was my preferred outcome, I can blame the victims of 1/6 instead of the perpetrators if I agree with the politics of the perps and hate the victims. Facts be damned, reality be damned.
It’s like conservativism has become some kind of collective Walter Mitty fantasy, if Mitty was a racist fascist. And if Mitty believed his fantasy of how the world should work was in fact the reality.
I dunno. Conservatives’ dissing of Biles is of course bad — well, kind of disgusting — but really bothers me is the media’s sense of entitlement to a right to abuse athletes.
Biles is still the GOAT and to say she earned the right to make her call is an obscene understatement.
But query: As a profoundly defective human being, I cannot begin to hazard a guess but how common is it that people overestimate themselves? Obviously, it’s related to self-confidence (with which I have minimal experience) but how common is it that people go from that into overconfidence, delusion, etc.?
I'm no more qualified than those guys about sports, but didn't she take herself out so that a bad performance wouldn't drag down the team?
Interestingly, NPR's show The Hidden Brain a few days ago was about the phenomenon of choking. The brain can only handle so much at once. Pressure or other distractions can overload the circuits that handle the deep memory of the learned activity vs the circuits that handle current input. (Oversimplified metaphor) My amateur guess is that Biles has learned coping mechanisms for the stress of her career but just hit a wall where she couldn't any more.
My goto fantasy since last year when confronted with any anti - LGBTQ etc. bullshit involves Megan Rapinoe, the perpetrator and several balletic spin kicks upside some stupid heads.* Pretty satisfying. I'm sure I can work something up with Simone and that asshole Matt Walsh or some dickhead with three names.
* This works particularly well with Charlie Kirk's freakishly oversize noggin.(Some say it's not that his head is abnormally large- his facial features are the size of a 6 year olds so it looks that way. )
Shapiro & Kirk have made a career bawling & throwing themselves onto the pitch because the world doesn't love catering to their whims.
The Biles response is to be expected: white fans feel they are entitled to Black bodies, to be the measure of Black achievement, to be recipient & beneficiary of Black joy &Black expression, to demand these people break themselves & destroy their bodies to satisfy their thirst for entertainment.
There's a word for this, I just can't seem to remember it...
Osaka got this kind of shit from sports writers who couldn’t compose a thank you note without autocorrect. As you noted, The Donald was the epitome of the undeserved sense of accomplishment; and when he had Dr. Birx praising his phenomenal grasp of science the process reached a meta level not seen since The Sun King.
At some point Dunning-Kruger syndrome went from being a kind of background cultural problem in the US to the defining feature of American culture. I'm convinced 80% of the content of your basic local newspaper is conservatives complaining about the world. And most of those complaints take the form of people without a clue certain they know way more than they possibly could about politics and economics and history and oxygen and gravity.
And as a result we get the grotesque spectacle of clowns getting handed a microphone so they can make fun of a legend.
I'm old, and one of the main differences between reality in my youth and now is that, back then, you were not subjected to a non-stop, 24/7 barrage of -opinions-. You could go out of your way to read a few -opinion- journals like National Review or the Nation, but with no talk radio to speak of yet, no cable yak shows, no Fox news and certainly no Internet, there wasn't an entire fucking industry trying to tell you what you should think about anything and everything. Sure, Americans have always been as opinionated as they are ignorant, and barrooms resounded with all kinds of views, nutty or sane. But without the shrieking bullshit of a Sean Hannity or a Federalist web page to tell them what to think, they were at least more organic, if not actually informed.
Nowadays, being surfeited with opinions, no matter how vile, but completely devoid of talent or knowledge, is practically a job requirement. Lucky us, "opinionated asshole" is now a profession.
Ever notice how like 98% of the content that right-wing writers generate is based on something they saw on TV?
Want to write for a lefty print publication, expect to spend a month living with migrant farmworkers or on the picket line with coal miners in Alabama. Want to write for a right-wing publication, never need to leave your couch.
Simone Biles lacks grit. She gave up. All this and more from guys who would end up bawling like toddlers if they had to spend even a single day committed to the physical and mental regimen an athlete like Biles spends a lifetime doing.
I'm also, well, amused isn't the right word, but noting that the same people who have been loudly yelling "AMERICA FIRST!!!!" for the last 6 years while humping flags and proclaiming their True Love for America are simply ecstatic when American athletes lose because they do not agree with the political views of those athletes.
As a clumsy, uncoordinated fat guy myself, I'd just like to say that even though I have little interest in sports, at least I respect the talents of athletes, who do things I could never do and make sacrifices I'd never be willing to make. If Simone Biles is taking a break from the showbiz meat grinder, whether temporary or permanent, then good for her. I wish her all the happiness in the world.
Absolutely true, and the denial of reality itself in favor of one’s own narcissistic view of “how the world SHOULD be” is such a key part of it. I thought about this in relation to the 1/6 testimony yesterday and Elise Stefanik’s remarks that NANCY PELOSI bears responsibility for 1/6. It’s really all variations of the same thing and comes from the same place: I could compete for an Olympic medal if I wanted to, I can say Trump won the election if that was my preferred outcome, I can blame the victims of 1/6 instead of the perpetrators if I agree with the politics of the perps and hate the victims. Facts be damned, reality be damned.
It’s like conservativism has become some kind of collective Walter Mitty fantasy, if Mitty was a racist fascist. And if Mitty believed his fantasy of how the world should work was in fact the reality.
"conservatism these days is little more than an inflated self-opinion and a mean streak"
Nailed it.
I dunno. Conservatives’ dissing of Biles is of course bad — well, kind of disgusting — but really bothers me is the media’s sense of entitlement to a right to abuse athletes.
Biles is still the GOAT and to say she earned the right to make her call is an obscene understatement.
But query: As a profoundly defective human being, I cannot begin to hazard a guess but how common is it that people overestimate themselves? Obviously, it’s related to self-confidence (with which I have minimal experience) but how common is it that people go from that into overconfidence, delusion, etc.?
I'm no more qualified than those guys about sports, but didn't she take herself out so that a bad performance wouldn't drag down the team?
Interestingly, NPR's show The Hidden Brain a few days ago was about the phenomenon of choking. The brain can only handle so much at once. Pressure or other distractions can overload the circuits that handle the deep memory of the learned activity vs the circuits that handle current input. (Oversimplified metaphor) My amateur guess is that Biles has learned coping mechanisms for the stress of her career but just hit a wall where she couldn't any more.
What’s your stance on “Feh?”
Meh Kamph.
Nice.
My goto fantasy since last year when confronted with any anti - LGBTQ etc. bullshit involves Megan Rapinoe, the perpetrator and several balletic spin kicks upside some stupid heads.* Pretty satisfying. I'm sure I can work something up with Simone and that asshole Matt Walsh or some dickhead with three names.
* This works particularly well with Charlie Kirk's freakishly oversize noggin.(Some say it's not that his head is abnormally large- his facial features are the size of a 6 year olds so it looks that way. )
"weak people like Simone Biles"
Holy shit. As I told Twitter, Mr. Vestal Virgin here annoyed that his gladiator slave thinks she's free.
Shapiro & Kirk have made a career bawling & throwing themselves onto the pitch because the world doesn't love catering to their whims.
The Biles response is to be expected: white fans feel they are entitled to Black bodies, to be the measure of Black achievement, to be recipient & beneficiary of Black joy &Black expression, to demand these people break themselves & destroy their bodies to satisfy their thirst for entertainment.
There's a word for this, I just can't seem to remember it...
Osaka got this kind of shit from sports writers who couldn’t compose a thank you note without autocorrect. As you noted, The Donald was the epitome of the undeserved sense of accomplishment; and when he had Dr. Birx praising his phenomenal grasp of science the process reached a meta level not seen since The Sun King.
At some point Dunning-Kruger syndrome went from being a kind of background cultural problem in the US to the defining feature of American culture. I'm convinced 80% of the content of your basic local newspaper is conservatives complaining about the world. And most of those complaints take the form of people without a clue certain they know way more than they possibly could about politics and economics and history and oxygen and gravity.
And as a result we get the grotesque spectacle of clowns getting handed a microphone so they can make fun of a legend.
I'm old, and one of the main differences between reality in my youth and now is that, back then, you were not subjected to a non-stop, 24/7 barrage of -opinions-. You could go out of your way to read a few -opinion- journals like National Review or the Nation, but with no talk radio to speak of yet, no cable yak shows, no Fox news and certainly no Internet, there wasn't an entire fucking industry trying to tell you what you should think about anything and everything. Sure, Americans have always been as opinionated as they are ignorant, and barrooms resounded with all kinds of views, nutty or sane. But without the shrieking bullshit of a Sean Hannity or a Federalist web page to tell them what to think, they were at least more organic, if not actually informed.
Nowadays, being surfeited with opinions, no matter how vile, but completely devoid of talent or knowledge, is practically a job requirement. Lucky us, "opinionated asshole" is now a profession.
"Conservatism these days is little more than an inflated self-opinion and a mean streak." Quotable quote right there.
Ever notice how like 98% of the content that right-wing writers generate is based on something they saw on TV?
Want to write for a lefty print publication, expect to spend a month living with migrant farmworkers or on the picket line with coal miners in Alabama. Want to write for a right-wing publication, never need to leave your couch.
"we’re going to have to slap the meh out of their mouths"
Yep