Of Liberals And Redskins

One of the sites I follow is a football site. It’s unfortunate that this site has such good information because I really despise the guy who runs it. He’s paranoid. He’s a rumor monger who is prone to fantasy. He’s a lousy human being. And he’s liberal. His latest blast of liberalism involves the Washington Redskins and is worth discussing.

The guy’s name is Mike Florio and he’s a barely competent (I’m begin generous here) West Virginia lawyer who converted connections to NFL agents into a rumor site that NBC eventually bought. The guy is a real piece of work. Basically, he spends his days trying to spin everything he can into paranoid fantasies and worst case conspiracies. He’s also barely literate, which is why it’s good he’s got assistants because they’re the only ones worth reading.

Like many other liberal sports “writers” he’s also a race baiter extraordinaire. To give you an example, he “wrote” a book about a talented black quarterback and an average white quarterback who get sent back in time and discover just how racist football was in the past – writing books on racism in sports is apparently the easiest way to become a “journalist” in the sports world and you’ll find that most of them have written such a book. Moreover, every year, once the NFL season ends, Florio dives into the issue of how many black coaches there are in the league – he uses the word “minority” but he only counts blacks... Asians, pacific-islanders, women, Hispanics, Muslims need not apply. And no matter how many black coaches he finds, he always finds the number to be shockingly lacking. He’ll then typically pimp for some black coach who didn’t get enough interviews in Florio’s mind. This year, it was Lovie Smith who was fired as the Bears coach after not winning a playoff game in 7 seasons... gee, who wouldn't want to hire him?

Anyway, this year, he came up with a new way to race bait. See, it turns out that the name “Washington Redskins” is offensive to some people. Hence, the dictates of political correctness tell Florio that something must be done to eliminate this evil.

Now, before we go further, let me say this. First, I don’t doubt that the name is offensive to some people, though I know it was never meant to be offensive. . . team names are always meant to honor something. Secondly, I firmly believe those people have the right to be offended and to demand that the Redskins change their name. Third, I firmly believe that the Redskins have the right to use the name even if people are offended. Fourth, I honestly don’t care. This is the great thing about America. Everyone has a right to be upset about whatever they want, and the rest of us have the right to ignore them. If you can get enough people on your side that a business or sports team thinks it’s smart to change, then more power to you. . . just don’t use the government. Indeed, this is exactly what freedom is about: the right to insult, the right to be insulted, the right to not care, and the right to bear the consequences of your words and deeds.

Now, back to Florio. Florio is a typical liberal and this issue really highlights what is wrong with liberal thinking.

First, like all liberals, Florio pretends he’s nonpartisan even though he’s a heavy partisan hack. He’s like another idiot sports writer (and friend of Florio) Peter King, who claims to be nonpartisan and then goes on anti-gun rants, pro-Al Gore rants, pro-union rants, etc. So realize that he starts by lying about his biases.

Secondly, like liberals who seek to “raise awareness” and that garbage, Florio doesn’t actually take a stance himself. Nope. He doesn’t decide not to use the name or to stop showing the team logo. No, sir. He’s not a man of principle until he can get someone to force everyone else to stand on principle with him. It’s like a vegetarian who eats meat until everyone else is forced to give up meat as well. So much for principles.

Third, like all liberals who love to use other people to achieve their ends (see e.g. taxing the rich so liberals can spend their money and feel smug about helping people), Florio doesn’t even undertake this crusade himself. No, sir. Florio tries to force Washington Redskin quarterback Robert Griffin III to do it. Indeed, that’s what got this issue noticed. Rather than saying “the Redskins should change,” Florio takes the position that RGIII need to be advocating for the change.

How nice is that to dump this on a kid who is new to the NFL and tell him that he better be out there running your crusade for you? Indeed, what a typical liberal ass to (1) try to hijack someone else’s popularity for his own cause, and to (2) dump his own responsibilities onto another person – responsibilities Florio himself won’t even partake in until RGIII changes the world so everyone needs to do as Florio wants

Moreover, did you notice that Florio simply assumes RGIII must agree with him? Indeed, it never occurs to Florio that anyone could disagree except for the Redskins’ owner who must be a racist. Let me suggest that there is actual racism in Florio picking RGIII. RGIII is black and it very much strikes me that Florio assumes that blacks must have solidarity with this issue because political correctness and identity politics assumes groupthink among minorities. In other words, because RGIII is black, Florio assumes he must be a fellow traveler.

Fourth, when Florio started drawing heat for this, he started phrasing his articles in the third person to suggest that this wasn’t an issue he had made up, but was instead an issued which everyone was already talking about. For example, if he asked person X about this in an interview, he wouldn’t say that he asked person X, he would instead describe it as if “people” were talking about this including person X. This is the same garbage leftists have been doing for a century – pretending that groups of people are clamoring for something they aren’t.

Fifth, the Washington Redskins responded by pointing out that a great many high school teams across the country use the same name and logo and that none of them have ever had a problem with it. Florio pounced on this by claiming it doesn’t matter how many people find the name non-offensive since that defense is “the equivalent of saying, ‘Well, some of my best friends are Redskins.’” See what he did there? He’s implying that if you agree with the Redskins, then you’re a racist. Further, think about this point. Florio claims that it doesn’t matter how many others aren’t bothered, so long as someone is bothered. If we take this at face value, then it’s a ludicrous position to take. All anyone needs to do is claim offense then everyone else would need to adjust. Essentially, Florio is advocating a world where we can all hold each other hostage by calling ourselves victims. This, of course, is exactly what political correctness is all about. It’s about letting tiny minority groups terrorize and demand concessions from whomever they want. It’s about letting the hypersensitive control the language and the culture.

Moreover, let me assure you that Florio’s position is disingenuous. In his world, he’s the arbiter of what is offensive and what isn’t, a right he denies the rest of us. If I contacted him tomorrow and I said that I found the name Florio offensive because it reminds me of hillbilly rapists, I can assure you he would not say, “well, Price is offended and it doesn’t matter how many people aren’t, the name needs to change.” No, he would say, “I’m not offended and I don’t believe other people will see the offense either, so I’m not changing.” But Mike, that’s like saying, “some of my best friends are Florios.” Assh*le.

Anyway, I expect this campaign will continue to go nowhere, but I thought it was worth pointing out this turd’s thinking because we see it over and over across the liberal spectrum. Liberals really are vile people who lie, distort, mislead and try to use others for their own purposes, all in the name of forcing others to “do the right thing,” a thing they don’t feel obligated to do themselves. Don’t ever believe it.