Sinister machinations sounds about right. Jingoism and globalism sound unlikely bedfellows but when our overlords are under pressure I guess it’s any port in a storm. One benefit of a win for the matilderoos will be that Abalone will have a chance to match Hawke in pretending to be a populist.
Indeed, but I think it's more that the globalists harness the jingoism and insert the identity politics, thus infecting what is essentially harmless nationalist sentiment with the Marxist dialectic. As soon as this happens it becomes a conversation about oppressor v oppressed, as opposed to Australia v [insert team name]
As an aspect of the problem certainly. There is another aspect though which is perhaps a little off topic, and that is the role of the interpreter/expert. In many instances it seems the commentators feel a) that they are more important than the action on field and b) that they are there to bring in all sorts of extraneous and often intendedly emotive information as if they are running a peep show rather than clarifying the rules under which the game is being played, or simply identifying the players for us. Often simpler to turn them off and just watch the game, but it does highlight the role of yet another expert class interpreting to us what we are seeing, and also very often pushing the latest ‘thing’ on us. I doubt most ex sportsmen and women are cultural marxists, but they are certainly all responding to the same script.
Very good point -- commentators are a huge part of it and very often make the sport unwatchable as you allude. I agree, most are unlikely to be ideological zealots, but they hit all the talking points, on cue, all of the time. In some cases they have producers in their ears (more likely to be zealots, but again, often just reading a script from the higher ups); in some cases they've just soaked up so much of it by osmosis that it comes naturally; and I think many probably know exactly what's going on but know they have to say these things if they want to keep their jobs.
The end result is the same though, and I can't name one sport where it's not present.
Sinister machinations sounds about right. Jingoism and globalism sound unlikely bedfellows but when our overlords are under pressure I guess it’s any port in a storm. One benefit of a win for the matilderoos will be that Abalone will have a chance to match Hawke in pretending to be a populist.
Indeed, but I think it's more that the globalists harness the jingoism and insert the identity politics, thus infecting what is essentially harmless nationalist sentiment with the Marxist dialectic. As soon as this happens it becomes a conversation about oppressor v oppressed, as opposed to Australia v [insert team name]
As an aspect of the problem certainly. There is another aspect though which is perhaps a little off topic, and that is the role of the interpreter/expert. In many instances it seems the commentators feel a) that they are more important than the action on field and b) that they are there to bring in all sorts of extraneous and often intendedly emotive information as if they are running a peep show rather than clarifying the rules under which the game is being played, or simply identifying the players for us. Often simpler to turn them off and just watch the game, but it does highlight the role of yet another expert class interpreting to us what we are seeing, and also very often pushing the latest ‘thing’ on us. I doubt most ex sportsmen and women are cultural marxists, but they are certainly all responding to the same script.
Very good point -- commentators are a huge part of it and very often make the sport unwatchable as you allude. I agree, most are unlikely to be ideological zealots, but they hit all the talking points, on cue, all of the time. In some cases they have producers in their ears (more likely to be zealots, but again, often just reading a script from the higher ups); in some cases they've just soaked up so much of it by osmosis that it comes naturally; and I think many probably know exactly what's going on but know they have to say these things if they want to keep their jobs.
The end result is the same though, and I can't name one sport where it's not present.