Watching the Olympics Through the Looking Glass

 

As I do every four years, I’ve spent the weekend watching countries I don’t care about play games I don’t care about.  It’s not as boring as it sounds, although it’s certainly, um, surreal.  I mean really, really weird.  I’ll try to explain with a few observations, in no particular order:

  • Ping pong is a strange sport. Sorry; table tennis.  And in a development which surprised no one at all, the gold medal game will be between China and Japan.
  • The American corporations who buy advertising time on the American TV stations to promote their products to Americans apparently believe that there are very, very few white people in America.
  • Water polo looks brutal. I wouldn’t play that sport without a life preserver, a football helmet, and SCUBA gear.  Actually, I still wouldn’t play that sport.  Those people are nuts.
  • Simone Biles may be the best athlete I’ve ever seen.
  • I’d never seen dressage before. It’s a competition in which horses sort of prance around slowly, nearly dancing, while carrying a person wearing ridiculous clothes.  This is what happens when you give white people too much spare time and way too much money.  The longer I watched, the more I thought that perhaps wealth taxes aren’t such a terrible idea…
  • The commercials are following today’s trend of featuring average-looking people, better to identify with their target audience or something. If there is a truly beautiful woman in an ad, she will be black.  And if there is somehow a truly beautiful white woman in one of these commercials, she will have a crew cut and a tattoo of a snake on her neck.
  • I thought I had played badminton before. Apparently, I have not.  Holy crap.  It’s nearly violent.  And they’re not drinking beer while playing.
  • It’s my understanding that most cities that host the Olympics lose money. Not always, but usually.  I wonder how the books look for Japan right now?  No fans at all.  Beautiful, enormous, brand-new stadiums, purpose-built for each individual sport, with 15,000 empty seats in every single one.  Restaurants and hotels are empty.  Zero ticket sales.  Can you even imagine how much money Japan is going to lose in this deal?  Oh my God.
  • Since the Russian Olympic Team was found to have widespread egregious violations of drug policies over the past several Olympics, Russia was not permitted to participate in this Olympics. So the Russian athletes are participating as the “ROC”, or Russian Olympic Committee.  They don’t have a Russian flag on their uniforms.  That way, the athletes have not doped up steroid monsters now.  Much better.  I’m sure that the athletes from the other countries are glad that the Olympic Committee resolved that issue.  Whew.
  • I can’t imagine working my entire life to have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics and then performing in front of empty, quiet stadiums. How heartbreaking.

All that adds up to a surreal viewing experience.  Watching sports I don’t know anything about, with athletes I’ve never heard of, with commercials that appear to be filmed for a foreign country, with announcers trying to build enthusiasm for games that nobody is watching in empty stadiums.  It is really weird.

I usually enjoy watching the Olympics.  I get all wrapped up in it, every time.  But watching this, I feel sort of sad.

This is a strange world we live in, my friends.

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  1. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    • #31
  2. navyjag Coolidge
    navyjag
    @navyjag

    Never watched except for basketball and sometime baseball. Now no baseball. And the Lebron James bowing to China made me tune out this year. Who is Simone  Biles?

    • #32
  3. HankRhody Freelance Philosopher Contributor
    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher
    @HankRhody

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Aren’t there like Golf Channels without all the ads?

    Without the ads you’re stuck watching golf.

    • #33
  4. Doug Kimball Thatcher
    Doug Kimball
    @DougKimball

    My dad and I have been watching all day, switching between the three NBCs to avoid the commercials.  They now have Olympic rugby!  Amazing; blood and everything! I prefer athletics with a moderate risk of injury and death.  (Bring real swords back to fencing, please.)  So, I like the winter games better.  Some of these new so called “sports” seem silly to me, like skateboarding.  Once again, California’s had undue and outsized influence.  (Ditto beach volleyball, but I like the uniforms.) Boxing used to be fun to watch, but then they tried to make the scoring “more objective” and now fights resemble eighth grade girl squabbles behind the middle school.  Archery is fun; the guys look like neighbors getting ready for bow season, practicing in the back yard.  The only things missing are the beer cooler and cigarettes.

    • #34
  5. HankRhody Freelance Philosopher Contributor
    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher
    @HankRhody

    Doug Kimball (View Comment):
    Amazing; blood and everything! I prefer athletics with a moderate risk of injury and death.

    Yeah, I was scandalized to hear they took the top hats out of dressage.

    • #35
  6. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    kedavis (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    MWD B612 "Dawg" (View Comment):

    RPD (View Comment):
    A few years ago a study came out that found that having minorities in you commercials really helped sell to that minority. They also found that this didn’t depress sales with whites any. Ever since there’s been massive increases in minority representation in commercials.

    I don’t mind minority representation in commercials.

    What does grind my gears is that every adult couple seems to be either inter-racial or homosexual. I can’t recall the last time I saw an white, male-female couple in a commercial.

    See the source image

     

    Funny! And I just saw an episode of Gutfeld on YouTube where an Italian-American guest says that Italians weren’t considered “white” until Godfather 3.

    So all we need to do to overcome our racial divide is to put black-Americans and Native-Americans in gangster films? I’ve never thought about that before. 

    • #36
  7. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Dr. Bastiat: I’d never seen dressage before. It’s a competition in which horses sort of prance around slowly, nearly dancing, while carrying a person wearing ridiculous clothes.  This is what happens when you give white people too much spare time and way too much money.  The longer I watched, the more I thought that perhaps wealth taxes aren’t such a terrible idea…

    For my money, Chinese rich people are even more obscene and foolish.

    Secondly, I understand that in some cases, wealth taxes would probably be a good idea. However, I have zero confidence that the state could distinguish between foolish rich people and those that create wealth and advance technology. 

    • #37
  8. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: I’d never seen dressage before. It’s a competition in which horses sort of prance around slowly, nearly dancing, while carrying a person wearing ridiculous clothes. This is what happens when you give white people too much spare time and way too much money. The longer I watched, the more I thought that perhaps wealth taxes aren’t such a terrible idea…

    For my money, Chinese rich people are even more obscene and foolish.

    Secondly, I understand that in some cases, wealth taxes would probably be a good idea. However, I have zero confidence that the state could distinguish between foolish rich people and those that create wealth and advance technology.

    Do you mean tax assets that were already taxed when they were income?

    • #38
  9. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Jimmy Carter (View Comment):

    I quit watching some years ago. All the dumbass “human interest“ stories are insufferable.

     

    One million likes. lol

    • #39
  10. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Dr. Bastiat: It’s my understanding that most cities that host the Olympics lose money. Not always, but usually. 

    I always think about this. Too many of these countries have no business wasting this money. Then throw in the corruption.

    • #40
  11. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    I don’t know what to do about it, but it seems like minor sports don’t get regulated and promoted like they should.

    • #41
  12. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    Haven’t watch any of it. More of a winter Olympics person (Hockey/Curling/Skiing)

    • #42
  13. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    RPD (View Comment):

    I lost interest in the Olympics sometime before Jim McKay retired. It just seemed tedious.

    A few years ago a study came out that found that having minorities in you commercials really helped sell to that minority. They also found that this didn’t depress sales with whites any. Ever since there’s been massive increases in minority representation in commercials.

    “A few years ago . . .”  Was that before CRT? 

    • #43
  14. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    MWD B612 "Dawg" (View Comment):

    RPD (View Comment):
    A few years ago a study came out that found that having minorities in you commercials really helped sell to that minority. They also found that this didn’t depress sales with whites any. Ever since there’s been massive increases in minority representation in commercials.

    I don’t mind minority representation in commercials.

    What does grind my gears is that every adult couple seems to be either inter-racial or homosexual. I can’t recall the last time I saw an white, male-female couple in a commercial.

    Dogs and cats are more common than kids.  

    • #44
  15. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: I’d never seen dressage before. It’s a competition in which horses sort of prance around slowly, nearly dancing, while carrying a person wearing ridiculous clothes. This is what happens when you give white people too much spare time and way too much money. The longer I watched, the more I thought that perhaps wealth taxes aren’t such a terrible idea…

    Let’s have a little explanation of dressage, shall we? Every rider performs a “test”–a memorized sequence of commands, moves and gaits (i.e., walk, trot, canter) that are scored based on how precisely they are performed. If the test requires the horse to turn at A, then the horse must turn at A; anything else is penalized. If you have to canter a 20 meter circle, then it must be precisely 20 meters and it must be a circle, not an egg or an oval. Above all, dressage must look effortless. The leg and core strength of dressage riders is tremendous, and the best dressage horses are also incredibly strong. Try getting a 1200-pound flight animal with a mind of his own to do something very physical and very precise on demand.

    Dressage riders wear formal attire, the coat is called a shadbelly. Previously, riders wore top hats and it took a long time and some unfortunate injuries (notably Courtney King-Dye) to change the attire from top hats to helmets. There has been a tremendous amount of controversy over rude social media comments about the Dutch riders. The Dutch team always wears Orange, as in William of Orange, because history and tradition matter to the Dutch.

    Most riders don’t own the horses they ride. They are owned by investment groups, syndicates or wealthy people looking for someplace to spend their money.

    And if you are open to being inspired, watch the paradressage competition. Denmark’s Stinna Tange Kaastrup was born without legs.

    Percival (View Comment):
    Now horse jumping is another thing entirely. It is always fun watching the horse jumping, particularly if one of the horses decides at the very last second that the entire enterprise is just too silly to participate in.

    Perhaps you will be interested in watching the showjumping portion of the Olympics. One of the best American riders decided not to ride in Tokyo, so the team has a substitute member–Jessica Springsteen, as in Bruce. Now if you want to tax the Springsteens, go right ahead.

    Bruce is is involved in various projects with Obama. You have my permission to tax ’em both. 

    • #45
  16. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I don’t know what to do about it, but it seems like minor sports don’t get regulated and promoted like they should.

     

    i.e. 

     

     

     

     

     

    • #46
  17. Mountie Coolidge
    Mountie
    @Mountie

    Dr. Bastiat: I can’t imagine working my entire life to have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics and then performing in front of empty, quiet stadiums. How heartbreaking.

    It could be worse. I once worked with someone that was going to the Olympics in Track and Field (I seem to remember that it was one of the relay teams). That  got torpedoed when Carter chose not to attend because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. This was before athletes were going to multiple Olympics in track and field (Bolt got his first gold medal in 2008, his last in 2016). So his single opportunity to be an Olympiad passed him by. 

    • #47
  18. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Mountie (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: I can’t imagine working my entire life to have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics and then performing in front of empty, quiet stadiums. How heartbreaking.

    It could be worse. I once worked with someone that was going to the Olympics in Track and Field (I seem to remember that it was one of the relay teams). That got torpedoed when Carter chose not to attend because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. This was before athletes were going to multiple Olympics in track and field (Bolt got his first gold medal in 2008, his last in 2016). So his single opportunity to be an Olympiad passed him by.

    Thanks for sharing that.

    • #48
  19. Mountie Coolidge
    Mountie
    @Mountie

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: I’d never seen dressage before. It’s a competition in which horses sort of prance around slowly, nearly dancing, while carrying a person wearing ridiculous clothes. This is what happens when you give white people too much spare time and way too much money. The longer I watched, the more I thought that perhaps wealth taxes aren’t such a terrible idea…

    Let’s have a little explanation of dressage, shall we? Every rider performs a “test”–a memorized sequence of commands, moves and gaits (i.e., walk, trot, canter) that are scored based on how precisely they are performed. If the test requires the horse to turn at A, then the horse must turn at A; anything else is penalized. If you have to canter a 20 meter circle, then it must be precisely 20 meters and it must be a circle, not an egg or an oval. Above all, dressage must look effortless. The leg and core strength of dressage riders is tremendous, and the best dressage horses are also incredibly strong. Try getting a 1200-pound flight animal with a mind of his own to do something very physical and very precise on demand.

    Dressage riders wear formal attire, the coat is called a shadbelly. Previously, riders wore top hats and it took a long time and some unfortunate injuries (notably Courtney King-Dye) to change the attire from top hats to helmets. There has been a tremendous amount of controversy over rude social media comments about the Dutch riders. The Dutch team always wears Orange, as in William of Orange, because history and tradition matter to the Dutch.

    Most riders don’t own the horses they ride. They are owned by investment groups, syndicates or wealthy people looking for someplace to spend their money.

    And if you are open to being inspired, watch the paradressage competition. Denmark’s Stinna Tange Kaastrup was born without legs.

    Percival (View Comment):
    Now horse jumping is another thing entirely. It is always fun watching the horse jumping, particularly if one of the horses decides at the very last second that the entire enterprise is just too silly to participate in.

    Perhaps you will be interested in watching the showjumping portion of the Olympics. One of the best American riders decided not to ride in Tokyo, so the team has a substitute member–Jessica Springsteen, as in Bruce. Now if you want to tax the Springsteens, go right ahead.

    Bruce is is involved in various projects with Obama. You have my permission to tax ’em both.

    You can’t tax Bruce, he’s a regular guy that wears a cowboy hat and wears worn out boots and drives down empty winter roads in a Jeep and goes to a Chapel in the middle of the US. Aside from the fact that its all make believe he’s one of us don’t you know.

     

    https://youtu.be/L2LJpicgA2E

    • #49
  20. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Yeah, I understand.

    One of my daughter’s college teammates was Puerto Rican and made the Olympic Basketball Team for Puerto Rico.  Then last year’s Olympics was delayed a year.  They got a new coach, who didn’t like her.  So now she’s off the team, and she never g0t to play in the Olympics.

    Sports is brutal.

    • #50
  21. Bullwinkle Member
    Bullwinkle
    @Bullwinkle

    I completely lost interest in the Olympics when so many started using the games to advance their woke ideology and piss on the American flag (I’ve stopped following NBA and MLB for the same reasons). Yes, I understand its a small minority, but its present enough to strip all enjoyment I used to have. The especially sanctimonious players of the privileged USA men’s basketball and women’s soccer teams nauseate me and I hope they go down in a heaping pile of ash. 

    • #51
  22. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Dr. Bastiat: Since the Russian Olympic Team was found to have widespread egregious violations of drug policies over the past several Olympics, Russia was not permitted to participate in this Olympics. So the Russian athletes are participating as the “ROC”, or Russian Olympic Committee.  They don’t have a Russian flag on their uniforms.  That way, the athletes have not doped up steroid monsters now.  Much better.  I’m sure that the athletes from the other countries are glad that the Olympic Committee resolved that issue.  Whew.

    It was either this or a strongly worded letter . . .

    • #52
  23. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Bullwinkle (View Comment):

    I completely lost interest in the Olympics when so many started using the games to advance their woke ideology and piss on the American flag (I’ve stopped following NBA and MLB for the same reasons). Yes, I understand its a small minority, but its present enough to strip all enjoyment I used to have. The especially sanctimonious players of the privileged USA men’s basketball and women’s soccer teams nauseate me and I hope they go down in a heaping pile of ash.

    Amen.  Before my wife and I traveled to Russia, we were told to consider ourselves ambassadors of the US, and to be on our best behavior.  This was because most Russians had never met an American before, so their first impression of us was their lasting impression of our country.  These spoiled brat US athletes with their protests, and their obnoxious behvior after winning or whining after losing tells the rest of the world all they need to know about our country as a whole, and it ain’t pretty . . .

    • #53
  24. She Member
    She
    @She

    Dotorimuk (View Comment):

    The MBC coverage here in Korea on opening night was a hilarious disaster. Pictures of riots to represent Haiti, a pic of Chernobyl to represent the Ukraine, Dracula for Romania, etc.

    https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2021/07/25/entertainment/television/opening-ceremony-offensive-images-mbc/20210725165400457.html

    “The broadcaster also used the images…of pizza for Italy and salmon for Norway,  described Syria as the country that has “a civil war going on for 10 years” and the Marshall Islands as “once a nuclear test site for the United States.”

    Honestly, if more TV coverage was like that, I might watch more live events.  What a shame they had to apologize, just for trying to teach a bit culture, current events, and actual history along with the sports. LOL

    • #54
  25. Pony Convertible Inactive
    Pony Convertible
    @PonyConvertible

    Haven’t watched a second. Too little emphasis on the sport. Too much talk about the athletes’ personal life challenges,  & too much wokeism. I guess I have better things to do with my time.

    • #55
  26. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Dr. Bastiat: I’d never seen dressage before. It’s a competition in which horses sort of prance around slowly, nearly dancing, while carrying a person wearing ridiculous clothes.  This is what happens when you give white people too much spare time and way too much money.  The longer I watched, the more I thought that perhaps wealth taxes aren’t such a terrible idea…

    Didn’t Mitt Romney’s wife compete in Dressage?

    • #56
  27. Brandon Member
    Brandon
    @Brandon

    Dr. Bastiat:

    • I’d never seen dressage before. It’s a competition in which horses sort of prance around slowly, nearly dancing, while carrying a person wearing ridiculous clothes. This is what happens when you give white people too much spare time and way too much money. The longer I watched, the more I thought that perhaps wealth taxes aren’t such a terrible idea…

    An ol’ Kentucky boy’s opinion:

    You have a fundamental misunderstanding of the sport of dressage.  Dressage was initially conceived by warrior, writer, and all-around badass Xenophon in around 400 B.C. as a way of training horses for the battlefield.  That “prancing” you’re noting is the rider demonstrating that he/she can has total control over the horse as a means of transportation, a defense mechanism, and even a weapon.  Horses are taught to side pass, leg yield, and half-pass in order to avoid barriers and and bodies in combat.  Horses are taught to “snap” their hooves forward (a “Spanish Walk”) in order to crush the skulls of oncoming pikemen.  Riders wear those “ridiculous” outfits because they harken back to the last days that horses were used in military combat (essentially as tanks).  Riders conceal their cues to the horse, making them almost invisible to the casual viewer.  They do so because an obvious cue on the battlefield would give a heads up to the enemy.  Dressage is one of the few sports where women (arguably) have a natural advantage over men because of their smaller size and lower center of gravity.  It is an incredibly difficult sport that requires pure synergy between a rider and a 1200 pound tank with a mind of its own.   

     

     

    • #57
  28. Chet Ross Member
    Chet Ross
    @ChetRoss

    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) (View Comment):

    • the USA basketball team is not that good.

    They are not that good, because they think they are better than anyone else playing the sport. They could also have performed better with better coaching.

    • #58
  29. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Percival (View Comment):
    Now horse jumping is another thing entirely. It is always fun watching the horse jumping, particularly if one of the horses decides at the very last second that the entire enterprise is just too silly to participate in.

    Actually, jumping is somewhat dangerous for the horse and the rider.  Any hesitation by either can result in death or injury.  Heck, we had a lady here recently miss a jump, killing her:

    https://www.postandcourier.com/aikenstandard/sports/equestrian/rider-killed-in-accident-at-stable-view-farm/article_c9693a58-e56c-11eb-81d6-570f8526f9d0.html

    • #59
  30. James Hageman Coolidge
    James Hageman
    @JamesHageman

    I played water polo in high school. It is brutal, and exhausting. What went on under the water was painful and humiliating.

    • #60
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