Posted On: Saturday - August 7th 2021 8:19PM MST
In Topics:   TV, aka Gov't Media  Media Stupidity  Bread and Circuses
(Yeah, I know they wanted to re-use the old signage, but, people, we're 60% through with 2021, so, ...)
The regular Peak Stupidity reader may be SHOCKED, SHOCKED to read a title like that on top of this post. No, Steve Sailer is not guest-blogging. It's just that we are on the road and my 10 y/o boy wanted to watch swimming. It's not on. Now, this kid has watched less TV than any kid I have known, and I can see tonight from a half hour so far that this is indeed a good thing.
Between a relay race that we saw and the now-on women's basketball game, there were 2 stretches of 3-4 minutes of commercials each. iSteve commenters have hashed out the ridiculousness of the race agenda in commercials before, and for us, it has been a while (see Can't even watch Seinfeld anymore). That stupidity was again on display, just another reason I am glad we don't turn the idiot plate on at home. Before I thankfully forget this whole episode*, I'll just spit out a few thoughts:
- It is very hard to make out the race of the people in commercials most of the time. The agenda is complete race-mixing. It's also hard to tell who's with whom, but they give some hints.
- After 4 or 5 commercials with mixed-race or mostly black characters, I was amazed to see one with all White people. It was for migraine medication. Now that is some great ad placement, marketing gurus!
- Don't even ask me what these people were selling, but some 10 - 12 y/o black kid was running some race by himself while imagining some apparently famous black woman champion runner win. Really? Do boys that age look up to women as their idols? I am learning something new here on TV.
- One player on the American women's BB team is tattooed up in B&W and color on her big muscles, and she doesn't look like a woman in any way shape or form. Is she one of those trannies?
- There are people in the small audience wearing face diapers. However, when the one particular coach wanted to yell something to a player, she pulled her mask down to do that. I guess Dr. Fauci has it all worked out. They must have a plan to keep 6 feet apart later on in the hotel room.
- I just saw a promo for tomorrow. They are still insisting that this is the 2020 Olympics.
I don't know how people do it. I had a song in mind earlier today for the last post of the week, but I'll put that up next week. Thank you all for reading and commenting. I've got plenty of posts in mind already for next week.
* Well, it's still on, but I'm happier blogging, and I'll let my boy watch the 2nd half of American women(?) vs. Japanese women's basketball. That'll do it for TV in '21.
Comments:
Moderator
Monday - August 9th 2021 6:11PM MST
PS: Peter, yeah, during that one BB game, they kept on about "this woman is the only person to EVER get 5 gold medals" or whatever the record was. So what? It's women's basketball. Let her poll vault (well it won't be my pole, as I think she's the one who they said right there on TV is engaged to a woman - I can't take a kid anywhere!), run a race and do hurtles, broad jump, hurl a disc, and throw a javelin. That's Olympics.
If there is to be any team sport at all, I think Ultimate Disk (disc?) ought to be it - it does involve hurling a disc around, right? Plus, the teams will have something readily available in which to mix their weed during commercial breaks.
If there is to be any team sport at all, I think Ultimate Disk (disc?) ought to be it - it does involve hurling a disc around, right? Plus, the teams will have something readily available in which to mix their weed during commercial breaks.
Moderator
Monday - August 9th 2021 6:06PM MST
PS: Thank you for the additional advice, SafeNow. This particular kid is pretty cautious, but I did give him a talk about the rip tides and getting carried out there, even when he CAN swim well. We will be careful if I ever remember to bring the boogie board to the beach to begin with. I never thought skim boards looked like that much fun to begin with.
Ganderson, I fixed that. Was it you, or the software? I'd like to know if it was the latter, for sure.
Bill and Czar. I'm a very light user of TV as in NEVER at home. We were on a fun trip, so this was a special "treat" for my kid, which didn't pan out anyway. We did watch some swimming on youtube later. I had no idea that these guys do this fish move under the water before they come up to finish the crawl "sprint" or whatever it's called. "Freestyle" is, I assume, the name due to the fact that one can do any stroke he wants, but the crawl is the fastest. Is that correct, SafeNow?
Ganderson, I fixed that. Was it you, or the software? I'd like to know if it was the latter, for sure.
Bill and Czar. I'm a very light user of TV as in NEVER at home. We were on a fun trip, so this was a special "treat" for my kid, which didn't pan out anyway. We did watch some swimming on youtube later. I had no idea that these guys do this fish move under the water before they come up to finish the crawl "sprint" or whatever it's called. "Freestyle" is, I assume, the name due to the fact that one can do any stroke he wants, but the crawl is the fastest. Is that correct, SafeNow?
PeterIke
Monday - August 9th 2021 2:19PM MST
PS
The hagiography of athletes, especially of the female and non-white varieties, has gone to absurd extremes. In the Nike commercial linked at this tweet, they actually say the US Olympics Women's Basketball team is the "greatest sports dynasty ever" (even though an average high school boys team could whup them, and there is very little international competition).
More than that. The ad compares them favorably to... Alexander the Great. I kid you not. You know, the guy who took over basically the entire known world? Yeah, he wasn't as amazing as a bunch of dyke basketball players.
It's all so stupid.
https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1424506563469905923
The hagiography of athletes, especially of the female and non-white varieties, has gone to absurd extremes. In the Nike commercial linked at this tweet, they actually say the US Olympics Women's Basketball team is the "greatest sports dynasty ever" (even though an average high school boys team could whup them, and there is very little international competition).
More than that. The ad compares them favorably to... Alexander the Great. I kid you not. You know, the guy who took over basically the entire known world? Yeah, he wasn't as amazing as a bunch of dyke basketball players.
It's all so stupid.
https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1424506563469905923
Historic Magic Soil Czar
Monday - August 9th 2021 12:17PM MST
PS Teevee? Thanks for going there so that we don't have to.
Sportsball is over thanks to the COV-LARP and no one wants to see pampered primadonna legends in their own mind prattle on about muh oppression while seeing a beautiful place on the dime of Team USA.
Root against Chiquitastan and Traitorgov in every endeavor.
Sportsball is over thanks to the COV-LARP and no one wants to see pampered primadonna legends in their own mind prattle on about muh oppression while seeing a beautiful place on the dime of Team USA.
Root against Chiquitastan and Traitorgov in every endeavor.
Bill H
Monday - August 9th 2021 7:15AM MST
PS Re reference to NBC and the Olympics, NBC is bad at everything. Watched an Indycar race at Nashville, and they made a complete hash of the coverage. The race wasn't very good, of course, being a wreckfest, but NBC was farcial in both camerawork and commentary.
Ganderson
Monday - August 9th 2021 6:12AM MST
PS
My comment came up labeled “ Safe Now” Sorry Mr. Now!
My comment came up labeled “ Safe Now” Sorry Mr. Now!
Ganderson
Monday - August 9th 2021 6:11AM MST
PS.
Good points Mr. Now. The trend in all sports is for longer practices. When I was a HS lacrosse coach I limited my practices to 1 1/2 hours- any longer and the kids, many of them, lost focus. I was always willing to hang around after practice for kids who wanted to shoot or generally horse around, lax wise as kids, even older HS age ones don’t get enough unstructured play, IMHO.
The school where my son was the head boys’ lax coach had a athletic department policy limiting practices to an hour and a half- a good thing. I went to a big time D I practice once; the coach had a big countdown clock- one and a half hours.
I used to also tell my high school charges that, growing up in New England, they should learn how to do two things, skate and swim, swimming being the most useful. Of course, as I hockey guy I don’t really believe that, even though it’s true….
Good points Mr. Now. The trend in all sports is for longer practices. When I was a HS lacrosse coach I limited my practices to 1 1/2 hours- any longer and the kids, many of them, lost focus. I was always willing to hang around after practice for kids who wanted to shoot or generally horse around, lax wise as kids, even older HS age ones don’t get enough unstructured play, IMHO.
The school where my son was the head boys’ lax coach had a athletic department policy limiting practices to an hour and a half- a good thing. I went to a big time D I practice once; the coach had a big countdown clock- one and a half hours.
I used to also tell my high school charges that, growing up in New England, they should learn how to do two things, skate and swim, swimming being the most useful. Of course, as I hockey guy I don’t really believe that, even though it’s true….
The Alarmist
Monday - August 9th 2021 6:01AM MST
PS
Mr. SafeNow... you’re right, albeit a bit of a buzzkill. I hate it when the draggers venture away from the shorepound and I have to bail to avoid running over them.
Mr. SafeNow... you’re right, albeit a bit of a buzzkill. I hate it when the draggers venture away from the shorepound and I have to bail to avoid running over them.
SafeNow
Sunday - August 8th 2021 4:46PM MST
PS Thanks, Achmed. One last thing. You mentioned your son and the ocean. I was an ocean lifeguard. I will take the liberty of reminding you
that while spinal injuries from bodysurfing or skimboard surfing are extremely rare, when they do occur, they can be catastrophic. skim boards are actually the more dangerous, because they are moving faster, and so there is less time to get your arms out in front of you before your head plunges into the sand. Kids often take risks because they feel invulnerable. Plus it is fun to harness the power and energy of the ocean. So be careful. Sorry if I’m speaking out of turn here, but I’m not called “SafeNow” for nothing.
that while spinal injuries from bodysurfing or skimboard surfing are extremely rare, when they do occur, they can be catastrophic. skim boards are actually the more dangerous, because they are moving faster, and so there is less time to get your arms out in front of you before your head plunges into the sand. Kids often take risks because they feel invulnerable. Plus it is fun to harness the power and energy of the ocean. So be careful. Sorry if I’m speaking out of turn here, but I’m not called “SafeNow” for nothing.
Moderator
Sunday - August 8th 2021 6:28AM MST
PS: Oh, SafeNow, I meant to mention that I agree with our take on the overwhelming practice times. If your kid is meant to be an Olympian, people will figure that out. Otherwise, just enjoy the competition, but don't waste your whole youth in the pool, on the BB court, etc ...
Alarmist, it was apparently the 2nd-to-last day. Who cared?
Alarmist, it was apparently the 2nd-to-last day. Who cared?
Moderator
Sunday - August 8th 2021 6:26AM MST
PS: Thank you for writing in, SafeNow. I think I remember the short discussion recently by you and others about swimming practice time. (This was before I got tired of it, and quit reading any more iSteve posts about the Olympics. I don't at all begrudge him this stuff, as HBD was his original reason for writing, as I recall, and the whole thing, besides being a political shitshow is also an experiment in HBD.)
Anyway, in our family, what you write about is not a worry. We lean too much the other way really, not pushing him at all in sports. I don't think that's a big part of the road to his future. However, the kid has loved the water since before he can remember - especially the ocean. I also think swimming is one of the best exercises for adults of them all.
I have gone as far as taken lifesaving courses back in the Scouts days (yeah, did that mile swim, but after 1 lap doing the crawl, I switched to the elementary backstroke to finish), but now, I enjoy most swimming along the bottom. It's peaceful, and I like to see how long I can hold my breath. My wife really needs to do swimming for exercise. I think she would enjoy it.
Anyway, in our family, what you write about is not a worry. We lean too much the other way really, not pushing him at all in sports. I don't think that's a big part of the road to his future. However, the kid has loved the water since before he can remember - especially the ocean. I also think swimming is one of the best exercises for adults of them all.
I have gone as far as taken lifesaving courses back in the Scouts days (yeah, did that mile swim, but after 1 lap doing the crawl, I switched to the elementary backstroke to finish), but now, I enjoy most swimming along the bottom. It's peaceful, and I like to see how long I can hold my breath. My wife really needs to do swimming for exercise. I think she would enjoy it.
The Alarmist
Sunday - August 8th 2021 2:32AM MST
PS
They’re doing an Olympics? I didn’t notice.
They’re doing an Olympics? I didn’t notice.
SafeNow
Saturday - August 7th 2021 10:40PM MST
PS I guess your boy likes swimming, and in a few years might go out for the swim team. I recently posted this, but will repeat it. Many many years ago, when I swam competitively, swim practice was only one hour. That’s high school, and that’s college. Now, from what I hear, it’s much longer, even double practice. I know this sounds old fashioned, but I think one hour was perfect. it’s a great sport, and I got a lot out of it. But one hour achieved almost all the speed that was possible for me, and, left time for study, socializing, and a job. I think this is one way in which the old US did things smarter. I can’t prove it, but I think if parents could vote for practice length they would vote for one hour and in fact kids would too.
I believe, Mr. Moderator, that it was that old bugaboo, “operator error”