Like clockwork, conservatives are burning Nike products they purchased with their own hard earned money in order to protest what they view as disrespect toward their fragile symbols of American patriotism.
They’ve done it with NFL jerseys during athletes’ widespread kneeling during the national anthem and with Keurig machines after the coffee maker company pulled its ads from Sean Hannity’s show over the pundit’s defense of now-disgraced former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Now they’re upset that Nike stood behind Colin Kaepernick, the pioneer of those protests. Kaepernick has been a Nike athlete for years, but Nike released an ad this week alluding to his protests and subsequent demonization.
Never mind that Nike has for years participated in a pro-military campaign to support the troops. Men’s Health highlighted this last year:
“The Salute to Service is the NFL’s annual military appreciation campaign. Nike partners with the NFL on this initiative, and all proceeds of this jersey (and the rest of the limited edition Salute to Service gear) go to organizations that help out veterans and active duty military members.”
Nope, because the company is standing by an athlete who nonviolently kneeled during the country’s special song, their products must be boycotted. Yet as flag worshippers screech, succumbing to nationalistic triggering and torching perfectly good footwear and clothing to take what they view as a ‘stand,’ they’re missing a huge opportunity to show their respect and support for veterans.
There are tens of thousands of homeless veterans sleeping on the streets of America on any given night. They are veterans of Korea, Vietnam, and the United States’ post-9/11 incursions in the Middle East. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, eleven percent of homeless people in America are veterans. If the government isn’t going to take care of them, it’s likely at least some would benefit far more from a donation of Nike attire than they would from people who claim to support them torching perfectly good footwear.
Vietnam Veterans of America, for example, is a veterans charity that will come to you to pick up clothing for vets in need. Donationtown.org lists other charities that will pick up donations, advising the generous public that if they “would like to help veterans,” they can “donate clothes, shoes, furniture, or other household items,” by simply scheduling a pickup with various veterans groups
Nope, most Americans would rather burn their shoes (instead of giving them to veterans in need) and then spend more money on a new pair of shoes (instead of donating that money to veterans in need).
Further, roughly “12,700 veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation New Dawn (OND) were homeless in 2010,” according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. But raging at Nike and NFL players will certainly do more for those soldiers’ well-being than boycotting the military-industrial swamp that keeps creating so many disadvantaged vets in the first place, right?
It’s a good thing patriotic Americans have their priorities in order.
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Just because people are posting video's of themselves burning their shoes rather than giving them away, does not equal "most" Americans are doing so. Media is deceptive and narrative/trend driven. Myself, for example, I stopped buying NIKE years ago due to the sweat shops they opened all over Malaysia, Thailand etc...This Kaepernick thing they're doing is for PR. Sure the stock will fall a little bit but in the long run people will see the "swoosh", and remember their new ad's and think NIKE really cares. None of these multinational companies care about anything more than sales/profits. Thinking people know this but their target audience are not thinking people.
#freeross
All the virtue signalling value of donating to the homeless is exhausted. There's no attention to be had that way. Upload footage of your indignant burning of your own property though, and there's some attention on offer.
It's like those kids cutting off their fingers (and other things) when Trump got in.
You need to be more and more extreme to get any of that finite attention.
These are people with all the depth and wisdom of a school shooter; painfully aware of their terminal relevance deficiency.
this guy gets "it"
great & impressive
Hi careywedler, this writing indeed an untold story about NIKE. I had no idea what nike is doing over the years...
A fruity bunch to say the least. They never give an inkling of thought that maybe some of these football players had grandparentds and great grandparents who fought in Wars for America and died and many got maimed only to go back and they still could not vote or drink from the same water fountain.
They should think about stuff like this. It's called having Empathy and putting yourselves in someone else's shoes. Something the Right seems to lack.
Thanks for sharing @careywelder
I know several vets that are dependent on the VA for their health care. They report inadequate care is endemic. I believe them, and further, that government has repeatedly proven to fail vets, for example when Hooverville was crushed, the formation of the Bonus Army that spawned it, the disaffection of Benedict Arnold that impelled his treachery, and so on.
The short term interests of politicians eventually prove contrary to the interests of the government they spawn, as the eventual collapse of Rome through such mechanisms as neglecting it's veterans, debasing it's currency, and catering to the parasitic class of it's civilian population - exactly as we observe is happening in America today, and has in virtually every other failed empire known to recorded history.
'Mene, mene, tekel upharsin.' Writing on the wall.
My own position is that if we are fortunate burgeoning technology will potentiate a post-imperial society that is inevitably going to ensue upon the collapse of the American empire to flourish.
That's not up to Nike, conservatives, or government. It's up to us to adopt and prepare nominal technology for that event. Your own journalism is an example of that very technology to decentralize information distribution.
Thanks!