Jason Whitlock on Drew Brees and Floyd

quote:

---

What have you thought of the coverage of Drew Brees’ comments that he’d never agree with anybody who disrespects the flag?

Whitlock: It’s sad. Brees has every right to feel that way about the flag and the national anthem. He’s not alone in feeling that way. Trust me, many black athletes and people share his sentiment. His belief in no way diminishes the cause of supporting justice for George Floyd. It’s nonsensical to argue that kneeling during the playing of the national anthem and the flying of the flag has absolutely nothing to do with the flag and the anthem. Athletes are addicted to growing a social media following. Drew Brees’ comments gave everyone an opportunity to use him as a tool to grow their following. There used to be a time when you disagreed with someone’s harmless opinion and you just rolled your eyes and moved on to more important matters. That time has disappeared. We’re all now just fodder for each other’s social media outrage and righteousness. Social media is the real pandemic killing America and freedom. Social media is going to destroy football. People will applaud football’s death/fall until the moment they realize social media mobs will destroy absolutely everything we love about America.  

---

quote:

---

What about how the sports world has reacted to the death of George Floyd?

Whitlock: I think the sports world is being as honest as it can be given our collective addiction to social media. Sports media, athletes and organizations believe Twitter and Instagram are critical to their survival and ability to reach an audience. When you can’t grow TV ratings, you get seduced into changing the way you keep score. Twitter, IG, YouTube subscribers have become the new scoreboard. Those scoreboards are heavily manipulated to reward a certain point of view. What happened to George Floyd is a heinous, criminal tragedy. There is universal agreement on that. There should be a robust discussion on what should happen in the aftermath and what more we can do to prevent tragedies like that from ever happening to anyone living in America. We’re unlikely to have that discussion. And the sports world, a traditional leader in promoting racial progress, won’t be an authentic leader in that discussion. Our collective addiction to the social-media scoreboard controlled by Silicon Valley and influenced by countries interested in destabilizing the United States through the promotion of racial disharmony has disrupted sports as a unifier. Worse, it has effectively outlawed/criminalized public diversity of thought. The risk is too great for most. Saying “all lives matter” can cost you your career. That’s un-American. It’s fascist. It speaks to the power of the social media mob. Freedom of thought and expression is at the very core of American freedom. People are being forced to live in fear of expressing what they think. Our beliefs are being crowd-sourced by algorithms concocted in Northern California and exploited by Russia and China. Twitter is a platform intended to promote outrage, not solutions or honest dialogue. We can’t have honest, robust conversations about difficult subjects because the people leading those discussions in the media, in the sports world and in the celebrity world are way too concerned about their social media following. Social media eliminated role models and replaced the concept with influencers. Influencers sell product dependent on manufacturing and sales in China. Today’s social-media-addicted influencers cannot take the risks of honest, informed, nuanced commentary, especially as it relates to race. There’s a long history of communist-run, highly-racist, non-diverse foreign powers smearing America’s melting pot as ground zero for racial bigotry. Social media is headquarters for that propaganda campaign. America is imperfect when it comes to race. However, we are light years ahead of our foreign critics. Global influencers and their wannabes can’t tell you that.  China doesn’t allow it.    

---