Art by Stephen McCarthy/Web Summit via Sportsfile
Israel Daramola will not pardon your interruption.
[Ed.- The country seems to be disintegrating at a remarkable pace. Every day brings a fresh deluge of horror. In Alternative Facts, Israel Daramola pauses for a second to look back and take stock of the previous week to ten days. There’s danger in retreating into a shell and letting it wash over you; it’s important to catalogue each new, impossible wrong.]
Fun fact: It’s all politics. All of what? All of it. Everything. Me, you, your mama, and your cousin too. This week, ESPN sportscaster Jemele Hill tweeted a series of thoughts that culminated in her calling Donald Trump a white supremacist. A political tweet that also happens to be fact. While it was certainly a notable event, no one really cared until ESPN made the political decision to openly chastise Jemele and assure that she has apologized for her behavior.
This action then caused those on the alt right who hate ESPN to use this for their political aim of proving that ESPN has a political bias which is code for liberal bias because people with conservative politics are never called out for being political. This then got to White House shill Sarah Huckabee Sanders who decided to publicly admonish Hill and ESPN and then call for her firing over the tweet—which is a political action and an abuse of power. If ESPN were to fire her at this point it would almost certainly be because of White House influenced pressure which means that the president would be able to get Americans fired from their job for publicly going against him—which again is political and again an abuse of power.
Jemele Hill ultimately said nothing inaccurate nor did she say anything wrong. Calling someone a white supremacist could be seen as mean and maybe unfair in certain cases but the idea that it’s so wrong someone should be fired for it or that it’s racist against white people is incredibly stupid and goofy. White Supremacist isn’t a slur, it’s a description of behavior—behavior the Cheeto king has exhibited at many points. But honestly nobody actually cares: Jemele is an example for certain people to use to prove their unreasonable points. ESPN has never been liberal. In fact, it’s gone out of its way more times than not to separate itself from liberal politics. But liberal is the label that conservative and alt right outlets use to paint themselves as punk rock rebels. The alternative to the typically and the politically correct. Which is also a political move…because everything is politics.
Jemele Hill has the right to express her feelings on her twitter which—believe it or not—is not the property of her employer, even though people seem to think it should be because you are always representing your employer even when you’re off work because your job is you and you are your job in an insanely capitalist country (also political). The “stick to sports” argument is a meaningless one because sports have never not been political; the politics are in every facet of these games from who gets to play to who owns the teams. It is all political because politics is everything—so you better fucking get used to it.
In Other News:
This is a reminder from your old friend Israel that you do deserve this president. This week Trump and the Democrats are close to making a deal on DACA after previously making a deal with the Dems to keep the government open for hurricane relief. This has prompted a bunch of feckless, weak people to wax philosophically about how Trump is our secret first independent president. First of all, you’re a fucking idiot.
Trump is neither Democrat nor Republican—he’s a white supremacist (word to Jemele). More than that, he is a businessman (a shitty one but still). He is always looking for a deal regardless of who it benefits as long as he can prop himself up as a winner. This means that maybe Trump will strike a deal for world peace or maybe he’ll sell us to China for $7. You never know—he’s a maverick!
Song Of The Week:
The Unemployment Report:
I’ve been jobless for over a month and it’s been a blessing but also I’m dangerously bored and have no direction in my life. Please hire me to do anything.
Emmy Overview:
Lol I’ll be completely honest, I forgot all about this. Who cares right?
And that’s it or whatever. Donate to Hurricane Harvey and Irma victims if you can. Everything’s gonna be fine.
