• I'm back on my BS 🤪@lemmy.autism.place
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    2 months ago

    Someone told me they saw people on Facebook complaining that the Olympics opening ceremony was too diverse. I was like, did they want to have an Olympics with all other countries banned?? That already exists, and it’s called national championships. Otherwise, a sports competition that includes the entire world is going to include people from the entire world. I don’t understand what they wanted…an Olympics in Paris with only White USA??

    • mojo_raisin@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I mean, they’re on FB, so ya, they probably thought something like that, if their thoughts even went beyond the words themselves.

      It’s like imagining what a lizard thinks about you, it’s easy and fun to project your intelligence on it, this is what you’re doing here. You’re projecting your intelligence and logic on others apparently without that capacity. Those FB people didn’t think about what their words meant any more than a lizard wonders about your nature.

    • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah I got a older co worker who behaves in a way that strikes me as very undiagnosed autistic of his generation. He went on a whole rant about how the Olympics should be like a family reunion where you have to mask your less socially acceptable behaviours and cannot just be yourself because you shouldn’t always be yourself around your family for the sake of overall unity…

      And yeah… I was just thinking how sad that was. Like bro. We’ve since realized how toxic that is to people and our generation is trying to undo that expectation and damage. The neurotypical flattening of self expression always was a tyranny, you just normalized it.

    • Emmie@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      It’s a bit exhausting that everyone is so focused on the people not worth mentioning all the time. Not only we drown in lots of trash from these Facebook people but then others spread it everywhere else too. I hoped it would be a positive post for a change

  • Seraph@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    If there wasn’t so many prophylactics in the Olympic Village they would be making a new diverse race of super-humans!

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      I’m glad they provide them every year though. Lots of young, fit, attractive people means lots of fucking.

      I would be curious to know how many pregnancies result from the Olympics every time anyway though. At least some of the people won’t use protection most likely.

      • SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I’d guess not a lot.

        Generally they’re a set of people used to controlling every aspect of their body and its performance, and they’re on the wrong side of a four year window if they want to go to the games again. I don’t doubt they’re getting it on, but I’d bet they’re also more proactive about birth control.

        • Tinks@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Yeah I would guess the vast majority of women competing are on birth control. No way would I let something as stupid as an ill timed period and all the hormonal crazy that comes with it potentially affect my performance at an event I’d been training 4 years for.

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Hillbillies don’t watch the Olympics.

    1. No monster trucks
    2. No bud light
    3. No tailgaters
    4. Loud cars missing
    5. Very few tough-guy sports.

    Like, sure, we need to move the fencing to a chariot race, and make jousting and full contact gladiatorial combat a thing. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

    Then we’ll get the hicks watching. Just dont call it SCA as that’s a nerd thing.

    • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      My old buddy Mike had a rebel flag painted on the front of his house, American and rebel flag flying side by side, a can of Busch Light in his hand at all times, house littered with little hand carved wood spirits, and anything hillbilly that you could imagine.

      He watched the Olympics religiously. He wouldn’t miss it for anything.

      He wasn’t racist though, he just wasn’t that bright. I mean, he was and he wasn’t. He honestly just liked the imagery I think and he was old. He had civil war stuff laying around too, both sides. Little figurines and things.

      • ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website
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        2 months ago

        Sounds like a poorly thought out attempt to show a love for history. I knew a man that was similar, not the brightest, said terms he shouldn’t have, weirdly non malicious it was just how he was raised, man was born during the depression.

  • NONE@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Here in Latin America we make fun of how many Olympic representatives from European countries are not white, but then their internal policies attack non-white people.

    • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Don’t you think if Latin American countries were more open to diversity, they could win more medals?

      • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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        2 months ago

        Lack of diversity is the last of the problems in latinamerica. They don’t have the money to invest an athletes as the first world have.

      • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I think Latin America is dealing a lot more with the societal trauma decades of being an ideological battleground of espionage and toppled governments replaced with puppet dictatorships for the interest of foreign global hegemony.

        But if all things were equal among all nations and they didn’t have to worry about decades of socioeconomic trauma, I think nations with really high populations will have a clear advantage because they have a much wider selection of potential athletes to pull from.

      • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        So, correct me if I’m wrong here, you make fun of European countries for giving anyone who lives there and has enough talent the chance to improve themselves to literally a world-class level?

        but then their internal policies attack non-white people.

        Did you like… miss this part?

        • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Their internal policies attack everyone, including me, regardless of my skin colour. I’m an immigrant too, and face multiple problems just by being the wrong nationality

          It’s too easy to blame racism for that which can be explained by overworked officials having to deal with hundreds of thousands of immigrants from every corner of the globe just trying to get ahead

            • sudneo@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              The American racial dynamics are completely different from european ones. Please don’t try to apply one to the other, it’s a bad take.

              I would say that European immigration policies are xenophobic, but it doesn’t have to do with skin color or with racism. Albanians, Romanians, balcan people in general suffered a lot of discrimination (and to some extent still do) as there were huge migratory waves in the '90s, and they are all white, just to make an example.

              • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                Albanians, Romanians, balcan people in general suffered a lot of discrimination (and to some extent still do) as there were huge migratory waves in the '90s, and they are all white

                Are you doing a semantic argument about this, or…? Sure people from the Balkans can be ‘white’, but how the fuck does that mean there’s no racism involved? Because sometimes rich white people also target white minorities? What the fuck is this take?

                The American racial dynamics are completely different from european ones.

                What? What even is this argument? We’re a global society, people move around constantly.

                I would say that European immigration policies are xenophobic, but it doesn’t have to do with skin color or with racism.

                What are these takes, honestly? It’s not racist, it’s just about their… being not white? (Or being from a different land)

                • sudneo@lemm.ee
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                  2 months ago

                  Are you doing a semantic argument

                  Yes, if you wish. The difference between xenophobia and racism. If there is no racial motivation and there are extensive demonstrations of discrimination against people of “same race” (you minimize with “sometimes”, but this is not sometimes, balcan migrations were The Migrations until 20 years ago), then what’s the point of calling it racism?

                  What? What even is this argument? We’re a global society, people move around constantly.

                  And? This has literally NOTHING to do with what I said. In Europe something like black lives matter (and the reactionary all lives matter) do not exist because the societies are different. There are different minorities, in different amount, with completely different societal issues, history etc. Reading all the world though the lens of american society just doesn’t work.

                  It’s not racist, it’s just about their… being not white? (Or being from a different land)

                  If you don’t get the difference between racism and xenophobia, consult a dictionary. They are two words with 2 different meanings. The general discrimination of “other” people has to do with protecting your wealth (or tradition, culture, etc.) and with classism.

              • supergirl@programming.dev
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                2 months ago

                I would say it partially has to do with race (in the sense of skin tone). Depending on where you are in Europe. In very “white” northern countries, just having brown skin can easily get you lumped in with all other people with brown skin, regardless of ethnicity or place of origin. Reactionaries will call you a filthy immigrant all the same, even if you’re born here. But in southern Italy, the natives are often not easily distinguishable from middle easterners or northern Africa anyways, so discrimination is mostly of national origin, language, and overall cultural identity.

                But both will discriminate against eastern Europeans.

                • sudneo@lemm.ee
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                  2 months ago

                  I think you do have a point, and I would say it also depends a lot. Even more, this shows how little it makes sense to talk about “in Europe” as if it’s a uniform thing.

                  Immigration policies are completely different and many countries have also completely different histories. Take France for example and see how their colonial past made them paradoxically more multicultural than other countries, where black people are maybe at 1/2 generations max (with all the consequences).

                  I would say that now discrimination against Eastern Europe has toned down a lot, which is…about time.

            • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              Cool so you’re saying my problems as an immigrant don’t matter

          • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            I’m an immigrant too, and face multiple problems just by being the wrong nationality

            I was a white immigrant to America for a while. I can confirm, based on what I felt and what I saw, that white immigrants have a far, far easier time of it than Asian, African or Latin immigrants. We’re “takin der jerbs”, still, but we somehow don’t make it obvious when we’re walking around and, I dunno, don’t somehow rub our job theft in the noses of the guy would who wouldn’t do it anyway, or something.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I’ll correct you, you’re wrong here.

        1. That’s such a twisted misinterpretation it tells us all about your warped mind.
        2. A lot of people compete in the Olympics for a country that isn’t where they actually get their training and opportunities. NBA players for instance, playing for their birth country.
        3. Nobody said anything about taking anything for free, but that’s most commonly practiced by the wealthiest people in each country.
  • Alk@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I understand that the Olympics is very diverse and that’s fantastic. But for people who think diversity isn’t our strength, would watching the Olympics really challenge that idea for them? In other words, would they actually think that the Olympics being diverse makes the Olympics “stronger”?

    I think this tweet is missing the fact that these people would prefer the Olympics if it wasn’t diverse, and it would be better in their eyes if it wasn’t. In their eyes, its strength doesn’t come from diversity.

    I can see someone making some dumbass argument like “oh yeah if diversity is our strength why are all the runners black?” or something like that. Racists aren’t squirming in their seats while watching the Olympics like this tweet suggests, even if I wish they were.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      Hitler was pretty fucking pissed off when Jesse Owens won gold. Racists haven’t really changed since then.

      • Alk@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        That’s a good point. Though I’d say at least part of that was nationalism. I think today’s racists are a bit more desensitized to Olympic diversity since it has been the norm for so long (which it hadn’t been back then). The people I know that think like this understand that some people are better at some things and that naturally breeds diversity, but they’ll use that as an excuse. For example they let it reinforce an “all brawn no brains” stereotype of certain ethnicities. Whereas I think Hitler wanted to believe or push the idea of complete superiority in all aspects of one race.

        But it’s not just that one example, they will find any amount of reasons and excuses to accept the current reality while also accepting their anti-diverse beliefs. And they’ll believe there is no contradiction. At least, a lot of them will.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      America became an Olympic powerhouse largely because of its diversity. People of all colors and creeds show up wearing the stars and stripes and bring home medals.

      Even during times of overt racism, diversity was a message we carried to the Olympics.

      When Hitler said it was distasteful to have black people and Jews at the Olympics, the US nearly boycotted the 1936 games. But instead we sent Jesse Owens over to win 4 gold medals.

      Interesting fact: Hitler was asked to treat all winners the same, so after Owens won the 100m Hitler stopped congratulating any winners for the rest of the Games.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      No, because we already have to have diverse skillsets just to keep the world turning and average corporations moving. If they can’t look at their own bloc and see the diversity needed, they can’t scale that scope to the world. Diversity isn’t just a strength, its a necessity.

    • nialv7@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      … Yeah especially when the medal list is dominated by countries like China and Japan.

  • thesporkeffect@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    In the same way that Woke, DEI, CRT, PC, and so on are just a drop in replacement for the n-word (and sometimes gay slurs), this is just a very stupid fearful person saying they didn’t like seeing black people on TV. There is no further analysis going on.

    They have no interest or even awareness of the skill on display. you could replace it with anything else and as long as they could complain about it with their coworkers they would barely even notice.

    • ReeferPirate@lemy.lol
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      2 months ago

      Task failed successfully. Among the first things broadcast to space was Hitler’s speech opening the '36 olympics

  • humbletightband@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    IDK I watch only the Eskimo-Indian Olympics, it’s far more interesting than the regular.

    Fencing? Phew, how about seal skinning?

  • BCX@dormi.zone
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    2 months ago

    It’s just sports lovers watching sports, don’t overthink it.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      As I said to someone else- Hitler was not happy about Jesse Owens winning gold and racists are racists.

      • DragonTypeWyvern
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        2 months ago

        Yes, they are, and unlike Germany our racists didn’t volunteer to get killed enmass on the Eastern Front. They just got old and bitter, and passed it on to their children as best they could.

        I think it’s also rather important in the context of racial history to quote Jesse Owens directly on the matter of national leaders.

        “Hitler didn’t snub me- it was [Roosevelt] who snubbed me.”

        And all the other 18 African-Americans who earned golf medals, Roosevelt did not congratulate a single one, but did offer congratulations to the white athletes.

        Of course, that context might simply have been Jesse not realizing that Hitler’s “congratulatory” wave to him, a Nazi salute, after some of his victories probably meant something far different to Jesse than it meant to Hitler, but it doesn’t change the fact that we don’t need to compare modern American racists’ Olympic reactions to Hitler’s.

        We have, and have had always had, plenty of our own to compare.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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        2 months ago

        Her opponent never claimed she was punched harder than she’d ever been punched before, so the story is a lie anyway.

        • Katana314@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          If it was a complete fabrication, it wouldn’t have made headlines across so many news outlets. “Lie” is a strong word.

          None of them specifically bring up being transgender; but a previous boxing association banned her for having too much testosterone. I am curious if that means the testosterone was either natural (meaning we can’t effectively test gender for the sport, and competing by sex is pointless) or if it was a simple case of doping, injecting it manually. Neither feels like a fun conclusion.

          EDIT: I’ll walk myself back on this a bit. Someone else pointed out to me that this other boxing association is Russian-owned. Given their track record for unsportsmanlike exclusion, I think that lends suspicion to their “testosterone test”.

          • Shapillon@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Competing by sex is pretty pointless.

            It is true that the average male human has some physical advantages on the average female human.

            Otoh the variability amongst people of the same sex is wider than that average difference. This effect is reinforced in professional sports because it tends to attract outliers.

            And then for trans athletes, most of that difference gets smoothed by a well adjusted HRT applied fpr a few years.

            • CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz
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              2 months ago

              We have divided a bunch of sports into “open class” and “women only” (some sports use “men only” and “women only”) because the difference between men and women is large enough that

              1. Women would be unable to compete at a professional level otherwise

              2. A lot of sports would be directly dangerous for women (see: contact sports without weight classes)

              Nobody argues that it’s pointless to have weight classes. How is that different from having classes based on (a proxy for) levels of testosterone?

              One of the best male 1500m runners today, Jacob Ingebritsen, beat the current women’s WR by almost 4 seconds when he was 15 years old. Women can be amazing athletes, and watching women compete at the top level is amazing. That’s why we need a class where they can compete, just like we need weight classes in many sports.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      Oh no, trans women have totally ruined Olympic women’s boxing forever. And it used to be your favorite sport too!

      Edit: By the way, I just looked up the story. At no point did she claim she was hit harder than she was ever punched before. I have no idea why you’re telling such a lie (okay, maybe I do know why).

      https://apnews.com/article/olympics-2024-boxing-gender-4b6eb881cce9c34484d30c68ad979127

      It sounds like she got the boxing equivalent of the twisties in gymnastics if anything. She certainly doesn’t suggest it is because her opponent is trans.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      Who is to say that woman isn’t a huge raging transphobe and tries to turn this into a thing to attack trans with?

      Sure seems that way.