The New Rules of Engagement

The New Rules of Engagement

American Spectator - Friday September 23, 2016

by Wlady Pleszczynski

The Seattle Mariners have suspendedutility player Steve Clevenger for the remainder of the baseball season for tweets that are critical of President Obama and the Black Lives Matter hell-raisers and looters in Charlotte.

Clevenger’s tweets include such as “Black people beating whites when a thug got shot holding a gun by a black police officer” and,  “Black Lives Matter is pathetic again! Obama you are pathetic once again! Everyone should be locked behind bars like animals.”

Of course Clevenger’s employers, the Seattle Mariners, immediately defended his right of free expression, just as Colin Kaepernick’s employers, the entire sports media, and the President of the United States did for him.

Ha ha — just kidding.

After reviving from fainting dead away, Mariners GM Jerry DiPoto decided to cast Clevenger into outer darkness, issuing this statement on the matter: “While he (Clevenger) is certainly free to express himself, his tweets do not in any way represent the opinion of the Seattle Mariners. We strongly disagree with the language and tone of his comments.” DiPoto’s statement did not include, but in all honesty should have included: “And because he did not choose the progressive, politically correct side of this issue, we have fired his sorry ass.”

This latest incident should clarify, for those who haven’t caught on yet, what the new rules of engagement are for athletes: Rip the country that has made you rich and famous as well as the police who keep you safe, support the crackpot Black Lives Matter narrative, and you’re a cultural hero, the toast of the media, and saluted by the president. Tell the truth about Obama and Black Lives Matter and you’re out of a job.

For contrast, read San Francisco Forty-Niners Coach Chip Kelly’s defense of Kaepernick: “You look at what’s gone on in Tulsa and Charlotte the last two nights, it’s an issue that’s at the forefront of our country. It needs to be addressed, it needs to be taken care of. Because what’s going on is not right. So, I think, again, he is shedding light on the situation that is heinous and shouldn’t happen in this country. We all have inalienable rights as a citizen of this country. They’re being violated and that’s what I think Colin is standing up for.”

I expect Clevenger, and millions of other Americans, would agree that “what’s going on is not right.” But in today’s big media and sports worlds, there is only one allowable view of what’s not right. Clevenger stood up for the wrong view.

 

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