Just realized I've only been to one sporting event in recent years since becoming a commie and learning about all the horrific stuff Amerikkka has done (and I was really late to it so the issue of the national anthem never came up). Now that I do, there is no way in hell I can ever stand for the anthem.
If you ever sat down for the anthem, what happened? I'm conflicted over what I think might happen. On one hand, Americans see it as a personal affront if you don't participate in the civil religion. Because everyone stands, you immediately stand out and people immediately think "wtf is this guy's problem, does he not love America?"
OTOH, I believe Americans desperately avoid confrontation unless alcohol is involved. And since the anthem is at the start of the game maybe that's not a problem? Idk I'm just curious about your experiences.
And it's that I don't really want to get into it with someone, it's just I have no idea how to even begin to articulate my thoughts on all the evil shit we've done when some stranger is yelling at you.
I go to several MLB amd WNBA games every year and never stand for the anthem or god bless america. Nobody ever says anything when I don't stand at the WNBA games, I had a Cubs fan try to give me shit at a baseball game once, so I stood up, not because I was respecting the anthem, but rather to intimidate him. He sat down and shut his mouth once he saw I was half a foot taller than him and probably capable of breaking his skull with my bare hands.
He sat down and shut his mouth once he saw I was half a foot taller than him and probably capable of breaking his skull with my bare hands.
:data-laughing:
My family does this and one time some guy tried to pick a fight with my dad at a hockey game. Pops is a old hockey player and beat the ever living shit out of the guy, was a fun day at the sports ball arena till we got kicked out.
just sit and call anyone who reacts a cuck - it'll confuse them into sitting down because they won't be able to reconcile what they think are right-wing slogans with your actions
I did this in school with the pledge but I'm brown and trans - trying this in public is probably inviting trouble.
Oh definitely, I don't blame anyone for standing in this shithole country, least of all my trans and POC comrades.
From Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S Thompson: :hst-pissed:
This happened to me on the last Sunday of the regular NFL season when two slobbering drunk sportswriters from the Alexandria Gazette got me thrown out of the press box at the Robert F. Kennedy stadium in Washington. I was there as a special guest of Dave Burgin, sports editor of the Washington Star… but when Burgin tried to force a bit of dignity on the scene, they ejected him too.
We were halfway down the ramp to the parking lot before I understood what had happened. “That gin-soaked little Nazi from the Gazette got pissed off when you didn’t doff your hat for the national anthem,” Burgin explained. “He kept b!tching about you to the guy in charge of the press box, then he got that asshole who works for him all cranked up and they started talking about having you arrested.”
“Jesus creeping shit,” I muttered. “Now I know why I got out of sportswriting. Christ, I had no idea what was happening. You should have warned me.”
“I was afraid you’d run amok,” he said. “We’d have been in bad trouble. All those guys from things like the Norfolk Ledger and the Army-Navy Times. They would have stomped us like rats in a closet.”
I couldn’t understand it. “Hell, I’d have taken the goddamn hat off, if I thought it was causing trouble. I barely even remember the national anthem. Usually, I don’t even stand up.”
“I didn’t think you were going to,” he said. “I didn’t want to say anything, but I knew we were doomed.”
“But I did stand,” I said. “I figured, hell, I’m Dave’s guest—why not stand and make it easy for him? But I never even thought about my goddamn hat.”
I've been sitting since the early Bush years. Usually nothing happens other than some dirty looks, but in '06 people threw food at us and shouted "Go back to Lebanon!" I don't go to sporting events much these days, even before the pandemic, so although I expect it's gotten worse in recent years I don't have any experience of that.
Yeah I imagine the difference between how poc and :lmayo: are treated is pretty damn stark.
So what I’m getting is, if you’re a big guy you won’t get messed with. Anything else and you might get called names or dirty looks.
I was at a farmers market catching up with a friend from college and we were talking pretty loudly. We didn’t even know the anthem was playing until my girlfriend stopped us and told us we were getting dirty looks.
The big guy thing is kinda true, I think. Just further proof Americans are cowards.
It's very true. I've posted about this before but I had this friend who was on the highschool wrestling team, 6'3" and muscular. That kinda "almost fat" muscular instead of the lean kind. People gave me some shit for my antics when I was solo but if he was standing next to me they stayed silent. This was in the years immediately following 9/11.
Are you supposed to just put down your cabbages or whatever and burst into song? I would be very interested in observing this one time and then never seeing it again.
Idk we weren’t even there at the opening lmao. The southwest is weird.
Tell them you're a veteran and they should think about what they're saying.
I started hating the forced conformity back in high school for weird reasons but also because I hated a lot that the government did and refused to do the pledge or stand for the anthem. My mother got a bit weird about it but gave up because most people don't give a damn. When I worked at an amusement park as a teen we had to take our hats off or whatever when they played the national anthem when they started the day, never took my hat off, got yelled at by an oily man in a suit demanding I take my hat off because guests might get offended, took it off long enough for him to walk away and put it right back on because he had the power to fire me, I stopped showing up a few weeks later because the conditions were godawful. I tried to quit properly but they did everything possible to guilt me into staying which as a 15/16 year old was manipulative as fuck. In high school not standing for the pledge had most teachers not give a damn and only asked that I not be disruptive during it which wasn't a big deal since I wasn't making noise anyway, but I had a gym teacher that got fucking outraged that I refused to stand, tried to force me to stand, and then sent me to the principal. Principal told me that I did nothing wrong and to go back and tell her that it's within my rights to not stand and that I was not to be sent back for not standing for the pledge. She yelled at me for a while longer demanding I stand again in the future, I didn't.
i used to sleep through the pledge back in high school. luckily my teachers were mostly on the radlib to socdem spectrum and didn't give a shit
I kneel and throw up a fist at every sporting event, even the rodeo where the PA announcer remarked he was so proud he didn't see a single person kneeling immediately afterward. I'm a small androgynous whitey and I've never gotten shit.
If you aren't confident in sitting through the anthem you could start by being in the concourse for it. Buying a beer instead of standing for the flag is praxis.
I've done this the last couple events I've gone. That is to say all of them I've been old enough to buy a beer at
I've never stood in the bleachers for the anthem, cuz it's the best time to get food and drinks.
I did this once at a Spurs game. Was buying popcorn and all the hogs literally stopped what they were doing, turned around, and put their hands over their hearts when the national anthem started. In North Korea something something something...
Burglars should just bring a speaker with them to play the national anthem with. The residents won't be able to move
I usually excuse myself and go to the toilet. I try to time the most explosive part of my poop for the entire last note.
I don't go to sporting games but if I do I'm not standing and if anyone gives me shit I'm just gonna loudly say "What? I can't hear you." to anything they say.
