November Round Up!
Everything from Undrafted this month....
Over at The Nation, Dave Zirin has a piece on the depressing reaction to Brittney’s Griner’s imprisonment in Russia. It’s worth reading in full, not just because of the Griner situation, but because of how it illustrates so many problems with our political discourse. As Zirin captures, the reaction on the right has been dismissive because they simply don’t like Griner. And on the left it has been dismissive because criticizing Russia’s drug war seems to absolve the US for its drug war, and because criticizing Vladimir Putin, at this point, is often used to justify an escalation or extension of the war in Ukraine.
The effect of this, as Zirin writes, is that Griner’s plight — which is truly tragic — gets basically ignored. But it also shows why so many political conversations are doomed and depressing.
There’s a great scene in the 2018 movie Sorry to Bother You where the hero has exposed an injustice, but is surprised that nobody seems to “give a fuck.” Then a character tells him, “We all give a fuck, but don’t know how to give it… If you get shown a problem, but don’t see a way you can have control over it, then you just decide to get used to the problem.” This single line explains so much of our politics, especially things like Brittney Griner’s situation. It’s happening so far away, and is caught up in a war, and involves so many complicating details — how could I help even if I wanted to? It feels so powerless that it’s easier to come up with reasons why it’s actually NOT tragic. Maybe because she’s un-American, or because she deserves her punishment, or because the real victims are in America’s prisons…
Whatever it is, it’s really just a way to cope with the powerlessness our current political system engenders in us. Zirin’s piece ends on a depressing note, which is fair, but I think it’s important not to see cynicism as apathy, but as a learned response to a government captured by the capitalist class.
But ANYWAY, here’s a rundown of Undrafted in November:
Do you even remember that there was a no-hitter in the World Series? It was less than a month ago, but it’s already been forgotten because of how boring combined no-hitters are.
I tried this last month and it didn’t really work, but I think this piece was better…
I’m almost rooting for the Colts to make the playoffs to “justify” the Saturday hiring, just because of how funny I think the whole thing is… but I don’t really want to watch the Colts in the playoffs.
I think we can safely say that this press conference was the most exciting thing to happen in the World Cup so far. (Has it been a “good” World Cup so far? I can never tell because soccer is so boring even when it’s exciting.)
Some thoughts on Kyrie and antisemitism…