In a 37-minute podcast oozing with red meat from the Left, The Nation's Dave Zirin actually criticized two icons of the far Left: ESPN and a union, along with the obligatory attacks on President Trump. The program also featured an interview with a social justice warrior advocating against "toxic masculinity" and an angry defense of the Seahawks' Michael Bennett.
Claiming to champion facts, but royally bludgeoning them, Zirin ripped away on ESPN and the President:
Our weekly "Set Your Ass Down" award goes to ESPN and their reprimand of Jemele Hill, a friend of the show. The facts are the facts are the facts: she was suspended for telling the truth, and as an old expression goes, you tell the truth, you shame the devil. She said Donald Trump is a white supremacist. Donald Trump said good people march with Nazi's and Donald Trump is undergoing an effort to end immigration -- but not from Eruope or Canada. It is about the whitening of America and punishes people who are not European. He's going out of his way to defend white supremacists. It's about immigration policy that punishes people for not being European. ESPN caved to that and reprimanded her.
Which is it, Dave? Suspended Hill or reprimanded her? This "fact crusader" was also miles away from truthfulness with his outrageous claims about Trump, white supremacy and immigration. Zirin's anger was only building up though:
I don't even wanna say their names because they make me sick, but all of the ex sports opinionists, who are now becoming right-wing Fox News shtick mongers, but all of them saying things like, 'whoa if I said something about Obama I woulda gotten fired, what about false equivalencies?' Let me tell you something: if you are going to have this discussion about Jemele Hill and Donald Trump and white supremacists you are not reckoning with these words: Charlottesville, Heather Heyer, Lt. Richard Collins III, the people stabbed on the train in Portland. If you are not reckoning with the reality of what's been produced by this presidency then you're not having a serious discussion. You're a bot, you're a troll, you're in it for the bucks. Give me a break.
Zirin then gave his weekly "Just Stand Up Award" to Michael Bennett, a Seattle Seahawks' football player who's protesting the national anthem. "He's under a great deal of pressure to not speak out." Zirin said "we" posted a signature ad in support of Bennett, and not surprisingly, a who's who of radical leftists signed on to it. Among them were the commie Angela Davis, Cornell West, Martina Navritilova, Sue Bird, Harry Edwards, John "Stands with Fist" Carlos and Colin Kaepernick. "Colin Kaepernick: that's a big deal," Zirin said, "because he hasn't done a lot of political things other than give away hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last six months."
Full disclosure: Zirin is assisting Bennett with the writing of a racially charged book. The Las Vegas Police Department and union were also on the receiving end of his nastiness.
Zirin accused the Las Vegas police union of escalating a feud with Bennett, who was detained by police while leaving a boxing match in Sin City last month. Zirin believes everything Bennett, who threatened to sue the police department, claimed about being brutalized by police officers, and he believes the police and the union are slime. "These are Bennett's views and are not subject to debate," said the dictatorial Zirin.
The Nation lefty strongly denounced the Las Vegas police department and union for asking the NFL to investigate Bennett and for claiming that he had been in an altercation before the police detained him. "It's manure thrown against the wall hoping something sticks and it's terribly shoddy work. Nothing is refuted by the police!" Zirin rages.
This is what can only be deemed as one holy hell of a coincidence. Police that said Bennett had been involved in an altercation earlier that evening. It's a shameful and vindictive act by a police department bruised over what came out. It's been a week since they said they were investigating and nothing else has happened since then. It's done to further muddy the water and create that right-wing echo chamber ... it's complete and utter crap.
It's unknown how a "right-wing echo chamber" comes into play here. It's also an unsolved mystery how the leftist mind operates, too.
The Zirin podcast also included a segment with Joe Ehrmann, a former Baltimore Colts' player and now a social justice warrior seeking to transform sports and teach moral development to boys. The question is what kind of morality and moral development is he pushing? Prodded by Zirin's leading question, Ehrmann makes it clear he is no Dr. James Dobson on the subject of child development:
Zirin: You've written a great deal about toxic masculinity that translates to sexism and homophobia. Can sports unteach toxic masculinty?
Ehrmann: That's a big part of what I do. You have to teach healthy masculinity and what it looks like. In order to teach that you have to name what's toxic within that culture. Every boy is placed in a man box. You learn that by an early age, 3-5, boys divided into two groups, male and female qualities, and those masculine qualities are elevated over the feminine qualities. Moral empathy and courage are seen as feminine qualities. ... We've got in this country today, we have a real crisis from the president on down, when it comes down to toxic masculinity.
Zirin asked: "What does it say when a sexual predator is elected president of the United States? Does that help or hurt what you do?" (Sure, Trump said some alarming things about women in the past, but former President Bill Clinton actually engaged in sexually deviant behavior. The subject of decadent presidents apparently post-dates Clinton.)
Ehrmann said white men have much to learn from the black social justice warriors in the NFL. "I am disappointed in the lack of support from white players. There is tremendous opportunities for white players to learn. There's Black Lives Matter and that stuff, and white men have to be educated on that. I'd want to hear what Michael Bennett has to say, and most white people can't connect to that."
Letting no venom go unused, Zirin also called Vice President Mike Pence the "devil." They call evil good and good evil.
