(As usual) I agree with every word. Anything, no matter how sacred, when repeated regularly becomes rote and meaningless.
Adding to the insult, "America the Beautiful" isn't our national anthem and does NOT require removing your cap or putting your hand over your heart. Not only has this become rote and meaningless, but it also involves a frosting of ignorance.
And it totally sucks that I have to use the Internet Archive to find this article. Stuff like this needs to stay up for longer.
Anyway, I don’t think it was officially played before every game until the 1930s. So if you were going back to, say, the famous Merkle’s Boner game in 1908, you wouldn’t have any fake displays of patriotism at any point in time before, during, or after the game.
Fake patriotism promoted to sell things. Promoted by billionaire owners that don’t want to pay taxes that support the soldiers they use as props. So much hypocrisy.
Glad I'm not the only one who sees this as performance, not fervor.
But I'll take it a step further. I could be mistaken, but they started playing the anthem during WWII. I understand the motivation then, sincerely. But even that practice has become muddled in some other pageantry.
(As usual) I agree with every word. Anything, no matter how sacred, when repeated regularly becomes rote and meaningless.
Adding to the insult, "America the Beautiful" isn't our national anthem and does NOT require removing your cap or putting your hand over your heart. Not only has this become rote and meaningless, but it also involves a frosting of ignorance.
It’s interesting to note that The Star Spangled Banner was apparently played before baseball games starting in 1918: https://web.archive.org/web/20180203025122/https://history.com/news/why-the-star-spangled-banner-is-played-at-sporting-events
And it totally sucks that I have to use the Internet Archive to find this article. Stuff like this needs to stay up for longer.
Anyway, I don’t think it was officially played before every game until the 1930s. So if you were going back to, say, the famous Merkle’s Boner game in 1908, you wouldn’t have any fake displays of patriotism at any point in time before, during, or after the game.
Thanks Daniel, I never saw that article, I appreciate you digging it up and linking it.
It’s becoming harder in America to find anything true that corporations haven’t debased and monetized.
Fake patriotism promoted to sell things. Promoted by billionaire owners that don’t want to pay taxes that support the soldiers they use as props. So much hypocrisy.
You're a thinker and not just a mindless idiot. I appreciate that. Great job.
Glad I'm not the only one who sees this as performance, not fervor.
But I'll take it a step further. I could be mistaken, but they started playing the anthem during WWII. I understand the motivation then, sincerely. But even that practice has become muddled in some other pageantry.