Except she didn't tweet this. It says something about your argument that every hypothetical you come up with involves her doing something much worse than she actually did. Although yes, for the record, even if she had written that, I would have been fine with her being in the Olympics. As I said in the ban on soft drinks topic, I am in favor of freedom. That means people have the freedom to smoke marijuana or shoot up heroin, have a dozen abortions, patronize Asian prostitutes, marry people of the same sex or even their dog, own a small arsenal of firearms, patronize tranny prostitutes, drink enough disgusting soda to give themselves a heart attack, and patronize black prostitutes. Incredibly enough, this freedom even extends to saying offensive shit or holding bigoted views. Especially when it comes to an endeavor (sports) unrelated to these opinions. And for the record, her initial tweet was nowhere near the racist hypothetical Nom posted above.
So what exactly is she not free to do? They didn't arrest her. Her Twitter wasn't disabled. She was not put in a reeducation camp. Freedom of speech isn't freedom from consequence. In fact, this is exactly how freedom of speech is supposed to work: shitty speech gets punished in the marketplace of ideas. Rather than being crushed by the jackboot of the state, it's crushed by the collective weight of people who think you're being an ass.
OK, Kim. I get it. We all get it. You're in favor of freedom and the right to patronize both Asian and black prostitutes. I tend to agree she probably should not have been thrown off the team for her remark. But, I can also see how it's pretty easy to find her remark offensive and, as an ambassador of her country, it was embarrassing to her country and her country has the final say on whether she stays on the team or not. (Don't tell me Olympic athletes aren't representatives of their country. They are. Maybe they should all just be athletes and nothing else, but this is the world we live in and they are.) Can you see that? Can you at least see that some people might find that comment offensive? Give me that much.
That was the whole point of my hypothetical. I was genuinely curious about the limits of your opinion. Are you just trying not to see this very obvious point?: Olympic Athletes are spokespeople for their countries. It's a big responsibility, and once you agree to do it, you agree to the rules. If you go into a restaurant, you can't just kick off your shoes and put your feet on the table. If you're an accountant, you can't tell your boss that you want to fuck his daughter senseless. If you are the social media coordinator for Coke Zero, you will get fired if you put up a bunch of statuses about how Coke Zero is kind of a silly concept. Except she was totally allowed to support an extremely racist political party in her personal life. It's not like anybody cares what she actually thinks, they just care what she does on a worldwide forum in the time period directly leading up to her participation as an ambassador with their name on her chest. She really has nobody to blame except herself, and I see no reason why Olympians should be able to say or do whatever they want without fear of getting fired.
Anybody been watching the skinlympics over at mrskin.com? http://www.mrskin.com/skinlympics I have a new found fondness for equestrian.
This right here. Nails it on the head. Freedom of speech means you won't end up in jail or get killed. It does not mean everyone has to look at it and be like "That's cool, let's go about our business." The problem with being an Olympian is that everyone is going to attribute what the hot chick says to what you say. It's incorrect only if they remove her. If they keep her, then it lends to "Well if they didn't get rid of her they must agree, all of Greece is racist." Its fuzzy logic, but it happens. Sort of like what happened with Chik-Fil-A, owner says some shit, people boycott. Greece doesn't want to get mentally boycotted. Business move. Now the second travesty of this Olympics is not getting that Australian Hurdler girl on the main stage. I think she's ready.
You would think a crackhead, virulent racist, and ass-rapist like yourself would be in favor of the freedom to do drugs and be a bigoted cumstain. Then again, you probably wouldn't have your job as a lawyer. As I wrote above, I understand why it happened and even expected it to. That doesn't change the fact that it's fucked-up and wrong. We've already been over this. Nowadays, people believe this strange notion that every employee is a "representative" of their company. Every computer programmer at IBM is an "official spokesperson" for the company. Every cashier at Costco an "official representative". At that point, it becomes just another meaningless cliche/buzzword. And yes, cashiers at Costco and programmers at IBM can and do get fired all the time for "offensive jokes" as well. In other words, ANYONE can lose their job if something they wrote on the Internet is perceived as offensive or un-PC. And as I wrote before, the only difference between Nom and this Greek athlete in terms of racial jokes is that Nom hides the evidence better. If your employer tied your real name to "Nom Chompksy" message board postings here, would they be justified in firing you? I don't believe they should be able to do whatever they want. But when it comes to saying an un-PC joke, I have no problem with it. For me, there is a vast chasm between saying and doing. Very true. Again, I get why it happens the same way I get why Western governments impose a high income tax. It doesn't change how much of an outrage they are, though. (Okay, taxes infinitely moreso than this...)
Why do you insist on comparing Olympic athletes to people whose job description is nothing like that of an Olympic athlete? One programs computers. One represents her country in an international athletic good will event. These are not the same thing.
What's the difference, in this context? Both are considered "representatives" of their respective country/company, and both can be fired for something deemed "offensive".
This is getting ridiculous. You're being intentionally obtuse about this for the sake of being argumentative, so this will be my last reply on the topic. For one it is the fundamental and basic aspect of their occupational responsibility and for the other, it's merely a request to not be an utter and complete embarrassment. It's like comparing the White House press secretary to the guy who washes the president's dishes. Olympic athletes are there to represent their country. It is the entire reason for their existence. Without this exact purpose, the Olympics does not make the least bit of sense. Therefore, if they do it poorly, they are doing a poor job of being an Olympic athlete, which is a separate claim from being a poor athlete.
Alot of us are really good at the internet, there has to be at least rumors of who this celebrity was floating about. Its our duty to find that shit out ASAP...
Knowing how celebrity works it was probably some dipshit from one of the shows from the dolla makes me holla thread, or Matt Damon.
I could see Vince V. blowing out Hope Solo in a small dormlike bed. That would be awesome. Its good that we don't know. It's good not all the secrets get out. But that is crazy. Every 4 years, they require 100,000 condoms. No wonder everyone trains so hard to get to the olympics. Think about how long those sessions can go, all the positions, because they're so fucking physically fit.