How foolish outrage is manufactured — for instance, regarding Naomi Osaka and Kamala 'Backdoor' Harris

© 2021 Peter Free

 

01 June 2021

 

 

If the planet's oversupply of angry whiners' brains were bigger . . .

 

. . . they might be able to live in trees.

 

For example, the less significant the (moral, political or existential) point, the more the Lamestream rants about it.

 

 

Consider, for instance, Naomi Osaka's self-created situation

 

This is one of the world's many examples of one arguable dunderhead going to battle against a flock of equally airheaded dunderheads on the other side:

 

 

Naomi Osaka has surprised the tennis world by declaring days before the start of the French Open that she will not conduct her mandatory media assignments during the tournament.

 

“I’m writing this to say I’m not going to do any press during Roland Garros,” said Osaka in a statement posted to her social media accounts.

 

“I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes’ mental health and this rings true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one. We are often sat there and asked questions that we’ve been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.”

 

Osaka’s planned decision to opt out of press conferences is unprecedented and it may have the effect of generating even more attention than press conferences throughout her time in the event. Should the tours choose not to fine Osaka for each match she competes in, it could open the door for other players to do the same.

 

This season, the NBA star Kyrie Irving has been separately fined $25,000 and $35,000 for breaching media protocols.

 

“I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda,” he wrote in a statement last year. “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.” He concluded his statement: “I do not talk to pawns. My attention is worth more.”

 

Irving said that he hoped his fines would go to marginalised communities. Osaka similarly concluded by hoping that her money would be sent to a mental health charity.

 

© 2021 Tumaini Carayol, Naomi Osaka will not speak to French Open press due to mental health impact, The Guardian (27 May 2021)

 

 

Naturally, a battle between competing Assemblages of Dopes erupted

 

On one side, the Poor Dear clan.

 

On the other, the Money Gobblers crew.

 

Mostly lost in this Outrage Fray is the contractually imposed process of simply fining the miscreant and being done with the matter. No need to jabber under those circumstances.

 

 

A lick of common sense

 

These Celebrity Folk — among them, Osaka — often publicly flaunt how little resilience and durability they have.

 

Try the same, when you're raising kids under impoverished circumstances and the closest water supply is seven miles away. Osaki hits a brightly colored ball back and forth under controlled and existentially comfortable circumstances. Her stress 'ain't shit' in comparison.

 

But heck, what would a planet filled with aggressively minded sheep have left to whine about — if someone's allegedly poor (or not) character were not the issue?

 

 

Then, there's Vice President Kamala Harris

 

She inadvertently got into a tweet-storm over the most inconsequential US Memorial Day posting ever:

 

 

Enjoy the long weekend.

 

 

Under immediate pressure to conform to Political Correctness, Harris — sly political backdoor dog that she is — amended her thought to this one:

 

 

Throughout our history our service men and women have risked everything to defend our freedoms and our country.

 

As we prepare to honor them on Memorial Day, we remember their service and their sacrifice.

 

 

Notice that

 

The outrage that greeted Harris' first version of the holiday wish probably — (given the fact that only 1 percent or less of the US public serve in the Armed Forces) — came mainly from people, who zealously avoided serving the nation in uniform.

 

Second, those who did serve the US Imperium, certainly were not serving this country's true self-defense. Most of those through, of course, no fault of their own.

 

And third, proportionally more of the people who did die (or were maimed) came from backgrounds similar to 'seven miles to water' one that I described with regard to Naomi Osaki.

 

In other words, freedom of economic choice was not theirs. 'Forced slaves to the War Machine' is a more accurate description.

 

 

Yet, despite all this

 

None of the above truths appeared among resistance to the Vice President's initially too-bland Memorial Day tweet.

 

And none, among the approval directed at her second and stolidly politically correct one.

 

Curious, no?

 

 

The moral? — Manufactured outrage steers us away from substance and thinking

 

Aim your bile with brain.

 

Be one of the Few.