By Matt Agorist
Naturally, Americans are up in arms because a bunch of folks who get paid millions of dollars to throw around a leather ball decided to kneel during the national anthem. I find this ironic for several reasons.
First off, I’d like to clarify that choosing not to watch football because someone did something you disagree with is entirely your choice and your choice alone. Just like NFL players can make the decision to kneel during the anthem, you can make the decision to change the channel. It’s called freedom, it is awesome, and I highly recommend it.
That being said, I’d like to draw attention to two points, one being the idea of a country whose leader shames others and calls for the termination of their employment for practicing their right to disagree with the government, and two, why are people so upset over a bunch of kneeling millionaires?
Donald Trump was well within his right to say whatever he wants about the NFL players, up to and including calling for the NFL to fire them. It’s called freedom, and you don’t have to like it to participate in it. But, if Trump really wanted the players to start standing up for the anthem, calling for them to be fired is not only on the verge of tyrannical, but it’s nowhere close to a solution.
Respect is earned. It is not mandated through threats or abuse of power or forced through the barrel of a gun. If there was one thing I learned in the Marine Corps it’s that good leaders are ones that lead by example. Those leaders who demanded respect without first earning it were the reason for me turning down a 5-figure tax-free reenlistment bonus to stay in.
Leaders, and I use that term loosely, who want something from you and don’t have the common decency or fortitude to first apply themselves and find a peaceful and mutually beneficial way to get it are not leading by example and deserve no respect. Sadly, in America, leaders haven’t done these things in a long time. In America, through propaganda and fear, our leaders are demanding and mandating respect—without earning it. This is the definition of tyranny.
If Donald Trump really wanted the football players to start standing during the national anthem, then he should ask them what it is they want. If the dozens of millionaires taking knees can’t articulate a rational and well thought out list of requests, then they are merely publicity hounds buying into the divide. Colin Kaepernick could do this, and he’s has taken action to try to resolve his grievances.
I’m not quite sure all these other NFL players would be such good leaders—like Kaepernick—if asked what it is they want.
If it’s police brutality they are protesting, where were most of these folks when Obama was in office? It’s not like police brutality and racist policing practices suddenly became an issue once Trump took over in 2017. Where were all these NFL players when Obama was filling prisons with black people for possessing a plant? Where were all these NFL players when Obama continued to wage the drug war which is proven to lay far more waste to the rights of those with darker skin than to those with lighter skin? Outside of just a few of them, they were nowhere to be found, that’s where.
That brings me to my second point—the folks who are angry at these football players taking knees—because it disrespects our country, our troops and our veterans. Again, these folks have every right to voice their opinion, be angry, and boycott the NFL. It’s called freedom, and it’s awesome, and I highly recommend it.
That being said, if a person taking a knee during a song is disrespectful to our troops and veterans, what, exactly, is it considered when 307,000 of those veterans die waiting for care they were promised by this country? If a person taking a knee during a song is disrespectful to those who fought for our country, what is it considered when that country looks the other way when there over 40,000 of those veterans living on the streets with no home? If taking a knee at a football game is disrespectful, what then, is it considered when Americans remain silent as a veteran kills himself or herself every 65 minutes, every single day, every single month, of every single year?
If this song and flag represent the land of the free and people kneeling down makes others angry because it is an insult to that freedom, then how does one view the NSA surveillance grid? Is a person taking a knee worse than the United States of America creating the largest spying network the world has ever seen—one that the Stasi would’ve killed for—and using it on innocent Americans?
Is a person kneeling more offensive than the TSA groping babies, cancer patients, the elderly, and the disabled, despite never stopping a terror attack? Is a knee more offensive to freedom than the United States creating, maintaining, and financing the largest prison population the world has ever seen through the enforcement of victimless crimes?
Is a rich football player kneeling really that much more offensive than the Commander in Chief making one of the largest weapons deals in the history of the US with the largest state sponsor of terror in the world, Saudi Arabia? Is a knee more offensive than calling Saudi Arabia our ally after they were exposed for financing the horrific attacks on 9/11?
Where is the outrage? Call me a traitor, call me unpatriotic, call me whatever you want, tell me to move to Somalia and eat shit and die, because—freedom baby. However, I’ll always stand against tyranny, even if that means pissing people off for telling the truth. In an empire of lies, telling the truth is a revolutionary and often hated act.
If we can agree on one thing in this sea of vitriol and disagreement, let us remember that this country was born through protest. Slavery ended because of protest. The Declaration of Independence was a protest. It was not order-following and blind compliance that created America—it was disobedience.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.
Ah Matt, nobody is comparing taking a knee to those other issues you mention, except you. Kaepernick has held exactly 3 camps. 1 last may, 1 last January, and 1 a year ago, and looking at
the event photos, they weren’t very well attended. Other than that, he
sells “know your rights” gear on the website. He’s a douchebag phony,
and few are buying into his communist bs
Also, you and that website you linked to failed to mention the massive Saudi arms purchasing during the Obama administration. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-security/obama-administration-arms-sales-offers-to-saudi-top-115-billion-report-idUSKCN11D2JQ
“”U.S. arms offers to Saudi Arabia since Obama took office in January
2009 have included everything from small arms and ammunition to tanks,
attack helicopters, air-to-ground missiles, missile defense ships, and
warships. Washington also provides maintenance and training to Saudi
security forces””
You missed every single point he made. Why is it that no one else has made these points? Are you saying they aren’t valid? They are. The government has always neglected it’s veterans. It has always proven a more horrific enemy to veterans than the enemy they were recruited to fight. Think back to the Bonus Soldiers. You know, back when the government lied to the troops so they would fight in WWI and then never gave them a bonus. But they did have MacArthur, Patton, and Eisenhower trample their protests and burn their possessions.
As for failing to mention a Saudi Arms deal; if he had mentioned every single act of treason committed by Obama, or any prez for that matter, this would have been a book. In a nutshell, you don’t even amount to a tempest in a teapot. Perhaps before you start whining about what someone else hasn’t done, show us what you have done yourself.
Kneeling millionaires are shown on TV, neglected veterans are not. You see the difference?
There is a difference in millionaires. A very few elite working folks happen to get very high wages, but they still work for a living. Most millionaires OWN for a living. It’s a big difference.
The flag is a piece of cloth, the anthem is a song, the pledge are words, that does not make your a Patriot. It is what in your heart and mind, REMEMBER sheeple: Trump dodged the draft THREE times, what kind of a Patriot is that?????
GRRRRREAT article Mr. Agorist. Well written/ said.
What is even worse is when the VA DOES give veterans attention. Their medical services are a complete fraud. Crimes ranging from criminal incompetence to out-right fraud (as they are just dumping grounds for the hated pharmaceutical death industry) and even guilty of performing experiments on unwitting veterans; there are few institutions that can beat the VA in terms of corruption and incompetence. For a veteran, the most dangerous battlefield they will ever face are the corridors of a VA hospital.
“Is a knee more offensive than calling Saudi Arabia our ally after they were exposed for financing the horrific attacks on 9/11?” ???
With the ‘follow the money’ rule, one should first ask: where are all the missing TRILLIONS OF AMERICAN MONEY, right before 9/11, and the sum is growing…
Also, “If we can agree on one thing in this sea of vitriol and disagreement, let us remember that this country was born through protest. Slavery ended because of protest. The Declaration of Independence was a protest.”=> born through protest? Where are all the ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF THIS CONTINENT, the ones who lived here, BEFORE Europeans arrived???
Great article. It sure opened my eyes a little more.
Your “veterans” of lost and losing wars must shut the F up. YOU joined, suck it up.
Oh, so just accept that we are all fucked and just submit. What a loser. To realize that it was all ate up and then to do something about it is what true men and women do. Not something you would understand. Which is why you sit at the children’s table at family gatherings.
While you just suck. people that went in are usually the most ardent supporters of ending wars. Meanwhile, little people like yourself just sit on the sidelines of everything and act as if you are somehow superior by never doing anything at all. In other words, like a typical nobody.
Who the fuck do you think you are sitting in judgement?
“Those leaders who demanded respect without first earning it were the reason for me turning down a 5-figure tax-free reenlistment bonus to stay in.” Those are the most arrogantly obnoxious types, always responsible for low morale. All the services are infested with them, as well as civilian businesses.
Isn’t it funny how the people you actually respect never have to scream at you demanding it? I can rarely restrain my laughter whenever someone (usually a cop) starts demanding I respect their authority. How I haven’t been shot yet is beyond me!
What’s the code and statute requiring respect for some clown in a magic costume, hiding behind a badge and carrying their manhood in a holster?
I forgot the number, but it’s in the “muh roads” clause. 🙂