When is the sports thing over?

[sabotabby]

Almost everyone has some reason to care about the Olympics. Whether it's the one event that they watch or some record-breaking something or that picture of the Black Power salute in 1968 or they just think some famous athlete is hot. Or they think the opening ceremony was cool/awful/loltastic. Even I am contributing by making this post. I can't avoid it, even with my Olympic content blocker (for some reason it also blocks references to disco).

Non-sports people are frequently apologetic when I bring up the fact that I feel like an alien during times like this. "I'm not interested, except...” It's like the Scumsucking Parasite Wedding, except in that case I at least had the rest of the extreme left on my side. But not so here. Even those who object to the totalitarian measures required for the Olympics to happen get misty-eyed over its ideals.

Fuck that.

Things that make me care about the Olympics:

• The purging of the poor and mentally ill from London.
• Surveillance cameras everywhere.
• The godawful branding (seriously hilarious).
• Rocket launchers on the roofs of apartment buildings.
• Banksy doing Banksy things.

Of course, even if these things were not an issue, I would still be apathetic at best, as the Olympics involves two things I could not possibly give a less of a shit about: sports and nationalism. It's not that I hate sports—I would be loathe to fall into the nerd-vs-jock dichotomy–I just don't care. It's probably how some of my fandom friends feel when I start going on about politics, or vice versa. Or any of you when I talk about home decor. (Or how the people at work feel when I start spouting off about any of my interests.) You just skim over those posts, right? Which is cool. There's always something that someone is Just. Not. Interested. In. It's fine if you're into these things but it's about as interesting as someone reading a calculus textbook out loud.

Nationalism is a different matter. I resent the implication that I'm supposed to "support Team Canada." What, by praying to the Sports God? With my tax dollars? Is this how ordinary Tim Hortons-swilling hosers felt about $1.8 million to buy "Voice of Fire" for the National Art Gallery? Borders are arbitrary and demarcated by violence. I have an opinion on nationalism and it generally involves me making angry faces.

Anyway, it is irritating me profusely that I can no longer easily read the news, or even be in a public space and avoid this stuff. You can't even sit down in a pub these days and not have the TV blasting or people talking loudly about some 'roided out athlete. It's a low-level but persistant irritation that gets worse when I think about how ordinary people's lives are shat-upon to turn London into a playground for rich fucks.

So. How much longer am I going to have to be pissy about this?

Comments

[the_axel]

On the plus side, it does provide some lovely opportunities to mock The Honourable Wife Beaters British counterpart...

[sabotabby]

Hah. How did London end up with that?

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

Really low voter turnout and BoJo being a comedy TV personality running against a lemon-faced old lefty who spurned appearing on TV comedy panel games in favour of actually running the fucking city. See also this post: http://chillercold.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/the-london-mayor-thing-the-ken-thing/

[the_axel]

I'd say it was a mix of:
1) Time to kick out Labour (Labour got hammered in elections all across the UK in 2008);
2) Suburbs vs Inner City;
3) A number of people voting for him because he would be hilarious

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

He is generally seen as a harmless comedian and so is well-liked as a "character." Sort of right-wing Stephen Fry without the talent. (Although Stephen Fry is quite right-wing - close to top brass in the Labour Party, so right-wing by my standards at least, but keeps out of politics these days as far as I'm aware.)

He is of course not a harmless comedian at all but a scary baddie. There was an excellent Guardian column about a year ago listing the evil policies he instigates or supports while hiding behind his jolly facade, but I can't remember which columnist wrote it so can't find a link...one of the younger female columnists...

not as bad as your evil wife-beater, though.

Also I am peeved because my little brother keeps insisting Boris is "so intelligent" and "really really clever" because he has a Classics degree from Oxford. Now, I know my Classics degree from Cambridge really doesn't count for much in the real world and certainly doesn't qualify me for anything whatsoever in terms of jobs or life...but SURELY I am at least qualified to say that an Oxbridge Classics degree doesn't necessarily make one remotely clever!?!?! (Sorry - it was quite an argument with wee brother so am, still sore about it! - I wish people had such respect for my intelligence, but then I am not a public schoolboy with a flop of blonde hair, sigh...)

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Oh, I stand corrected by Wikipedia: he read "literae humaniores" at Oxford. Admittedly that sounds much cleverer!

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

He did, however, stand up for people on housing benefits being driven out of London by Torydem policies capping benefit levels - a big issue around where I live as the Tories stole much of the Westminster social housing in the 80s, and are now complaining that as a result they have to pay housing benefits to working families because rents are so high (£500 a week where I live, which is much cheaper than Westminster but next to it) that no normal middle class working family can survive without housing benefits.
Ken Livingstone, the old left-wing mayor, was not very kind to poor people in London, claiming that they "choose" to live in these places so it's up to them. He was more into promoting big businesses and stuff.