Good riddance

[sabotabby]

Spicy take: Don Cherry was always garbage and we're all lucky that he's 85 or he'd be PM right now. Literally the only good thing about him was that dog, and the dog died years ago.

Chipotle take: Ron MacLean is worse because the only thing worse than a racist is a racist who's also a hypocrite and an enabler. Literally the bar for white dudes in this country is milquetoast "racism is bad" and he can't even manage that unless his career's at stake.

Ghost pepper take: Men's hockey sucks anyway; women's hockey requires way more skill and is more interesting to watch.

Comments

[dewline]

Maybe with Cherry and MacLean (not sure of this happening yet) going away, we get better commentary from better people?

[sabotabby]

Maybe? I don't care all that much but I generally feel there are way too many legacy journalists and commentators keeping out newer voices.

[frenzy]

I like hockey but def seems to be fucking full of trash humans :/

[sabotabby]

Yuuuup.

[franklanguage]

But THE HOCKEY FIGHTS!

I read several years ago about people who would videotape (when VHS was a thing—that's how long ago it was) the fights on the ice and swap them.

[sabotabby]

Something something the underlying violence of the Canadian colonialist project sublimated into sport something something.

People watch hockey for the fights and NASCAR for the crashes. I am a soft and gentle person at heart and watch wrestling, where the violence is overt but fake, and soccer where it's just fake.

[joymoose]

People are like "Don Cherry can't be fired because Justin Trudeau still has a job".

I love how no one can even imagine the possibility that neither Don Cherry nor Justin Trudeau deserved/s their job.

I love them to replace him with one of the retired women's hockey's players and then trend overtime to broadcasting 50/50 men and women's hockey. Like, I'm still not going to watch but a lot of people I know love men and women's hockey equally given a chance.

[sabotabby]

That would be great. I don't care about hockey much but lots of people do, and it's ridiculous to let a racist fossil continue to shut out more interesting voices.

[franklanguage]

I wanna hear the Carolina reaper take!

[sabotabby]

Are you sure? Almost no one can handle my Carolina reaper takes.

Okay, here goes: The poppy, once a noble symbol commemorating the horrors of war, has become a cheap symbol of nationalism and militarism that's sole purpose is virtue-signalling. In addition, it's a single-use plastic item manufactured by slave labour. If we are going to treat everyone who uses plastic straws (including disabled folks who can't use alternatives) like they personally strangled the last sea turtle, we should look upon those who wear poppies with similar revulsion.

Teal dear: Poppies are the opiate of the masses.

[rdi]

Solidarity!!! ✊🏼

[sabotabby]

No one wants to hear my Pepper X take, I bet.

[rdi]

Bring it.

[sabotabby]

The Cult of the Poppy is nothing more than a continuation of the ritual bloodletting of the young seen in declining empires throughout human history, and with the worship of human sacrifice that it represents, the Thanatos-seeking death cult that is Western industrial civilization teeters ever closer to its own entropy and collapse. In conclusion, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE, thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[rdi]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[moon_custafer]

I’m wondering if that’s the take of the person or persons who graffitied the cenotaph in front of City Hall overnight. The official reaction is all “blahblah disrespecting Our VeteransTM,” but given that the spraypainted words are “YE BROKE FAITH WITH US,” I don’t think it’s the veterans that the graffitoes have a beef with.

[sabotabby]

I think it's likely a veteran who did it, and probably for quite sympathetic reasons.

[moon_custafer]

Dammit— the guy arrested for it apparently claims to have done so in support of Cherry?!
https://twitter.com/stu_mcginn/status/1195361902584647680?s=21

[sabotabby]

I think he has some pretty severe mental health issues. He used to hang around Occupy, which was a magnet for fringe types. I'm just glad it wasn't someone on our side, not that I think anyone would.

[mallorys_camera]

So funny! My first take on "Don Cherry" was the jazz trumpeter. 😀 Had to Google before I could figure out why Don Cherry was garbage. 😀

[sabotabby]

That's a much better Don Cherry. A lot of people on my FB feed have been posting his music so that we can lessen the profile of the shitty one.

[dragonlady7]

ayyyyy ghost pepper take is CORRECT

[sabotabby]

I went to a women's hockey game and I was shocked at how much I liked it.

[wlach]

Cherry was terrible, even putting his garbage political views and racism aside for a moment, his not-so-tacit endorsement of violence within the game was appalling. I anticipate liking hockey a lot more without him in the picture.

I'm not sure if I should really cut MacLean that much slack, but at least he issued what seems like a genuine apology.

[rdi]

MacLean enabled Cherry along so he's every bit as culpable.

[sabotabby]

He apologized for the sake of his continued career. No points for that.

Cherry contributed to a higher rate of concussions apparently, and for that alone he should have been fired years ago.

[wlach]

Even if he said the right thing for the wrong reasons (which is a distinct possibility), it still was the right thing. I am happy about the apology less because of what it says about him as a person than the hope that we've now set a minimum bar for what is acceptable to say in public. These things do have an impact.

[sabotabby]

Good point.

[radiantfracture]

All correct.

[sabotabby]

I sometimes am.

[springheel_jack]

Nashville is weirdly a hockey town, because we have a pro hockey team and pro football and that's it apart from the soccer which nobody cares about. And in my opinion hockey is something about which I have no opinion or interest

[sabotabby]

You guys have ice there?

[springheel_jack]

it has to be imported

[notasupervillain]

I'm not sure what flavour to give this but: Watching hockey is often a social obligation, as sports is one of the ways that people of distinct social groups can forge connections around a common bond. However, watching men's hockey knowing that fighting is encouraged by the league and is leading to horrific mental and physical consequences to the workers, is morally wrong. Necessary in many social contexts, but still morally wrong.

[sabotabby]

I have to be informed for work reasons, though fortunately my kids tend to prefer basketball, which is a much nicer game for the most part.

[notasupervillain]

Significantly fewer concussions. Plus, apparently a much better division of profits between Labour and Capital, according to an article I read online at one point.

[sabotabby]

Still a massive division but it's not a continuation of slavery the way American football seems to be.

[notasupervillain]

Well said.