Former NFL player and current legend Herschel Walker brought up something that I feel many on the left haven’t been quite able to wrap their heads around.
The left seems to believe that the action of protesting is something that belongs to them and that once they claim themselves victims, they cannot be kicked off that hill. Society must then bend itself around the victims according to the left, which, surprising no one, usually means giving leftist figures more power.
The thing is, protesting isn’t owned by the left and Walker made such a point on Tuesday.
The Daily Caller reported that Walker’s comments came during his interview with Martha McCallum on Fox News:
The comments came during the NFL legend‘s appearance Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Story With Martha McCallum” when the host noted that 8 million fewer people tuned in for the first week of games, 88 million compared to 96 million the year prior. That is a drop of close to 10 percent, McCallum explained.
“First of all, it’s great unity but as I said early on, there shouldn’t be politics in sports, but since the [NFL] commissioner [Roger Goodell] sort of gave in and decided to let politics come into sports, I don’t think the team, the league, the owner, the commissioner has decided what do you want?” Walker explained.
“You’re going to protest, but not you’re not putting out what is the solution?” he added. “What is the end game? The players do have a right to protest, but realize that fans have a right to protest as well. So, if they boo, you can’t be upset. If they don’t watch the show, you can’t be upset.”
The Heisman Trophy winner continued, “You know, are you going to stay inside? What is the end game? What do you want? How are you going to achieve this? Because all I see is protest and all I see is words, but there is no actions behind those words.”
“And I said it early on, instead of everybody having their folded arms or closed fists why don’t we have an open hand? Herschel explained. “We all come together. And I’d love to go with you, the NFL, all major league sports, let’s go to Washington. Let’s get the Democratic, let’s get the Republican people together.”
The obvious counter-protest is the fans not tuning in, which is exactly what’s going on.
While this is definitely a good way to protest, this display can surprisingly be ignored by teh social justice community in general. Displays of us not watching aren’t exactly something with a lot of camera value.
The two biggest pieces of protests came from the players themselves. The first came from the Jaguars’ Tyler Eifert who wore David Dorn’s name on the back of his helmet, and the other is Alejandro Villanueva of the Steelers who wore fallen veteran Alwyn Cashe on that back of his helmet.
Both were protests against the current rules of the NFL that were ultimately set by Black Lives Matter, even if not officially.
Both of these acts were met with a measure of anger but the one thing the left has to understand is that protesting protests isn’t just allowed, it’s a good thing. It injects a diversity of thought into the narrative where uniformity is demanded, leading to the creation of an ideological bubble that becomes more ridiculous over time.
These two players wearing the names they did DOES have camera value. It puts the issue into the faces of Americans and makes them deal with it. It causes questions to be asked and narratives to be questioned.
This is absolutely fair. The left prides itself on its ability to disrupt and it’s a skill that the right needs to learn as well. That starts with a support for disruption with us. It emboldens those in a position to truly get the message out.
The left will have no choice but to accept this fact and any attempt to shut it down will only prove that they’re afraid their ideas won’t survive in free and open debate.
