Because Mr. Kaepernick has an opinion, and because that opinion is a Chinese factory that manufactures white tears, and because because he decided to express that opinion, commentary has been rife both on the Internet and in the closed fist you call a brain. Since none of those opinions have been mine then you can probably guess they're all stupid and that I'm about to tell you why. So in no particular particular order, here are the most common criticisms of Colin Kaepernick and an explanation for why you should dismiss those criticisms out of hand.
Sitting during the anthem disrespects the soldiers who sacrificed so you'd have the right to...do exactly what you're doing so why am I complaining? I'm not sure why the flag - since standing during the anthem is done out of respect for that flag - is exclusively associated with a soldier's spirit of sacrifice and not the entirety of the USA. Treating this as an act of disrespect towards the military actually disrespects the Americans who weren't in the military. Emmett Till, por ejemplo, who was just as American as anyone who's ever served. The white dudes who murdered him and the jury who acquitted them were pretty American as well, though no one will argue if you want to disrespect them all the day long.
Otherwise, civil liberties are won and lost in legislative chambers and the courts, not on the battlefield. I mean, I definitely appreciate that there's a class of citizen willing to defend my country from any theoretical invasions, but those three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and other forward deployments had precious little to do with my Constitutional right to say a bunch of dumb shit on this blog; the $20 I give to the ACLU every year does. So y'all can repeat "defending our freedoms" as much as you'd like but that still doesn't make it true since what the military is actually defending are the interests of the US Government rather than anyone's individual rights.
He's just a football player so who cares what he has to say. Except I've been complaining about him for five days now. Also, whenever a middling celebrity - say, Curt Schilling - says a bunch of racist shit I agree with then I will applaud his bravery to speak out publicly.
He's criticizing the very system that made him a millionaire. Colin Kaepernick looked around and noticed there were systematic differences between white and black America. Then he said something. To have not said anything solely because he's achieved a level of financial comfort barely anyone else has would have made him a sellout, that most celebrated of American virtues. Like, don't we all get together every October or March or whenever Judas Iscariot's birthday was and celebrate the big contract he signed with the Sanhedrin 49ers? And don't forget how emotionally gratifying it is at the end of a movie whenever the hero opts for personal comfort over the friends in dire need of his help. "Nope, just going to go home and drink a craft beer. Good luck with that inter-dimensional freedom destroyer!"
There's also the fact that telling someone they shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them is entirely paternalistic bullshit. It's the same as telling someone they shouldn't have an opinion about world hunger if they had a McDonald's value meal for lunch; or a woman can't be vocal about misogyny if she's never been raped; or Donald Trump can't rail against illegal immigration even though his current wife worked illegally as an immigrant before he made a few calls and got her a green card.
I support the message I just don't support the method. This is a hard argument for me to criticize because I'm a stooge for the University of Michigan football team, and, uh...
But I am a blog of middling principle so will say to Mr. Harbaugh: You don't support either so stop playing. If you did then you'd be more outspoken on the actual issues that prompted him to sit out the anthem in the first place since it's not the song he's criticizing - though obviously people have since pointed out all the dickery that went into writing it in the first place - it's the system that's tacitly endorsed every time you pay that song respect.
He's a rich man's Tim Tebow. This isn't related to the controversy at hand but I still feel like it deserves an airing. Basically, anyone who's ever smelled Tim Tebow's testicles and liked it is 100% certain he's been blacklisted from the NFL because of his Christian convictions and not because he's an ass quarterback. But those same people have zero problem shitting all over Colin Kaepernick even though he runs faster than Tim Tebow, throws a better ball than Tim Tebow, makes better decisions than Tim Tebow, and has far better hair than Tim Tebow. On second thought, maybe this is related to the controversy at hand.
Colin Kaepernick is just a straight up horrible word. Don't know why homeboy is taking so much heat.
Seems like he has a point.
The system's not that bad if there are black NFL quarterbacks and black middle managers and a black president. Individual success is not representative of systematic opportunity. There are actually rich people in North Korea who enjoy functioning electricity; I doubt you see that as vindication of North Korean political society, amirite?
_____________________________
Now for some thoughts about Colin Kaepernick that are thoughts of their own and not just explanations for why your opinions are stupid.
There's no right way to bask in salted anthem glory anyhow. Gabby Douglass did the country proud when she got a gold medal at the Olympic Games then did her country not proud when she stood at attention for the anthem rather than place her hand over her heart even though no one knows whether you're supposed to or not. Let's ask Donald Trump to clarify.
So I guess we don't? Either way, if I were Colin Kaepernick then I too would skip the anthem rather than deal with the charlatan backlash.
Holding the Star-Spangled Banner in absolute reverence is substituting a circle jerk for genuine love of country. If America and Americans were so important than everyone would be outraged at all the ways Americans actually get dicked and would care less about the pretend ways they don't. Whether or not a football player stands for the national anthem has literally zero effect on your life, but that's still reason enough to burn his jersey in effigy. A sociopathic doobag who deliberately lays waste to American small businesses by ignoring their invoices and now you want him to be president. Erm, here comes the side eye.
It's all just meaningless jingoistic bullshiz. The people barking the loudest about French kissing the best country ever are the very people complaining that we need to make that same country great again. If the US is simultaneously the best country in the world and a shell of its former glory then I definitely don't want to stand for Earth's national anthem since this planet disappoints me.
_____________________________
In conclusion, Colin Kaepernick will soon be traded to the Minnesota Vikings and then traded to a CFL team. He won't have to stand for the national anthem there because he isn't Canadian. Problem solved.
