As news spreads around the internet, about the propagandist Redskin organization confiscating all forms of ‘Anti-Snyder paraphernalia,’ I wonder to myself again, if there is any limit to which this franchise will not sink to.
For weeks I’ve been blogging and asking for fans to take a long, hard look at not only what the Redskins organization does, but the way in which they do them. The reason I have been doing it is to try to get (more) people to see just how manipulated they have become. Witness the latest debacle…
It seems that the new mantra of FedEx Field security is to now confiscate any type of anti-Redskin or anti-Snyder merchandise, before it even gets in the door.
What is this red China? I know that I live in Canada – but I’ve been hearing about the good old U.S of A’s ‘right to free speech’ since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Is this your idea of free speech? And in the nation’s capital? Are you going to take this lying down?
For years, yes years, I have been telling people about the dangers of the levels of propaganda that the Redskins serve up, and everybody told me that I was making mountains of molehills. It’s not a new thought to me that this level of propaganda serves only to brainwash and desensitize people.
Is that what you’ve become as a fan? Brainwashed and desensitized? Do you feel manipulated yet? Is this starting to sink in? Have you reached a point of saturation yet?
This sideshow dog-and-pony act is ONLY to distract you. These things are planned. These things are designed. These things are intended to strip you of your knowledge and rights. You have to stand up and be heard. You have to stand up and let it be known that you’re not being fooled anymore. You have to stand up and realize that you’re being TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF AND EXPLOITED.
And for your patronage, you receive no respect, thanks, or admiration.
Not only are Redskin fans no longer allowed to wear any type of ‘anti’ shirts, but the organization also just suddenly decided to enforce a supposed rule that media outlets are not allowed to interview tailgaters. This was first reported by WUSA, and got to me via Dan Steinberg’s D.C. Sports Bog:
“Tonight the Redskins have seemingly escalated things again; they’ve banned media interviews with tailgating fans on FedEx Field property,” McGinty said. “They told our sports director Brett Haber that this has always been team policy, but when he pointed out that we and other stations, including their very own broadcast partners, have in fact always talked openly to tailgaters, there was, well let’s just say, no further explanation.”
The team’s official position is that, your T-shirts are allowed as long as they don’t feature profanity, and much of what reportedly went down Monday night with the confiscating of shirts should not have happened.
But it did happen.
Wikipedia’s entry on free speech contains the following excerpt
Based on John Stuart Mill’s arguments, freedom of speech today is understood as a multi-faceted right that includes not only the right to express, or disseminate, information and ideas, but three further distinct aspects:
* the right to seek information and ideas;
* the right to receive information and ideas;
* the right to impart information and ideas.
All three of those edicts are being cheated, aren’t they? Joe Q. Redskin is being denied ALL of those common decencies.
Do any of you remember signing up for this crap? Are any of us guilty of anything more than supporting our team?
I’ve heard and read a lot of garbage lately about how Dan Snyder ‘just wants to win’ and that it’s not necessarily about power and money.
Wake up.
If it were about anything else, would you be being expected to give up the right to do as you please? How is that not about power?
I’ve read things like, ‘This is fascism,” “This is authoritarianism.”
To me, it’s Machiavellism. Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian philosopher that opined that, ‘necessary, methodical exercise of brute force punishment-and-reward (patronage, clientelism, et cetera) to preserve the status quo’ were essential.
Sound familiar? Ever feel that way as a Redskin fan?
Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton warned that, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’
Especially in Washington.
I’m reminded of the words of another more modern philosopher, Public Enemy’s Chuck D.:
Don’t believe the hype – its a sequel
As an equal, can I get this through to you.
Chuck D was talking about racism, but the principle is the same…
Don’t acquiesce to the big power machine and ‘fall in line.’ You have a voice – use it.
Sometimes you speak the loudest when you say nothing at all.
Sometimes your presence is most felt by your absence.
If you want to protest the Redskins, or their management, there are ways of doing it that far exceed anything you could write on a cardboard sign.
I think people’s right to express themselves through absence is firmly establishing itself, by the increasingly large number of empty seats at FedEx.
And yeah, you can do anything to get more noticed than putting thoughts on a cardboard sign – that’s already officially been censored. 🙂
Tell me, did the XMB-5000 that you blogged about have a ‘thoughtcrime‘ sensor? Is that what’s next for Redskin fans? All fans guilty of thoughts against the establishment will be turned away at the door…
In the Nation’s capital not only of the US but of most intense and active legal actions, it only seems a matter of time before somebody brings the Redskins Organization to Court for infringing on the rights to free speech entrenched in US laws.
The actions taken by the Redskins Organizations against the fans and the media are unconstitutional and illegal.
Somebody will and must sue them!
Hail!
RiC
It’s incredible. That Snyder… or his minions… would think that this is a viable option to manage public opinion is the height of arrogance. In a democracy, it is possible to do many things without getting much of a response… however, trying to muzzle dissent is not one of those things. The blow back on this will surely cause significant regret at Redskins Park. This is not an employer-employee relationship. Fans are customers… you don’t tell customers to shut up. Mr Snyder, I hope, realizes that he doesn’t have much of a window in which to correct this, before it starts to cost him real money.
I guess what’s most stunning to me is the breadth of the problem right now. I think it WILL start to cost Mr. Snyder money, and if I’m honest, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever see the day where there would be enough disgruntled fans to actually see so many empty seats at FedEx.
Snyder is a smart guy – so it’s amazing to me that he doesn’t seem to recognize how dire this situation is becoming. The comedy of errors is on display for all to see, and who didn’t get nearly nauseated watching the Monday Night pre-game? It was chock full of franchise slagging in prime time TV… it’s hard to attach a monetary value to that kind of bad press, but what a sickening experience for any die-hard Redskin fan.
While I know that Dan Snyder hasn’t given anyone any reason to believe that he will relinquish his stranglehold on running this team instead of letting a professional do the job, I hope that (even if it’s only for business reasons) he recognizes how truly dire the situation has become.
Band aids aren’t working – they’re just pissing everyone off.
With every failed band-aid attempt, there is little left for people to point to, but the constants… and they’re running out of options.
People are fed up of being slapped in the face for being a Redskin fan.
IMO, only REAL change will reverse the spiraling direction of this franchise.
Boss Hog;
I have an idea as to what we can do but will not mention it in a public forum; email me at the address I have left here on the form. Obviously John Michael Kane is not my real name, but you never know given how paranoid Nepolean is if he might have some of his flying monkeys monitoring the boards.
Snyder can’t ban this sign:
http://fire-snyder-sign.blogspot.com/