Mega Thread The Adam Goodes Megathread - Now with Added Poll!

[JohnnyFontane90]

You understand the principle of keeping things in perspective, don't you?

You realize it was a war cry in the direction of a pocket of supporters, yeah?

You keep making it sound like Goodes committed some sort of atrocity.

no but goodes needs to be smarter the way he interacts with crowd and understand how the media works.

to quote gladiator 'win the crowd and you will win your freedom'

 

[sherb]

Eddie suggested that Adam Goodes be used to promote a musical featuring a giant ape. You don't understand how this could reasonably be construed as being racist?

There are some things on this board I can't believe have to be explained to people.

The above is a perfect example.

 

[Ratts of Tobruk]

Geez.

Imagine how long this thread would be if the government and AFL and scary lefty goons wearing Bono glasses* weren't stopping our free speech all the time.

(*it turns out it is actually Bono)

 

[HoopsAhoy]

I'D like to ask a serious question....Why are otherwise sane & reasonable people on Big Footy cow-towing to this politically correct bullshit?

Did they also receive a directive from the AFL?

Freedom of speech means freedom of speech....This is a democracy & if people wish to boo as a form of protest then that's their right.

If Goodsey can't deal with it, then he can either retire (Hooray the farce is over) or apologize....Pretty simple.

There's a third option - get back to playing football and dazzling his detractors with consummate skills and performance.

It's the irritation that causes the pearl, the pressure that creates the diamond.

 

[ZabsBlues]

it's not threatening. he's sticking it to them. he's saying 'how do you like me now huh??' - well the fans have answered.

Not all fans.

 

[Ratts of Tobruk]

You understand the principle of keeping things in perspective, don't you?

You realize it was a war cry in the direction of a pocket of supporters, yeah?

You keep making it sound like Goodes committed some sort of atrocity.

no but goodes needs to be smarter the way he interacts with crowd and understand how the media works.

to quote gladiator 'win the crowd and you will win your freedom'

FFS. That movie features Gladiator throwing an actual spear at the head Roman.

 

[pockets75]

I don't know why it's so complicated.

You're NOT racist for booing umpires when they make a bad decision, Selwood for ducking, Lindsay for diving, Milne kicking goals etc.

You ARE racist for booing Adam Goodes EVERY time he touches the ball. Because if you boo Goodes everytime he touches the ball it means he's done something more offensive/more annoying to you than anyone else in AFL history- and the fact is what he's done more than anyone else in AFL history is speak about Aboriginal issues.

Winmar and Long were booed and called sooks for their respective stands.



SO for anyone else wanting to ask the same unfunny, unwitty question of "Are the English racist to boo Mitchell Johnsons" "Are.... boo Milne" Selwood etc. The fact is this criteria of Adam Goodes being booed for every touch should result in 100s of other players having experienced this level of booing throughout history- but.... that's not the case.

Can you please make your point in about 150 less words.

 

[DrEvil_]

If you boo alongside racist booing, you are supporting them. Would you stay standing in a protest if a bunch of people come behind you and put up a sign calling for the opposite of what you believe in?

I am sorry, there are many very good reason not to boo Goodes, but this is terrible. How is this different from "you're either with us, or against us"?

 

[dispute]

Nice. I like your posting.

I'm not going to go down this particular rabbit hole.

I have never boo'ed Goodes and have no plans to do so. My main objection in this current 'debate' is that hard line stance from the clubs and AFL that any booing of Goodes is now considered racist.

I can see some of the benefits of such a view, but to my mind the negatives outweigh the positives.

Declaring Goodes booing as racist is authoritarian in a quite extreme manner.

The intentions are good but the results will not be good.

Extending racism to the very vague action of booing is stretching credibility too far and will divide the community rather than unite it.

You can see it in this thread and elsewhere.

People are sitting behind each of their defences and lobbing grenades without any thought of conciliation.

There are some in the middle giving voice to both sides, but are drowned out by the vitriol from both sides.

It is very sad.

Agreed. I want the issue to go away as much as the next person. But to accuse people that decide to boo Adam Goodes as racist will not help the push for a resolution. I would question people's humility if they continued to boo Adam after he said the booing has taken it's toll.

 

[ZabsBlues]

woah. the dance is irrelevant. he could be doing the macarena for all i care. but at a sydney home game where there are 99% sydney fans and a tiny patch of carlton fans he picks right there to go up to and celebrate? (we'll call it a celebration to keep everyone happy). he had to expect a negative reaction to that...

How many weeks back did this happen, get over your self.

 

[B4Bear]

Gee people who proclaim to love 'freedom of speech' sure whinge to high heaven when everyone else free speeches back at them.

It's like that "silent majority" who are always on talkback radio...

I wish the *ers would remain silent.

 

[Ice-Wolf]

You do realise Fat Daniel became an overnight internet sensation after that incident

Micky O, spare me, he has enough skeletons to worry about than a blow up with the weages cheer squad.

Plus antagonising the opposition cheer squad doesn't count.

 

[Theprofessional]

This is now the problem we have... everything is deemed as racist.

Eddie's comment was in no way racist and it's sad that people with an agenda have taken it that way.

Saying Adam Goodes should be promoting the King Kong movie isn't racist?

Are you kidding?

 

[HoopsAhoy]

This is now the problem we have... everything is deemed as racist.

Eddie's comment was in no way racist and it's sad that people with an agenda have taken it that way.

Unfortunately, and paralleling that, it seems we more and more live in a world where Animal Farm and 1984 are seen as blueprints and 'How To' manuals rather than as warning literature.

 

[ZabsBlues]

I'm not even sure Goodes knows much about indigenous culture at this point tbh.

And you do.

 

[Spook]

Have you actually seen how we're going in the third test? TFS definitely a less stressful affair.

Oh, so you enjoy test cricket and only watch when we are winning? I love Footy and cricket for the sport of it, for the skills of both teams, the battle between bat and ball / forward and defender.

 

[BORK]

When was the last time a member of a cheer squad threatened the assault of others through the media?

 

[BloodRet]

Sam Newmans comments are blinded by his clear racial cloud. He's always been a racist, and he always will be. He's a delusional flog whose views are so terribly, terribly wrong. The fact that people listen and draw ideas from him is only what is going to make this countries racist nature worse than it already is. Here's the proof:

The quicker people like this flog get out of the country or die, the better our future will be.

 

[Nankervis brothers]

Nice to see a card-carrying member of the brain-washed AFL led media campaign....Booing is a form of protest & a right.

The AFL set the agenda by singling Goodes out for special treatment....They can hardly blame the fans for following that precedent.

What a load of paranoid, brain dead rubbish. I can't be bothered repeating my position, so i'll just give you my early post; it says what I have to say to people like you, who use false argument as an excuse for humiliating Goodes. View it as entry into a debate:

Goodes isn't booed every-time he touches the ball, week in week out, because he is a dirty player. There are many dirtier players who are not booed. Leigh Matthews was a thug. He broke a players jaw w/ a king hit 50 meters behind the play, and was even arrested for it. Yet he was cheered into retirement. So that claim is rubbish.

Goodes isn't booed every-time he touches the ball, week in week out, for staging. There are many, many players who do the same (Franklin milks kicks all the time, for example). They are not booed incessantly for this. So that claim is clearly false.

Goodes isn't booed every-time he touches the ball, week in week out, for not being a 'team player' or having too great of a public profile. Many players are and have been public figures and much more 'individualistic' than Goodes. These players are often loved for it, and get plum jobs on the 'Footy Show' acting like gits. So this claim, too, is false.

And Goodes isn't booed every-time he touches the ball, week in week out, for being an aboriginal. There are 71 players in the competition who are aboriginal, yet 70 of them aren't booed.

Adam Goodes is booed because he is a 'critical' or 'politicised' aboriginal. He is proud of his heritage, and 'outspoken' about racial inequality (both past and present) in a way that makes nationalistic white guys uncomfortable.

For Goodes, having racial equality in the game means more than an happy little indigenous round with an aboriginal themed guernsey. It means actually calling out racism wherever it happens in the game - such as being called an 'ape' whilst playing. It also means being Australian of the Year and still saying a few hard truths - like the fact that Australia Day means something different for Indigenous Australians (and it does and should mean something different for aboriginal Australians, anyone with half a clue about Australian history would understand that).

IMO the true 'sooks' are the fully grown adults who boooooo like children at a successful aboriginal man for simply being (in their half closed eyes, at least) too 'outspoken' too 'critical'. These people need to toughen up!

A finally, a few other points that neither the right wing nut jobs - Bolt, Jones, Devine, et al - mention in their politically motivated attacks, nor the chorus of haters on BF:

Goodes' Australia Day speech also spoke of the importance of inclusion, and he talked of the merits of the day also.
After the incident with the girl, he selected to not press charges and asked the media too leave her well alone.
His public profile has largely been thrust upon him - he did not ask to become Australian of the year.

 

[JohnnyFontane90]

I mean an Aboriginal player doing an indigenous dance during indigenous round.... how dare he!

I mean those imaginary spears..... they sure hurt lots of people.

Look I get Carlton fans not liking it during the game but for a large group of people to say it is inciteful.....

What is it inciting? Why does it make people feel intimidated?

Or was it the myths and misconceptions that have been swallowed about Australia day.....


Since he didn't actually say "invasion day" in his speech there is something else under the surface that makes the war dance break the camels back....

it's everything.

the girl, the play acting, the cheap hits, the activism, the aoty, the media making him their darling, tall poppy syndrome, people like me being called a racist.

anyone who says it was intimidating or they were threatened is full of s**t.

this one event just encapsulated what everybody doesn't like about him and the media put everywhere for everyone to absorb.

 

[Procrastinator35]

There's a third option - get back to playing football and dazzling his detractors with consummate skills and performance.

It's the irritation that causes the pearl, the pressure that creates the diamond.

Think it's more to do with the fact that his career is over, & that this is one last sad attempt by the AFL to wring that last drop of 'racism agenda' out of it...Hence the past week of blanket-media coverage over-kill.

No individual is bigger than the game....Except this bloke.

 

[Ratts of Tobruk]

I am sorry, there are many very good reason not to boo Goodes, but this is terrible. How is this different from "you're either with us, or against us"?

Ah, it's heaps different, bro. One involves using words and a variety of potential actions and reactions.

The other involves a low vocal noise that has less options of expression than a light switch with a dimmer.

 

[AlibiMonday]

Reading the responses around the country, I'm absolutely convinced that this argument is too nuanced for the majority.

 

[Moral Decay]

craig foster has a good article in support of goodes

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/blog/2015/07/30/adam-goodes-face-issue-australia-must-confront

The question now in my mind is "Should politics and social activism be a part of sport in general and the AFL in particular?"

How many can we sustain? Indigenous Round, Anzac Day, multiculturalism, women's round, all seem harmless enough. But should we be having a round for the environment and how much of this should be enacted by the players on the ground? If we have an Indigenous Round should we have a White supremacy round?

If Adam is within his rights to make a political statement on the playing surface, then what about the rights of people that want to make a statement that Adam finds offensive, you know something controversial that would make people think about the nature of society, maybe a white power salute, maybe in support of refugees. Should they game be stopped so Bachar Houli can pray, should the whole AFL stop for prayers because we have a muslim footballer on the ground at the time? Maybe we can go back to no football on Sundays on religious grounds?

Maybe it's about time the football was about the football, let all the special rounds go. Or go the other way, Mark Williams can go back to he rifle celebration, we can all support our mates in jail, pretend to snort lines, have a shag or beat the misses.

As for Craig Foster, remember what Soccer was like when the clubs were based on country of origin, was it ok to have violence in the stands, surely that was just people standing up for themselves and getting in the face of the opposition.

The argument about our first peoples has issues, should every Australian of Scottish or Irish heritage forever hold onto being dispossessed and forcibly migrated? Should every racial group in Australia that came here because of disadvantage, because their lives were under threat, because of their race, religion or ethnic identity be confronting their oppressors and just shove it in their faces to make them think about how horrible they are, no matter how many generations have passed?

As for the booing, it's the same as all the fuss, a pantomime.
Pantomijme booing, for a pantomime villain/hero.

 

[BloodRet]

What a load of paranoid, brain dead rubbish. I can't be bothered repeating my position, so i'll just give you my early post; it says what I have to say to people like you, who use false argument as an excuse for humiliating Goodes. View it as entry into a debate:

Goodes isn't booed every-time he touches the ball, week in week out, because he is a dirty player. There are many dirtier players who are not booed. Leigh Matthews was a thug. He broke a players jaw w/ a king hit 50 meters behind the play, and was even arrested for it. Yet he was cheered into retirement. So that claim is rubbish.

Goodes isn't booed every-time he touches the ball, week in week out, for staging. There are many, many players who do the same (Franklin milks kicks all the time, for example). They are not booed incessantly for this. So that claim is clearly false.

Goodes isn't booed every-time he touches the ball, week in week out, for not being a 'team player' or having too great of a public profile. Many players are and have been public figures and much more 'individualistic' than Goodes. These players are often loved for it, and get plum jobs on the 'Footy Show' acting like gits. So this claim, too, is false.

And Goodes isn't booed every-time he touches the ball, week in week out, for being an aboriginal. There are 71 players in the competition who are aboriginal, yet only 70 of them aren't booed.

Adam Goodes is booed because he is a 'critical' or 'politicised' aboriginal. He is proud of his heritage, and 'outspoken' about racial inequality (both past and present) in a way that makes nationalistic white guys uncomfortable.

For Goodes, having racial equality in the game means more than an happy little indigenous round with an aboriginal themed guernsey. It means actually calling out racism wherever it happens in the game - such as being called an 'ape' whilst playing. It also means being Australian of the Year and still saying a few hard truths - like the fact that Australia Day means something different for Indigenous Australians (and it does and should mean something different for aboriginal Australians, anyone with half a clue about Australian history would understand that).

IMO the true 'sooks' are the fully grown adults who boooooo like children at a successful aboriginal man for simply being (in their half closed eyes, at least) too 'outspoken' too 'critical'. These people need to toughen up!

A finally, a few other points that neither the right wing nut jobs - Bolt, Jones, Devine, et al - mention in their politically motivated attacks, nor the chorus of haters on BF:

Goodes' Australia Day speech also spoke of the importance of inclusion, and he talked of the merits of the day also.
After the incident with the girl, he selected to not press charges and asked the media too leave her well alone.
His public profile has largely been thrust upon him - he did not ask to become Australian of the year.

Post of the year and so, so true. Anybody who disagrees is a racist, simple as that.