I used to love the NBA. I listened to multiple NBA podcasts, although in recent years I didn't actually watch many games. I didn't have the time to, plus I enjoyed following the trade rumors, transactions, and other story lines from the perspective of a general manager building a franchise more than a fan who rooted for his home team. I had come to care more about my fantasy teams, where I was actually making the moves and had money on the line. Over the past half-decade, I became red-pilled, but my favorite sports podcast hosts did not—they remained helplessly blue-pilled. This shouldn't be a problem, though, right? They're talking about sports, not politics... LOL.
In recent years, everything has become political. Sports podcast hosts would say that they don't normally talk about politics but they had to speak up in this one case to say just how horrible Trump was. Leading up to the 2016 election I was right there with them—it was only after the election that I became red-pilled. And while never becoming a Trump supporter, I had come to realize he was not as bad as the left-wing media made him out to be, so when the sports podcasters would continue to talk about Trump in such a naïve way, it turned me off. During this time, I cut back on many of the sports podcasts I used to listen to but kept a few favorites.
Eventually the Trump talk on sports podcasts died down, but then Covid happened...and then George Floyd. When sports returned after (or during) the pandemic, all the talk was about Black Lives Matter. Sports podcasters would spend half the show virtue-signaling about how much they supported BLM, and how great it was that the players had special BLM patches on their jerseys and the leagues put giant BLM stickers on the court—as if that would solve police brutality.
This season the BLM talk has died down, but Covid talk is still rampant, especially now with vaccine mandates. Sports podcasts cannot avoid talking about Covid even if they wanted to because vaccination has become entwined with the sports due to league and state regulation. But because most sports podcasters are hopelessly blue-pilled on politics (how could you become red-pilled when you spend so much time following sports?) they buy the complete corporate media narrative about Covid being so dangerous and the vaccines being so safe and effective. So when a player decides not to get the jab, these podcasters think they are a combination of insane, stupid, and evil.
First of all, most leagues have hypocritical rules for the vaxxed vs. unvaxxed, forcing the unvaxxed to take more tests and sit out longer if positive. The only logic of these hypocritical rules is to create an incentive for players to get vaxxed. Of course, many of these players already have natural immunity, but that is ignored by the corporate media (and therefore the sports media who follow them). So the players with natural immunity (which is more robust than the vaccines) are still pressured by the sports media to get vaxxed. And keep in mind these are athletes who are among the healthiest people in the world, for whom Covid poses virtually no health risk. The hopelessly blue-pilled sports podcasters I listen to have no understanding of any of this. They think everyone should get vaxxed and those who don't are a danger to the unvaxxed, despite the fact the vaxxed can still get and spread covid.
All this came to a head with Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets refusing to get the jab. Due to the fascist laws in New York City, he is legally not allowed to play in his own arena. The way the sports media is treating him is a final line for me. I cannot listen to these mid-wits any longer. They think they are soooooo much smarter than Kyrie, and that he is a fool and idiot and science-denying, selfish, crazy conspiracy theorist for not getting the jab.
Here Kyrie is, taking a stand for something he believes in even though it is unpopular, just like Muhammad Ali did against the Vietnam draft. What Kyrie is doing is brave and should be applauded. He is taking a stand against a literally fascist law that disproportionally impacts people of color and has resulted in thousands of healthcare workers being fired. But just like the media attacked Ali for being anti-American, the media now is attacking Kyrie for being anti-Science. These people think supporting BLM or taking a knee during the anthem is a brave move for "social justice," but it is not brave when the entire corporate media applauds it. However, Kyrie taking a stand for medical freedom is brave. Just look at how the entire corporate media is reacting—they all viciously attack him for doing so.
Blue-pilled people have been trained to associate anti-vaxxers with Trump-supporters, even though 1) Trump is the one who initiated Project Warpspeed to get the vaccines produced, 2) Trump has repeatedly told his supporters to get the jab, and 3) The largest group of people who are not vaccinated are not Trump-supporters but black people. (And nurses who obviously know a helluva lot more about Covid and vaccines than some guy who yaps about sports for a living. But that won't stop him from calling them stupid.) What happened to caring about black lives? Kyrie Irving is the only one who has stayed consistent on this issue, caring for all black lives no matter who it benefits politically at the time.
It's been driving me crazy trying to listen to NBA season preview podcasts and hearing these brainwashed mid-wits condescendingly criticize Kyrie, treating his stance against vaccine mandates as akin to his belief that the Earth is flat. They think the problem is "misinformation." If only Kyrie got the "facts" and "followed the science"... They cannot conceive of the idea that their "facts" might be wrong and that the "science" they are following is actually propaganda veiled as science. They are so entrenched in the Matrix that they cannot conceive of any logical science-based reason not to get the vax. And when the highly intelligent Orlando Magic player, Jonathan Isaac, did just that (talked about the benefits of natural immunity and the fact that the vax doesn't prevent the infection or spread of covid), they had no response. His actual scientific facts and logic induced cognitive dissonance in them, so all they could do was ignore his points and appeal to the authority of the corporate media, CDC, and their lord and savior Fauci (all of whom are funded by the manufacturers of the vaccines). No conflict of interest there, though, right? That would be a "conspiracy theory"...
I started looking around for a red-pilled (or at least simply apolitical) sports podcast to replace them but couldn't find any good ones. Which made me realize that of course there are no good based and red-pilled sports podcasts. Because if you are based and red-pilled, you would realize there are better things to do with your free time than closely follow grown men talking about other grown men playing silly ball games. Anyone who goes into sports media MUST be a mid-wit (at best). No high-IQ individuals would ever waste their time on such trivial matters. Watching the occasional game with family and friends is fine, but becoming absorbed in fandom is not a productive use of time for an adult.
I had already realized this to an extent, which was why I didn't waste my time watching 3-hour-long games, and I cut back on almost all sports podcasts, just keeping a couple favorites that I'd listen to occasionally. But I've come to realize that maybe even that was too much. I'll glance at some box score stats and manage my fantasy teams, as that takes minimal amounts of time and is the only way to avoid politics completely, but anymore time than that spent on sports is useless. Sports are a useful distraction to keep people blue-pilled about politics, and judging by the state of sports media (even independent podcasters) it is working grandly. Sports were fun to play and follow when I was a kid, and if I have a son I'll teach him how to play and maybe watch some games with him too. But I will no longer spend any more of my time listening to other people talk about sports. Doing so will only make you dumber. Stay strong Kyrie, stay free.