Politics and social issues

    is every where on fire (re: forest fires)?


    I live in the central USA... thousand of miles away from any forest... and the air quality is so bad from the smoke that's blown in from Canada/western USA, we're not recommended to be outdoors for long periods of time


    ||

    Quote from avid

    is every where on fire (re: forest fires)?


    I live in the central USA... thousand of miles away from any forest... and the air quality is so bad from the smoke that's blown in from Canada/western USA, we're not recommended to be outdoors for long periods of time


    ||

    Parts of China and Europe are flooding from extreme rain.

    In Italy aswell very close to Orro hometown there have been a pretty big "wildfire" (it was actually arson) last week, she posted about it on instagram. It's also my home region and just got here yesterday for the summer, seeing the damage from the airplane was really something


    Quote from voulter

    In Italy aswell very close to Orro hometown there have been a pretty big "wildfire" (it was actually arson) last week, she posted about it on instagram. It's also my home region and just got here yesterday for the summer, seeing the damage from the airplane was really something


    💔💔💔


    at least it wasn’t a failed gender reveal party like what happened here in the US 😭

    Quote from avid

    the air quality is so bad from the smoke that's blown in from Canada/western USA

    Sorry about that :wavy:


    You know what's weird ... In SF this has been like the coldest July on record

    First to provide aid and assistance for the 1000 kms of Turkish fires have been


    Ukraine, Korea and Azerbaijan :heart::obey:


    🇺🇦 🇰🇷 🇦🇿


    Idk too many people from these countries outta head here in the forum but if you see this. Thank you!

    I can think of suminj

    It's reached to my grandma's town here, it's really bad :sos: But together we can fight these fires all over the world

    oh no sorry if my username was misleading, though I can understand and use the Korean language, I'm not from Korea

    (username still stems from my own name though)


    Yeah global warming has been really intense the past few years particularly, from the horribly devastating China Henan floods and now the Turkey fires, pretty concerned about the typhoon seasons which happens yearly in Asia too, but are getting worse and worse by the years


    Found this Turkish influencer doing an international gofundme fundraiser for the fires. Not sure how reliable they are, but its one outlet to help.

    Another for the animals

    https://fonzip.com/haytap/bagis


    May your family stay safe from the fires! Altinli

    Firstly, my solidarity goes to the regions who've been struggling...


    Guys, I used to post on this forum now and then a long time ago, but wasn't able to regain access to my old account. Ever since the Covid thing, I haven't really payed attention to volleyball stuff, but now, since the Olympics started, I couldn't keep my eyes from it. But it's been a curious, different experience, with everything that's being going on in the world. I found myself increasingly drawn to the social, political aspects of it.


    For instance, I'm Brazilian, and I sorta can't bring myself to root for our male NT because of the political background of some our players. I think this has been discussed in this topic and others in the past, so right now I won't go much into it. But this week I've seen Maurício Souza and Wallace get themselves involved again in political discussions on their social networks. Maybe I'm just an old school guy, but I'm sorta in awe at how, even during the freaking Olympics, players find time to focus on other things that's not purely their performances. In other sports, I think analogous kind of examples, in a way or another, drew my attention too to this matter.


    I'd like to ask you guys about your personal experiences while watching this Olympics, and overall volleyball in general these days - like, if you also find yourselves suddenly thinking about that, liking or disliking certain players or teams because of this political background. I would also like to know more about the athletes' stances on social issues as a role, because I'm not very knowledgeble about that. For instance, I know Egonu has had a big impact in Italy, for being a black girl and openly gay, besides being a phenomenal player. I'd be interested in other examples in various capacities.


    But I'd like to know more about these sort of things, from different countries, considering both positive and negative examples, if you'd be so kind to share. I'm being pretty broad here: I'd like to know if athletes share their political thoughts, their opinions on social issues, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, religious issues, ethnic issues, war issues, environmental issues, government policies, mental health, Covid and vaccine, all the works. Please feel free to share anything you'd find of interest. My invitation extends to my fellow Brazilians too, because I haven't been following this as closely as I would like. Thanks.

    It doesn't matter, don't apologize, it was more an if anyway lol and especially as you shared this it's still fitting 🙏👍

    Wow, pretty brave (and awesome) 1st post after a long time off. My respect for that.:win:


    And since it would be a shame that it should go without any answer, I'll go and share a bit of my perspective on awareness of social issues and how it may shape our tastes and likes. It's only a small slice of what you asked, but you asked a pretty broad slew of questions.


    Up until late 2018/early 2019, I would have considered myself an apolitical guy, with next-to-no interest in what is now considered "cultural wars" or social issues. What can you do; a cis straight-passing bi white guy, I was blind to a whole host of privilege that many people who share my signifiers enjoy (yes, despite living in an economically poor country, nobody is going to discriminate against me in my own country and even abroad only in a very broad, anti-East European kind of way that is so little significant it can be ignored for the most part). To make matters, worse, I live in a country that is very, VERY backward as far as awareness and understanding the importance of social and cultural issues, as well as personal identities.


    But then I started following leftist-leaning youtubers, and from there I started to further inform myself about all sorts of topics they covered: implicit bias, systemic bias, systemic racism, the whole nine yards. And it won't be overstating the case to say that it was an eye-opening experience, like exploring a whole new world that was there the whole time but you never knew it. I would like to think it has made me a better person, one who is much more careful about navigating the world and being more aware of the many, many ways we as humans can hurt and oppress each other, even when we don't mean to.


    As far as how it has specifically influenced my view and likes/tastes on volleyball (and the rest of sports), yeah, supporting people who hold abhorrent views is a step I can't quite make any more. I've lost my share of athletes whom I admired due to that, and it sucks, but I much prefer that then to go back living in ignorance.:)

    While I'll definitely never be right-wing, I'm also certainly not as leftist as I used to be until a couple of years ago, for a whole variety of reasons I can't be bothered to get into.

    It's partly why I don't post here as much as I used to.

    Quote from JoanaBG

    While I'll definitely never be right-wing, I'm also certainly not as leftist as I used to be until a couple of years ago, for a whole variety of reasons I can't be bothered to get into.

    It's partly why I don't post here as much as I used to.

    I’m sorry you feel you can’t express yourself here just because you sometimes disagree with the prevailing viewpoints around here. I don’t really want the place to turn into an echo chamber.


    Personally I don’t judge athletes by their social positions unless they are really, really repugnant. That’s partly because I don’t really expect athletes to have particularly educated or thoughtful takes on this stuff but it’s not just that. Put it this way: I think our treatment of animals is absolutely abhorrent and I have quite a hardcore position on that. But if I cut ties with all people who eat meat then I’d miss out on a lot of good and otherwise intelligent people. What I mean is just because someone holds a position that you consider totally wrong, ignorant or harmful doesn’t always mean they’re “bad” people.


    But that’s just my opinion. Everybody has their own limits of what they tolerate and I’m not going to attack anyone who changes their mind on an athlete because of something they did/said.

    Quote from JoanaBG

    While I'll definitely never be right-wing, I'm also certainly not as leftist as I used to be until a couple of years ago, for a whole variety of reasons I can't be bothered to get into.

    It's partly why I don't post here as much as I used to.

    I echo Sisko's sentiments (all of them), and would just like to express my selfish wish you would post more often (but only if you feel comfortable!). While I lurked around this site years ago, you were one of the members whom I most liked to read, as its clear you have a great love, passion and knowledge of the sport. While it's true this site seems to lean more progressive than is "usual" (then again, what is that?), politics are very rarely discussed and there are basically no fights or arguments about culture wars or identity politics.:win:

    There hasn't been 1 right wing politician that I could sympathize with...ever, the only ones that come close are if they're centre-right and even that rarely :rolll: So yeah that makes it quite obvious where I'm at.


    I agree with Janko when it comes to systemic racism, definitely as someone of "foreign" background in a Western country it's super prevalent in more ways than you can imagine, depends on the person, ethnicity, name etc. which ones get the worst treatment but it's not really a who has it the worst contest, it's there.


    Sadly, normally I haven't been able to talk much about it in my country, but that does make me vent online. It generally feels like my opinion is not respected or even considered here by default to a lot of people. The first reaction you'd get is: "well then you can go to your own country". So that's something I have been doing a lot as well :rolll: running away, different countries including Turkey and holding on strongly to the identity itself.


    Not to say all Western countries are the same, for example the USA gets the worst name and in some ways rightfully so. However I feel all the issues and people speaking up about it has also brought them a long way in which some of us just haven't yet here.

    Quote from Sisko

    Personally I don’t judge athletes by their social positions unless they are really, really repugnant. That’s partly because I don’t really expect athletes to have particularly educated or thoughtful takes on this stuff but it’s not just that. Put it this way: I think our treatment of animals is absolutely abhorrent and I have quite a hardcore position on that. But if I cut ties with all people who eat meat then I’d miss out on a lot of good and otherwise intelligent people. What I mean is just because someone holds a position that you consider totally wrong, ignorant or harmful doesn’t always mean they’re “bad” people.


    But that’s just my opinion. Everybody has their own limits of what they tolerate and I’m not going to attack anyone who changes their mind on an athlete because of something they did/said.

    Wow, really thank you for this. After the Serbia VNL incident, I can't seem to bring myself to like the Serbia team anymore like the way I used to, especially after one player said team USA was exaggerating. I felt like the team and whole Serbia org didn't apologize well and didn't have any remorse on what they did even before (I only found out about the racist group photo recently).


    But as I've read your post, being someone who doesn't consume animal products as well, I've come to think why I don't demand the same accountability to meat-eaters the same way I do with the ones who committed racist actions. Where do I draw the line in judging these people based on their actions/beliefs? It's something I can reflect on so thank you for this.


    Also, thank you to Postyates for opening up this discussion. May we have more human beings like you people so the world will be a better place :win:

    I myself have this conflicted view of my favorite players and their attitude towards politics and social issues;


    In a way, I feel betrayed when a volleyball player or an actor says something totally conflicting my world view, on the other hand, as sisko mentioned, most athletes are not the smartest/most educated people. So it feels unfair to expect them to be the most sensitive, activist, progressive people in a way. For instance, I am a huge fan of Naz and Eda. If one day I would see them supporting racist, homophobic politicians, I don't know how I would feel about it. They would be still great volleyball players with all the skills and decorated careers but I wouldn't feel comfortable supporting them anymore. I had that feeling on some of the scientists that I adored while growing up and learned later that they are very misogynistic/sexist (Darwin etc).


    How do you guys feel about that? Can you still support a player, singer, actor, or scientist, knowing they don't share the same vision on social and political issues?

    Quote from serdar

    I myself have this conflicted view of my favorite players and their attitude towards politics and social issues;


    In a way, I feel betrayed when a volleyball player or an actor says something totally conflicting my world view, on the other hand, as sisko mentioned, most athletes are not the smartest/most educated people. So it feels unfair to expect them to be the most sensitive, activist, progressive people in a way. For instance, I am a huge fan of Naz and Eda. If one day I would see them supporting racist, homophobic politicians, I don't know how I would feel about it. They would be still great volleyball players with all the skills and decorated careers but I wouldn't feel comfortable supporting them anymore. I had that feeling on some of the scientists that I adored while growing up and learned later that they are very misogynistic/sexist (Darwin etc).


    How do you guys feel about that? Can you still support a player, singer, actor, or scientist, knowing they don't share the same vision on social and political issues?

    I feel the same. I automatically stop idolising public figures (even if they are great in their respective fields) once they show support for racism, sexism, etc.

    Quote from serdar

    I myself have this conflicted view of my favorite players and their attitude towards politics and social issues;


    In a way, I feel betrayed when a volleyball player or an actor says something totally conflicting my world view, on the other hand, as sisko mentioned, most athletes are not the smartest/most educated people. So it feels unfair to expect them to be the most sensitive, activist, progressive people in a way. For instance, I am a huge fan of Naz and Eda. If one day I would see them supporting racist, homophobic politicians, I don't know how I would feel about it. They would be still great volleyball players with all the skills and decorated careers but I wouldn't feel comfortable supporting them anymore. I had that feeling on some of the scientists that I adored while growing up and learned later that they are very misogynistic/sexist (Darwin etc).


    How do you guys feel about that? Can you still support a player, singer, actor, or scientist, knowing they don't share the same vision on social and political issues?

    It's a bit more complicated with historical figures (and by "historical figures", for this purposes, I mean "anyone who died more than 20 years ago"), because everyone in history was at least a little some -ism.:lol: As a history lover, I'm acutely aware just how much most of the young population living today are NOT aware that modern attitudes to race, sex, gender and all kinds of identity issues are very, VERY recent.