rien de rien

David Hockney , R.I.P.

British , 1938- 11 - 06 - 2026

Have you guys seen that clip

with the sharks pfp, it's within the bubble of sports fandom, where there's an expectation of us vs. them mentality. however, there's a difference between shall we say a recreational us vs. them mentality (thank you @filthyjanuary for referring to the boston bruins as our brothers in a cain and abel way) as opposed to genuine vitriol based on real or perceived moral infraction. And, you know, sometimes it's a very real and very hideous moral infraction. Milan Lucic. Patrick Kane. Carter Hart. and so on. but sometimes there appears to be an urge to expand the perception of moral infraction to include all players, all athletes, all jocks, rhetorically flattening the whole nhl into a sort of homogeneous sludge of equally debased villains in order to give one the excuse to hate whomever one wants to hate while feeling righteous about it. detachment and broad condemnation as a form of pre-emptive self-defense, both external and internal.

with the hr fans calling nick shane, it's people outside sports looking in, with the same homogeneous sludge of equally debased villains, but without the specificity. they're not necessarily thinking "it's okay to dehumanize a real jock, because real jocks are problematic," but it may come through in the form of "it's so much safer to love/admire a fictional jock than a real one" and then metastasize from there into dehumanizing behavior.

But yeah you’re right sometimes this accusation goes too far. Like for example are they all cheating on their wives/gorlfriends? No, that would be ridiculous. But have they all at some point not said something when they saw evidence of one of their teammates cheating on their wife or girlfriend on a roadie or something? Idk, I think that’s probably a fair assumption to make.

this is not to say that there are not monstrous athletes. some of these guys thrive in the cult of sport in exactly the wrong way. some of these guys love to think of themselves as lions and everyone else as civilians and to abuse the social power of their position relative to, for example, women. but, to borrow another lesson from we breed lions, for every heinous dickhead doing evil shit, there's probably a guy getting hazed so bad that reading about it makes you want to puke. and the guy getting hazed is kind of trapped. the guy getting hazed doesn't know how to do anything but play hockey, and i don't think it's ultimately fair to him to expect him not to conform or to talk like he's just as responsible for the cultural rot as the guys doing the hazing.

Troglodytes troglodytes [ミソサザイ,Eurasian Wren]