another you-know-who moment

[Peter T. Chattaway]

Even by his usual standards, this tweet was somewhat breathtaking:

Good to see that the hockey fans of Vancouver B.C. have their
priorities straight. I don't care about hockey, but now I'm glad they
lost.

He doesn't care about hockey, but he's going to spout an opinion on the
subject anyway. Indeed, he's going to say he's "glad" that the *team*
lost because the team has such bad fans.

Like, okay, I've been telling people here at home that we, as a city,
didn't "deserve" to win if this was the way we were going to handle the
loss (and the fact that we had a riot should not have been surprising to
anyone, given what happened after the Stanley Cup loss in 1994).

But "glad"? Really?

The woman who leads my autistic son's behavioural-interventionist team is
a big Canucks fan, and I've even adjusted her schedule to allow her to
attend games. She was sad to see the team lose, and even sadder to see
how Vancouver reacted. (She was only 7 or 8 years old when the 1994 riot
happened, so she hasn't really experienced this before.)

And this guy is "glad" that she, her fellow fans, and their team lost?
Really? He wants to rub that in her face, and in all their faces?

(And I'm not even going to get into the question of how many people were
actually rioting, or how many of them might have come from out of town for
the playoffs, or how many of them might have been using the hockey game as
a pretext for general unrest. Side note: while several cars were torched
last night, one of the most-publicized vehicles was set on fire outside
the Canada Post headquarters, and Canada Post workers were locked out the
other day after a week or so of rotating strikes. Could be coincidence.
Then again, maybe not; another picture I saw showed someone trying to kick
open a Canada Post door that had a "locked out" sign in the window.)

(Okay, I guess I got into it. But the point is, none of that matters.
Even if every single rioter were a resident of downtown Vancouver who
happened to have a wardrobe full of Canucks jerseys at home, it wouldn't
change the odiousness of the tweet in question.)

There will be consequences here in Vancouver because of what happened last
night. People who thought that we had purged the post-1994 stain of
disgrace from our city by hosting last year's Olympics so successfully
will rethink that now. Security will be tightened and police will be even
more oppressively authoritarian on fireworks nights, etc.

These are painful realities that our "family" has to deal with, now.

But for someone on the outside to be so condescendingly judgmental as to
say he's "glad" that people he doesn't care about lost a game that he
doesn't care about ... well, make of that what you will.

[Mike Findlay]

But for someone on the outside to be so condescendingly judgmental as to say
he's "glad" that people he doesn't care about lost a game that he doesn't care
about ... well, make of that what you will.<

I make of it that he is an asshole. Those rioting weren't real hockey fans.
And anyone who uses the qualifier "I don't care about hockey" is either a liar
or an ahole. If you didn't care why say anything? Saying stuff like that
about hockey has become so cliche - so he also loses points for a serious lack
of creativity.


I love hockey, and I wanted Vancouver to win because the Cup needs to be back in
Canada at least for a season. But I was happy for Boston and especially Tim
Thomas their goalie, who seems like such a good guy and took the long route to
finally making it to the NHL.


Finally, the only reason he is even mentioning the riots is because they
happened in Canada and that is so unlike our perception of Canada and
Canadians. U.S. cities regularly riot after a championship even when their
teams win.


Mike F.

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[Peter T. Chattaway]

Post by Mike Findlay
Finally, the only reason he is even mentioning the riots is because they
happened in Canada and that is so unlike our perception of Canada and
Canadians.

Well, he does live just a few hours south of here, so he knows us pretty
well; and not to get all conspiraacy-theory-ish or anything, but a part of
me almost wonders if he wrote that tweet to bait me.

Ironically, just yesterday he said I was "lecturing" him on good
netiquette -- which maybe I was, but still, it was a rich accusation
coming from him, given his own propensity to "lecture", especially when he
thinks his favorite filmmakers' wishes aren't being followed.

I might be slightly sensitive on this front, incidentally, because
yesterday I drove to Bellingham while the kids were in preschool, just to
see if I could drive there and back in time (and I could!). I can't
recall the last time I drove that far south of the border without (a)
going to a concert or (b) visiting this particular person.

[n***@public.gmane.org]

Post by Peter T. Chattaway
Ironically, just yesterday he said I was "lecturing" him on good

netiquette -- which maybe I was, but still, it was a rich accusation

Post by Peter T. Chattaway
coming from him, given his own propensity to "lecture", especially when he

thinks his favorite filmmakers' wishes aren't being followed.



Or that we are not discussing "the right movies"... And God forbid you
might be interested in something he is tired of.

Thom
http://thomwade.wordpress.com/
http://www.cafepress.com/Thomwade
http://www.in-one-ear.com
_______________________________________
"I want a song to learn and sing, of a life requited."-Echo & the
Bunnymen