August 2, 2024
An adage that has long circulated in Republican circles is that if you want to outrage a liberal, you lie to him. If you want to outrage a conservative, tell him the truth. Unfortunately, the Paris Olympics is proving the opposite: A quest for rage has led many of my fellow American conservatives to misconstrue Greek mythological iconography as sacrilege and re-gender successful athletes to suggest foul play. First off, the Feast of Dionysius segment of the opening ceremony was not an intentionally heretical parody of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” People gathered around a table has been present in art since dinner tables and paintings entered the collective consciousness millennia ago. People thousands of years ago believed in anthropomorphic gods who had dinner together, and painted many pictures of this. Leonardo Da Vinci thought this was a powerful image to appropriate when he painted “The Last Supper,” and it is a common enough motif throughout Western art that a tribute segment for the Olympics in the cultural capital of Europe made sense to the director. What does not make sense is that people on another continent with minimal art history literacy go out of their way to believe their religion is being mocked… instead of prioritizing feeding the poor or visiting people in prison as our savior commanded. Next, let’s go to the even more easily disproven lie that two trans women athletes won boxing matches with cisgender women despite no trans women being present at either match. Reminds me of being mad at the fly in my soup despite a fly not being in the bowl. Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, citizen of one of the most repressive anti-LGBT nations in the world, stepped into the ring against an opponent with a glass jaw who went down in one punch. Her opponent’s coach soon began circulating the rumor that Khelif is a trans woman to claim a moral victory, and despite the Algerian Olympic Committee’s best efforts to verify compliance with their country’s harsh anti-LGBT legal system, the claim spread like wildfire amongst American conservatives. It is true that Khelif and another boxers have not met boxing eligibility rules regarding testosterone counts in previous matches, owing to naturally high testosterone counts, but Khelif is far from the world’s best boxer, having lost 9 matches to other women. An vindictive Italian boxing coach won that moral victory, and American conservatives are the losers in this prize fight. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Download Right Now Oregon on the Google Play Store
About the Author
