Dumbest thing you've seen done "For the victims" of the Boston Bombing.

THe idiot yesterday yelling Boston Strong and put a backpack with a pressure cooker with confetti in it on the course.

GottaSayIt wrote:

America loves an empty gesture more than anything.

I saw a group running from Virginia to Boston after being "Inspired by the events" last year.

They weren't even raising money for anything to do with Boston, but they were gaining attention for their group because of the marathon.

not PC but i completely agree that this whole "boston strong" mentality has become an excuse for people to draw attention to themselves. i get that many of the people who were there were deeply affected by the events. But it seems there are a lot of runners who want to act like they were affected by it who weren't even there.

Sure, a lot of us were pissed off.

but it's starting to feel more marketing than sincerity.

i suspect someone can put this in better words than what i'm trying to say.

GottaAgree wrote:

[quote]GottaSayIt wrote:

not PC but i completely agree that this whole "boston strong" mentality has become an excuse for people to draw attention to themselves. i get that many of the people who were there were deeply affected by the events. But it seems there are a lot of runners who want to act like they were affected by it who weren't even there.

Sure, a lot of us were pissed off.

but it's starting to feel more marketing than sincerity.

i suspect someone can put this in better words than what i'm trying to say.

I believe the word you are looking for is "slactivism":

slactivism- awesome.

I've never understood running a 10k "for the victims". You are just taking something terrible and making it about you.

Even if you are raising money, just ask for donations and send them to the victims! You don't need a 10k race to justify giving money.

"oh look at me I'm running a marathon FOR cancer patients." No you are NOT, you are running a marathon for YOU. Everyone is aware of cancer, so racing for cancer "awareness" is a load of BS.

Exactly.

It seems that people who have never even given Boston a second thought before are all "boston strong". It is like they are trying to make people think they have suffered some injustice to garner attention.

On the local news in Chicago yesterday the interviewed 2 clowns talking about how emotional it will be for them to go back after not finishing last year. What a crock.

I've seen a few tweets about someone that is trying to start a 'movement' for people to wear running shoes to work on Monday of the marathon.

I'm sure that will fix something.

Wearing running shoes to work would qualify as the dumbest. You win so far.

joho wrote:

I've seen a few tweets about someone that is trying to start a 'movement' for people to wear running shoes to work on Monday of the marathon.

I'm sure that will fix something.

It won't fix anything, but they know that some lame media outlet will see it as a "story."

Case in point: one of our town rags just did an article about two local runners who ran Boston last year. The article focused on the fact that they won't be running the event this year. The runners were nowhere near the bombings, and the reasons they're not running on Monday have nothing to do with what happened last year (they just had other things going on).

In other words, there was NO STORY - but an editor felt he needed a "Boston" article, and voila!

A local club here in CA had a support Boston Marathon run last spring.

They all showed up in their "I've run Boston" gear and went for a run.

That was it.

Now I grew up going to the race. I've run the race. I've got a brother that lives in Watertown and could hear the OK Corral going down. My Pops went to Rindge&Latin etc..

The whole thing was very close to home.

But I was truly bumfuzzled by how they were supporting anything. And what this display meant to them.

I thought it was weird and cheesy.

The New York Yankees will be hanging a plaque (with a big ceremony) to commemorate the visit by Nelson Mandela in 1990.

That seems pretty dumb to me. If it wasn't they would have done it before 24 years had passed.

Wal Mart is offering 50% off pressure cookers. Also, anyone hobbling into the local McDonalds on one leg, gets free fries!

Will actually cooking with pressure cookers now become taboo, similar to naming a child Adolph?

GottaAgree wrote:

not PC but i completely agree that this whole "boston strong" mentality has become an excuse for people to draw attention to themselves. i get that many of the people who were there were deeply affected by the events. But it seems there are a lot of runners who want to act like they were affected by it who weren't even there.

Sure, a lot of us were pissed off.

but it's starting to feel more marketing than sincerity.

i suspect someone can put this in better words than what i'm trying to say.

This is America, bro. We exploit everything for profit for as long as possible. That's what we do. It's a business opportunity.

Oh yea, the dumbest thing I have run across is that patriotic blabber coming out of Joe Biden's mouth for the quote of the day.

another load of greatness wrote:

The New York Yankees will be hanging a plaque (with a big ceremony) to commemorate the visit by Nelson Mandela in 1990.

That seems pretty dumb to me. If it wasn't they would have done it before 24 years had passed.

That has nothing to do with the boston marathon.

Making an rah, rah patriotic speech and telling people it was worth it.

Universal Sports is going to "show the race" instead of paying their dues and respects to the victims. Truly disgusting. This is worse than last year's NYC 'thon. #BanBoston #BostonStrong #LiveStrong

Thank goodness for an anonymous message board, where I can offer an opinion I wouldn't dare voice in public.

Yesterday I heard on NPR a really moving story about one of the victims who lost a leg. I got all choked up with various aspects of the story. Until the very end, when she explained that she's going to the finish line again this year, since she goes every year. That's fine, except that the plan is that she will come down out of the stands as someone is about to finish--maybe a first responder who helped her last year and is running this year?--and cross the finish line with him.

It reminds me of the 9/11 fire fighter hero who ran NYC after some incredible number of surgeries. As he was about to cross the finish line, his friends shoved other runners and blocked a chunk of the line so the guy could get down and do some pushups.

Does anybody else get irritated by these stunts, or am I approaching curmudgeon status more quickly than I thought?

[quote]vivalarepublica wrote:

This is America, bro. We exploit everything for profit for as long as possible. That's what we do. It's a business opportunity.

^^^THIS^^^