Megan Rapinoe's gave one of the best speeches I've ever heard today at City Hall

This thread is the best example of why this site sucks balls.

She said good inclusive things. The president says divisive things.

What don’t you effing Moran’s understand about that?

Megan Rapinoe has no desire to speak to you.

U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe is a team player. She fights for her sport, defends her teammates, and even carries that mentality off the field and into the political arena — which means that anyone who isn’t on her ideological team isn’t welcome.

After the U.S. women’s soccer team won the World Cup, Rapinoe said she would only meet with politicians who shared her worldview. “Yes to AOC, yes to Nancy Pelosi,” Rapinoe said. “Yes to the bipartisan Congress, yes to Chuck Schumer, yes to anyone else that wants to invite us and have a real, substantive conversation, and that believes in the same things we believe in.”

Of course, President Trump doesn’t make the cut.

"I don’t think anyone on the team has any interest in lending the platform that we’ve worked hard to build and the things that we fight for and the way that we live our life. I don’t think we want that to be co-opted or corrupted by this administration,” Rapinoe told CNN when asked whether she’d accept Trump’s invitation to the White House.

Protesting political ideas is acceptable and even necessary, at times. Certainly, there are issues that demand a bold statement of opposition, even if that means refusing an invitation to the White House.

This isn’t unprecedented or even exclusive to one political party. Several members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins refused to meet with former President Barack Obama in 2013 because they disagreed with his administration. Larry Bird famously skipped the Boston Celtics’ visit to the White House to meet with Ronald Reagan after winning the 1984 title. And on and on.

But Rapinoe’s declaration of exclusivity suggests this is more than just a statement. It’s a deliberate attempt to shut herself off from different opinions and ideologies. This is futile and dangerous. It’s pointless because regardless of how hard we might try to wall ourselves off from ideas we disagree with, it’s impossible to turn around without being confronted by a different set of ideas that challenge our carefully placated worldview. In these polarized times, it’s easy to forget that countless opinions on a variety of minute subjects exist across the nation.

And this is a good thing. We should gladly listen to those we disagree with. Ideas exist to be challenged. Refusing to entertain opposing ideas runs the risk of removing the distinction between the humanity and politics of a person. It creates an indissoluble barrier that prevents you from looking at another human being and seeing anything but the things you dislike. This distinction is imperative if we are to live and work and support each other in a society created and defended by "we the people."

You would think Rapinoe understands this based off of her speech on Wednesday, in which she declared that the only way forward is to “love more, hate less.”

“We’ve got to listen more and talk less,” she said. “We’ve go to know that this is everybody's responsibility, every single person here. Every single person who's not here, every single person who doesn't want to be here. Every single person who agrees and doesn't agree.”

Every single person — unless, of course, that person is Trump. I get it. Rapinoe has her political positions, and she’s committed to them. But committed belief in a certain set of values is best demonstrated by an open willingness to challenge and defend those ideas. I hope Rapinoe’s tribalist declaration was a semantic blunder. Because if we’re only in this for our teams and our ideas, we’ll miss out on the best part of a free society grounded in open dialogue.

It might seem difficult to drop the political guard, but it’s not: I might disagree with Rapinoe’s political opinions, but I’ll gladly cheer for her on the soccer field any day.

Moran’s Moran’s Morans wrote:

This thread is the best example of why this site sucks balls.

She said good inclusive things. The president says divisive things.

What don’t you effing Moran’s understand about that?

Are you really this dumb?

Trump invited Megan and the team to the White House -- THAT IS INCLUSIVE.

Megan has said she will not visit the White House - THAT IS EXCLUSIVE.

Can someone tell me what she has said and done that result in these comments? Something more than just "I'm not going to the f'ing White House" and kneeling during the anthem and celebrating when scoring like everyone else does.

"so full of hate, so arrogant"

"has made the World Cup more about her than the team"

"narcissist who did her best to be hateful and divisive"

"It speaks for the entity that wants to destroy our nation and other nations"

No, 100% of people who meet Trump do not end up liking him. There are plenty of business people, politicians, former cabinet members and others who have met with Trump and dealt with Trump and do not like him. I don't deny that he can be charming when he chooses, and is willing to say lots of things in person that he won't back up later (like the drug transparency project he promised and then killed this week), but that doesn't always translate to people liking him.

She didn't start the 'Twitter battle', Trump did. She responded to an unexpected question from a reporter several months ago. After her response was aired during the WC, Trump decided to make it a Twitter item.

And speaking of hypocrites, Trump originally tweeted that the team was invited, but after the victory started to waffle.

Why do you ignore that Trump started waffling on the invite this week?

And what exposure to different views and ideologies will the team get going to the WH, eating fast food, and getting a picture taken? Sports teams going to the WH are not policy summits.

Fatty R. Belt Buckle wrote:

Are you really this dumb?

Trump invited Megan and the team to the White House -- THAT IS INCLUSIVE.

Megan has said she will not visit the White House - THAT IS EXCLUSIVE.

Maybe she does not want to get grabbed by the p***y. Legitimate concern given the occupant of that house.

During Obama's presidency I wrung my hands over his tendency to seem to remain "too cool for school", or above the fray, but I generally wished for him to act more aggressively toward those who sought to take him down. Then Donald ushered in an entirely new and twisted era in which virtue signaling, on both left and right, took on outsized importance, amplified by horrible new patterns for information amplification as consumption. Now, almost everybody who cares about national politics lives in one of two bubbles.

As someone who eschews both extremes and avoids spending time in either bubble, it is easy to identify bubble dwellers by the terminology and patterns of speech they use. I have become afraid of both ends of the spectrum, even more so by lack of insight clear in the absolute certainty and isolation with which they operate.

As a once leftie I have become wary of the left just as much as the right in today's world. It's easy as pie to see that Trump is unhinged in many ways, but I'm dismayed at the extremes-matching that I see on the left as they make their arguments. Those who try so hard to highlight his transgressions have become similar to him in frightening ways. Don't believe me? Spend an hour or two on HuffPo or DailyKos to get an idea of the similarly unhinged identity-based and divisive hate-mongering that goes on on the left. Read user comments. It's every bit as ugly and divisive as outlets like Fox, which I never ever would have believed could happen even few years ago.

I have come to believe that Obama was prescient. He was smart to remain out of the fist-fighting mode of politics because it is ugly and leads to more ugliness. I despise the current trend of upping-Trump-on-aggression that I see on the left. I also hate the seeming divisiveness of what should be heroic figures on any side of the aisle. I see Rapinoe as divisive and narcissistic in the current "look at how phuukiing cool I am yo" style of self-promotion. No dignity, no sense of reference, absolute false equivalency regarding equal pay issues, just borderline fraudulent in presentation. If identity issues can only be tackled with screaming self promotion, demands for attention and vitriol, then I want no part.

TrumpForever wrote:

Of course wrote:

How fitting on LRC that the first reply is a troll claiming hypocrisy whose moniker is TrumpForever - all in response to someone calling for unity.

Not a troll. Want her to come have a dialogue instead of engaging in a Twitter war. 100% of people who visit Trump end up falling in love with him. Look at Kanye.

Of course the problem is all she will have to do is show up to talk and the left will turn on her. Look at Kanye.

"Instead of engaging in a Twitter war."

...

...

What the heck. Your moniker is TrumpForever and you are criticizing someone else for engaging in Twitter war. You can't make this crap up.

Sally Vix wrote:

She can't go to the White House. She would never be forgiven by the radical Leftist who despise Trump to the core.

Who scares you the most?

Megan Rapinoe, Serena Williams, Caster Semenya or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

What do all these women have in common and why are they subjected to pages and pages of vile attacks on LR?

"Well-behaved women rarely make history."

This thread just a reminder how awful people (men) are in this place.

considerthis wrote:

Sally Vix wrote:

She can't go to the White House. She would never be forgiven by the radical Leftist who despise Trump to the core.

Who scares you the most?

Megan Rapinoe, Serena Williams, Caster Semenya or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

What do all these women have in common and why are they subjected to pages and pages of vile attacks on LR?

Why would Megan, Serena or Caster scare me in the least bit? They are wonderful athletes and deserve all the praise that they receive. AOC DOES scare me because she is influential and is trying to change the country in a very bad way. A $90 trillion New Green bill that would wreck the US economy, open borders, and many other measures to transform what is now a very vibrant economy to something that would be ruinous.

Everything she said in that speech was negated by that last disgusting statement. So disrespectful to anyone who doesn't like hearing foul language. What about the young kids that were watching this? Their parents try to keep them from using language like that and the n this person who they look up to dies that? Not the time or place for that.

I wonder if AOC's Parents gave her the initials AOC because it stands for Articles of Confederation.

TrumpForever wrote:

Of course wrote:

How fitting on LRC that the first reply is a troll claiming hypocrisy whose moniker is TrumpForever - all in response to someone calling for unity.

Not a troll. Want her to come have a dialogue instead of engaging in a Twitter war. 100% of people who visit Trump end up falling in love with him. Look at Kanye.

I'm sure that 100% of the women he sexually assaulted fell in love with him. I'm sure that 100% of the hundreds of contractors he stole from fell in love with him.

Nice but of misandry there.

Just a reminder wrote:

This thread just a reminder how awful people (men) are in this place.

Fatty R. Belt Buckle wrote:

Trump invited Megan and the team to the White House

No he didn't. He said they should win first. Then he said he would invite them win or lose. His most recent statement after the victory was "We haven't really thought about it."

Trump has a habit of withdrawing invites but in this case he has yet to make one. If nothing else, trump is definitely wishy-washy.