Kid Icarus

You're supposed to start with 'Bless me father, for I have sinned'

It's funny how many people pretend they didn't think that was a banger at the time.

There are always going to be blurred lines at certain times.

I thought it would be Thomas Frank

Literally every comment I've seen from him is like that that I've seen. All while calling other people childish. Strange bloke.

He's ex-armed forces isn't he?

The comments section in that video is deeply ironic with tons of projection like. People throwing their hands up saying how he refuses to define sportswashing, while embodying it. Others saying to keep politics out of football, while defending our state ownership. Others saying the protest will change nothing, while saying our Saudi ownership can be a positive vehicle for change. People calling Eddy a balanced, impartial, fair 'journalist' when he described the protestor's rhetoric as "bile" and "inappropriate" Others calling the protestors brainwashed. and then Eddy himself bemoaning how while the protestor has the right to do so, should be challenged and can't handle being questioned...ignoring that the protestor themselves are challenging the club, and then Eddy himself blocks or threatens to block people who even mildly challenge him. But yeah, sportswashing doesn't really exist. It's funny, because I've always thought of "...washing" like whitewashing - a PR cover for things, but the comments section has made realise that brainwashing applies just as much.

I thought that was really telling. "He's basically one step away from being a Marxist!" he says, not knowing that all being a Marxist really means is studying (and probably largely agreeing with) Marx's critique of capitalism. Marxism isn't a step beyond being 'extreme left' or even a set in stone political ideology on the political spectrum. There's no single Marxist Theory, two or more people can hold any economically anti-capitalist positions based on Marx's critique, but have wildly different and incompatible political stances, ideas on what post-capitalism looks like, and how it would happen, and still all be Marxists. All of the definitions for Marxism, Socialism, Communism etc all have fairly straightforward, separate definitions but are hidden behind years of propaganda and deliberately extreme mischaracterisation. The confusion is understandable, but it's also useful as a giveaway for knowing when someone doesn't really know what they're talking about when they use them interchangeably like he did.

Speak for yourself. After that Hull match my only engagement with our fans was hating and shaming those who weren't on board. Yeah, I've often thought an N-O podcast would be good. Main host, different posters every week sort of thing.

It's fucking mad how many people in the comments think they're kicking it to the man by kicking for the man. Imagine threading the needle of being so ignorant and partisan than you think you're anti-establishment by batting for fucking Saudi Arabia.

Eddie's threatened to block me for the absolute mildest of push back from me. Seems like he himself also isn't a fan of being challenged or freedom of speech. Surprise surprise.

Fools errand really. We both watched a fanbase unwilling to be moved against anything meaningful against Ashley, who they all hated. As I've said before, these protestors would have more luck selling garlic in Transylvania. If they're genuinely politically active they're strategically naive to an insane level. They've got no chance with credibility or not. Eddie from Tyneside Life already has his view as well. It's disingenuous the way he's acting like he's 'just asking questions'

What a load of shite. He's not very bright is he? The protest is bile, not appropriate, should be challenged, and there are kids around apparently. Aye, I'm sure it's them protesting that's all those things, and what they're protesting against is sound. You can tell he's cut that video of him talking to the protestor as well. Guaranteed he made that moronic "it's not a human rights abuse because they didn't sign up to the agreement" point as well.

Nowhere near imo. Shevchenko, Veron, and Mudryk all come to mind before him and loads more if I sat and thought about it.

Do those idiots protesting not realise that in some countries if they tried to protest like that they'd be sentenced to death!! They should be grateful and think themselves lucky.

I agree, form makes it difficult. Bruno sticks out like a sore thumb in that because of him being off it at the moment

Text in an image. The new digital guy has his work cut out.

This is the future US N-O posters want

Boehly and Chelsea don't seem to be concerned with trivial things like this. If they're not where they need to be, they'll want the wages off the books and as much of the transfer fee recouped as possible, but I can't see them quibling if someone came in with an £80m fee or lower. And as you say, the Saudis very well might.

That's probably total nonsense like, but if it is true something tells me he won't have much problem with leaving and Chelsea will have the opposite problem with most of the players they've signed.

It's always the ones who you'd least suspect

It's different but not too dissimilar to all of the Russians buying up properties and buying influence in the US and UK pre-Ukraine imo. I imagine part of the idea is that when the shit hits the fan (the oil runs out for example) and there's even the slightest Western temptation to suddenly decide that, actually, the Saudi state is bad and it was always bad (like we did with Russia/Abramovich etc), by that point their tentacles will be so far reaching that it would be impossible to perform the same 180 that happened with Russia. The whole Abramovich thing was an absolute clinic in media "we've always been at war with Eurasia"-level heel-turns though, and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if in the right conditions we saw our media largely go from 'we need to have the conversation' to 'obviously they're being sanctioned, having their assets frozen, and being deported' so quickly that it would give you whiplash.

Well no, there are still plenty of laws and universal morals that apply globally and broadly across cultures and societes, not just in the west or the UK. eg murder and stealing are generally illegal everywhere, at least rhetorically. There are plenty more examples that are universal rather than (unless you want to count the 0.0000000001% who think murder is fine for example) broadly subjective.

Probably not, because I imagine that's a big part of sportswashing (as adverse to that word as some people are) - that eventually the majority of fan's moral stances become murky, and so noone can say anything should improve somewhat without yet participating in society.