Enough with the Sochi Boycott Crap

[haruhiko]

(I posted this recently elsewhere and I'm bringing it here.)It really frustrates me that liberals outside Russia are still debating the merits of an Olympics boycott when LGBT activists/people in Russia have said that THEY DON’T WANT A BOYCOTT (or, if they do, what they want is want a POLITICAL boycott of Putin by world leaders at the Games but not

Comments

[doe_witch]

Amen. I mean, I fully admit that I'm always in an awkward position re: the Olympics because goddamn if I don't love watching at least half of all Olympic sports- I need to figure out how I can watch and morally support the athletes without effectively paying money to NBC whenever there is a fucked up location chosen for the Olympics to happen that year. (Which seems to be... constantly?) But like, if there were a properly coordinated boycott from the US team, or being impressed upon the US team, I would honor that boycott however I could, including if that meant not watching anything. Unless... you know... it would be STUPID to hold a boycott, which is what's going on re: Sochi. Since queer/trans people in Russia don't want a boycott, it's only logical to honor that- and honestly I think it's way better to be having publicly queer athletes/delegates participate in the events, so that they are visible and not silenced. (See also: why I hate Day of Silence.) I'm so down with this Billie Jean King, Brian Boitano, etc. stuff going on.

But yeah. White people here don't really give a fuck about China's actual political problems. Arch-capitalists and/or naive anti-communists just blather on about how completely evil the Chinese government is, and liberals/hippies/whatever sign up on the Free Tibet bandwagon without acknowledging that it should be about supporting the Tibetan people's autonomy and not about supporting the former theocratic Buddhist regime. Nobody wants to try economic sanctions against China, because well, yes, sanctions are stupid, but even if someone supports the concept of sanctions, they'd realize immediately how suicidal that is, considering the Chinese economy. No one would go to war with China either. Since sanctions or outright warfare are like the ways that white people here think about "solving" any political repression abroad, when you take the imperialist options off the table then suddenly everyone stops imagining anyone can do anything about China. God fucking forbid actual Chinese people suggest their own solutions and ask outside countries for help.

[haruhiko]

I haven't had a "plumbed in" TV for gosh, six years so I'm effectively in a default boycott because I watch everything via livestreaming or Youtube vids after the fact. XD HOWEVER I totally feel you re. the Lolympics, particularly for the Summer Games as there's a lot of sports I love watching. Tennis, gymnastics, swimming, diving, etc. I all love. Winter games are easier for me to boycott mainly because I am really just there for the figure skating and I haven't been as interested without Alexei Yagudin and Michelle Kwan, omfg how I miss them so. Y_Y There seriously is hard to find a not-fucked-up location for the games, like Rio in 2016 is a relatively okay choice I suppose because despite some of the horrific income inequality/racism/etc. happening there, there is also a big leftist swelling (as it were) going on down there and steps being taken to address it. But anyway yeah the BJK/Boitano/etc. delegation is the perfect response imo.

And good point re. sanctions or outright warfare being the only ways that white people envision solutions in China. It just really makes me skeptical about the way media and "experts" who didn't listen to Tibetan/Uighur activists in '08 re. boycotting Beijing suddenly want a boycott now for Sochi. I mean, yes, the situation in Russia is terrible for queer/trans people and I know the outrage held by a lot of LGBT people in the US is sincere but fuck me if some of the media outrage doesn't just come across as another form of pinkwashing.