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

[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.