The Olympic Indignity

Whether it’s invading the Ukraine or cheating at the Olympics, Russia’s still the hot topic of the week. So much so that it’s getting difficult to tell which is the red herring and which is the coup.

A 15-year old figure skater (apparently) rocked the Olympic world last week with a stellar performance. A stellar performance marred by a failed doping test. You’d think that should be the end of it. But nay; petitions were raised on her behalf. Not from Russia, but from the very organizations that you’d think would have a zero-tolerance policy against doping. Like the International Olympic Committee (IOC), or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), or the International Skating Union (ISU). After a few days hither-and-tither, the Court of Arbitration of Sport finally lifted her ban.

In short; the Russian wonder child can keep competing despite the evidence that she’s cheating.

At first glance, the situation may seem a bit… perplexing. That the Olympic Committee along with the World Anti-Doping Agency argue in favour that a doped athlete should be allowed to continue to compete. Seems to run in absolute opposition to their purposes, to keep the Olympic games fair and cheat-free, non?

How short memories we have… It wasn’t but seven years ago that we had the very head of the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) openly testify that the top Russian Olympic athletes were all in a Russian government doping program. Primarily for the Sochi games of 2014. This man, Grigory Rodchenkov, had been part of the Russian doping scene since the 80’s. Back when the Red Army hockey team won absolutely everything, and the DDR ran it’s infamous druggy training internments to absolutely slay world record after world record. Rodchenkov defected, told his story, and briefly got Russia kicked off the Olympic games. Briefly…

Russia returned to the Olympic games after their brief suspension. Because heaven forbid that a nation is punished because of its government’s and its athletes’ systematic cheating. The country came back. The same athletes walked out on stage. Putin’s still cheering them on. Only the flag changed.

To be fair, there is absolutely no reason to believe that other athletes don’t also cheat their fucking faces off to win glory and fame at the Olympics. Plenty of other nationalities get caught, doped out of their natural functions. Russia’s only unique in that it keeps getting caught, and that we have solid evidence that their cheating comes from all the way up the top of the political food chain. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the other “athletes” aren’t just as dirty. Because as we’ve been shown this week, even the World Anti-Doping Agency don’t seem to give as many shits about preventing doping as it does about keeping the games rolling.

As Rodchenkov said; Russia never stopped its organized doping campaigns, even when they swapped their hammer and sickle back to its imperial eagle. And it won’t have stopped once he defected and told the world. And from this young teenager’s example, it doesn’t look like the Olympics themselves have changed either. And they won’t. Because you’re still watching. You’re still glued to the charade. You still care about the noble metals parcelled out among the “paragons” of human mobility, strength, and endurance^{(supplemental additives added for flavour and performance)}. Because so long as you respect the Olympic games as anything but a rigged game for cheaters and conspiracies, they’ll keep at it.

So you just keep enjoying the games; the bread and circus. They’re certainly enjoying your attention. Who cares if they doped a child to make her dance and make you applaud. So long as you’re entertained and distracted.

/Sebastian Lindberg 15/2-2022

Big Trouble in Little Sweden

A hizzy-fit is brewing between Sweden and China. And now we have people eager to sell their souls to appease the angered dragon.

A few weeks ago, three Chinese tourists were forcefully evicted from a Stockholm hotel. The tourists had arrived a day early, and refused to take a ”you’re room was booked for tomorrow” for an answer. A video from the event shows one of the tourists falsify distress as if it was insurance-fraud caught on a dashboard-cam, shouting ”this is killing!” as he’s being carried away by Swedish police.

No killing occurred. Not even a smidgen of it. One might understand that a person raised in the Chinese autocracy might reasonably fear that being carried off by police might end in a bullet to the head. But ,#newsflash, that’s just not how Swedish authorities operate.

But the Chinese government considered this culture-clash to be police brutality against Chinese citizens. So, they demanded an apology and recompense from the Swedish government. A government, which could only shake its head and blankly state that the forceful eviction was a police matter. Neither the Swedish parliament, nor the Foreign Ministry for that matter, directly inserts its will into ongoing police investigations. Which, again, is understandable that the Chinese autocracy has trouble comprehending.

And then someone decided to throw gasoline on the embers.

A Swedish satire program sent a droll little informative video into the Chinese side of the internet, kindly cautioning Chinese tourists to behave when on foreign soil. Or get their asses kicked.

China is now threatening to close down travel to Sweden. To boycott Swedish products and companies. They even activated their youth propaganda-agents, Pissy, to tell Sweden off. All because Swedish media labours under the (supposedly faulty) impression that the Freedom of the Press also protects satire and comedy levied against the Great Chinese State.

Worse yet, Swedish companies and businessmen lambaste the media production, calling for discontinuation of one of Sweden’s most informative news shows.

Which is exactly how you sell your soul and freedoms.

What we have here is a global superpower, trying to impose their red dominion on a relatively free people. They do it by way of the wallet. The Chinese government seems to consider the Swedish nation as a puppet state. A vassal. In their eyes, they own us. To the point where it’s their right to dictate the behaviour of Swedish citizens, business’, and media. And they are not a friendly giant. Not a blank-cheque investor. They are a scary, scary empire, and a menace to any effort of free thought attempted within their domain.

Which is fine! An oppressive regime is gonna oppress. We all know that the scorpion is going to sting the frog in the back, no matter how many times we tell the story. But, and here’s the kicker, we have Swedish business’ and corporations that are going along with it. So frightened that they will lose the Chinese money in their pockets that they are willing to give up their democratic privileges to retain it. And many people here, vast swathes of the Swedish economy, has allowed itself to become so dependent on Chinese money to function, that they are willing to give anything up to keep themselves afloat. To appease their eastern overlords. And it’s those people that are the real problem here.

For if you depend on evil, you are a part of evil.

To me, there will never be enough Chinese-, or American-, or Russian money to warrant me selling my privilege to express myself freely. And if you try to take that privilege away from someone, then you are an opponent and enemy to a free society. No way ’round it.

/Sebastian Lindberg 2/10-2018