Lets do our small part to fight the butchers of bejing! - DONT WATCH THE OLYMPICS!

[BlueButGlad2]

We can't let the immorality of China's brutal actions go unpunished. Mimimize the propoganda boost China is hoping for by joining a boycott of TV viewership of the summer olympics!

Just today:


Los Angeles Times / July 9, 2008
BEIJING - The museum visitors file past black-and-white photos from the early 20th century showing Tibetan children in filthy rags begging for food on the streets of Lhasa.

They cluck their tongues at a display case with a wooden cage for imprisoning disobedient serfs and wooden blocks used for crushing fingers when the cage wasn't punishment enough.

Then they move into the second room of the exhibit "Tibet of China: Past and Present," where color photographs show images of rosy cheeked children, modern houses, and grinning nomads marching with a portrait of Mao Zedong.

The exhibit running through July 25 at Beijing's Cultural Palace of Nationalities

"See how evil the Dalai Lama is!" says a middle-aged woman to a boy she is leading by the hand, referring to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

In 1950, the Dalai Lama was 15 years old when the Chinese Communists took over Tibet, but the exhibit blames him for the ills of pre-Communist Tibet.

"Dalai Lama had all kinds of costly foods and wore silk or satin clothes, living a luxurious and dissipated life," one panel said.

Revered in the West as a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama, 73, is one of the most reviled figures in Chinese propaganda. Even as his envoys were in Beijing last week trying to revive stalled negotiations, the Communist Party chief in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, accused the Dalai Lama of trying to disrupt the upcoming summer Olympics and "destroying Tibet's stability and political harmony."

Chinese children are taught from kindergarten that the Communist Party liberated the Tibetans from slavery and that Tibetans are grateful to the Chinese, except for a few malcontents egged on by the Dalai Lama. In the aftermath of an anti-Chinese uprising that began in mid-March, the largest such protest in two decades, the exhibit seemed designed to corroborate the party stance on Tibet.

[DebbieCDC]

1. I have no intention of watching

Wouldn't watch if it was in Bejing or Boston. I have no interest whatsoever.

[Growler]

2. K&R

[Vinca]

3. In a purely nonpolitical move, I won't be watching.Boring, boring, boring. nt

[provis99]

4. the Olympics are irrelevant since they were politicized by Hitler

who cares if they're on or not?

[Better Believe It]

5. I'm Looking Forward To Seeing The Opening Ceremony On HDTV

I bet it will be astounding!

Probably the best ever.

Chinese-Americans and Chinese people all over the world will be proud on that day.

I hope the TV camera's don't show the butcher of Iraq, George w. Bush, during the ceremony.

[Virginia Dare]

11. Another excellent reason not to watch..

you know his drunk-ass mug will be all over the teevee.

[Better Believe It]

16. Most People Are Not Paying Attention To The Mythical "Boycott Movement"

Most people won't pay much attention to a few isolated groups and individuals who want to make the Olympics political, be it a few misguided souls from "the left" or right-wingnut cases.

So they can go ahead and watch their soap operas while hundreds of millions of us watch what will probably be the most exciting Opening Ceremony and Olympics ever held.

[Virginia Dare]

26. Great, and be prepared to bow to your Chinese masters..

once the whole spectacle is over.

[Ignis]

24. I'm sure Bush agrees with China on the evils of the Dalai Lama.

Can't have that lunatic running around spouting off about peace and freedom, now can we?

[bean fidhleir]

6. What's funny is how this article sneers at the Chinese for blaming the DL

but according to Tibetan Buddhism, he *IS* responsible, since he is the reincarnation of the DL who was in charge of the country before the chicoms invaded.

[Mojambo]

7. Done. The Olympics are boring as fuck

And total corporate produced garbage.

[Virginia Dare]

8. Not watching one minute of it..

I do not condone supporting the Chinese government in ANYTHING.

I will not support the corporatization of the Olympics. It's become more about the "celebrities" and less about the athletes.

[KamaAina]

9. Can't I at least watch the taped human-interest pieces

about the water polo player whose kitten died when she was six? :sarcasm:

[RebelOne]

10. I never watch the Olympics anyway. Doesn't interest me.

[Robbien]

12. Faux News owns the cameras for the US media market on the Olympics

So of course watching it is out of question.

[ComtesseDeSpair]

13. No Problem

I hate the summer Olympics anyway. What a snorefest.

[RufusTFirefly]

14. I used to love watching the Olympics but...

... the slick corporate-laden packaging and jingoistic, brain-dead editorializing in recent decades has totally turned me off to them. What made the Olympics wonderful was that they were real and unpredictable with amateur athletes pouring their hearts out, not simply pre-chewed filler for Coca-Cola ads.

[Occam Bandage]

15. The Chinese mother has a pretty good point.

Tibet was a theocratic serfdom before the Chinese takeover. China's political-rights record is monstrous, but Tibet was hardly a great place to be beforehand. While human rights remain squashed and political dissent is forbidden, literacy, lifespan, and income have all increased markedly under Chinese rule--and the Chinese are, with the exception of their stance towards the Dalai Lama (and horrifyingly overreactive responses to violent protests), far more protective of Tibetan culture than most countries are their minority groups.

The Chinese are generally pretty darn respectful of all their minority groups, and they do attempt to lower poverty rates for all people, Han or not. On the other hand, they take absolutely any claim of political or moral authority to be a declaration of war. It's not a simple good/bad situation.

[Romulox]

27. George W. Bush has a good point. The US' political rights record is monstrous, but IRAQ was hardly

a great place to be beforehand...

:puke:

[AwakeAtLast]

17. I had already decided that when they closed down factories to improve air quality

That's what I want to see - a bunch of wheezing athletes!

They keep trying to put more lipstick on the pig, but I think they are going to have to use the whole tube. x(

[ForrestGump]

18. Wasn't going to, anyway

Don't watch TV these days (watch lots of movies on DVD but I canceled my cable TV when I realized I never watched it) and, besides, Olympics coverage usually sucks to an extreme, mainly because of the jingoism apparent not only in the moronic commentary but in what events are covered. I haven't watched an Olympics since Atlanta, and even then I only watched a couple of events (I was working the Olympics but got sick in the process and wanted to see how it turned out at the venue). The golden days of the Olympic Games, for me, were three decades ago.

Not sure exactly what effect a personal boycott would have, other than a metaphysical and personal-spiritual one, but I'll gladly call my not-watching-anyway a boycott. I was all set to make my way to China, backpacking all the way, before the Tiananmen Square strife changed my mind, so denying my inner sinophile because the régime's comprised of a bunch of corrupt pigs is hardly a new concept to me.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. Here's a useful page. Hint, hint.

I've always liked Whoppers better than Big Macs. And Renaults are better cars than VWs. Etc.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/90/53/column211995390.shtml

[Disturbed]

20. Busholini will be there to represent America.

Don't we have to watch to show respect to our Glorious Leader of Freedumb?

:puke:

[philly_bob]

21. Unless Dalai Lama asks, I'll enjoy watching it, esp. Opening Ceremony.

The DL is entirely capable of asking on his own. Has he?

[Oeditpus Rex]

22. I wouldn't anyway

The last Olympics I watched were the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Near as I can tell, that was the birth of American jingoism in sport. It disgusted me.

[SoCalDem]

23. Viewership drops with every Olympics..especially the ones many time-zones away.

Older folks, like myself, can remember when the Olympics was a SPORTING event, and whole competitions were featured..It was fun to watch the time trials, and the whole event was covered. By watching the lead-in to the finals, it made the eventual winner MORE exciting to watch, and I enjoyed watching all the competitors from other countries, even if the YOOESSAAAAY ended up with the gold..

Once the entertainment side of the media got hyper-involved, the whole thing got carved up more than a Thanksgiving turkey, and it's impossible to be involved in it.. They only show us the finals, and they have pre-selected the "stars" FOR us...and have up-close-&-personal film vignettes to tug at our heartstrings..

You can bank on the "stories", from Olympics to Olympics..

1) an old athlete, still trying ..against all odds to finally win their medal..:cry:
2) a young waifish girl, raised in poverty by an ailing Mom..trudging, daily to the gym..in the dark early morning hours before school :cry::cry:
3) a cancer/polio/car accident/asthma/explosive diarrhea survivor, bravely soldiers on to win a medal :cry::cry::cry:
4) a war hero, determined to win a medal for his beloved country :cry::cry::cry::cry:
5) the soccer match between two countries who fought each other in wartime-now united in friendly competition:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:
6) a Katrina survivor, straight from FEMAville, determined to win a medal :cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:
7) (insert any sob-story here)

the really sad thing is that with ALL the stations available to cable/satellite viewers, there should be something ALWAYS on.. Even in the "olden days" they used to show real-time coverage of events in the wee hours of the morning.. I can remember flipping channels in the middle of the night, and ending up watching fencing, or weight lifting or long jump or race-walking or some other event that just happened to be going on, across the world somewhere..

The anchors & anchoresses are the "real" stars of the Olympics.. We see too much of them sitting around discussing what happened, and of course the endless commercials..and way too little of the actual sports..
Let's hope this model never catches on with the movie industry, or we'll see a bunch of people sitting around discussing the book, followed by vignettes of the "stars"..and finally the movie...well really just the last 10 minutes of the movie..who needs to be bothered watching the story unfold over 2 hours, when you can just "cut to the chase", watch a few commercials, listen to the "experts" and just find out how it all ends..

Olympics-Cliff Notes..that's what we get now:(

[aspergris]

25. I will watch - my friend made the team and will be competing. Olympics SHOULD be non-political

While I have ... SERIOUS ... issues with Chinese government, there are two reasons I will watch.

1) My friend is competing. She made the Olympic Weightlifting Team, and I am very excited for her.

2) I don't like politicizing the Olympics. Remember we went to the Olympics even when they were held in Nazi Germany. And of course Jesse Owens put their "master race" crap to bed.

The Chinese Government SUCKS but the Chinese Athletes are competing just like athletes of other countries - free ones like ours, or those from um... (how can I put this delicately) NOTFREECOUNTRIES(tm) like China.

I am not watching the Olympics to promote China. I am watching them to promote the spirit of goodwill among men/women/athletes, and in the classic Citius Altius Fortius manner.

[Romulox]

28. If you support a candidate that supports "free trade" with China, where is there room to complain?

[Renew Deal]

29. I will be watching the Olympics beginning to end.

An I will be sporting an Olympic avatar on DU. None of this has to do with the athletes and I want to see them at their best.

[The Stranger]

30. What about the Butchers of Washington?

Not the same alliteration, I suppose, no?