Boycott the Olympics

[One Eyed Cat]

Does anyone else believe we should boycott the 2008 Olympics in Beijing? I'm quite annoyed that we are giving coin to a demonstrably repressive government. I believe we validate their behavior by going there.

I know it's about coin and "free trade". It will be difficult not to at least watch futbol for me. I believe the United States should boycott the Olympics. 1980 is an apt precedent imo.

OEC

[Bacchus88]

Boycott isnt going to solve anything, China for damn sure doesnt care about the US. Is about the only thing I hate about Capitalism there is no loyalty to ones nation. Ceo of Walmart has to make one the phone call. That boycott is over, 1 day not even that minute the US came out with press release. Walmart would on the phone with DC.
I am against walmart, I think boycott would make a statement across the globe. But the realty of it......

[One Eyed Cat]

Boycott isnt going to solve anything, China for damn sure doesnt care about the US. Is about the only thing I hate about Capitalism there is no loyalty to ones nation. Ceo of Walmart has to make one the phone call. That boycott is over, 1 day not even that minute the US came out with press release. Walmart would on the phone with DC.
I am against walmart, I think boycott would make a statement across the globe. But the realty of it......

I know it wouldn't change China's policies. It just kind of disguists me that we polish that turd by even engaging their state-sponsored athletic teams in sporting matches. I think a boycott would help people to understand the issue better. I know it probably won't happen.

OEC

[Bikerpunk]

Um, China may end up fucking itself hard in the ass.

It has already broken its multibillion dollar agreement with NBC by saying that it is now NOT going to allow live broadcasting of the games, instead, on time delay so that people cannot make statements or run on the field with FREE TIBET.

People want to watch the games, not a "best of" compilation of what the Chinese government wants whitewashed. I'd say they have more than enough rope to hang themselves with.

[One Eyed Cat]

Um, China may end up fucking itself hard in the ass.

It has already broken its multibillion dollar agreement with NBC by saying that it is now NOT going to allow live broadcasting of the games, instead, on time delay so that people cannot make statements or run on the field with FREE TIBET.

People want to watch the games, not a "best of" compilation of what the Chinese government wants whitewashed. I'd say they have more than enough rope to hang themselves with.

Hopefully, people will see that government for what it is: thugs and despots. Trade policies should reflect this reality amongst (relatively) free countries.

OEC

[Bikerpunk]

Hopefully, people will see that government for what it is: thugs and despots. Trade policies should reflect this reality amongst (relatively) free countries.

OEC

Actually, we get a damn good deal out of China. They lend us the money we need to buy their very cheaply made products. They get all the pollution and attendant hassles behind such production, too.

[One Eyed Cat]

Actually, we get a damn good deal out of China. They lend us the money we need to buy their very cheaply made products. They get all the pollution and attendant hassles behind such production, too.

Fuck em anyways. They can free Tibet and the other provinces that are sick of their bullshit. Wal-Mart Shoppers can tighten their belts.

OEC

[Bikerpunk]

Fuck em anyways. They can free Tibet and the other provinces that are sick of their bullshit. Wal-Mart Shoppers can tighten their belts.

OEC

The problem is we don't manufacture anything anymore.

[One Eyed Cat]

The problem is we don't manufacture anything anymore.

We do. It just costs more. I buy my stuff from independent businesses that make the clothes in-house. As the demand grows, the supply will return.

OEC

[Bikerpunk]

We do. It just costs more. I buy my stuff from independent businesses that make the clothes in-house. As the demand grows, the supply will return.

OEC

Sure, but where are ya gonna get the cloth? Unfortunately, where the rubber meets the road, there's pollution, and the tree huggers chased that out of this country decades ago.

I'm not talking about the finishing touches on the materials. I'm not talking about someone taking a sheet of metal and using a cutter to make it into a sign. I'm talking about the sheet of metal itself.

Buddy of a buddy of mine invented an awesome hammer. Cheapest he could get it made here was $26 a unit. The Chinese gave him the same item at $7 a unit. Same quality.

[One Eyed Cat]

Sure, but where are ya gonna get the cloth? Unfortunately, where the rubber meets the road, there's pollution, and the tree huggers chased that out of this country decades ago.

I'm not talking about the finishing touches on the materials. I'm not talking about someone taking a sheet of metal and using a cutter to make it into a sign. I'm talking about the sheet of metal itself.

Buddy of a buddy of mine invented an awesome hammer. Cheapest he could get it made here was $26 a unit. The Chinese gave him the same item at $7 a unit. Same quality.

Diversify. India. There are a number of countries we could buy from. Also, there is plenty of material that can be produced here. Trade with China is not a necessity.

OEC

[Morning Glory]

do we have to turn this into the same old debate, yeah it's environmentalists that are fucking over the world, if we just let everyone go about their business and slash and burn the whole globe, then we could magically pay people a living wage while having products that cost a dollar.

it's bullshit and it's totally ignorant of the way things work. you know why china can produce the things that cost a dollar and it costs us 50 times as much? because they don't have a problem with poisoning their children (no hippie environmentalist laws) they don't pay people for the raw materials or the use of thier land, they just take the land and kick all of the people off of it or arrest them if they don't give it up, and because they don't pay people five dollars and hour for 8 hours a day, they pay then five cents a day for 12 hours, just enough so that they can barely keep from starving to death, because a dead worker is no good.

Anyway.. back OT...

Sure the Olympics is all just political bullshit. But not for the athletes, they are the people that truly want to compete against their peers. Its for them, not for their government or business. So give them that chance. if you don't want to watch it because you hate china, then don't. but don't deny the US athletes that have trained so hard a chance to prove what they can do.

Remember the Olympic games in Berlin? We could have boycotted that, but instead we stuck to our guns and Jesse Owen's smoked the "master race". That's the best way to show them up.

[Bikerpunk]

do we have to turn this into the same old debate, yeah it's environmentalists that are fucking over the world, if we just let everyone go about their business and slash and burn the whole globe, then we could magically pay people a living wage while having products that cost a dollar.

it's bullshit and it's totally ignorant of the way things work. you know why china can produce the things that cost a dollar and it costs us 50 times as much? because they don't have a problem with poisoning their children (no hippie environmentalist laws) they don't pay people for the raw materials or the use of thier land, they just take the land and kick all of the people off of it or arrest them if they don't give it up, and because they don't pay people five dollars and hour for 8 hours a day, they pay then five cents a day for 12 hours, just enough so that they can barely keep from starving to death, because a dead worker is no good.

Anyway.. back OT...

Sure the Olympics is all just political bullshit. But not for the athletes, they are the people that truly want to compete against their peers. Its for them, not for their government or business. So give them that chance. if you don't want to watch it because you hate china, then don't. but don't deny the US athletes that have trained so hard a chance to prove what they can do.

Remember the Olympic games in Berlin? We could have boycotted that, but instead we stuck to our guns and Jesse Owen's smoked the "master race". That's the best way to show them up.

I'm not railing against environmentalists.

I happen to be thankful it's their kids being poisoned and not ours.

But the truth of the matter remains: we cannot boycott them.

[Morning Glory]

if by that statement you mean we can't keep all of our goods and luxury items at the same economic cost, then yes that is true.

my point wasn't that it's just about environmentalists. it's that you can't have you cake and eat it too. you can't have cars and computers, and all the shit that we have and have a clean environment, cheap prices, and high wages for everyone. somethings gotta give. and for most people high wages, and clean environment seem to be the one's to go... but with an ever increasing addition to high prices as well. people will still pay for these perceived benefits even when the cost (both in money and beyond) insanely outweighs any real benefit.

[Amelia G]

On a micro level, I think that a boycott would be a terrible thing to do to our athletes.

On a macro level, I think we are economically in serious trouble if we piss China off and, if America wanted to tell China how to do things, we needed to make some different decisions leading up to now.

[Velvet-Tongue]

Chinas in serious trouble if they piss us off as well. Do you have any idea how many bouncy balls, plastic spoons and "Princess" thongs we buy from them a year?

[Mr Karl]

haven't we always known that china has a tendancy for oppression, I'm sure that there's a lot of history too between the whole china and tibet thing that we know nothing about

[Amelia G]

Chinas in serious trouble if they piss us off as well. Do you have any idea how many bouncy balls, plastic spoons and "Princess" thongs we buy from them a year?

All they have to do is revalue their currency, and we won't be buying anything from anyone outside the US.

[Morning Glory]

and some would see that as a good thing. of course we need to totally reevaluate our domestic infrastructure to accommodate that, as we pretty much threw it out the fucking window. But there are a lot of sustainable and sensible markets that exist on the local level and I think they could suffice if people just gave them enough support. (wow, that sentence was very alliterative. haha.)

[goodthink]

I don't think the issue should even be blown into larger, more complex social issues.

The fact is, breathing the air in Beijing is like sucking on a tail pipe. I am not sure we should subject athletes to that mess, that it is fair to ask them to compete under those circumstances, and yes on a larger level, whether china should be further rewarded having created that environment.

[One Eyed Cat]

On a micro level, I think that a boycott would be a terrible thing to do to our athletes.

On a macro level, I think we are economically in serious trouble if we piss China off and, if America wanted to tell China how to do things, we needed to make some different decisions leading up to now.

I think we need to take the pain now both ways. I believe we still can rise to the occasion and rebuild our own economy. We will sooner or later as it stands.

OEC

[One Eyed Cat]

I don't think the issue should even be blown into larger, more complex social issues.

The fact is, breathing the air in Beijing is like sucking on a tail pipe. I am not sure we should subject athletes to that mess, that it is fair to ask them to compete under those circumstances, and yes on a larger level, whether china should be further rewarded having created that environment.

[Mr Karl]

Chinas in serious trouble if they piss us off as well. Do you have any idea how many bouncy balls, plastic spoons and "Princess" thongs we buy from them a year?

yeah..like we have what it takes to make our own anymore

[Bacchus88]

The problem is we don't manufacture anything anymore.

hit the nail on the head... with the dollar being weak, you would think Manufacturing would come back. Export would go up and support those jobs.. Free Trade another enemy of keeping jobs in the US.

If you want to boycott someone hit up Wal Mart that would en turn effect china. Its double edge sword for me, I am business owner also. I buy good from China, i am guilty of that. For to stay in the market I got to.... I really want to take the moral good for country stance on this, but then turns into my lively hood..

[Bikerpunk]

hit the nail on the head... with the dollar being weak, you would think Manufacturing would come back.

Not if we lack the infrastructure and expertise to do it.

[One Eyed Cat]

hit the nail on the head... with the dollar being weak, you would think Manufacturing would come back. Export would go up and support those jobs.. Free Trade another enemy of keeping jobs in the US.

If you want to boycott someone hit up Wal Mart that would en turn effect china. Its double edge sword for me, I am business owner also. I buy good from China, i am guilty of that. For to stay in the market I got to.... I really want to take the moral good for country stance on this, but then turns into my lively hood..

Already do boycott Wal-Mart (and their former Counsel Hillary Rodham Clinton).

OEC

[Bacchus88]

Bravo OEC.....Hope everyone would do the same if they feel strongly enough about this isseue

[evilstonermonkey]

ive never bought anything from walmart in my life.

[Black Spiral Dancer]

I think we should openly boycott the games. As many nations as possible. They are claiming this is the sort of thing threatened the 1936 Berlin games, and that the sport should be the focal point, not the politics. They claim it was Jesse Owens' greatest moment. I do believe that Hitler refused to give Jesse Owens his Gold Medal (refusing to believe "an inferior Negro" could be better than a member of the Aryan Master Race) You tell me that was not political. Would the Chinese leader refuse to give a gold to a Tibetan athlete that was repatriated in another country? I bet that they wouldn't go anywhere near the podium.

[Velvet-Tongue]

Gotta agree with BSD there 100%. The Olympics are not about athletes; its about their home nations. Its a big nationalistic dick waving and pride party.

[evilstonermonkey]

Gotta agree with BSD there 100%. The Olympics are not about athletes; its about their home nations. Its a big nationalistic dick waving and pride party.

agreed... for everyone except the athletes.

[Mr Karl]

The russian(ussr) olympics a way back were boycotted......the only result being that those athletes had to wait longer to compete. In fact now that I think about it, any statement it might have made(can't recall any) was forgotten real quick.

Boycotting the olympics is just a way to not have to face a problem

besides, the olympics are about the medals..............period

[Black Spiral Dancer]

If we aren't going to boycott, then we should make statements by having uniforms that say Free Tibet. They can't stop a whole team from wearing the team uniform/tracksuit.

[evilstonermonkey]

heh, but now that theyre censoring the feed, they can blur it...

but since thatll be obvious what it says anyway, itll raise awareness even more

[SyntheticShock]

I'm upset that China is destroying homes over the Olympics, they want to beautify the area in which the Olympics will be held, so they are tearing down many buildings, apartments, restraunts, etc. So approx. 1.5 million people will be homeless before the Olympics start. And all to make room for the media, athletes and attendees. Ridiculous I say.

[One Eyed Cat]

I'm upset that China is destroying homes over the Olympics, they want to beautify the area in which the Olympics will be held, so they are tearing down many buildings, apartments, restraunts, etc. So approx. 1.5 million people will be homeless before the Olympics start. And all to make room for the media, athletes and attendees. Ridiculous I say.

Yeah. Fuck those sociopathic "for the people" assholes. I can't even process what they get away with.

OEC

[SyntheticShock]

Yea, and of course none of those people got offered any type of compensation.

[One Eyed Cat]

Yea, and of course none of those people got offered any type of compensation.

That's true. The Soviets did the same to my family. I guess not shooting them was just compensation. Glad they weren't farmers. They weren't as lucky out on the steppes.

OEC

[Bacchus88]

communism.....

[Mr Karl]

communism.....

a capitalist china..........I don't know if the worlds ready for that yet