Take a Look at Who Just Gave Nike's Colin Kaepernick Their Seal of Approval
Folks seem to generally be displeased with Nike for hiring Colin Kaepernick to the be the face of it’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign, what with all of the former 49ers quarterback’s politically divisive rhetoric and all.
However, there’s at least one individual out there who’s a big, big fan of Kaepernick and he just recently launched into a tirade against NFL teams for not singing the social activist to be their quarterback.
Who is this man?
Former president of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Not really the kind of ringing endorsement an athlete covets, right?
“The #NFL season will start this week, unfortunately once again @Kaepernick7 is not on a NFL roster. Even though he is one of the best Quarterbacks in the league,” tweeted Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday night (h/t Allahpundit).
The #NFL season will start this week, unfortunately once again @Kaepernick7 is not on a NFL roster. Even though he is one of the best Quarterbacks in the league.#ColinKaepernick #NFL
— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (@Ahmadinejad1956) September 3, 2018
That enthusiastic endorsement for “one of the best quarterbacks in the league” contrasts starkly with Trump’s take on Kaepernick. In response to reports that Nike negotiated a new “star” deal with Kaepernick, Trump told The Daily Caller Tuesday that he thinks Nike is sending a “terrible message and a message that shouldn’t be sent.”
Despite his low opinion of Kaepernick’s unpopular protest movement, Trump added, “As much as I disagree with the Colin Kaepernick endorsement, in another way — I mean, I wouldn’t have done it — in another way, it is what this country is all about, that you have certain freedoms to do things that other people think you shouldn’t do, but I personally am on a different side of it.”
Speaking of constitutionally protected freedoms, NPR host Steve Inskeep offered some thoughts on what was truly behind Ahmadinejad’s endorsement of Nike’s Kaepernick:
When I interviewed Ahmadinejad, he—like other Iranian officials—practiced “whataboutism.” He responded to criticism by changing the subject. When asked about Iranians imprisoned for protesting, Ahmadinejad replied that the United States imprisons “all sorts of people,” and that millions were behind bars. In this way he avoided answering for the acts of his own government.
Americans have come to know whataboutism as a prime rhetorical tool of President Trump, who regularly claims others are guilty of the offenses of which he is accused. (“No puppet,” he said in 2016 when Hillary Clinton questioned his ties to Russia. “You’re the puppet!”)
Advertisement - story continues belowAnd whataboutism is the most straightforward way to understand Ahmadinejad’s NFL tweet. In effect he is saying, “See? You Americans punish dissent, too.”
At the end of the day, it seems the former Iranian president was just looking for some way he could avoid the real question by flipping it around and lobbing it back in our direction. It’s deflection at its finest.
The whole deal with Kaepernick is evidence that all it takes to be successful in 21st century America is to adopt a progressive talking point and relentlessly stick to it.
It’s truly a sad time in American politics.
Source: Daily Wire
