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- I’ve heard the national anthem thousands of times, almost exclusively at sporting events. We don’t play it before concerts or movies. We don’t play it at family gatherings. And now, at sporting events, we’ve added military tributes. Former Army Ranger Rory Fanning knows a lot about this stuff, so I call him. We talk about history and war. We talk about honoring soldiers at hockey games. ... Hockey games. Here’s what Rory tells me: “These ceremonies ... started with good intentions, but those are excuses now. We know better. ... We need to start thinking critically about this.”
enjoyablethings · 3208 days ago · link ·
It feeds into the "warriors, competition, badasses, woohoo, USA!, USA!" thing. I think it's a way for people to transpose those competitive feelings about sports into nationalism. Vaguely thinking about war as an international competition.