An absolutely appalling sentiment from this minority investor in the NBA's San Francisco-based Golden State Warriors franchise -- whose biggest star has been tight-lipped on Chinese abuses, and whose head coach is an preening leftist and China apologist -- but give the man some points for honesty. By saying out loud that he doesn't care about the Chinese Communist Party's ongoing genocide against racial and religious minorities, he is simply giving voice to the attitude of the NBA broadly, as evidenced by its actions. The league's deeds practically scream, "we don't care about the slave labor, re-education camps, and serial rape because there's a lot of money to be made," so it's instructive for someone to stand up and just say the words outright:
Owner of the @warriors?? says he doesn’t care about the Uyghurs.
— Michael Sobolik (@michaelsobolik) January 17, 2022
The conversation goes downhill from there.@chamath…
- questions whether a genocide is actually happening
- says the CCP isn’t a dictatorship
- says the US is no better than the CCP pic.twitter.com/qAwi7hUPvo
Will there be any fallout from anyone other than Enes Kanter Freedom, now that his weak, perfunctory apology has been released (see below)?
When @NBA says we stand for justice, don’t forget there are those who sell their soul for money & business like @chamath the owner of @warriors,
— Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) January 17, 2022
who says “Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs”
When genocides happen, it is people
like this that let it happen
Shame! pic.twitter.com/27j2GxGhCU
Are there any other circumstances under which corporate America, with all their performative wokeness, would sit silently by in the face of egregious and systemic human rights violations against minorities? Where are the 'Silence is Violence' people? Answer: In too many cases, they're looking the other way because of business opportunities, while also debating whether it's actually un-woke to condemn a brutal Communist regime, comprised of non-white people, loathed by conservatives. Protecting Commies and abandoning oppressed Brown Bodies to own the cons. The Warriors' part-owner (and Virgin Galactic's chairman) also isn't alone in defending Beijing as not a dictatorship, and drawing a perverse moral equivalency between that dystopian totalitarian regime and the United States of America. Allahpundit has more:
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The most obnoxious part is when he demonstrates that curious blend of callousness and wokery to which old-school lefties would resort when asked about the crimes of the Soviet Union. How can I care about human rights abuses over there, says the conscientious progressive, when there are so many human rights abuses over here? Only when our own house is in order can a right-thinking American justly complain about another country’s unjust regime, Palihapitiya argues. Beijing couldn’t have put it any better.
Unfortunately, he's speaking for a lot of people, especially in elite lefty circles. They only care about injustice (real or invented) if the circumstances confirm their priors, allow them to flaunt superiority over domestic political adversaries, and if professions of caring are likely to be profitable. This will all likely blow over for the same reason that there hasn't been any sort of widespread corporate boycott of the forthcoming Beijing Olympics -- in spite of China's COVID lies and cover-up (millions are dead), international law and human rights assaults in Hong Kong, regional military bellicosity, large-scale espionage and IP theft, and of course the genocide. There's just too much at stake to take a meaningful stand against such things. So the show goes on, and powerful executives say things like this. But here on the home front, states are boycotted over culture war issues, and major events are yanked and relocated over politics. She asks a good question:
So Georgia can’t host the MLB All-Star Game, but the CCP can host the Olympics?
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) January 17, 2022
Some of her critics on the Left are answering this challenge hyper-literally: Doesn't Laura know that MLB is a private American entity making decisions about their business, whereas the Olympics is an international event and organization? These things are totally separate, dummy. That's not the point. The point is that elite American figures and interests applauded Major League Baseball for stripping Atlanta of the All Star Game over the unhinged lies of a group of political activists (egged on by the President of the United States). Justice and equity and democracy simply could not countenance that sporting showcase being held in Georgia, you see. But many of these same people have nothing at all to say -- or offer notably muted, 'nuanced' reactions -- regarding the CCP hosting the Olympic Games while actively engaged in a genocide against Muslim people of color. What's the moral justification for this double standard? That's the question. And the honest answer comes down to politics and money, not justice or human rights.
Another point, via a friend: Former LA Clippers owner was drummed out of the NBA (banned for life, fined millions) after it was revealed that he'd said racist things in the privacy of his home while being secretly recorded. Here's an NBA part-owner proudly stating in public that he doesn't care about an anti-Muslim genocide that's literally underway right now. What are the standards here? Slap on the wrist statement, and move on, I guess:
Warriors statement re: Chamath Palihapitiya: pic.twitter.com/zUl6i9sOve
— Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) January 17, 2022
Will they say what, specifically, they disagree with, and why? That would involve criticizing China, so don't count on it. Parting thought: Does this guy have any Muslim employees who might be disturbed by their boss's stunningly cavalier indifference to an active genocide against their religious brethren? And does this cut it? We know what he said and how he said it. It accurately reflected his views. And what are the rules around NBA culture, given the Sterling episode? Also note how he promulgates the China/US moral equivalence:
Important issues deserve nuanced discussions. Some clarifying comments: pic.twitter.com/St2jccsu05
— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) January 18, 2022
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