Episode 59: National Pastimes: Mindless Militarism in American Sports
Citations Needed
Citations Needed
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2018
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
F-22 flyovers, 160-foot flags draped across the playing field, full color guards, camouflage uniforms, The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, Support The Troops Nights, special perks for vets.
What is the origin of the runaway military worship so ingrained in our sports? How did our professional baseball and football leagues become so infused to our military state and what can fans of these sports do to deconstruct and pushback against the forces of jingoism and military fetishizing?
We are joined by Professor Robert Elias.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Citations Needed with Nemeshirazi and Adam Johnson. |
| 0:09.0 | Welcome to Citations Needed, a podcast on the media, power, PR and the history of bullshit. |
| 0:14.1 | I am Nemeshirazi. |
| 0:15.1 | I'm Adam Johnson. |
| 0:16.6 | Thank you everyone for listening this week. |
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| 0:40.8 | Military worship is so ingrained in sports. |
| 0:43.2 | It's difficult to know when exactly and how exactly we got to this point where it's |
| 0:48.0 | so mindless, so perfunctory and so excessive. |
| 0:51.1 | The United States has two. |
| 0:53.5 | Our Spangled Banner is played before baseball games. |
| 0:56.8 | God bless America is now played during the seventh inning stretch. |
| 1:00.4 | And also most games even feature a sixth inning salute to the veterans sponsored, no less, |
| 1:08.5 | by the United States's largest military contractor Boeing. |
| 1:13.8 | Football has hashtag salute to service promotions that donate to quote unquote military charities. |
| 1:19.8 | Three weeks out of the season. |
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