I’m not even going to try to rationalise where that came from…. But it does remind me of another very annoying habit that GG has, of offering to go into a ring with hostile callers ! He did it again last night, with a well spoken articulate (for a change) Zionist supporter; it is only me that finds this childish tactic very embrassining ? Why resort to trying to win an argument with a physical fight when he can win any Zionist argument with facts, truths & justice points ?
It must make the people in the refugee camps feel so much better about their lives that at least some of the supporters of the army and airforce that's attacking them are well-spoken and articulate.
The only implication here is the incorrect one that you drew from the point that I was making. A fairly simple point I thought ; if somebody insists on broadcasting his eccentric views on a certain subject; it both undermines their judgement per se, and it gives ammunition to their critics.
But my point is that it is not "eccentric" to consider boxing a noble sport. It's a fairly standard point of view. I myself don't agree with him, as you'll have read from my first couple of posts in this thread. I voted in the poll that Karl won the argument.
The difference of opinion I have with you is not that I think boxing is noble and that George is right (it isn't, and he isn't), but that you are suggesting that there are dangers to his credibility because of his viewpoint, and that he is leaving himself open to attack and ridicule by those who seek to put him in that light.
This is simply not true. If you think of the sort of racist, idiotic, knuckle-scrapers who usually despise George, then it's very easy to see that, if anything, his love of the violent art of boxing would heighten him in their estimations. The things that are used against him are incidents such as the red leotard, or the Rula Lenska improv, and they are useful in anti-Galloway circles because they are anecdotes that can be spun to make George seem effeminate. A love of boxing is really not going to be useful to the sorts of morons who irrationally hate him, because they themselves are often blood-thirsty tossers who like the idea of a good, "manly" fight.
Thank you for a considered reply Kate. Cutting straight to the chase as GG likes to say, let me put my case in greater detail;
When I call GG’s view on boxing as “eccentric”, I’m being very generous because despite you saying that it’s a “fairly standard” viewpoint, I had never ever hear it before, and it just strikes me as extremely ridiculous because by definition two men trying to knock each other out for money & to provide entertainment for others, is surely the very opposite of “noble”. It’s because it’s such a daft notion that GG lost the first debate I can remember him losing, and lost it so humiliatingly & convincingly that Karl wasn’t able to stop himself laughing in disbelieve at his irrational defence. GG desperate attempts to throw up smokescreens about Cuba etc & attacking Karl instead of the issue at hand, are the sort of tactics that people on GG’s political side normally criticise others for. I agree that his love of boxing is really quite irrelevant as a topic in itself, but being unable to justify the claim that it is noble, and then by attacking both the man & the straw-man, GG only succeeded in making himself, & by extension his supporters look like hypocrites, which is not good.
For longer than I care to remember, years before Big Brother, I have defended GG from his critics because I rate him along with Tony Benn as a very rare thing; a brave & honest Politician who actually cares. His attackers would always seek to rubbish him in everyway possible, such as claiming he is a champagne socialist because of his expensive suits, that he admires dictators like Castro, that he doesn’t represent his constituents properly, that he is a self-publicist hijacking causes to promote himself, that he is anti-Semitic etc, etc. Some of his detractors were/are indeed complete morons, but many are sharp & sly who pick up the smallest inconsistency & irrationality. For example, I have no doubt that next time GG is in the headlines for calling the Iraqi Resistance or Hezbollah/Palestinians Fighters etc as noble or fighting for a noble cause, some will try to ridicule him & cheapen his comments by highlighting that GG’s definition of “noble” now extends to include two men trying to cause brain damage to each other for money.
I have no doubt that next time GG is in the headlines for calling the Iraqi Resistance or Hezbollah/Palestinians Fighters etc as noble or fighting for a noble cause, some will try to ridicule him & cheapen his comments by highlighting that GG’s definition of “noble” now extends to include two men trying to cause brain damage to each other for money.
When that happens - which I predict it won't - I will acknowledge that you were right.
"When that happens - which I predict it won't - I will acknowledge that you were right."
I wish I could share your optimistic confidence. If I as a supporter can see the dangers both in the way he dealt with Karl, and in his lauded of boxing as “noble”, than I’m sure that his hate-driven critics can see the opportunity of using more sticks to beat him with, perhaps slimeballs like Johann Hari & his ilk.
Time will tell if your optimism or my “if you knew Slimeballs like I know Slimeballs” is proven to be correct.
By the way I have already seen criticism & ridicule of GG’s way of handling critical callers, “either shouting them down, cutting them off, threatening to sue them, or offering to fight them !”, a gross exaggeration to be sure, as GG more than most allows callers normally to have their fair say, but his childish habit of asking callers to step into the ring only fuels such malicious misrepresentations. I read somewhere that GG is Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Boxing Committee, so perhaps all this is just his attempts to promote a sport that he loves, but this carries both a cost & a risk, which he, more than most, should always be aware of.
there's no doubt those are pretty sickening, but Galloway did emphasise (later) that he was talking about the amateur sport - which is a lot different.
Here's a video that shows how useful some training is...
That's fair enough, Face. I know someone who has been a black belt at Kung Fu for 6 years and is trying to set up his own dojo, so I understand that self defence is a good thing. I've seen this guy do no-handed backflips in the street and stuff, and if he's ever mugged, his mugger is going to be fucked, but that's different than competitively trying to give someone brain damage.
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