Bob McNair simply told the truth

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 1:44pm

Houston Texans owner Bob McNair supposedly made a gaffe.

At a meeting of NFL officials earlier this month to discuss the protests, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said, “We can’t have inmates running the prison,” ESPN reported.
Troy Vincent, a former NFL player, responded to McNair, saying that his comment was offensive and that he did not feel like an “inmate” during his NFL career.

Why, oh why, would someone described as a team OWNER get the idea that the people he employed weren't free?

"...vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen whom we pay for mere manual labor, not for artistic skill; for in their case the very wage they receive is a pledge of their slavery."
– Cicero, De Officiis

"Nor is it to be wondered at that the standard of morals is not higher among us, that respect for the rights of property is not stronger. The power of life and death held over labor which says you shall work for me on my own terms or starve, is a source of crime, as well as poverty.
Weeds do not more naturally spring out of a manure pile than crime 'out of enforced destitution....
No more crafty and effective devise for defrauding the southern laborers could be adopted than the one that sub-stitutes orders upon shopkeepers for currency in payment of wages. It has the merit of a show of honesty, while it puts the laborer completely at the mercy of the land-owner and the shopkeeper. He is between the upper and the nether millstones, and is hence ground to dust."
- Frederick Douglass

It does seem curious that a billionaire capitalist might think that he had some control over the people he employs.
After all, capitalism is all about freedom, right?
That's what I've been told.

For instance, when the alarm clock wakes you up in the morning so that you can go to work, isn't the first thing that pops into your mind, "Oh goody! I get to go practice freedom!"

Isn't freedom on your mind when your boss tells you what to do at work?
Or how to act? Or how to think?
Or when he tells you to piss in a cup?

We may never know why billionaire owner McNair talked about his employees as mere property, but you can be certain that he respects the people who's lives he controls.
And the same goes for all of our owners.
We are all totally free.

"It is the impossibility of living by any other means that compels our farm labourers to till the soil whose fruits they will not eat and our masons to construct buildings in which they will not live ... It is want that compels them to go down on their knees to the rich man in order to get from him permission to enrich him ... what effective gain [has] the suppression of slavery brought [him ?] He is free, you say. Ah! That is his misfortune ... These men ... [have] the most terrible, the most imperious of masters, that is, need. ... They must therefore find someone to hire them, or die of hunger. Is that to be free?"
- Simon Linguet

Tags:

Bob McNair

Wage Slavery

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Comments

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 1:51pm

Amazing how they sometimes tell the unvarnished truth...

because that's how they THINK.

The trick to selling a lie is believing it, and clearly capitalists don't actually believe the shit they spew any more.

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 2:01pm

It's amazing that I haven't seen other people notice this

@detroitmechworks
All of the coverage I've seen has been "It's an unpardonable gaff. And isn't everyone offended?"

It occurred to me this morning, "Wait a sec. This isn't a gaff at all. It's a Freudian Slip."
And "Why has no one else noticed?"

Submitted by Big Al on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 3:08pm

Richard Sherman of the Seahawks came out with that

@gjohnsit and it's a common sentiment among the players at this point.

"I can appreciate ppl being candid. Don’t apologize! You meant what you said. Showing true colors allows ppl to see you for who you are."

https://twitter.com/RSherman_25/status/923939690167726080?ref_src=twsrc%...

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 3:26pm

My only issue here

@Big Al
based on the comments, is that people believe McNair was saying something racist.
He may have, but it's a lot more likely that it was simply a capitalist/labor-relationship statement.
After all, not everyone he employs is black.

“Inmates running the asylum” Is a common metaphor. The use of prison in this context is revealing.

— Justin Briggs (@justinbriggs) October 27, 2017

Submitted by Big Al on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:01pm

Good point, that's what I was alluding to below,

@gjohnsit that this won't be viewed as broadly as it should. It's about much more than racism.

Submitted by k9disc on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 5:03pm

Sherman Is One Sharp Cookie. Love That Guy! nt

@Big Al

—

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 6:05pm

@Big Al

@Big Al @Big Al

Couldn't believe the people on Twitter saying that 'not letting inmates run the prison' is a common phrase? I've never heard it before, and to hear any employer say this of his employees - let alone a billionaire owner of predominately Black players protesting the routine and undiscouraged police murder and false arrest, increasingly often for slave labour, of Blacks, often apparently for freaking breathing - shows exactly what he is!

I'll say that the lunatics are running the asylum, of the lunatics running the US political asylum, because they seriously are lunatics... and that really is a common phrase often said jokingly. And I'd expand the use of that phrase to that fat-egoed owner, who no doubt is one of those buying political influence and running the asylum at at least State levels, to get stadiums built for him at taxpayer expense.

Edit: clever me, so typically noticing a letter-typo just after pressing 'post'...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Amanda Matthews on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:42pm

I saw it and got upset but I was told I was

@gjohnsit
‘reading “shit into it (the situation) that isn’t there” and I was over-reacting “as usual”.

Sometimes it’s just pointless to argue.

—

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Submitted by k9disc on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 8:31pm

I'm Getting to the Point of Jimmy Dore. I'm About Ready to

get pretty aggressive and "colorful" when arguing certain things.

I hope I can keep my shit together so I don't go all off half cocked, but part of me is relishing the idea of some righteous indignation.

@Amanda Matthews

—

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Submitted by Creosote. on Tue, 10/31/2017 - 6:10am

Looking forward to that, k9

@k9disc
Feel fortunate to have been following you from ToP to now and find your directness enormously valuable.

Submitted by edg on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 2:07pm

"You can't handle the truth!!" n/t

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 11:06am

Apt.

@edg

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by Mike Taylor on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 2:13pm

Wrong metaphor.

Maybe he should have said "The field hands have taken over the plantation"
That would more accurately describe the wage-slave concept (or the deviation from).

—

Mike Taylor

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 2:31pm

Both metaphors work

@Mike Taylor
He might be talking about today's $1 Billion industry (in the Land Of The Free).

Submitted by Big Al on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 3:17pm

What I don't see being said is

how this mirrors society as a whole. This is how the upper class views the lower class in it's entirety, not just with the sports teams they own. This is actually how our political system is set to operate, to keep the inmates from running the asylum.

It's actually a golden opportunity that will be passed by over the selfishness of the rich pro sports athletes, many of who belong to and fully support the One Percent, similar to the flag issue. This could be expanded to be a major narrative for a working class movement but will instead be diced and sliced into meaningless measures restricted to pro sports. In the end, they won't really bite the hand that feeds them.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 1:01am

This is true

@Big Al

and once again, we see people who are agreeing with the owner class

"Those people shouldn't be protesting while they are at work. If they want to do something about it, they should spend their money and fix the problems instead of disrespecting the flag and our military who gave them the power to protest" and other types of nonsensical statements.
And of course not one of the people that are upset about the protests have said anything about what they are protesting.
But I'm sure that if they did say anything about why they are protesting, it would be the same type of comments that they say whenever a black person gets killed by the police.

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by dfarrah on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 11:59am

Well, I don't

@snoopydawg agree with the whole protest thing in the middle of a game, and I've long been a strong supporter of labor and civil rights.

What did they accomplish? They just pissed off a good portion of Americans and diverted the discussion away from racism to patriotism.

I think Bernie was able to talk to a hostile crowd about abortion rights without pissing them off; maybe people should take a lesson from him. After all, we all have to live together.

—

dfarrah

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 1:39pm

Kaepernick and the few others that were protesting

@dfarrah

weren't trying to make a political statement but a social one. Kaep just said that he won't stand for the national anthem until there was actually 'liberty and justice for all'

It was Trump who made the protest political after he opened his mouth and said that any player that didn't stand should be fired. This was the dawg whistle that brought out all the military worshipers and they helped fan the flames.

I used to love watching the football games until the players started congratulating themselves for doing what they were being paid to do. Case in point: a team is down by 40 points and someone takes out the quarterback and then gets up and hops around like he just saved the game. BFD he took him down because his team is still losing.
Plus all the damn commercials takes the momentum out of the game. I first prescribed to cable in 1992 when there were no commercials period. In between baseball innings, I watched the players stay lose.
This commercial free went away when DirectTV bought out Primestar and other cable networks got in the game.
If I want to watch a game now, I'll watch it for free through my indoor antenna I cut cable 3 years ago and have found another way to watch anything I want for free.

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 10/30/2017 - 11:49am

To be fair

@dfarrah

Well, I don't agree with the whole protest thing in the middle of a game,

It's not in the middle of a game; it's before a game.

And when has kneeling EVER been offensive?
if kneeling is offensive to someone then they need to get a grip.

Submitted by Deja on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 5:41pm

My dad's cousin said "they should protest something else"

@snoopydawg
Most people don't know what they're protesting. Most think it's about hating the whole damn country and troops.

I've begun asking exactly how and where would you suggest they declare enough is enough of killing unarmed black people, if not on the public stage?

I have yet to receive an actual response.

Marches get them called thugs and offers opportunity for cops in "thug" clothes to incite riots, then cops get to smash skulls. Win-win for the cops.

Where else can they be seen better than national television during the religion of god forsaken football?

Side note: just saw footage of almost entire Texans team kneeling, now in protest of McNair. Jfc, it's totally off the rails now. Sigh . . .

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 10/30/2017 - 11:51am

If that's the case

@Deja

Most people don't know what they're protesting. Most think it's about hating the whole damn country and troops.

If people are that ignorant, then the protest is absolutely necessary.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 4:55am

Do you remember the 1975 film, Rollerball?

@Big Al

That's what comes to mind for me, as a sports parable that mirrors present day society.

Coincidently, the movie was set in 2018, which must have seemed impossibly distant in 1975. A plot summary reads:

In a futuristic society where corporations have replaced countries, the violent game of Rollerball is used to control the populace by demonstrating the futility of individuality. However, one player, Jonathan E., rises to the top, fights for his personal freedom, and threatens the corporate control.

Rollerball, like football, is a sport that provides physical violence, which is wildly popular in a violent warring nation, like the US. Casting the team owners as corporations gives the story a unique authenticity in the present.

ROLLERBALL takes place in a near future in which nations, bankrupt and defeated in the “corporate wars” no one quite remembers, have been replaced by the “majors,” multinational monopolies dividing control of the six sectors of the economy: Transport, Food, Communications, Housing, Luxury, and Energy. A superficially reasonable (in the sense that laissez-faire capitalism is also “reasonable”) premise here is that the abolition of nations, with their “tribal warfare,” and the establishment of sound business practices in the running of the world could and would lead to an economy of abundance, in which some are privileged, but in which all are provided for.

And provide they do. No scene between the games reveals less than conspicuous luxury. But the ideological line is drawn late in the film by Jonathan E., noting: “People made a choice back then between having all them nice things, and freedom.” “But comfort is freedom,” Ella answers, and he responds, “Them privileges just buy us off.” As his Corporate sponsor Bartholemew puts it, “All [Corporate Society] asks, all it has ever asked of anyone, is not to interfere with management decisions.”

Sound familiar? It should. It's the world we live in now, the exception being we're not far along enough in the New World Order to have "forgotten" how we got here. But that's coming soon. The dumbing down will continue, internet sites will be seized, information will be manipulated, changed, "lost" or expunged and all our attentions will turn even more to the bright shiny mindless entertainment and consumerism offered in place of critical thinking.

One young reviewer on Amazon shares some unique insights into the movie:

For those who did not live in the 60's and 70's, for those who grew up in Generation X or Y, they may not EVER understand the context of the social-economic concerns of the post war era that this movie brings to the screen. It is not filled with FX and foul language; it has little of the fast-paced sensory numbing violence that later generations thrive on. No wonder they do not understand what a great movie this is, ebbing with its soft and muted sequences contrasting with waves of unglorious violence that consumes the sports world.

Rollerball, in 1975, addressed the power of corporate influences and its control over society, which would emerge in the future. Today, we experience corporate influence over government decisions, feel their advertising influence in every walk of life — and in the behavior of my generation.

Corporations making decisions for society, people's limited access to information, and staged violence to maintain social order are major points of concern for the film. Using taxpayers money to reinforce corporate strength, while pursuing and enforcing policies using shock and violence is exactly what we have today. What comes next in our own society is to digitize all printed words, eventually eliminating paper versions. In this way, all knowledge can be edited and controlled so citizens only find what they need to know, not what they want to know.

Rollerball foresees a time when all activities of human life are of, by, and for the corporations.

Trailer. Check it.

Submitted by Big Al on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 4:59am

Oh ya, excellent comparison.

@Pluto's Republic I liked that movie, will have to watch it again, this time with a different lens.

There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.
But there is something happening.

#4

That's what comes to mind for me, as a sports parable that mirrors present day society.

Coincidently, the movie was set in 2018, which must have seemed impossibly distant in 1975. A plot summary reads:

In a futuristic society where corporations have replaced countries, the violent game of Rollerball is used to control the populace by demonstrating the futility of individuality. However, one player, Jonathan E., rises to the top, fights for his personal freedom, and threatens the corporate control.

Rollerball, like football, is a sport that provides physical violence, which is wildly popular in a violent warring nation, like the US. Casting the team owners as corporations gives the story a unique authenticity in the present.

ROLLERBALL takes place in a near future in which nations, bankrupt and defeated in the “corporate wars” no one quite remembers, have been replaced by the “majors,” multinational monopolies dividing control of the six sectors of the economy: Transport, Food, Communications, Housing, Luxury, and Energy. A superficially reasonable (in the sense that laissez-faire capitalism is also “reasonable”) premise here is that the abolition of nations, with their “tribal warfare,” and the establishment of sound business practices in the running of the world could and would lead to an economy of abundance, in which some are privileged, but in which all are provided for.

And provide they do. No scene between the games reveals less than conspicuous luxury. But the ideological line is drawn late in the film by Jonathan E., noting: “People made a choice back then between having all them nice things, and freedom.” “But comfort is freedom,” Ella answers, and he responds, “Them privileges just buy us off.” As his Corporate sponsor Bartholemew puts it, “All [Corporate Society] asks, all it has ever asked of anyone, is not to interfere with management decisions.”

Sound familiar? It should. It's the world we live in now, the exception being we're not far along enough in the New World Order to have "forgotten" how we got here. But that's coming soon. The dumbing down will continue, internet sites will be seized, information will be manipulated, changed, "lost" or expunged and all our attentions will turn even more to the bright shiny mindless entertainment and consumerism offered in place of critical thinking.

One young reviewer on Amazon shares some unique insights into the movie:

For those who did not live in the 60's and 70's, for those who grew up in Generation X or Y, they may not EVER understand the context of the social-economic concerns of the post war era that this movie brings to the screen. It is not filled with FX and foul language; it has little of the fast-paced sensory numbing violence that later generations thrive on. No wonder they do not understand what a great movie this is, ebbing with its soft and muted sequences contrasting with waves of unglorious violence that consumes the sports world.

Rollerball, in 1975, addressed the power of corporate influences and its control over society, which would emerge in the future. Today, we experience corporate influence over government decisions, feel their advertising influence in every walk of life — and in the behavior of my generation.

Corporations making decisions for society, people's limited access to information, and staged violence to maintain social order are major points of concern for the film. Using taxpayers money to reinforce corporate strength, while pursuing and enforcing policies using shock and violence is exactly what we have today. What comes next in our own society is to digitize all printed words, eventually eliminating paper versions. In this way, all knowledge can be edited and controlled so citizens only find what they need to know, not what they want to know.

Rollerball foresees a time when all activities of human life are of, by, and for the corporations.

Trailer. Check it.

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 3:22pm

Not a slip at all he meant it as said.

Submitted by Wink on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 3:54pm

They don't call them

"slave wages" for nuthin'.

—

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:04pm

They Hate Our Freedoms!

Because every sentient being should hate the wage slave system known as American Democracy.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by NonnyO on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:31pm

Don't you mean gaffe?

Gaffe = an unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to its originator; a blunder.

Gaff = (Two definitions)
1. a stick with a hook, or a barbed spear, for landing large fish.
2. in Sailing = a spar to which the head of a fore-and-aft sail is bent.

—

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:58pm

gaff

@NonnyO

Gaff = (Two definitions)
1. a stick with a hook, or a barbed spear, for landing large fish.

In Bob McNair's case, looks like he landed him a fine specimen of Schindlereria Praematura with his gaff(e).....

(Good to see you. NonnyO!)

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by lotlizard on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 5:06pm

Yet another meaning of “gaff” that’s not in the dictionary:

@NonnyO
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gaff+cross-dressing&t=ffsb&ia=web

Submitted by irishking on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 7:38pm

the answer

@lotlizard

to the "unsightly male bulge" problem.

new one to me! haaahaha.
thx.

Submitted by irishking on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 8:11pm

terry keith

@lotlizard

whew.

Submitted by Ellen North on Mon, 10/30/2017 - 3:10pm

@irishking

@irishking

If they're going to gaff back such a delicate area, I'm guessing that they'd darned well better have a low spark... inflation could be painful!

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 7:18pm

@NonnyO Hey, NonnyO! Long time.

@NonnyO Hey, NonnyO! Long time. Great to see you.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Centaurea on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 8:15pm

McNair's prison

All of the comments I'm hearing (not here at c99, but on social media and the MSM) are focused on the NFL players. "He called them 'inmates'. That's offensive to them. They're not inmates!"

When I first read McNair's statement, I found it jarring, but for a different reason. My focus was immediately on the second part of his statement: the prison. I thought to myself, "Did he just call his company a prison?"

Yes, he did. McNair was calling his company a prison. He openly stated that he is running a prison. He owns and operates a prison, and makes a lot of money from the labor of the prison's inmates.

Viewed from this perspective, the reference to his employees as "inmates" wasn't primarily about them, but rather about himself, and by extension, about the entirety of corporate America.

—

"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

Submitted by BrutallyHonest on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 4:50pm