OneSTDV points to an incident in the stands during the US Open last Thursday. Here are the two relevant videos:
OneSTDV's take on the thing:
Context is important, too. This was a tennis event, with a fanbase that is more upscale than that of just about any other major sport save for golf. Most of the people at the Open, even the cheap seats where the scuffle took place, are dressed in summer business casual. The young guy who was assaulted looks pretty proleish by comparison (and his inept friend, whose jeans have holes in the knees, appears even more proleish) like he should be at an NFL game instead of a tennis tournament, and is clearly acting in a way that disrespects the customs of tennis spectating. He's cussing profusely, claiming that he is free to say whatever and act as he pleases since he paid for his ticket ("I don't give a fuck what anyone wants!"). The woman is apparently trying to censure him for trouncing on tennis fan etiquette.
As for the putatively despicable white knights, it is possible that they didn't see (or weren't paying close attention to) the initial spat and only took notice when the geezer and the young guy started going at it (the videos clearly show that virtually everyone in the area was rubbernecking once the two men locked horns; before that point, however, some were watching but many others were not). If this was the case, their reaction is understandable--they see a young guy hurl grandpa down a row of seats and then push a flabby bag onto the ground when she starts slapping at him for owning her father (or wife?).
But they may have just been looking for an excuse to do what they'd been wanting to do since for awhile--kick the crap out of an unruly jackass who was souring the experience for everybody around him. Regarding the zeitgeist being such that most people take the side of the old man and woman who took turns assaulting the young guy before he physically responded, the video from afar is full of comments about how the young guy was attacked and consequently is the victim in the incident. Youtube commenters are overwhelmingly of the same mind*. Those nearby the confrontation, however, have much greater hostility for the young guy and sympathy for the older couple, almost certainly because they shared the couple's sentiments--the uncouth loudmouth was ruining the matches for everyone around him and needed to STFU or be thrown out.
I'm more receptive to the argument that the fact that a pudgy hag had to confront the young guy when a man more physically imposing than the prole should've done so indicates enervation of the masculine culture in the West than I am to the argument that the subsequent subduing of the prole does.
Parenthetically, the sympathy for the young guy's right to impinge on the experience of everyone else at the Open illustrates what I see as another unfortunate shift in Western culture over time--the increasing promotion of positive rights at the expense of negative ones, a theme that underlies a host of assaults against the wishes of the majority of the American public (same-sex marriage, the Cordoba Initiative, mandatory diversity training, quota hiring, etc).
* I love how the highest rated comment is from a hardass who uses the "white knight" phrase and then proceeds to use a Starcraft analogy about how the young guy was assaulted! It is so something I can relate to (the post's title makes an M:TG analogy).
OneSTDV's take on the thing:
The fat daughter and father are completely ignored by everyone in the crowd as even more men start berating blue shirt guy. Throughout all this, the fat womanThat's not my perception of what went down. He insinuates that this is illustrative of how American men have become increasingly 'beta' over time, but I wonder at what point in time would it have been more acceptable for a healthy young guy, in self defense, to force an unknown woman or elderly man into physical submission than it is today? The gender egalitarianism of modern feminism promotes an absurd image of women as equally as capable as men in terms of physical prowess, with the consequence being that men are discouraged from treating women in a different way than they treat other men (ie, women should be able to drive racecars and step into the ring to compete against men).
points at her fallen father as if he's an innocent victim in this whole affair.
The crowd's reaction is a wonderful illustration of white knight beta syndrome and female entitlement. Of course, such displays accomplish little in a society where chivalry brands one a boring beta provider. Men can no longer rely on the societal gender hierarchy to assert their relative social dominance and thus any hint at supplicating husband status (like this one) devalues them in the post-60s, feminist-tinged sexual marketplace.
Context is important, too. This was a tennis event, with a fanbase that is more upscale than that of just about any other major sport save for golf. Most of the people at the Open, even the cheap seats where the scuffle took place, are dressed in summer business casual. The young guy who was assaulted looks pretty proleish by comparison (and his inept friend, whose jeans have holes in the knees, appears even more proleish) like he should be at an NFL game instead of a tennis tournament, and is clearly acting in a way that disrespects the customs of tennis spectating. He's cussing profusely, claiming that he is free to say whatever and act as he pleases since he paid for his ticket ("I don't give a fuck what anyone wants!"). The woman is apparently trying to censure him for trouncing on tennis fan etiquette.
As for the putatively despicable white knights, it is possible that they didn't see (or weren't paying close attention to) the initial spat and only took notice when the geezer and the young guy started going at it (the videos clearly show that virtually everyone in the area was rubbernecking once the two men locked horns; before that point, however, some were watching but many others were not). If this was the case, their reaction is understandable--they see a young guy hurl grandpa down a row of seats and then push a flabby bag onto the ground when she starts slapping at him for owning her father (or wife?).
But they may have just been looking for an excuse to do what they'd been wanting to do since for awhile--kick the crap out of an unruly jackass who was souring the experience for everybody around him. Regarding the zeitgeist being such that most people take the side of the old man and woman who took turns assaulting the young guy before he physically responded, the video from afar is full of comments about how the young guy was attacked and consequently is the victim in the incident. Youtube commenters are overwhelmingly of the same mind*. Those nearby the confrontation, however, have much greater hostility for the young guy and sympathy for the older couple, almost certainly because they shared the couple's sentiments--the uncouth loudmouth was ruining the matches for everyone around him and needed to STFU or be thrown out.
I'm more receptive to the argument that the fact that a pudgy hag had to confront the young guy when a man more physically imposing than the prole should've done so indicates enervation of the masculine culture in the West than I am to the argument that the subsequent subduing of the prole does.
Parenthetically, the sympathy for the young guy's right to impinge on the experience of everyone else at the Open illustrates what I see as another unfortunate shift in Western culture over time--the increasing promotion of positive rights at the expense of negative ones, a theme that underlies a host of assaults against the wishes of the majority of the American public (same-sex marriage, the Cordoba Initiative, mandatory diversity training, quota hiring, etc).
* I love how the highest rated comment is from a hardass who uses the "white knight" phrase and then proceeds to use a Starcraft analogy about how the young guy was assaulted! It is so something I can relate to (the post's title makes an M:TG analogy).
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