RUSH: They have just figured out… The NFL has taken a poll, National Football League. They found out they have lost 17% of their fans, at least 17%. Here’s the report.
GASPARINO: The league’s embrace of social justice issues apparently is resonating with enough fans that the ratings are off. And they found that of all the things people are listing of why you’re boycotting sports, why you may not watch a sports game, 17% of all the respondents — and that was the highest number — said it was the embrace of social justice issues that all sports are doing that’s turning people off.
Now, does that mean Americans are largely racist? I don’t know if you can make that point. I’m someone who doesn’t care about one knee. I — I — I support it. I don’t think it’s the most provocative social justice statement in the world. But a lot of, uh, NFL fans who generally trend conservative, heavily military, middle class, not rich, they don’t like it, and, uh, y’know, you gotta know your customer out there.
RUSH: Right. So all of us are racist. Charlie Gasparino just figured it out. “Well, I don’t know, but maybe. Does this mean Americans are largely racist? I don’t know if you can make that point. But, for me, I’m somebody that doesn’t care about one knee. I support it.” Charlie, you know, for all the other things you talk about, you’re reasonably bright and intelligent.
This isn’t hard to figure out. This is not hard to understand. I’ve been explaining this to people for a couple of years. I actually think it’s more than 17%, and so does the league. Did I keep this story out in a separate stack? I must not have. There is a separate story on the NFL’s ratings problem. What did I…? Yeah, I put it somewhere else. It’ll come up as I go through The Stack here on the program.
The league does not know its customer. The league wishes it had a different fan base, or at least a certain percentage of the fan base they wish were different. And they are running their business as though that difference existed, as though that… They’re running the business as though that section of the fan base doesn’t exist, is the best way to explain it.
So 17% in a poll they conducted are boycotting them. It’s probably, as in the case of any poll, a higher number than that. People don’t like this stuff forced on them in areas they go to to escape it. It’s no more complicated than that. People do not watch sports to be preached to politically. They go to sports to escape that for three hours a Sunday afternoon, six hours maybe — or nine, if they watch all three games.
But they go to escape it. They don’t want to be lectured, and they certainly don’t want to be blamed, and they don’t want to be told by multimillionaires how unfair things are and how racist things are when they can’t possibly be that bad. Otherwise, these people wouldn’t be living the lives they are living, which are far more lucrative and far more wealthy than the average American who is a fan or a customer earns or has.
To be lectured to and preached to and then blamed? You know, an NFL players decide to take a knee because cops are murdering black people, and we’re told we have to believe it. We’re told we have to accept it, and we have to understand it, and we have to oppose it. Otherwise, we’re racist pigs or what have you. It’s not the way to grow the fan base. It just isn’t.
You’re not gonna build support for star athletes if those very star athletes serve a new role of antagonizing the fans. But the owners have decided, or they have concluded that if they don’t support the players, the players will strike or walk out and not play and there will be nothing. So they have to go through the motions of supporting the players and letting them put signs on their helmets and jerseys, “Racism sucks,” whatever it is.
That’s not why people tune in to watch. But Gasparino’s little last statement here. “A lot of NFL fans generally trend conservative. So what does that mean? Well, they’re heavily military.” Oh, yeah. They love murdering people! They love guns, and they love missiles and rockets, and they love nuking people, right? “And they’re middle class.” Well, that means they’re stupid.
They’re not as wealthy as we are. They simply don’t know enough. “They’re not rich,” which he covered, “and they don’t like it. They don’t like social justice. And you know, you gotta know your customer.” It’s not that conservatives don’t like social justice. It’s that they don’t accept that it’s as real as a Democrat Party political plank.
Social justice is simply an excuse to censor. It’s an excuse to go in and deny people their freedoms and their rights and a whole lot more, and it is conservatives who are very much aware of this.
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