The Patriots tweeted a photo of Gillette Stadium on June 1, highlighting the Pride flag in celebration of Pride month.
I had two thoughts:
- It would have been easy for the Patriots to ignore Pride Month. NFL teams are not required to recognize this off-season month of acknowledgment and recognition, so it’s great for the Patriots to do so.
- This image will spark bigotry and hate online from the most ignorant, vile, and frightened human beings, and I was not wrong. The comments about the photos are filled with bigotry, including endless references to Trump, MAGA, and a whole bunch of ignorant straight men who seem to “doth protest too much, methinks.”
I don’t suggest reading it. It’s vile. Rest assured, it’s a lot of frightened little men shouting about their heterosexuality, celebrating their indoctrination into MAGA, and professing their love for leaders like Trump.
Real independent, free-thinking people.
I wish this kind of hatred and stupidity didn’t exist in the world, but if it must — and it probably always will because people with even a little power will always feel threatened when attention is turned away from them for even a moment — I think a post like this is helpful for a few reasons:
It’s a reminder that so much of this brazen hate exists only online, where anonymity protects cowards. While bigotry absolutely exists in our world in many forms, most people are either good, decent human beings or too afraid to speak their ugly thoughts aloud, so they crawl around on the internet, snickering in mall, dark corners to like-minded monsters.
It’s also an outstanding bigot-identification device. When someone leaves a comment like that, we know exactly how hateful and stupid they are.
No more wondering if Phil is a good person. He’s not. He sucks.
But best of all:
It’s great to see these little monsters wasting their time spreading their vile nonsense on a social media post that will soon be forgotten. Rather than creating real things, engaging in real activities, and doing something real, these tiny, sad trolls roam the internet, seeking places to waste their time posting meaningless ephemera that is forgotten almost as quickly as it’s written.
Snowflakes who can’t stand the sight of a Pride flag are terrible, ridiculous, and pathetic.
Knowing how much time they waste scouring the internet for minuscule, irrelevant, ephemeral opportunities to deposit their venom warms my heart.
Wasting time is one of the worst things a person can do. Knowing that is precisely what these bigots are doing is fantastic.
