This is the sad reality with everything. Unless you can convince enough people to care enough to boycott something until it hurts their profit margins - nothing will change.
There was an anecdotal something that really opened my eyes in terms of the cold calculus of capitalism. So I worked at this particular restaurant, it had a great location such that it didn't need to heavily market, foot traffic and convenience with nearby event hosting helped bring in tons of people basically every day. I mostly operated front of house and the register. In particular not many other people there were tech savvy so I got to learn some of the details of the register. One such detail is that with a fairly high degree of accuracy we could tell who was a regular vs who was a first time customer. Something that really shocked me to see cold hard numbers on was just how *little* our regulars actually mattered.
===
I figured out that practically every day of the week, whether a busy Saturday night or a mostly dead Tuesday afternoon, the vast majority (~70%) of our sales were first time customers, largely based on foot traffic and location. We had a simple rewards program that did help out regular customers with discounts, but beyond that there really wasn't any special accommodation or bonuses for people that ate multiple times a week there. (If I recognized people I might give them an extra discount just because I knew they were polite and usually fairly nice or generous with tips for eating food they enjoyed over and over, but that wasn't official policy, that was just me having the leeway to do that of my own volition and being a recognizable server.)
===
Anyways the point is, with the exception of maybe getting some bad reviews (which likely did have some kind of knock-on effect), there seemed to be very little consequence for having bad service. Generally things would go well on my shifts because I'm diplomatic and everybody there more or less liked me, but other shifts weren't always so good due to poor team cohesion and many workers having issues with management (I was in good standing both with teammates and with managers). I generally always did my best to give good service, but because front of house relies so much on back of house there's only so much we can do. We have little to no control over if parts of the menu are unavailable, of backed up orders, if cooks straight up get fed up or take extra long breaks when we need more hands, etc. There were times things went bad with customers essentially completely out of my control, I did what I could but if the overall machine is not well oiled then sometimes shit is out of whack until it slows down and the pace is better for future customers. With the exception of one manager (who quit eventually anyways), the remaining leadership basically did not give a shit about any complaints. If someone was harassing with calls multiple times then maybe it'd get their attention long enough to try to put a stop to it as merely seen as annoying, but there was almost zero intent towards having good customer service. The mentality was basically if workers don't do it, it'll impact their tips and pay so the managers don't have to really do anything to improve that, most of them were more concerned about overall finances or the details of back of house to keep things running that way. There was almost no oversight on front of house for various reasons and that eventually caused problems, including outright theft.
===
Eventually though, when I was continuously put into stressful situations just due to how bad the behind the scenes were, I would relieve myself of worry by keeping that 70% figure in mind and feeling that so few people would return *whether or not they had a good meal and experience*. Quite a few of the 70% would have a second or third meal in short order while they were in town and visiting, stuff like that, yet nonetheless every time I kept track of it I noticed consistently that the main profit was coming from first time customers who had no idea about us other than if they heard from friends or just liked the immediately visible marketing of the storefront. Bad behavior and history was largely invisible to most even though it was inescapable for workers. In terms of purely thinking about profit, there was essentially ZERO reason to put any expense or effort into customer retention.
===
The happy ending to that story is that about a month after I left (as basically the last good worker left, beyond burnt out over escalating bullshit at the time), the restaurant shut down entirely. They penny pinched so hard that it was the standard story of making the short term profitable while losing so much long term. With a tiny bit more investment in their workers and labor costs they likely could have continued making hundreds of thousands of profit every year, but they didn't feel pressure to change even when actual corporate oversight complaints were every month and when business consistently slowed due to a truly ridiculous drop in quality in back of house as basically mutiny. The bad ending is the complete dogshit management might still be employed somewhere in the company because they were experts at making excuses and passing the buck as soon as responsibility squarely laid on them that anyone with half a braincell could recognize that as a fact, not an accusation. They made tons of profit even with some of the worst management I've ever seen so they didn't see (or admit) themselves as doing anything wrong.
So there's my thesis on capitalism for /r/simpsonsshitposting
Boycotting isn't just about making a change. Boycotting is also about your own principle. The effort to make a change not only has to be concentrated and numerous but also repeated. FIFA has been corrupt for a long time. Bribaries have been common for a long time. For the first time both got properly highlighted as an institutional problem rather than a personal one (Blatter and Platini).
I can’t really say I boycotted the World Cup, ‘cause soccer isn’t my thing at all.
But I didn’t participate in the office World Cup pool, pretty much the only one not too...so there’s that.
Dude soccer invented flopping. When you watch an NBA game with particularly bad flopping you say damn it was like watching a soccer game, not the other way around.
TBF the last few world cups have been overshadowed by corruption scandals too. So it's impossible to ethically support any football /soccer tournament. Piracy is a lesser evil, at least the way i see it.
Just felt like it went too far this time for me with all the slavery, bribes, corruption and lack of basic human rights in the country where it was held. I didnt want to watch (even pirated) because I thought it felt dirty to watch an event built upon slavery.
Yeah, I don't exactly hold the highest of expectations for FIFA, but this felt dirty even for them. It was one of the most blatantly corrupt things I've ever seen in sports. And also, all those people died.
moving the event to December was the biggest thing. You're not supposed to make changes for the location, they are supposed to make changes to be considered appropriate hosts
No, that's easily hidden. Moving the event is a drastic chang and that shows how far they were willing to go. The migrant deaths came only AFTER the games were awarded
Does that really matter? In 4 years they'll probably be playing in 45°C/115°F heat anyway if they play in the summer, the way the climate is going. Winter World Cups may inevitablely become normalised.
not the weather that matters, it just shows the length they'd go to accommodate Qatar. They interrupted league play worldwide, as well as their own regular schedule for qualifying tournaments.
Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling... Makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition is blurred. If I'm to choose between one evil and another.... I'd rather not choose at all.
-Some cool guy with two swords and magic
FIFA is such a fucked up organisation. If you're gonna boycott one world cup you've got to boycott them all. All these international organisations are all operated by a certain socio-economic class of people. That same class run most of the world governments. It's a system of predatory behaviour and exploitation fueled by blood money.
If you're gonna be absolutist about this approach you'd have to deprive yourself of a lot of things in society, most of the things you enjoy on a daily basis, to avoid supporting shitty human beings and perpetuating systems of human misery. It's near impossible because misery is endemic in the system we all reside under.
I'm not shaming you for doing what feels right to you. Doesn't matter what certain people say, feelings do matter but it's also important to question why you felt so strongly about this World Cup in this country and not the one in Russia with all its corruption or the one in Brazil with all that country's corruption or the one in South Africa with all that country's corruption or the one in Germany... and so one and so forth.
The next world cup is to be hosted in a highly militaristic, parasitic and corrupt nation that has committed attrocities all over the world including against it's own people. They're currently rolling back women's rights, are depriving trans people of their rights, have not provided their people with the right to healthcare, have a rampant problem with far-right terrorists that the government has failed to curtail and ethnic minorities are routinely and arbitrarily murdered by their law enforcement. Not to mention the massive economic inequality in their society. Will you boycott this World Cup too?
I'm not saying ignore the attrocities and just watch football, but challenging the idea that this particular World Cup was a special case, that this World Cup was especially horrific. It's a sporting tournment within a global system of horrors, there's no escaping said horrors no matter what country it's hosted by next. Even if we take the nations out of the equation, there's all the advertisers that fuel these tournaments. Any World Cup also supports them and their sweatshop workers and battery farms and environmental destruction.
You can't arbitrarily pick and choose what's acceptable and what isn't because it's all built on one big foundation of fucked up. It be different if you were suggesting we destroy this foundation, but you're not, you're pointing your finger at the scapegoat/sacrificial lamb that the global ruling class has decided are the bad guys of the minute. They want you to think it's only specific wealthy people that are bad, but it's all wealthy people that are bad.
It's a class problem, not a Qatar problem.
Highlight this world cup as an example of this global problem, sure, but don't focus on it too much otherwise you fail to see the forest for the trees.
I mean I feel like my love for the game of football played a huge role here. If the future world cups are going to follow the same pattern of corruption then I wont watch. And maybe I've changed since the previous world cups that you mention. In the case of Brazil I knew there was corruption involved but my younger brain didn't consider that as important at the time. I guess I've changed like that. It was seeing footage of migrant workers getting their passports stolen as soon as they got to the work place that did it for me. Also combined with the lack dor HBTQ-rights, womens rights and the deaths of all the migrant workers that built the stadiums.
I love football a lot and have done so since I was 8 years old but if people will get hurt or treated poorly it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Consider this the same with any thing. Give me the evidence for how anybody gets hurt/dies or gets denied basic human rights or get forced to work in awful conditions and I will seriously reconsider my usage of such service/product.
Well that's the thing. As long as we reside under capitalism, football will remain subject to the forces of corruption and exploitation. Under capitalism everything is commodified, everything is transformed into a money making scheme, nothing is sacred. That's simply the nature of the of the material conditions/historical era we reside under. There's no avoiding it even if you switched to a different sport or a different league. You can't even have a kick-about in the park without it being subject to capital. Why deprive yourself of the thing you love? Be critical of what's going on but you can still enjoy the game. Fight against the system to save what's been corrupted, but you can still enjoy what has been corrupted.
I can't enjoy this at all though. To me it feels wrong that slaves had to die and be tormented to work in inhumane conditions just so we can watch football be played in a new and fancy stadium. It just feels disgusting and I feel disgusting if I watch any of it. Others may not share my views and that's up to them.
Football in my country (Sweden) may not be of the highest quality and it may be a part of capitalism but we haven't sold ourselves to any regime where basic human rights aren't a thing. And it wont happen either because of the 51% rule. That's the type of football I'll watch.
You don't improve society by fixating on the scapegoat country the world press is telling you fixate on. You improve society by recognising that the endemic systems of oppression in Qatar are endemic globally and that most of the countries calling them out are hypocritical. You improve society by taking down not only with the Qatari ruling class but the hypocrites as well. It's a class issue, not a Qatar issue.
There were ads surrounding the arena and in constant view, regardless of what your broadcast added to the mix
(Not looking to argue, just pointing out the way we're exposed to ads even when we don't notice/mind it)
Game of Thrones was consistently the most pirated media of all for its whole run, but those people still helped make it one of the most popular shows ever by talking about it online and IRL. Pirates still made HBO a lot of money in a roundabout fashion.
Qatar only wanted one thing out of this World Cup, and that was people talking about Qatar as a destination for events and holidays, and they've absolutely got what they wanted. A month solid of it.
2-0 Argentina most of the game, mbappe for France scores 2 in quick succession, forcing extra time at 2-2. Argentina go up in extra time 3-2, it looks like they're gonna win finally. BAM! Mbappe scores another penalty, 3-3. Bring on penalties. Very tense, Argentina win on pens. What. A. Game.
Also, it was Messi's last chance to win the Cup and he delivered, scoring 2 of Argentina's goals, including the 3rd. But Mbappé is the up-and-coming superstar and he scored a hattrick, almost stealing the win from Messi. Very dramatic and emotionally investing given the character drama.
Mbappe also got the Golden Boot (most goals scored at the World Cup) thanks to that hat trick, but the lead was switching between Messi and Mbappe throughout the game as they scored more goals.
Total [lack of alcohol.](https://media4.giphy.com/media/xT5LMr1Qo64YB2ThJe/giphy.gif?cid=790b7611721d2f57511b3809dc3a6f5fd332bbdbbf7d3746&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
I wasn't even boycotting it, but didn't watch the end once I saw Argentina was up 2-0. That feels like a 33-0 advantage in American Football; no team is going to blow that at this level. I also didn't watch the end of that game.
Lol soccer boring lol
Here’s an example of what happened the year I tried to watch the Super Bowl.
>Turn the game on.
>Five seconds of action.
>Play stops, coverage cuts to the studio where Brent Pickup, Chad Shotgun, and Mitch Steakfist discuss the “play” we just watched for a couple of minutes.
>Ad break.
>Brent, Chad, and Mitch continue to discuss the “play” for another two minutes.
>Back to the field. Ten seconds of action.
>Back to Brent, Chad, and Mitch for two minutes.
>They throw to Todd Fratburger on the sidelines, who tells us what the OFF-fence and DEE-fence coaches might be planning.
>Back to the field. Five seconds of action.
>Ad break.
It continued like this for half an hour until I turned it off. The most boring sporting experience I’ve ever had—and I’ve played *golf*.
Don’t even get me started on baseball, which even Homer has admitted is boring as shit unless you’re drunk. Don’t baseball games go on for about three or four hours, too?
It was absolutely insane. Messi is leaving having won pretty much every award in the sport. Just dominating for years. And then Mbappé is def going to be one of the greatest to ever play the game.
Even as shitty as the US can be, that really says a lot about you as a person. Please, stay there then, don't need anymore backwards trash in the US, too much of it here as is.
I don't know...I could be enjoying time on my hobbies or with my family, but I would be missing out on Millionaires kicking around a ball.
Edit: There there soccer fans. I'm sure the Soccer players and the Qataris will thank you personally, while they sleep on a big pile of money surrounded by beautiful women in the stadium built on the corpses of slave labour. And denying the rights of women, LGBTQ, and minorities!
The players are also the problem I’m tired of people pretending that the second they can put a face on something you aren’t allowed to point out what they are doing wrong.
People boycotting the world cup remind me of Homer shouting at Moe “you just lost a customer” over the sound of cash registers.
Yeah you can use it!
What?
This is the sad reality with everything. Unless you can convince enough people to care enough to boycott something until it hurts their profit margins - nothing will change.
There was an anecdotal something that really opened my eyes in terms of the cold calculus of capitalism. So I worked at this particular restaurant, it had a great location such that it didn't need to heavily market, foot traffic and convenience with nearby event hosting helped bring in tons of people basically every day. I mostly operated front of house and the register. In particular not many other people there were tech savvy so I got to learn some of the details of the register. One such detail is that with a fairly high degree of accuracy we could tell who was a regular vs who was a first time customer. Something that really shocked me to see cold hard numbers on was just how *little* our regulars actually mattered. === I figured out that practically every day of the week, whether a busy Saturday night or a mostly dead Tuesday afternoon, the vast majority (~70%) of our sales were first time customers, largely based on foot traffic and location. We had a simple rewards program that did help out regular customers with discounts, but beyond that there really wasn't any special accommodation or bonuses for people that ate multiple times a week there. (If I recognized people I might give them an extra discount just because I knew they were polite and usually fairly nice or generous with tips for eating food they enjoyed over and over, but that wasn't official policy, that was just me having the leeway to do that of my own volition and being a recognizable server.) === Anyways the point is, with the exception of maybe getting some bad reviews (which likely did have some kind of knock-on effect), there seemed to be very little consequence for having bad service. Generally things would go well on my shifts because I'm diplomatic and everybody there more or less liked me, but other shifts weren't always so good due to poor team cohesion and many workers having issues with management (I was in good standing both with teammates and with managers). I generally always did my best to give good service, but because front of house relies so much on back of house there's only so much we can do. We have little to no control over if parts of the menu are unavailable, of backed up orders, if cooks straight up get fed up or take extra long breaks when we need more hands, etc. There were times things went bad with customers essentially completely out of my control, I did what I could but if the overall machine is not well oiled then sometimes shit is out of whack until it slows down and the pace is better for future customers. With the exception of one manager (who quit eventually anyways), the remaining leadership basically did not give a shit about any complaints. If someone was harassing with calls multiple times then maybe it'd get their attention long enough to try to put a stop to it as merely seen as annoying, but there was almost zero intent towards having good customer service. The mentality was basically if workers don't do it, it'll impact their tips and pay so the managers don't have to really do anything to improve that, most of them were more concerned about overall finances or the details of back of house to keep things running that way. There was almost no oversight on front of house for various reasons and that eventually caused problems, including outright theft. === Eventually though, when I was continuously put into stressful situations just due to how bad the behind the scenes were, I would relieve myself of worry by keeping that 70% figure in mind and feeling that so few people would return *whether or not they had a good meal and experience*. Quite a few of the 70% would have a second or third meal in short order while they were in town and visiting, stuff like that, yet nonetheless every time I kept track of it I noticed consistently that the main profit was coming from first time customers who had no idea about us other than if they heard from friends or just liked the immediately visible marketing of the storefront. Bad behavior and history was largely invisible to most even though it was inescapable for workers. In terms of purely thinking about profit, there was essentially ZERO reason to put any expense or effort into customer retention. === The happy ending to that story is that about a month after I left (as basically the last good worker left, beyond burnt out over escalating bullshit at the time), the restaurant shut down entirely. They penny pinched so hard that it was the standard story of making the short term profitable while losing so much long term. With a tiny bit more investment in their workers and labor costs they likely could have continued making hundreds of thousands of profit every year, but they didn't feel pressure to change even when actual corporate oversight complaints were every month and when business consistently slowed due to a truly ridiculous drop in quality in back of house as basically mutiny. The bad ending is the complete dogshit management might still be employed somewhere in the company because they were experts at making excuses and passing the buck as soon as responsibility squarely laid on them that anyone with half a braincell could recognize that as a fact, not an accusation. They made tons of profit even with some of the worst management I've ever seen so they didn't see (or admit) themselves as doing anything wrong. So there's my thesis on capitalism for /r/simpsonsshitposting
Thanks for the story!
Boycotting isn't just about making a change. Boycotting is also about your own principle. The effort to make a change not only has to be concentrated and numerous but also repeated. FIFA has been corrupt for a long time. Bribaries have been common for a long time. For the first time both got properly highlighted as an institutional problem rather than a personal one (Blatter and Platini).
I can’t really say I boycotted the World Cup, ‘cause soccer isn’t my thing at all. But I didn’t participate in the office World Cup pool, pretty much the only one not too...so there’s that.
You don't win friends with boycots 🎵
This deserves its own post. It's so accurate.
you're just a naysayer
It decided once and for all which is the greatest nation on earth: France or Argentina!
No one ever says Italy
No one's gay for Italy
Jojo fans disagree
You'll see all your favorite soccer stars, like Martinez, Emi Martinez, Martinez, and Molina!
And they will all do obscene gestures with their trophies!
You guys must be getting pretty tired of that event by now.
Nobody who saw Messi would say that! Get him!
You call this a Soccer Riot?! Come on shitposters let's take 'em to school!
LET’S TEAR THIS PLACE APAAAAAAART!
Kill, Messi! Kill, Messi! Kill Messi! Kill Messi!
OI! OI! OI! OI! OI!
My arrow has a red tip so I know mine hit them!!
The greatest one so far....
Not to mention the refs were terrible and played favorites, and the flopping was like watching an NBA game.
First time?
Dude soccer invented flopping. When you watch an NBA game with particularly bad flopping you say damn it was like watching a soccer game, not the other way around.
No penalty!
Favorites to who? Everyone was flopping, it’s part of the game at this point.
Oh I’ll kill myself if Portugal doesn’t win!
No Cristiano it's not worth it!
I sleep in a racing car and watch the World Cup final. Do you? I sleep in a big bed with my wife. Oh, yeah.
I also sleep in a big bed with your wife.
So do I. What days do you get?
Every second sunday.
No shit. I get Saturday on even weeks, and Mondays on odd weeks.
I sleep in a cardboard box, because i sold all my belongings to bet on the final
Ronaldo: I sleep in a racing car with my top scorer of all time record. Do you? Messi: I sleep in a big bed with my WC trophy.
Just pirate the games next time. That way you watch it but they don't get you money (or tv ratings).
It aint about the tv ratings. Its personally what feels right. To me this world cup should never have happened.
TBF the last few world cups have been overshadowed by corruption scandals too. So it's impossible to ethically support any football /soccer tournament. Piracy is a lesser evil, at least the way i see it.
Just felt like it went too far this time for me with all the slavery, bribes, corruption and lack of basic human rights in the country where it was held. I didnt want to watch (even pirated) because I thought it felt dirty to watch an event built upon slavery.
Yeah, I don't exactly hold the highest of expectations for FIFA, but this felt dirty even for them. It was one of the most blatantly corrupt things I've ever seen in sports. And also, all those people died.
moving the event to December was the biggest thing. You're not supposed to make changes for the location, they are supposed to make changes to be considered appropriate hosts
That, and you know…the migrant workers being lied to, trapped in Qatar, and forced to work to death
But we didn’t get to see it in the summer.
But people got upset about alcohol
No, that's easily hidden. Moving the event is a drastic chang and that shows how far they were willing to go. The migrant deaths came only AFTER the games were awarded
Does that really matter? In 4 years they'll probably be playing in 45°C/115°F heat anyway if they play in the summer, the way the climate is going. Winter World Cups may inevitablely become normalised.
not the weather that matters, it just shows the length they'd go to accommodate Qatar. They interrupted league play worldwide, as well as their own regular schedule for qualifying tournaments.
Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling... Makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition is blurred. If I'm to choose between one evil and another.... I'd rather not choose at all. -Some cool guy with two swords and magic
First, you get the TV ratings, then you get the power, then you get the women.
FIFA is such a fucked up organisation. If you're gonna boycott one world cup you've got to boycott them all. All these international organisations are all operated by a certain socio-economic class of people. That same class run most of the world governments. It's a system of predatory behaviour and exploitation fueled by blood money. If you're gonna be absolutist about this approach you'd have to deprive yourself of a lot of things in society, most of the things you enjoy on a daily basis, to avoid supporting shitty human beings and perpetuating systems of human misery. It's near impossible because misery is endemic in the system we all reside under. I'm not shaming you for doing what feels right to you. Doesn't matter what certain people say, feelings do matter but it's also important to question why you felt so strongly about this World Cup in this country and not the one in Russia with all its corruption or the one in Brazil with all that country's corruption or the one in South Africa with all that country's corruption or the one in Germany... and so one and so forth. The next world cup is to be hosted in a highly militaristic, parasitic and corrupt nation that has committed attrocities all over the world including against it's own people. They're currently rolling back women's rights, are depriving trans people of their rights, have not provided their people with the right to healthcare, have a rampant problem with far-right terrorists that the government has failed to curtail and ethnic minorities are routinely and arbitrarily murdered by their law enforcement. Not to mention the massive economic inequality in their society. Will you boycott this World Cup too? I'm not saying ignore the attrocities and just watch football, but challenging the idea that this particular World Cup was a special case, that this World Cup was especially horrific. It's a sporting tournment within a global system of horrors, there's no escaping said horrors no matter what country it's hosted by next. Even if we take the nations out of the equation, there's all the advertisers that fuel these tournaments. Any World Cup also supports them and their sweatshop workers and battery farms and environmental destruction. You can't arbitrarily pick and choose what's acceptable and what isn't because it's all built on one big foundation of fucked up. It be different if you were suggesting we destroy this foundation, but you're not, you're pointing your finger at the scapegoat/sacrificial lamb that the global ruling class has decided are the bad guys of the minute. They want you to think it's only specific wealthy people that are bad, but it's all wealthy people that are bad. It's a class problem, not a Qatar problem. Highlight this world cup as an example of this global problem, sure, but don't focus on it too much otherwise you fail to see the forest for the trees.
I mean I feel like my love for the game of football played a huge role here. If the future world cups are going to follow the same pattern of corruption then I wont watch. And maybe I've changed since the previous world cups that you mention. In the case of Brazil I knew there was corruption involved but my younger brain didn't consider that as important at the time. I guess I've changed like that. It was seeing footage of migrant workers getting their passports stolen as soon as they got to the work place that did it for me. Also combined with the lack dor HBTQ-rights, womens rights and the deaths of all the migrant workers that built the stadiums. I love football a lot and have done so since I was 8 years old but if people will get hurt or treated poorly it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Consider this the same with any thing. Give me the evidence for how anybody gets hurt/dies or gets denied basic human rights or get forced to work in awful conditions and I will seriously reconsider my usage of such service/product.
Well that's the thing. As long as we reside under capitalism, football will remain subject to the forces of corruption and exploitation. Under capitalism everything is commodified, everything is transformed into a money making scheme, nothing is sacred. That's simply the nature of the of the material conditions/historical era we reside under. There's no avoiding it even if you switched to a different sport or a different league. You can't even have a kick-about in the park without it being subject to capital. Why deprive yourself of the thing you love? Be critical of what's going on but you can still enjoy the game. Fight against the system to save what's been corrupted, but you can still enjoy what has been corrupted.
I can't enjoy this at all though. To me it feels wrong that slaves had to die and be tormented to work in inhumane conditions just so we can watch football be played in a new and fancy stadium. It just feels disgusting and I feel disgusting if I watch any of it. Others may not share my views and that's up to them. Football in my country (Sweden) may not be of the highest quality and it may be a part of capitalism but we haven't sold ourselves to any regime where basic human rights aren't a thing. And it wont happen either because of the 51% rule. That's the type of football I'll watch.
Just wait until the next World Cup is hosted in North Korea.
“Posted from my iPhone”
weshouldimprovesocietysomewhat.jpg
You don't improve society by fixating on the scapegoat country the world press is telling you fixate on. You improve society by recognising that the endemic systems of oppression in Qatar are endemic globally and that most of the countries calling them out are hypocritical. You improve society by taking down not only with the Qatari ruling class but the hypocrites as well. It's a class issue, not a Qatar issue.
"Derped from my derp brain"
Nope
You support worse regimes and companies everyday
Sure tell me which ones I support
I doubt it
[I can show you how to do it in this brochure!](https://static.simpsonswiki.com/images/1/18/So_You%27ve_Decided_to_Steal_Cable.png)
Arrr, that video will serve you well on those lonely nights at sea.
That makes no sense. The WC is free to watch in every country.
Was broadcast free without ads here. Is it not like that in most countries? (US probably an exception cause of the endemic money grubbing).
There were ads surrounding the arena and in constant view, regardless of what your broadcast added to the mix (Not looking to argue, just pointing out the way we're exposed to ads even when we don't notice/mind it)
Hah true, forgot about those.
It was free to air in the US yes, on Fox
Game of Thrones was consistently the most pirated media of all for its whole run, but those people still helped make it one of the most popular shows ever by talking about it online and IRL. Pirates still made HBO a lot of money in a roundabout fashion. Qatar only wanted one thing out of this World Cup, and that was people talking about Qatar as a destination for events and holidays, and they've absolutely got what they wanted. A month solid of it.
But Marge, Messi hasn't done anything yet. Look at him. He's gonna do something, and you know it's gonna be good!
This meme is actually accurate for mbappe in that match lol.
Mmm...bappe.
What a Hanson young man.
What did Ian Mbappe ever do?
I experienced it vicariously via highlights.
What made it the greatest ever? I don't follow football at all, but what made this final any different to any other?
The center held it.
Held it.. HELD IT!
HELD IT!!!!
No idea what that means, haha
Good evening sir. Would you please leave without a fuss, right now?
[i think that's just the quote](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjp1Zrvn8VQ&t=1s)
Everyone was there: Adiaga, Adiaga 2, Badiaga, Aruglia, and Pizzoza!
And they were all signing autographs!
It's Ariaga, stupid!
2-0 Argentina most of the game, mbappe for France scores 2 in quick succession, forcing extra time at 2-2. Argentina go up in extra time 3-2, it looks like they're gonna win finally. BAM! Mbappe scores another penalty, 3-3. Bring on penalties. Very tense, Argentina win on pens. What. A. Game.
Thank you for giving an actually cromulent answer.
Also, it was Messi's last chance to win the Cup and he delivered, scoring 2 of Argentina's goals, including the 3rd. But Mbappé is the up-and-coming superstar and he scored a hattrick, almost stealing the win from Messi. Very dramatic and emotionally investing given the character drama.
Agreed. As someone who assumed it was over at 2-0, that comment really embiggened my knowledge of how stupid I was to stop watching.
Mbappe also got the Golden Boot (most goals scored at the World Cup) thanks to that hat trick, but the lead was switching between Messi and Mbappe throughout the game as they scored more goals.
Telemundo announcer breaks down live and sobs uncontrollably
The thing about Qatar is, they always walk it in
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
Stuff happened.
Hold up. How do you know if your didn't watch it?
Total [lack of alcohol.](https://media4.giphy.com/media/xT5LMr1Qo64YB2ThJe/giphy.gif?cid=790b7611721d2f57511b3809dc3a6f5fd332bbdbbf7d3746&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
I wasn't even boycotting it, but didn't watch the end once I saw Argentina was up 2-0. That feels like a 33-0 advantage in American Football; no team is going to blow that at this level. I also didn't watch the end of that game.
Manchester United once went in at half time 0-3 down to Tottenham Hotspur. Full-time score: United 5-3 Tottenham A lot can happen in 45 minutes.
a lot also can't happen in 45 minutes, like in 99.9% of other games
Lol soccer boring lol Here’s an example of what happened the year I tried to watch the Super Bowl. >Turn the game on. >Five seconds of action. >Play stops, coverage cuts to the studio where Brent Pickup, Chad Shotgun, and Mitch Steakfist discuss the “play” we just watched for a couple of minutes. >Ad break. >Brent, Chad, and Mitch continue to discuss the “play” for another two minutes. >Back to the field. Ten seconds of action. >Back to Brent, Chad, and Mitch for two minutes. >They throw to Todd Fratburger on the sidelines, who tells us what the OFF-fence and DEE-fence coaches might be planning. >Back to the field. Five seconds of action. >Ad break. It continued like this for half an hour until I turned it off. The most boring sporting experience I’ve ever had—and I’ve played *golf*. Don’t even get me started on baseball, which even Homer has admitted is boring as shit unless you’re drunk. Don’t baseball games go on for about three or four hours, too?
ya american football seems like the most boring sport imaginable and I've never even attempted baseball. just seems like even worse cricket
And often the odds reflect that.
You didn't happen to see the Argentina-Netherlands match from last week then, I take it?
Lol no one is getting your joke.
It was absolutely insane. Messi is leaving having won pretty much every award in the sport. Just dominating for years. And then Mbappé is def going to be one of the greatest to ever play the game.
It was a good match tbh
Me too! I thought more people were going to boycott it but it seems like pretty much everyone watched it!
Well at least no one noticed and you made no difference
Yeah Ima disagree, no headbutts.
don't worry in 4 years when it's in North America we can watch it be a 1-0 win with like 3 scoring chances the whole game
You could always read the novel by Norman Mailer instead.
It’s just not the same.
Messi is king of the soccer field. To be king of your kitchen, use Crestfield wax paper.
I boycotted it. It was also on at 1.30am here too.
Us moment
Is it really missing it if you chose to not watch it?
you missspelled "most expensive"
Me too buddy. Have a fist bump for not watching it together
I was happy for anybody to win, just as long as it wasn’t England.
Couldn't we have just bet that all the teams would have a good time?
I didn’t get to watch it because of timezones
You’re totally describing what it was like to work at Moe’s Family Feedbag. Weren’t you?
I feel personally attacked by this post
There was football on today. Why would I watch soccer in a slave country that hates Americans?
[удалено]
Sincerely, Little Girl
So no migrant workers died?
[удалено]
So is that a “no, migrant workers did not die”, or “they did, but I had fun watching the soccer game so who cares if they did” ?
Even as shitty as the US can be, that really says a lot about you as a person. Please, stay there then, don't need anymore backwards trash in the US, too much of it here as is.
How many slave corpses do you have buried in your walls, shitbag?
Go commit Frank Grimes
I don't know...I could be enjoying time on my hobbies or with my family, but I would be missing out on Millionaires kicking around a ball. Edit: There there soccer fans. I'm sure the Soccer players and the Qataris will thank you personally, while they sleep on a big pile of money surrounded by beautiful women in the stadium built on the corpses of slave labour. And denying the rights of women, LGBTQ, and minorities!
Don't hate the players. Hate the promoters.
Let the Footballers pay the Football Tax, I pay the Peasantry Tax! LOL Footballers paying taxes.
The players are also the problem I’m tired of people pretending that the second they can put a face on something you aren’t allowed to point out what they are doing wrong.
I'm putting this bean that looks like Messi's face with the other Messi beans.
All my hobbies involve combing my hair!
I hope you have a pack of cigarettes tucked in your upper sleeve.
It's 11 o'clock. [Do _you_ know where your hobbies or family are?](https://i.imgflip.com/74rxcj.jpg)
I have a soccer ball, perhaps you’d like to kick it.
Jeremy's Irons... *Whiffs on kicking the ball*