"Japs"? "Pearl Harbor"? Really?
Americans rarely miss an opportunity to make profound jackasses of themselves.
The Women's World Cup ended up being no exception.
I had been thinking that Team USA's heartbreaking loss to Japan was somehow metaphorical. On the other hand, recent American history doesn't really jibe with a hard-working team that plays its heart out and loses a close one to a superior opponent.It jibes more closely with a backbiting, infighting, hapless bunch of losers that finishes last in its NBA division.
WHEN LOSING a soccer game results in enough American jingoism, meanness and outright racism on Twitter that it all starts to "trend," you start thinking more along the lines of "bad omen," not metaphor. You also start thinking, as you let your mind start wandering to the debt standoff and the political dysfunction reigning in Washington, that probably we have the government we so richly deserve.
Politicians utterly devoid of class and eager to hurl invective (and worse) at The Other are guilty primarily of mirroring their constituents -- and American sports "fans" -- a little too closely.
I reckon the right team won the World Cup. And judging by recent history in matters small and large, the predictable country is about to lose the future.
