The brave warriors of the culture wars have found another reason to get triggered. Cleveland’s professional baseball team known as the Indians since 1915, are soon to change the moniker, and conservatives are not happy about it.
The name change was announced Friday via a video on Twitter, narrated by Tom Hanks. However, the change will not take effect until next year, when they will officially be known as The Cleveland Guardians.
The moniker change is allegedly inspired by a state landmark known as the traffic guardians located at each end of the Hope Memorial bridge.
Paul Dolan, the team owner said he was encouraged to change the name of the team after the killing of George Floyd.
“We do feel like we’re doing the right thing,” he told ESPN. “And that’s what’s driving this. I know some people will disagree, but if anything, I’ve gotten more and more comfortable that we’re headed in the right direction. And actually, the selection of the name solidifies that feeling because of the values that the name represents.”
Even though the name is changing, the teams colors will remain the same, as will the smiling caricature logo that fans have come to fondly know for more than one hundred years, and that has been protested by some indigenous groups in the past.
Normal people couldn’t care less about the name change. But depending on whether you consider them normal people or not, conservatives, for some reason, do care, or pretend that they care. Since they have nothing to offer in the way of policy, the culture wars are all they have to live for.
“And just like that, the Indians adopt the dumbest, most pointless name in major professional sports,” the National Review’s Rich Lowry complained about on Twitter.
I don’t know, Rich. I think the Guardians sounds better than the Indians. But that’s just my opinion.
Cancun Ted complained, “Why does MLB hate indians?”
Why do you hate your Texas constituents, Ted? Isn’t that why you ran off to Mexico, so you wouldn’t have to do anything for them?
“I will never call them the Cleveland Guardians,” Newsmax host John Carrillo tweeted, without realizing he just had. “It’s moronic.”
It’s funny that a guy who says he will never call them by their new name, mentions their new name while complaining he will never use it.
Even Fox News has weighed in on the nonsense. Joe Concha, who is allegedly a serious news analyst – in my opinion just a partisan hack – said the Cleveland Indians “caved to the pressure of the woke mob.”
In an appearance on Fox News with Tammy Bruce, he said, “You see the evening news, and you would think that the skyrocketing crime that we’re seeing , violent crime in cities, would be the lead story every night,” he told Tammy Bruce, noting that it took a “shooting in a ritzy district in Washington, D.C. to suddenly get everyone’s attention for something that’s been going on for months and months.”
Try years and years, Joe. The so-called Democrat-soft media has been paying attention to this for years, not ignoring it. Fox News, on the other hand, is too wrapped up in their culture war BS to cover anything else.
“After Concha ticked off a short list of other issues he believes the mainstream media is refusing to cover in any meaningful way, including rising crime rates and inflation, Bruce responded by noting that it is the job of the press to inform their communities.”
Which, I guess Tucker Carlson does every night by informing his viewers that BLM are terrorists and that the Trump Nazis who stormed the Capitol, are the true American patriots.
“If the term Indians is so overtly racist,” Concha asked, “how did it survive for a century. And are the Braves in Atlanta next? Florida State ( Seminoles) next? The Kansas City Chiefs? Maybe it’s just a symbol of pride and tradition, celebrating Indian culture.”
It’s not that the term is overtly racist, but if indigenous activist groups think it might be a problem to some, then maybe it’s time to listen to what they’re saying instead of dismissing their concerns as “caving to a woke mob,” or that it’s “political correctness gone amok.” Some may find it offensive for non-indigenous people to call themselves indians, even if it’s just for a sports team. Would a conservative like Joe Concha get that? Probably not.
Some may also see certain mascots of indigenous characters offensive. But again, to conservatives, it’s nothing more than political correctness.
So, maybe it’s not just a symbol of pride and tradition, and celebrating Indian culture. Since white American culture has been steeped in racism and bigotry for most of its history, I doubt most indigenous Americans see it as “celebrating Indian culture.”
The greatest culture warrior of them all, Donald Trump, complained in a statement:
“Can anybody believe that the Cleveland Indians, a storied and cherished baseball franchise since taking the name in 1915, are changing their name to the Guardians? Such a disgrace, and I guarantee that the people who are most angry about it are the many Indians of our Country. Wouldn’t it be an honor to have a team named the Cleveland Indians, and wouldn’t it be disrespectful to rip that name and logo off of those jerseys? The people of Cleveland cannot be thrilled and I, as a FORMER baseball fan, cannot believe things such as this are happening. A small group of people, with absolutely crazy ideas and policies, is forcing these changes to destroy our culture and heritage. At some point, the people will not take it anymore!”
It’s always an attack on culture and heritage to conservatives, especially on matters that have to do with race. They’re the real victims, after all. And Trump is the biggest victim of them all.
Sources: The Week, ESPN, The Wrap.
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