So, did fans at UFC 244 mostly boo Donald Trump or not?
We are, by this point, all too accustomed to living in a country that can’t agree on the basic facts. I think we should be able to agree on that, even though I know we don’t. How we got here is a topic for another day, but as we’ve moved much of our interaction and discussion online it’s become more possible than ever before to surround yourself with people who see it the way you do and to ignore the people making an earnest attempt at seeing (or hearing) it as it is.
Watching this play out in real life, in an arena full of people who ostensibly should be sharing the same sensations and sounds, is a bit jarring. This happened Saturday night, when Donald Trump, the President of the United States, decided to attend UCF 244 at Madison Square Garden in New York City (his now-former place of residence.)
We’ll pick up with the president’s entrance.
Ariel Helwani is a widely respected reporter on MMA. He’s got a lot of credibility, and the internet began reacting swiftly to the news.
Rob Taub (another journalist, though he generally covers hockey in New York) posted a video that clearly includes mostly boos. There are cheers, too, but on balance we’re picking up low, long roars of dissatisfaction. The sound isn’t as unanimous as when Trump was booed at a Nationals game recently, but the message from the majority is still clear.
But wait.
Well, I can’t tell here. Pretty amorphous. Some cheers, some boos, some people chatting to the person next to them about whether it’s time to fetch another $15 Miller Lite.
Yeah, now I’m just flummoxed. Seems like maybe a sampling of fight fans in one of the country’s largest and most diverse cities, easily reachable from nearby rural places, has mixed opinions about a president who lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College. Who would’ve guessed?
The Twitter hive moved swiftly, of course, to frame all of this. Here’s some compelling videos that sure makes it sound like the tenor of the crowd changes drastically upon seeing Trump.
Before the night was even over, Trump’s people were irate about the fact that some people talked about the booing. His son sent this at 11:31 p.m.
The linked New York Post story has this to say about the crowd reaction:
Then this morning the president himself chimed in:
Interestingly, Trump Jr. also retweeted one of Helwani’s tweets; it was not the one about the Trump entourage being met with boos.
Anyway, we’ve played the videos, Mr. Trump Jr., and none of them are “overwhelmingly positive” toward the President. Whether it was an awesome response depends a little bit on where you were in the arena but mostly on what you want to believe about any of this, or anything at all. It’s largely impossible to have these discussions anymore, and yet we’re constantly bogged down in them, about everything all the time. This one is completely inconsequential yet it feels as urgent and garbled as anything surrounding the impeachment inquiry, or the removal of troops from Syria, or anything else that deserves real and honest discussion. The President and his people view every issue as a contest that will ultimately come down to two sides locked in an octagon with only one allowed to emerge victorious, and we’ve gone there with him, whether or not we meant to.
In this case there’s no sense listening to Trump Jr., who’s simply campaigning for the father whose money and power have enabled him to maintain a distant relationship to reality and truth all along. Helwani is at least a journalist, working for a company with standards, and it’s clear he was trying to get the story right, and the story was complicated. Some people booed Donald Trump. Some people cheered for him. A lot of people probably just wanted the next fight to start. That’s our democracy now.
---------------------------------------------------
Was it the boos or the cheers that won?
We are, by this point, all too accustomed to living in a country that can’t agree on the basic facts. I think we should be able to agree on that, even though I know we don’t. How we got here is a topic for another day, but as we’ve moved much of our interaction and discussion online it’s become more possible than ever before to surround yourself with people who see it the way you do and to ignore the people making an earnest attempt at seeing (or hearing) it as it is.
Watching this play out in real life, in an arena full of people who ostensibly should be sharing the same sensations and sounds, is a bit jarring. This happened Saturday night, when Donald Trump, the President of the United States, decided to attend UCF 244 at Madison Square Garden in New York City (his now-former place of residence.)
We’ll pick up with the president’s entrance.
Ariel Helwani is a widely respected reporter on MMA. He’s got a lot of credibility, and the internet began reacting swiftly to the news.
Rob Taub (another journalist, though he generally covers hockey in New York) posted a video that clearly includes mostly boos. There are cheers, too, but on balance we’re picking up low, long roars of dissatisfaction. The sound isn’t as unanimous as when Trump was booed at a Nationals game recently, but the message from the majority is still clear.
But wait.
Well, I can’t tell here. Pretty amorphous. Some cheers, some boos, some people chatting to the person next to them about whether it’s time to fetch another $15 Miller Lite.
Yeah, now I’m just flummoxed. Seems like maybe a sampling of fight fans in one of the country’s largest and most diverse cities, easily reachable from nearby rural places, has mixed opinions about a president who lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College. Who would’ve guessed?
The Twitter hive moved swiftly, of course, to frame all of this. Here’s some compelling videos that sure makes it sound like the tenor of the crowd changes drastically upon seeing Trump.
Before the night was even over, Trump’s people were irate about the fact that some people talked about the booing. His son sent this at 11:31 p.m.
The linked New York Post story has this to say about the crowd reaction:
Donald Trump Jr. remained angry online for some time.
Then this morning the president himself chimed in:
Interestingly, Trump Jr. also retweeted one of Helwani’s tweets; it was not the one about the Trump entourage being met with boos.
Anyway, we’ve played the videos, Mr. Trump Jr., and none of them are “overwhelmingly positive” toward the President. Whether it was an awesome response depends a little bit on where you were in the arena but mostly on what you want to believe about any of this, or anything at all. It’s largely impossible to have these discussions anymore, and yet we’re constantly bogged down in them, about everything all the time. This one is completely inconsequential yet it feels as urgent and garbled as anything surrounding the impeachment inquiry, or the removal of troops from Syria, or anything else that deserves real and honest discussion. The President and his people view every issue as a contest that will ultimately come down to two sides locked in an octagon with only one allowed to emerge victorious, and we’ve gone there with him, whether or not we meant to.
In this case there’s no sense listening to Trump Jr., who’s simply campaigning for the father whose money and power have enabled him to maintain a distant relationship to reality and truth all along. Helwani is at least a journalist, working for a company with standards, and it’s clear he was trying to get the story right, and the story was complicated. Some people booed Donald Trump. Some people cheered for him. A lot of people probably just wanted the next fight to start. That’s our democracy now.
---------------------------------------------------
Was it the boos or the cheers that won?
