Define hypocrisy. It’s the practice of claiming a moral standard but then they don’t behave in the same consistent way of the proclamation.
This is the NBA and Hollywood right now. These industries are filled with a bunch of virtue signaling pretenders who have zero issue with blasting President Trump with their right to Freedom of Speech but remain silent in the face of adversity from China.
And that hypocrisy was at an all-time high this week when the NBA confiscated NBA fans’ pro-Democracy Hong Kong signs and some were flat-out ejected from arenas for showing this support.
One thing Americans should all get behind, a bipartisan issue, is that we don’t back down to anybody no matter who or what it is.
The American government was silent during the first couple of years of World War II and adamantly stayed out of the global conflict until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941.
That’s when the United States entered the race and showed the whole world who was boss.
Part of that greatness stems from the U.S. Constitution and in the first amendment it guarantees every American’s right to express Freedom of Speech, especially in the face of tyranny and oppression.
We back down to nobody.
But now we’re finding out that the NBA doesn’t hold the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution dear to the league and it all happened in the last week.
On Friday of last week, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for protestors in Hong Kong, which rubbed the Chinese government the wrong way – so they stopped showing NBA preseason games. While NBA commissioner Adam Silver quasi-defended Morey’s right to free speech, he also appreciated the partnership they have with China.
The Chinese government issued a stark warning they didn’t see it as “Free Speech.”
They wrote in response to Silver’s statement, “We are strongly dissatisfied and opposed Adam’s claim to support Morey’s rights of free expression. We believe that any speech that challenges national sovereignty and social stability is not within the scope of freedom of speech.”
And the NBA is feeling the reverberation from this statement so now they’re kicking fans out of the arenas for demonstrating support for Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, Philadelphia 76ers fan Sam Wachs and his wife were ejected from Philadelphia’s preseason game against the Chinese Basketball Association’s Guangzhou Long-Lions at Wells Fargo Center. The fans were seen holding “Free Hong Kong” and “Free HK” signs, voicing support for the human rights protests in Hong Kong.
The moment Sam Wachs and his wife are escorted out of the @sixers preseason game against a Chinese basketball team for yelling “Free Hong Kong.” @6abc pic.twitter.com/3HlZxKXDzs
— Christie Ileto (@Christie_Ileto) October 9, 2019
Also on Wednesday, exactly 140 miles away in our nation’s capital, Washington Wizards fans had their “Free Hong Kong” sign confiscated at the Capitol One Arena.
Just had our “Free Hong Kong” sign confiscated at Capitol One Arena at the Wizards game against the Guangzhou Long Lions. #FreeHongKong #NBA #Censorship pic.twitter.com/on1O4QdBUi
— Jon Schweppe (@JonSchweppe) October 9, 2019
This is absolutely absurd. The NBA league is filled with just a bunch of money-grubbing hypocrites.