On the TunneySide of Sports April 19, 2021 #844 Up next… Cancel Culture
After further review… The decision to move the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star game because of the new Georgia SB 202 law, which changed the way voting ballots were to be collected in the future, has caused a firestorm. MLB remained opposed to the Georgia law and moved its 2021 All-Star game, now scheduled for July 13, to Coors Field in Denver, home of the Colorado Rockies. The Georgia law also caused several nationally-known sponsors, who call Atlanta their home, to withdraw their support. Coca-Cola, founded in Georgia, Delta Airlines, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport whose home base is Atlanta, and others have abandoned their allegiance to the city and state.
That Georgia law has also brought to life the term “cancel culture,” which to me and many others had not made much sense. Cancel culture, as Robert Henderson wrote in the CityJournal, is “an indulgent, dopamine-feeding activity practiced on social media until its cruel practitioners, ultimately bored, follow the algorithms elsewhere.” Huh?
What in the name Abner Doubleday does this relate to in baseball and/or sports at all? Did SB 202 bring the cancel culture to a renewed life? Did MLB have to remove that All-Star game from Truist Park?
There are probably more reasons than this simple explanation on renaming Sun Trust Park; but Sun Trust Bank had a 25-year naming rights agreement when it merged with BB&T. While it still is the Braves home about 10 miles from Atlanta, Truist is actually in Cumberland, Georgia located in Cobb County. It is stated that Truist will build 10 youth ballparks as a tribute to Hank Aaron, the Braves legend who died in January.
Many political leaders have been critical of Georgia Law 202 which is said to restrict voting rights to minorities by not allowing ballots to be sent to voters rather than the state government-approved one. This is not a complete description of SB 202.
What this new law did was to draw approval or criticism from all walks of life especially via social media. This is where the term cancel culture comes in. In today’s world, the use of Twitter and other methods of social media makes it so easy to be critical of decisions made by anyone and, unfortunately, without accountability. The issue is one of accountability!
Will you log in your thoughts about accountability with one’s use of social media?
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