MM I was typing this as you were locking the other. Please feel free to lock this as well. Just had to get this off my chest.
The easiest way to understand this:
If you work for a company, there are rules. Dress code, dating/sleeping with other employees, aggressive physical contact with other ee's, all sorts of rules that apply "when you are on the clock".
If you show up at your banking job wearing flip flops and a g string only, you'll get fired. However, walking around your house or neighborhood in the same attire won't get you fired. Pointed and laughed at, yes, fired, no.
NFL players are famous. Even a "sort of" well known player has tens if not hundreds of thousands of social media followers. Andy Dalton has several hundred thousand. Kapernivk has over a million. JJ watt has over 4 million. If youre making a statement during "work hours" and using the platform provided to you by your employer, what you're saying is either- 1. You aren't famous enough and you need a larger platform to make your voice heard OR 2. You're virtue signaling.
Since most high profile players have millions of social media followers, they already have a huge platform. So, this leaves only option 2. Virtue signaling.
Virtue signaling is what people do when they WANT attention for their actions so that others will notice. Either fans, teammates or sponsors. The more social media followers a player has, usually this equates to more endorsement deals because of their exposure. If a player can virtue signal about an issue that a certain group cares about, perhaps that helps them pick up a few thousand more followers on social media. More followers = a greater chance for more $.
You noticed Tom Brady today, standing stoic, hand over heart. But Tommy doesn't play the Twitter game. He doesn't even have a Twitter account. Peyton Manning? No Twitter. As a professional, Brady shows up to work, does his work, goes home and cashes checks. If Tom wants attention, he goes and hosts Saturday night live. Manning loves the camera, but doesn't run around virtue signaling. He's a professional as well.
Either you accept that athletes, singers, actors etc are nothing MORE than entertainers, rich entertainers with no more intrinsic knowledge of life or politics than anyone else, or you continue to hold them on a pedestal that is above the rest of us and worship them and their virtue signaling.
The easiest way to understand this:
If you work for a company, there are rules. Dress code, dating/sleeping with other employees, aggressive physical contact with other ee's, all sorts of rules that apply "when you are on the clock".
If you show up at your banking job wearing flip flops and a g string only, you'll get fired. However, walking around your house or neighborhood in the same attire won't get you fired. Pointed and laughed at, yes, fired, no.
NFL players are famous. Even a "sort of" well known player has tens if not hundreds of thousands of social media followers. Andy Dalton has several hundred thousand. Kapernivk has over a million. JJ watt has over 4 million. If youre making a statement during "work hours" and using the platform provided to you by your employer, what you're saying is either- 1. You aren't famous enough and you need a larger platform to make your voice heard OR 2. You're virtue signaling.
Since most high profile players have millions of social media followers, they already have a huge platform. So, this leaves only option 2. Virtue signaling.
Virtue signaling is what people do when they WANT attention for their actions so that others will notice. Either fans, teammates or sponsors. The more social media followers a player has, usually this equates to more endorsement deals because of their exposure. If a player can virtue signal about an issue that a certain group cares about, perhaps that helps them pick up a few thousand more followers on social media. More followers = a greater chance for more $.
You noticed Tom Brady today, standing stoic, hand over heart. But Tommy doesn't play the Twitter game. He doesn't even have a Twitter account. Peyton Manning? No Twitter. As a professional, Brady shows up to work, does his work, goes home and cashes checks. If Tom wants attention, he goes and hosts Saturday night live. Manning loves the camera, but doesn't run around virtue signaling. He's a professional as well.
Either you accept that athletes, singers, actors etc are nothing MORE than entertainers, rich entertainers with no more intrinsic knowledge of life or politics than anyone else, or you continue to hold them on a pedestal that is above the rest of us and worship them and their virtue signaling.
