I always find the four plus hours I spend in the company of my four ball grouping during comp days informative. Especially at the moment with the Donald Trump 2.0 regime in the news constantly. Quite apart from the golfing experience, which can be good, bad or indifferent, listening to the views of other folk can be stimulating. Many older white golfers at my golf club, who make up 90% of the membership, seem to tune into the right wing media bubble of Fox News and Sky News Australia. These networks, both owned by Rupert Murdoch and family (right wing proponents), are none too bothered about factual evidence in their reporting.
Right Wing Stalking Horses & Scapegoats
Trump says something on camera and many of these golfers just eat it up as fact. I have spent a few years studying what is going on in the US, indeed I even wrote a book about it called America Matters. Donald Trump is a compulsive liar with no regard for truth or factuality. The claims he makes about immigrants and government waste are never backed up with actual evidence – it is a sound bite for the media to amplify. BS about Haitian’s eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. BS about extreme financial waste spent on trans folk. These are right wing stalking horses. Scapegoating stratagems. Give the people something or someone to blame their grievances upon. Make the target a weak one so it cannot fight back. Meanwhile the wealthy and powerful are taking their lunch right out from under their noses. The culture wars ensure that the white working class vote against their own best interests economically. Stupid is as stupid does.
Four Ball Eye Balls On Fox News
The news sold out to opinion years ago. Murdoch was part of that reorientation, as op/eds were more entertaining than objective factual news. People love gossip and opinion more than truth. You can sell more ads for more if you get more eyeballs on your offerings in the media. Investigative journalism became as rare as hen’s teeth whilst blowhard shock jock opinion ruled the airwaves and screens. Most working men don’t read. Most folk watch videos of stuff rather than read about stuff. The dumbing down of the populace has been going on for decades. In the company of my four ball I get the Fox News lowdown. An echo chamber gobbled up by viewers if it reinforces biases, pet hates, and prejudices.
Golf Shines Above Cheats Like Trump
Despite all this the golf can still shine as the sport rises above the politics of grievance and polarisation of a social media age. You have to remember that social media is an American invention. In this four ball grouping we are playing the game we love. A finely played stroke can soar through the heavens to land on the green. A deft chip rolling up to the hole. The shared camaraderie between players acknowledging the skill on display. You know, the amazing thing is that Donald Trump is an infamous golf cheat. A well-known sport’s journalist even wrote a whole book about it – which tells you how much cheating has gone on for decades by Donald Trump. At my golf club and at every golf club I have been a member of cheats are considered as the lowest form of life. No one wants to play with a golf cheat. Yet these same blokes give Trump their admiration and support. If you lie down with dogs you end up with fleas. I wouldn’t want Trump at my golf club and as for leading the country.
“Donald Trump is the worst cheat ever and he doesn’t care who knows,” Rick Reilly says as he describes a man he has known for 30 years. “I always say golf is like bicycle shorts. It reveals a lot about a man. And golf reveals a lot of ugliness in this president.”
Reilly, the former Sports Illustrated columnist, has written a book called Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump. “
Come on, get real folks. If you follow liars and grifters into battle you end up dead. Time to start thinking for yourselves instead of eating up the BS being fed to you.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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