Pay close attention to the president of international soccer as he takes identity politics to the absolute zenith of idiocy. Why? To make a point about western nations complaining about the oppressive nature of the World Cup host nation’s government.
The international community — not just the west — is criticizing World Cup host nation Qatar for its authoritarian government and treatment of foreigners, LGBTQ people, and women.
“Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker,” said the white, Swiss-Italian, multimillionaire, heterosexual FIFA President, Gianni Infantino.
🗣 “Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.”
President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino with a strange speech on the eve of the 2022 World Cup pic.twitter.com/f1xIfWAjom
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 19, 2022
I get it. You feel the pain of all those minorities. I mean, you really, really, really feel it.
“Of course, I am not Qatari, Arab, gay or disabled. But I was the son of a migrant worker, saw their conditions. Not in Qatar, but Switzerland.”
Did he really just compare Qatar with Switzerland? Why, yes. Yes, he did.
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He later added that also felt “like a woman.” He said Qatar could progress, like Switzerland did, on its human rights record but that the West had to engage as part of the process and stop being hypocrites. “I think for what we Europeans have been doing the last 3,000 years we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.”
So, it’s the west’s fault that Qatar hangs gays, beats migrant workers, treats women like cattle, and persecutes Christians, Jews, and anyone who isn’t Muslim?
But Mr. Infantino knows what oppression is. He knows what discrimination is. He knows what it feels like to be an outsider, to be persecuted for being “different.”
“I know what it means to be discriminated and bullied as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child, I was bullied because I had red hair and freckles. I was bullied for that.”
Washington Examiner‘s Tom Rogan:
Infantino believes that being bullied as a red-headed child with freckles is the same as thousands of migrant workers dying of heat exhaustion after being denied sufficient rest or water. He believes his freckle trauma is the same as a gay person fearing imprisonment or worse for holding hands with one’s partner at a World Cup. But Infantino was just getting started.
This is identity politics being used to justify moral relativism. Qatar should get a pass because past sins committed by the Romans against Africans and proto-Europeans are the same as Qatar’s brutal treatment of foreign workers.
This is the human rights school of “f*** it, we must let the Qataris kill workers and the Chinese Communists wage a genocide against Muslims (side note: Qatar’s Islamic values end with banning beer and gays, not the protection of fellow Muslims) because the Romans annihilated Carthage in 146 BC.”
Of course, history is not supposed to serve as a shield to excuse present-day injustices. Rather, it should be considered in its totality. That means reading about Rome’s enslavement of Carthage and also Rome’s instrumental role in developing enduring traditions of governance and law. It means learning from the past and doing better in the future. Moreover, two can play the moral relativity game. Thinking of Qatar, the Umayyad Caliphate wasn’t always nice to its neighbors, for example.
Infantino also doesn’t give a flying fig about World Cup fans who will now only be allowed to drink beer in overpriced hotels for $15 a bottle. He defended the ridiculous ban on beer by blaming fans for complaining.
“I think if, for three hours a day, you cannot drink a beer, you will survive.”
Needless to say, the international outcry against Infantino is already overshadowing the beginning of the World Cup tournament that starts today.
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