OBVIOUSLY the people making the threats here are the problem. I’m not denying that. 100% if you’re making death threats to anyone, YOU are the problem.
That being said, this seems like an obvious outcome of mixing alcohol, financial gambling, and sports. Every single god damned sport now is “These teams are doing blah blah blah in this game, and don’t forget to check out draft kings, where you can finacially cripple you as we rub our nipples.”
I do not need to be reminded to gamble. I have no interest in gambling. I have no interest in losing money from the comfort of my own couch. However, the world is filled with idiots, which is why this model is profitable. The problem is, a fool and his money are soon seperated…but then the fool gets angry and gets a gun. Even if the death threats are hollow, they still 100% need to be treated as absolutely serious. Or are we going to have to wait until they find a way to sneak a gun into a stadium, or maybe a meet and greet, and suddenly any random player from any random sport is dead on the ground because they played a game on tv 2 weeks ago.
Guys…when are we going to talk about mental health? When someone gets hurt? Well people have been getting hurt now for decades. Seemingly daily public shootings to the point where the news stopped even reporting them, because they were so common that they weren’t even news anymore.
This isn’t a gun debate. This is a mental health discussion. It affects all aspects of everybodies lives. When are we going to collectively as a society have that talk? When are we going to wake up and realize that nobody is doing well mentally right now? When are we going to take responsibility for the future, and say that it’s not healthy to be working 70 hours a week, and barely make rent? When are we going to evaluate ourselves, and discover that this is wrecking havoc on all of us, all so a literal 1% of society can be 0.0001% richer tomorrow than they are today. An increase so insignificant to them, that they won’t even notice the difference, but the rest of us pay with our lives? When are we going to figure out that you can’t just establish a suicide prevention hotline, throw a few billboards advertising the hotline and call it a day? Those hotlines are an invaluable resource in the fight for mental health…but it’s not a fix for this environment we’ve created. It should be one tool OF MANY. But the real bafflinf decision is that gambling relies on preying on the downtrodden to sell a fantasy get rich quick scheme using money they don’t have and preying on their addictions. When are we going to say that NONE of this is ok, and that we ALL need to be doing better?
When?
You hit a triple. I have not enjoyed the legalization of sports gambling in my area. Sports gambling ads all the time now. 100% parasitic capitalism. We’ll probably have to wait to see the effects it has on kids now who will grow up seeing gambling ads every time they watch their favourite team play
It’s one of those recent developments that I’m surprised and horrified happened. Wasn’t sports betting previously illegal, other than racetracks? Kind of like how casinos were “oh, gambling is immoral, we only do that in Las Vegas” and then “well also Indian Reservations” and then “oh, we have them downtown in cities now”.
I certainly went off on a rant there. Instinctually, it feels like I should appologize for losing it like that, but the thing is…I’m not sorry. Yes my rant may have at times steered off topic, and maybe rambled a bit too much, but I stand by every word. Uhhhh, except for the typo. It was meant to say “baffling” not “bafflinx” or whatever it was.
I’m not sorry, because it needed to be said. It needed to be said for a long time. It needs to be said by more people. It needs to be said in places where more people can see it, and get the message. It needs to be said until it’s talked about by everyone. Until it’s taken seriously. Until it’s not a political issue.
Still though, only a triple??? Damn. Third base coach must be playing cautious today. I thought it was at least an in the park home run!
Welp. I didn’t live up to the expectations set upon me then. Guess I’ll start getting death threats from in debt gamblers now…
