ESPN contributor compares GOP-led voter laws to Chinese genocide

Unfortunately, this is a real argument made by a real person.

Adande’s false equivalence between U.S. voting legislation and China’s literal genocide of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region came Friday in response to a question from ESPN host Tony Reali. The host asked Adande specifically how one can reconcile watching the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are being held in Beijing, with the fact that China is a country-sized concentration camp.

“I think it’s standard in sports right now — you have to have a cognitive dissonance,” said Adande. “You need to compartmentalize.”

He added, “We’ve never had a more enjoyable NFL playoffs in this country, and we’ve never had more people watching the playoffs, and yet it goes on amid the ongoing allegations against Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team, and, you know, the continuous concussion concerns, and now the concerns about diversity in the allegations and questions about competitive integrity even, all of that, and yet we’re still enjoying the games.”

This is already insanely stupid, but it only gets worse.

“And who are we to criticize China’s human rights records when we have ongoing attacks by the agents of the state against unarmed citizens, and we’ve got assaults on the voting rights of our people of color in various states in this country?” asked Adande.

Note that Adande’s argument is the exact same one the Chinese Communist Party uses whenever it’s pressed on its human rights violations. It’s whataboutism dressed up as moral outrage — and all for the purpose of avoiding China’s atrocities. I hope Adande is at least being paid for serving as an unofficial spokesman for the party.

He continued, saying, “So, sports — I think it is possible and it’s necessary more than ever to just shut everything out if you are to enjoy the actual games themselves.”

It’s hard to believe anyone is actually stupid enough to believe China and the U.S. are essentially the same. China is actively attempting to exterminate an entire minority population within its borders. In the U.S., there are occasional police-involved shootings. We are not so different, you and I.

Reali continued, pressing the contributor to answer how the international and sports communities can reconcile the fact that China is hosting the Winter Olympics with the fact that these same communities claim to be champions of human rights.

“Well, again,” said Adande, “where can you choose that’s free?”

Not China? Is this a trick question? Does Adande really, genuinely believe there is no place in the world freer than China? Apparently!

“And look at some of the other recent hosts of the games, including Russia and some other recent places,” he said. “It’s very hard to find a country that isn’t problematic when it comes to human rights, including here.”

Adande added, “I think we can bring attention to it. I think it’s notable that we did have a Uyghur participant lighting the torch, and hopefully, this will be used to bring attention to it rather than to continue to place these [issues].”

None of Adande’s fellow ESPN panelists had the backbone to push back on his loathsome and alarmingly ignorant tirade. They certainly didn’t challenge him. His remarks came and went as naturally as if he had been discussing the weather.

This is how genocide happens — good men act like idiots when the apologists get going.

For context, ESPN is owned by the ABC television network, which is owned by Disney.

Disney has gone to great lengths to appease and impress the Chinese Communist Party. Like many other media companies, its hopes to gain better access to China’s billion-plus-person market. Also, ESPN itself has a very strict “do not criticize Communist China” policy.

Just some neat facts I thought I’d throw out there for no reason in particular.