Two and a Half Men: Sportswashing w/ Tom Usher

But with that in mind and talking about, you know, the phenomenon of how English people and people abroad engage in sport, I think it's maybe we get into the meat of the episode.

And I think right up front, we should maybe try and define what sports washing is.

And for me, I see sports washing as like, There is sports washing on an institutional level and then there's sports washing on an individual level.

So, Tom, do you want to break it down for us?

I mean, in terms of how I kind of, I guess the thing is that sports watching seems to have kind of this, it seems to have been like a modern phenomenon, I guess, in how the media has reacted to it, where it's like, oh, there's this new thing that like, you know, golf states are doing and like Russia is doing and basically the bad guys are doing or like guys that should know their place and like not try and do soft power.

But I guess what we were discussing before off mic kind of thing, I think there's that whole thing where it's soft power has been literally the US's main export since like World War II, even before that time.

And soft power includes sport.

I mean, England's colonialism has been going forever, like decades, generations, generations, it's been happening.

And that is stuff like cricket, stuff like football.

That is soft power.

That is sports washing.

Yeah.

We are

literally colonizing the world through things like football, like

cricket, through the Olympics, all this kind of stuff.

It's like a form of soft power that's now become so ubiquitous or it's become so kind of embedded into the fabric of how we think society works.

When really that was... know as we said england always invented football we invented that game and now it's globalized and it's like that is a form of sports washing and i think this whole idea that we've kind of seen it now where it's like oh it's only sports watching when rich like petro states are doing it when really i guess well the definition you asked for is i guess laundering your reputation as a country through using sporting using sport as a way of kind of like promoting their country and its interests Whilst also, I guess, washing away, as the term kind of implies, the civil, the kind of human rights atrocities or genocides or whatever it is they're committing.

And I think it's just funny because the media, especially with the last one, was that last one called the Qatar?

Yes, in Qatar.

And

they were just this massive fucking carry-on about Qatar and, oh God, the human rights and there's loads of people dying making stadiums and all this kind of stuff.

And it's like, yeah, that is true.

Obviously, I'm not going to try and be like, oh, I'm defending Qatar because I'm so woke that I hate imperialism so much that I'm turning around and defending Qatar.

But it's like...

Obviously, those

But with that in mind and talking about, you know, the phenomenon of how English people and people abroad engage in sport, I think it's maybe we get into the meat of the episode.

And I think right up front, we should maybe try and define what sports washing is.

And for me, I see sports washing as like, There is sports washing on an institutional level and then there's sports washing on an individual level.

So, Tom, do you want to break it down for us?

I mean, in terms of how I kind of, I guess the thing is that sports watching seems to have kind of this, it seems to have been like a modern phenomenon, I guess, in how the media has reacted to it, where it's like, oh, there's this new thing that like, you know, golf states are doing and like Russia is doing and basically the bad guys are doing or like guys that should know their place and like not try and do soft power.

But I guess what we were discussing before off mic kind of thing, I think there's that whole thing where it's soft power has been literally the US's main export since like World War II, even before that time.

And soft power includes sport.

I mean, England's colonialism has been going forever, like decades, generations, generations, it's been happening.

And that is stuff like cricket, stuff like football.

That is soft power.

That is sports washing.

Yeah.

We are

literally colonizing the world through things like football, like

cricket, through the Olympics, all this kind of stuff.

It's like a form of soft power that's now become so ubiquitous or it's become so kind of embedded into the fabric of how we think society works.

When really that was... know as we said england always invented football we invented that game and now it's globalized and it's like that is a form of sports washing and i think this whole idea that we've kind of seen it now where it's like oh it's only sports watching when rich like petro states are doing it when really i guess well the definition you asked for is i guess laundering your reputation as a country through using sporting using sport as a way of kind of like promoting their country and its interests Whilst also, I guess, washing away, as the term kind of implies, the civil, the kind of human rights atrocities or genocides or whatever it is they're committing.

And I think it's just funny because the media, especially with the last one, was that last one called the Qatar?

Yes, in Qatar.

And

they were just this massive fucking carry-on about Qatar and, oh God, the human rights and there's loads of people dying making stadiums and all this kind of stuff.

And it's like, yeah, that is true.

Obviously, I'm not going to try and be like, oh, I'm defending Qatar because I'm so woke that I hate imperialism so much that I'm turning around and defending Qatar.

But it's like...

Obviously, those