hypocrisy at its finest.

Honestly, now that I have my laptop back, typing is so much easier. I'm so used to my laptop, that it feels natural to type for a long time and at a really high speed (there's a joke in there somewhere). Also, not related to what I'm going to talk about in this post, but I just won a slapbet! In the 2009 NFL playoffs, the Green Bay Packers were defeated in overtime thanks to a fumble recovery for a touchdown by the Arizona Cardinals in the Wild Card round. In the very next round, the Cardinals were stomped by the eventual Super Bowl champions, the New Orleans Saints. I said 'man, what a shame, the Cards got stomped the very next week, and now they're super irrrelevant.', and my friend asserted that I was wrong, and that 2009 was the year the Cardinals went to the Super Bowl against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, as I thought/knew, the Cardinals lost to the Steelers in the Super Bowl in 2008, and indeed lost to the Saints in 2009. Long story short: I was right, he was wrong, and I slapped the crap out of him. I hit him so hard my hand hurts. Anyway, the sports story was an appropriate segue way into the topic: hypocrisy.

I'm also namely talking about my hypocrisy. A few posts down, I spoke about my intense dislike for the fashion industry, Perez Hilton and other insignificant things. I am definitely a hypocrite, when it comes to these things. I'm not saying I secretly enjoy those things, definitely not. But, I mean...as am example, I recently bought an issue of GQ Magazine, simply because it had Tom Brady on the cover. I directly funded GQ for nothing other than the fact that I like Tom Brady.

I said the sports story was relevant, and that was because in that post about fashion and what-not, I declined to speak about the sports culture that I also find inherently distasteful. I mean, let's think about it - we have sports superstars (LeBron James, Sidney Crosby, Tom Brady) who make literally tens of millions of dollars a year...and for what? They entertain people. These guys all are being paid upwards of $12million a year, for several years...based off their athleticism. I mean, sure, the people that pay to watch them perform makes the owners of their various teams richer beyond anyone's wildest imagination, but still, it's a little sad. It's even sadder when you consider how much professions like teaching gets paid. My own mother has been teaching since I was born, first as an ECE, and then a substitute teacher, then a full-time teacher who taught kindergarten, and grades 1 through 6 until I was 20, and is now a vice principal at a middle school....and she still gets paid less than $100k a year. That's absurd! I mean, teachers' salaries are a completely different topic, but these are the people who shape the future of our country/the world, and they get paid literally 120 times less than someone who can throw a football/go five hole/dunk a basketball. Sure, that's an oversimplification of what athletes (especially those three athletes) can do, but still, it's a little sad that that's the way our society works. I also dislike it when people say 'well, you know, they'll be out of a job by the time they're 40, at most.' Well, guess what, by the time Tom Brady is 40, he'll have made probably almost $200 million...I can guarantee you I will not make that much money (not even a quarter of that) in my entire life. It's saddening.

Having said all of that...I still directly fund that stuff. I still have a Tom Brady jersey. I still go to Raptors and Argonauts games. I still watch all the Patriots games I can find time to watch, raising ratings for football games. Heck, I saw a $2 binder thing of the Patriots at Dollarama a week or so ago, and I bought it instantly, without even thinking about it, and that's definitely directly against all the stuff I just said.

I guess I just am admitting to being a hypocrite, really. I accuse other people of being dumb for liking Perez Hilton, yet I read/follow Rich Eisen's blog on NFL.com, where he interviews celebrities and football stars alike. I criticize people for following magazine editors on what is hot/what is not, and yet I not only bought a GQ magazine because it had Tom Brady's face on it, I also have his jersey (not because of the magazine, because I like Brady, but it's still relevant) AND a Patriots hat. The funny thing about all that...is that I don't really care. I kind of enjoy having a double standard like that, if only because I'm so aware of it, and the consternation it causes in other people when I'm ripping into them one sentence for their fashion things and then praising Tom Brady's GQ pictures the next. It's kind of fun seeing people get really angry when you push their buttons (which, I have to say, I excel at...so much fun), and then double back to say something completely contrary to what I just said. The look on their faces, their expressions...priceless.

Ah well. In the end, it just comes down to your opinion. And, let's be honest: my opinion is always right. =D