Comments by "Johanna S. L. Brushane" (@johannas.l.brushane2518) on "Sydney Watson" channel.

@petertran4470 Once upon a time it was a very important skill of military origin to be able to have full control over and have your horse execute the movements you command it to.
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Actually some countries will suck in some sports, actually. There was, actually, not a trophy given to her in Paris. But perhaps the standard of breakdancers that could be found in Australia is not better than that? I've seen some saying that there are better breakdancers in the subway in New York, which I indeed can be true but the breakdancers in New York perhaps neither have Australian citizenship nor wanting it to be able to represent Australia. Maybe some who actually are skilled also are not interested in competing in that formal setting (or are not engaged in some infrastructure of clubs, organisations to be able to be considered)? Again, some countries will suck in some sports, but it can have it's charm that even countries that suck in some sports have somebody to represent them there. As a swede grown up with winter sports I think it is fun to see countries where the preconditions is not favourable send athletes anyway, and it is in the Olympics it happens. It's fun to see but I wouldn't "hate" on them. Dreamcrusher: actually, I could surely see a need for some gender studies...as why grown women literally have a speaking pattern as literal teenagers, actually.
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@TerryKnight-hw3pg You mean as opposed to many critics voicing their opinions in a speech pattern of a highschool drop out while not once being arsed to even mention a name of an Australian breakdancer who they believe was snubbed? Yeah, Raygun suck compared to other competitors. But much of the criticism I've seen suck so much harder. If bad was the best Australia could find it's not that much of a scandal they sent her, they don't have to go out and sell Australian citizenship to competitors from other nations in hope to get the 1st, 2nd or 3rd place.
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@Kramer-Said-IT That may very well be true, but perhaps they can't be found, or are available, so to say? This may be specifically so if there is a difference in how traditional sports usually are organised in federations under a national "umbrella" organisation. It could also be that some amount of breakdancers would see it as less desirable to compete in the context of the Olympics where there is some sort of standard made by somebody else of even clothes to be worn, perhaps a degree of commercialism that is undesirable etc... It would still be relevant only to whether street performers in Australia are better. As a comparative example there are plenty of better icehockeyplayers in USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland and Russia watching games on TV where lesser skilled players from less competitive states compete in the Olympics. That's a reality of it.
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@karrimgyver Yes, I'm not denying her performance was really bad and I've seen some reactions to it where they really laugh at it and mock it in a way that is legit fair without any of this excessive malice. And while I am certain there are better dancers in Australia, I am not questioning that at all, but for some reason they either skipped the qualification competitions or did not come through. That is not so different to basically any sport (aside of most sports do not have that element of estimation of an artistic performance). I am from a nation that have it's distinctive strength in winter sports. Most often the Olympic participants are picked out by a series of qualification competitions at national and international level, and occasionally it can happen that a clear favourite does not perform their best there and miss the ticket that might have been seen as "given". But mind you that is then established sports with a clear and established organisational infrastructure to various levels of advancement which I am not certain is the case among the "the breakdancing community" in general or in Australia in specific (I can believe that many see themselves as dancers being artists and the money to be made as a professional is to be in shows rather than price money in competitions?) which may be an explanation to why the field may appear as leveled if there's better skilled dancers that did not come through in the qualifiers. When USA put out the "Miracle on ICE" in 1980s Olympic ice hockey team it was college kids on the skates, the top level icehockey players (not only American and Canadian) did not get time off from the National Hockey League to go and compete for their nations in the Olympics). So the notion of a nation is not sending their best is absolutely nothing new, one can not pretend that this specific circumstance is a scandal in it's own. You will always find examples of where the absolute best are not available or sometimes failed in qualifications, that is nothing in itself worth to go and trauma dump about. Some year some Swedish federations took another approach and picked out which talents they would support some years before an Olympic event, and while one can see the argument for such approach it is difficult to not observe that in a few years there is a field just below the elite level where some will step up.
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@dtester True. And sometimes a nation would not send their best out of some reason of policy. Bear in mind not all participating nations are democratic so the reason of policy may not at all be "woke".
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@karlsangree But isn't that a delusion of yours though, you kind of living in your own glasshouse with that argument? The top three athletes/teams get trophies/medals, there are no participation trophies so we can chuck that strawmanargment made by you in the bin already to begin with. The Olympics are not the World Championships, nations compete against eachother and they pick out the athletes to represent them. Ideally it should be the best in their nations but it could happen that for instance a South American country might miss a talent for javelin if the person lives with a tribe that have limited contact with public civilization. (Or dance as an amateur in an informal organisation in a small town in Australia?). But fairly often policy can matter, most nations aren't democratic and the best athlete in a nation may not get a ticket for being active in the "wrong social movement". It can also be a democratic nation who don't wan't to send the most skilled because they perhaps are prone to say ridiculous racist things or such. So the field can be leveled in a number of ways, so no need to fret about it, allow yourself to laugh a bit at the clumsy loser but hating on them is a bit much.
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@MikeInHalifax That is often true. There's plenty of coaches in various sports who may not have the genetic set up to become elite athletes in their chosen but learned to master the skill to become as good as is possible from any point (and ability to transfer that knowledge with a pedagogic skill that should not be undervalued).
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@KäptnKrückschwank Sure. I watched some tubers criticism on Raygun. And while I am not any authority of breakdance I can see her performance suck compared to most other competitors (and also thinking there's a possibility there might be breakdancers who still want that cultural subculture niche and thus would not be interested in competing at the Olympics?). A lot of the criticism I've seen is about rather irrelevant things. An Australian can probably question why she was sent and the procedure to have her. But the most of other criticism is in the department of tell me you're anxious middle-class without saying it. There are no participation trophies in the Olympics so that angle look more as if the person raising it having moved in a glasshouse they build themselves. The angle of "cultural appropriation" because she's white, female and older than a teenager. This angle of criticism is rather stupid in the context of the Olympics (regardless of what the Olympics once was and what it strives to be). And then her education, which have no influence in how she actually was ranked in Paris (while it may have had an influence in that she is maybe known in Australia and therefore perhaps chosen to represent the country over someone better in a small town, or more informal amateur organised background but for a non Australian that aspect is of less relevance).
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@Kramer-Said-IT Actually, only at MTV some +30-40 years ago. Not more than that but sufficient to have me chuckle at Raygun, but not sufficient to pump up my fight or flight response over why a nation I don't live in decided to send her. And for sure, I can't name great breakers, but I think that people who make the effort of crying foul over that not all in a competition between nations will be of winning quality could have made an effort to at least casually mention who they would think be more deserving. This is where I think it comes off as the typical stereotype of the anxious constipated whine of the mediocre middle-class.
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@csailer2353 Yes, she sucks but still perhaps was the best Australia could send. They are not obliged to skip their spot in the competition even if they reasonably be aware they will finish last. So I disagree, when you go out and criticise (this is beyond just questioning if this is the best they had) Australia for sending Raygun you should make an effort to at least pretend to be able to name which Australian breakdancer who should have been there instead of Raygun. Not sit and hallucinate about participation trophies that never was handed out. She sucked, finished last as it should be in competition. And a lot of people arguing about it don't seem to have the intellectual capacity to put forward an argument but have to overload their contribution with non sequitur buzzwords. It's not just amateur YouTubers who fail there, the TV presenter who look like a drag queen* at Sky News Australia also made this "criticism" about something that did not happen in reality: participation trophies. These people sit and whip their rage up over not wanting participation trophies in the Olympics while a lousy participant finished without any trophy, just the way it should be. Maybe it's mental care system that suck, maybe it's subpar quality of school that suck in teaching kids to put forward a reasonable argument. Or maybe it's cheap and lazy attempts at whipping up emotions over something that didn't happen. Some have mentioned that some girl named Chapman is more skilled and should have been sent, idk, maybe that is true but perhaps she was injured, had a stomach flu when the national qualification competitions required was won by Raygun. But c'est la vie, it's nothing new in sports, the best are not always fielded for various reasons. * I think drag shows are terrific entertainment, but it is terrible when reality look like the satire drag shows typically aspire to create.
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@csailer2353 Again, given how the competition is in the olympics, with nations competing against eachother then every nation decide who should be going. It's a fair requirement to be able to put forward an argument from reality. Nobody, absolutely nobody, have said other than that Raygun sucked. And nobody have suggested she should have any "participation trophy" yet still the internet is full of cortisol junkies yodeling about it... If you ACTUALLY wanted to talk about "participation trophies" there would be a terrific subject that I've only seen Greg Doucette dwelling on, the purple faced swimmers. I'm not an expert on doping but some who are suggest that that is a sign of a certain form and also that some should have been caught in tests trough their national federations but been allowed to go anyway (against international regulations) in exchange of being moles so to say. And thus taking a spot from someone not caught taking PEDs. Now there could be a scoop of a real scandal but instead people rage about imaginary participation trophies which may at most have relevance at the national level.
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@Bls-of1ld Yes, it was terrible. I have not said anything else. Yet still nobody have suggested that she should have a participation trophy, absolutely nobody.
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@Bls-of1ld It was laughable, but so was the news anchors' rants and sapience about imagined participation trophies that never was handed out, actually³ and literally². Their Barbie pink power suits don't help them out of that hole of mediocrity where they tried to carry the banner for meritocracy.
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@aesinam They are neither obliged to pull out even if they realise it won't reach to top three position. Not long ago the top professional leagues in team sports did not stop their leagues for the Olympics or world championships. Dancers is more of a culture profession where the vast majority will have difficult to make a living. This would mean that a great part of the top dancers would be doing shows at Broadway or in other cities around the world, they're on tours with artists etc. Plus, that the infrastructure and organisational framework probably is not that mature to gather the best to the qualification competitions. And again...some are probably not arsed to be competing and be bothered about drugtests (unlike purple faced swimmers ...now there is a potential scandal of olympic magnitude but all go full Karen over a lousy breakdancer from down under).
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@Time-Shepherd. I thought the woke sector had issues with her age, being a cis woman and having an academic education? She indeed had a sub par performance compared to the other contestants, that is what I can gather from my non-expert estimation of breakdance. But I have yet to see anyone who is critical ACTUALLY being able to mention one name of any Australian breakdancer they think have been snubbed. It would be nice if they would have done so instead of moving into their own built glasshouse and spit out a stream of buzzwords, complain about participation trophies that in reality is not given at all.
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