Thank you for the new thread and excellent title, @Spandauer.
I’m cutting and pasting this from a FB group I follow. I can’t find who to credit as author, maybe the admin of the group “I Fucking Love Australia”, but whoever they may be, they are spot on. I’m sorry it’s so long, but I think it’s worth a read.
"Holy fucking shit, can we talk about this for a second? The President of the United States just called an Olympic freestyle skier a loser. An OLYMPIC ATHLETE. A guy who's about to represent America on the world stage in the freeski halfpipe, who's trained his entire fucking life to compete at the highest level, and Trump's sitting there with his phone like a pissy little bitch calling him a loser because the kid had the audacity to say something critical.
And here's the kicker - Hunter Hess hasn't even fucking competed yet. His event isn't until February 20th. Trump is attacking an American Olympian BEFORE he's had a chance to compete for his country. Just let that sink in for a minute.
And then Bernie Sanders, the 83-year-old democratic socialist senator from Vermont, has to come in and give the President a fucking civics lesson. He literally had to explain to Trump that America is not a monarchy. Think about that. In 2026, a sitting US Senator has to remind the President that Americans don't have to bow down to him.
This is the same Trump who dodged the draft five fucking times because of bone spurs but has the absolute fucking nerve to call an Olympic athlete a loser. Hunter Hess is going to the fucking Olympics to compete in freeski halfpipe for his country. What did Trump do when his country called? He got a doctor's note about his feet and let other people go die in Vietnam while he fucked models and bankrupted casinos.
And here's the thing that really gets me, the absolute batshit insanity of it all. Trump genuinely believes that criticizing him is un-American. He thinks patriotism means kissing his ass. He thinks wearing the flag means shutting your fucking mouth and clapping when he walks in the room. Meanwhile, Bernie's over here defending the actual constitutional right to free speech, which last time I checked, was pretty fucking American.
The founding fathers literally fought a war so they wouldn't have to bow down to a king, and now we've got a president throwing tantrums on social media because an athlete dared to express his conscience. They wrote the First Amendment specifically for this shit. The very first thing they added to the Constitution was "Hey, you can criticize the government and they can't do fuck all about it."
Hunter Hess said he had "mixed emotions" representing the US right now because of what's happening with immigration enforcement and other policies. He said he's representing his friends, his family, the people who came before him, and the values he believes in. That's it. That's what sent Trump into a fucking meltdown.
And you know what? That takes more courage than Trump has ever shown in his entire life. Standing up in front of the world and saying "I love my country, but I don't agree with everything that's happening right now" - that's what patriotism actually looks like. Not blind obedience to whatever authoritarian dickhead happens to be in office.
Hunter Hess is more of a patriot expressing his conscience than Trump will ever be wrapping himself in the flag and demanding loyalty. Because actual patriotism isn't blind obedience. It's having the balls to stand up and say "this isn't right" when you see your country heading in the wrong direction.
Trump doesn't want America. He wants North Korea. He wants people clapping when he enters a room and crying when he leaves. He wants state media telling everyone how strong and brilliant he is. He wants military parades and gold statues and nobody ever saying a fucking word against him. He doesn't want democracy, he wants a dictatorship with his name in gold letters.
And the fact that he's attacking an athlete who hasn't even competed yet? That tells you everything you need to know. He doesn't give a shit about American success at the Olympics. He cares about total submission. He wants every American athlete to get up there and thank him personally, like they're accepting a fucking Grammy.
You know who actually cares about America? The guy who's been training since he was three years old to represent his country at the Olympics. The guy who's good enough to make it to the fucking Olympic Games in freeski halfpipe. The guy who loves his country enough to tell the truth about it even when it's hard.
And thank fuck for people like Bernie Sanders who are still out here reminding everyone what America is actually supposed to be. Not a kingdom. Not a dictatorship. Not a place where you get attacked by the president for having a fucking opinion. A democracy where Olympic athletes can speak their conscience without being labeled traitors by a draft-dodging reality TV star.
Hess isn't the loser here. The loser is the guy who's so fucking insecure that honest reflection from a 27-year-old freeskier sends him into a rage spiral on social media. The loser is the guy who thinks being American means shutting up and obeying. The loser is the guy who attacks people for using the freedoms that make America worth representing in the first place."
Bernie's right. Hess is a proud American. And so is anyone else who has the courage to stand up and say what they believe, even when the most powerful person in the country is throwing a tantrum about it.
That's what America is supposed to be. Not bowing down to anyone. Not kissing the ring. Not pretending everything is perfect when it isn't.
And certainly not being attacked by your own president before you've even had a chance to compete for your country.
That's not patriotism. That's authoritarianism. And Hunter Hess just showed more American values in one honest answer than Trump has shown in his entire fucking life."