What if they played the national anthem and NOBODY stood up?

It’s quite the thing that Colin Kaepernik got started, isn’t it? Americans publicly displaying their contempt for their ruling elites by refusing to stand for the anthem. Kaepernik has been joined by other NFL players and soccer star Megan Rapinoe, as well as an enlisted sailor who may well pay a high personal price for her act of defiance.

Not only that, but there are rumours afoot that the entire Seattle Seahawks roster will decline to stand at an exhibition game on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

Frankly, while this is all symbolism, it’s highly significant. Americans have become totally inured to reflexively honouring the flag, the anthem, the men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice to supposedly keep America free… free from a decent public education system, free from universal health care, free from racial justice, social justice, and economic justice, and free from having to take responsibility for the devastation they have visited on vast swaths of the planet over the past fifty years.

The times they are a changing.

You’ll know it’s over for the plutocracy when the NASCAR boys choose to put a knee to the tarmac during the pre-race patriotism ritual.