In the article “How Soccer Is Ruining America: A Jeremiad”, Stephen Webb attacks soccer, ironically. He attacks the sport in four different ways: denouncing the physicality of soccer, censuring the lack of achievement, ostracizing its foreign origins, and then deems the sport ‘girls only’; all opposite of what he actually believes, in the form of mockery.
He denounces the physicality of the sport by arguing that any sport that ‘limits’ its players to using their feet is doing something wrong. He goes on to support this obscure claim with ridiculous and irrelevant claims of social norms and abilities, such as: the smell of feet, the disrespectful nature of the foot, and some archaeological evidence that doesn’t incur with athletic performance. He even makes a few political generalizations, calling the sport ‘a liberals dream come true’.
Secondly, he talks about the lack of rigor in the sport. He says that soccer does an injustice for American kids, setting them up to fail. Also ironic, as he lets his kids play the sport. No parent would ever set their kid up to fail.
We then see his xenophobia, which is prevalent throughout the whole article; which further means he fine with it (as he said he wanted to make his article appropriate in the conclusion). He calls the sport a foreign invasion several times, which really doesn’t mean anything. One who is rude enough to ostracize an entire spectrum of anything (whether it be foreign sports, political ideology, or religious/faith) is prejudice. In this case he is a prejudice bigot.
Finally, he deems the sport ‘girls only’ which is also a form of prejudice and bigotry. At this point the reader has to wonder what is wrong with him.
He then neutralizes the situation, for the most part. Though he still has some prejudice against foreign things in general, he realizes that the sport is the 'Peanut Butter and Jelly" of parenting and that it makes his kids happy at the end of the day, that's all that matters.
He denounces the physicality of the sport by arguing that any sport that ‘limits’ its players to using their feet is doing something wrong. He goes on to support this obscure claim with ridiculous and irrelevant claims of social norms and abilities, such as: the smell of feet, the disrespectful nature of the foot, and some archaeological evidence that doesn’t incur with athletic performance. He even makes a few political generalizations, calling the sport ‘a liberals dream come true’.
Secondly, he talks about the lack of rigor in the sport. He says that soccer does an injustice for American kids, setting them up to fail. Also ironic, as he lets his kids play the sport. No parent would ever set their kid up to fail.
We then see his xenophobia, which is prevalent throughout the whole article; which further means he fine with it (as he said he wanted to make his article appropriate in the conclusion). He calls the sport a foreign invasion several times, which really doesn’t mean anything. One who is rude enough to ostracize an entire spectrum of anything (whether it be foreign sports, political ideology, or religious/faith) is prejudice. In this case he is a prejudice bigot.
Finally, he deems the sport ‘girls only’ which is also a form of prejudice and bigotry. At this point the reader has to wonder what is wrong with him.
He then neutralizes the situation, for the most part. Though he still has some prejudice against foreign things in general, he realizes that the sport is the 'Peanut Butter and Jelly" of parenting and that it makes his kids happy at the end of the day, that's all that matters.