Fascinating how culture changes, huh?
Well, as the articles I posted indicate, in regards to the NFL it's not that culture changed, it's that the NFL decided to promote fake patriotism because the Department of Defense paid them to.
When I was younger Dominion Day was a nice, sleepy holiday, and we looked down on those gauche Americans and all their patriotic fofoorah on July 4th. Painting faces and draping yourself in flags? Seriously!?
But after years of energetic federal government propaganda Canadians now take that sort of thing for granted. You see them every July 1st, painting their faces, draping themselves in the flag and shouting their love of Canada - very much like Americans.
When my family moved to Ottawa from the west, sometime around 1998, I was quite taken aback at the degree of overt nationalism on display. I hadn't seen anything like that when I lived in Edmonton or Vancouver or Victoria. I don't see such nationalism in Kim City, or when I visit Edmonton or Vancouver. Except briefly during the Vancouver Olympics, when everybody was all amped up about all the gold medals. I can't speak for the rest of Ontario, but I definitely think Ottawa is different from the west in terms of nationalism.
Of course, we also know that the Chretien regime's reasons for playing with patriotism and nationalism, were, like the NFL's, rooted in dollars and not in sincerity. Chretien and friends were funneling money to connected advertising agencies to put a Maple Leaf on anything that wasn't nailed down, and in return the lucky agencies were funneling kickbacks right back to the Liberal party coffers. I'm sure there's probably an H.L. Mencken adage that would apply, but I haven't got it handy right now.
Now everyone is used to the anthem and used to players standing for it. Deliberately not doing so as an act of defiance is seen as extremely unpatriotic.
Since playing on the patriotism and nationalism of the gullible is what got Trump elected, it's no surprise that he's adopted this as his new cause.
This is the same kind of simplistic emotionalism that has been used to lead dullards around by the nose for ages. "If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists." "If you don't support the Iraq war, you don't support our troops!" "Support our heroes in blue!" "America! Love it or leave it!" "If you god damn hippies don't support the Vietnam War, why don't you go live in China you god damn commies!"
People who view the world in such simple terms are the people who put Trump in office, so no wonder he's once again appealing to their nuance-free sensibilities at a time when he desperately needs distractions.
-k