Shortly after I published my last article—The Tale of Two Rios—a story surfaced about a group of American swimmers, including Ryan Lochte, had gotten robbed in Rio. I thought, great! Just when I say that Rio is not really all that uniquely bad in comparison to other Olympic host cities, this story arises and makes me look all the more ridiculous. Well, now that a week has passed, the robbery story has taken on a life of its own. First, the story made Brazil look bad; now, the story is making the U.S. look stupid.

According to ABC news, several American swimmers had attended a party early in the morning on Sunday, August 14th. After the party, the swimmers went to a gas station around 6 a.m. and were likely heavily inebriated. The swimmers went inside the gas station’s bathrooms and appeared to commit vandalism caught on surveillance footage, including damaging mirrors, breaking down a door upon exiting the bathroom, and ripping off a large poster from the side of the station. This led to a confrontation with security guards and Brazilian police, whereby Brazilian police reported pulling out a gun and ordering the swimmers to pay for the damages they had caused. However, the last part of the police account remains in contestation; Lochte and the swimmers maintain that they were forced to pay a large sum of money at gunpoint, making it in effect “robbery.”

Whether or not the swimmers’ view of being robbed or the police’s view of paying up for vandalism is correct is irrelevant. What matters is that this story originally gained publicity a week ago because Ryan Lochte was a U.S. gold medalist and he claimed to have been robbed.

As reported in my last article, many people already have had substantial misgivings and fears regarding the Rio Olympic games—and this incident seemed to provide vindication for those thoughts. However, this whole incident has flipped on its head, and it seems to show just how obnoxious people like Ryan Lochte can be.

This distinctly reminds me of what has been called the “Ugly American” stereotype abroad. It involves a sense that Americans are superior when visiting different countries – that, for example, Americans can go, party hard, maybe even vandalize certain facilities and simply tip off local authorities without experiencing any real consequences that most other people would have to endure. Especially in this Lochte’s case. Where the hell is the respect? He is directly representing the entirety of the United States as an Olympic athlete—to be this dumb is just appalling.

This also gives rise to the white privilege debate, as well. I’m distinctly reminded of how, just one week ago, Gabby Douglas got roasted pretty harshly on social media for not placing her hand over her heart while the U.S. anthem played for her and the U.S. women’s gymnastics all around team at the medal ceremony. To be certain, it didn’t look great—all of her other teammates did place their hands over their hearts, so she did stick out at least a little bit, but it honestly shouldn’t really matter all that much. I mean, hadn’t she literally just done a great service to her country by helping to win the gold?

However, Lochte, went out with his buddies and committed acts of vandalism and got into an altercation with the police—a matter simply dismissed by Rio spokesman as, “kids” who deserve a “break” because “sometimes you take actions that you later regret.” Never mind the fact that Lochte is 32-years-old.

Ryan Lochte left; Gabby Douglas right.

So, this story began as an easy way for people to legitimize their fears about Rio, but it really ended up as a case of a bunch of guys behaving like dumb asses. I really hate seeing people act so pompously and thoughtlessly—especially when you’re an Olympian representing the U.S. abroad. However, I also hate even more when people have double standards.

For what it’s worth, I think Ryan Lochte deserves a lot more hell than what Gabby Douglas received.