Today we live in a world of conflict. Conflict over who should be president, conflict over whether an abortion is murder (to me it isn't, but don't blow up my messages about it), conflict over whether global warming exists (it does), conflict over whether we should have AR-15's on college campuses (we shouldn't) and conflict over who should pick up the tab. Nowadays it's pretty easy to find something in the news to disagree with people about, whether it be something scientific or something in your everyday life.
But one thing that basically any educated person agrees on is that the world isn't flat. It's something that has been proven time and time again and at this point, it is more a sign of ignorance and trolling than anything if you actually don't believe it.
If you haven't heard, Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers came out yesterday and among things said that he believes the world is flat, and he like, really believes it:
While this isn't quite as bad as Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle William Hayes saying that while he believes mermaids exist, he doesn't believe in dinosaurs, this still is pretty bad.
(Here's some proof of that last reference):
In response to Kyrie, yes, it does matter that you believe the Earth is flat. It isn't really a controversial issue or anything in my mind, primarily because it is so blatantly true, and you're right, it doesn't really have an impact on me or any of your fans whether you believe the world is flat. In my mind, especially now that other athletes are coming out and saying that they believe the world is flat, it's more of an indictment of the intelligence of some professional athletes.
Now, this isn't an article to come out and call college athletes dumb, because they aren't. At the same time, college athletes do get to go to great schools like Stanford, Cal, Harvard, Northwestern and play the sport they love without having the same level of intelligence as normal applicants. The stats don't lie. In some cases, the athletes only have to stay for one year or even one semester before turning pro, and while every now and then it results in moments like this from our own Jack Eichel, in some cases you get athletes that come out as immature, irresponsible people who can't handle the fame, money or pressure of being in the position they are in.
It's bad enough that the NCAA makes billions of dollars off of these athletes and doesn't pay them a dime, but it's even worse in my mind that the universities that pocket millions off of these athletes don't provide the one thing the school promises to give them: an education.
You hear about events of schools not prioritizing education to these students and just helping students get by, like this at UNC, all the time nowadays:
Kyrie Irving spent one year at Duke, a school that in most people's minds is a great school, and one that many would kill to attend. He deserved that opportunity, as he was and is one of the best in the country in regards to basketball, and by all accounts a good role model and person. Yet, once he was enrolled at Duke, as a student-athlete he deserved to get an education, one sufficient enough to know basic scientific facts such as the fact that the Earth is not flat, or in Jared Goff's case, where the sun rises every morning (and he went to Berkeley!).
To bring this full scale, despite being one of the wealthiest, and highly regarded countries in the world, with enough resources to have more nukes than every nation combined (I think that's true but don't quote me on it), we still are in the middle of the pack in regards to education relative to the world. In addition, we just confirmed Betsy DeVos, someone described as "not the sharpest tool in the shed" as our secretary of education, which is funny for about half a second, at least until you realize what's coming.
Anyways, clearly we have a lot to do in educating our own population and until then, let's consider this ours and Kyrie Irving's, (who is competing in NBA All Star weekend in New Orleans as I write this) our new theme song:
(get it?)
