Patriotism, Fascism, Morality, and Four Nations

Frankly, I don’t know what it is I want to say. I don’t know how I feel. I don’t know what I’m going to write. These aren’t things you’re supposed to admit as a writer. Unless you’re a “gardener style” fiction writer. But, this isn’t fiction. This is definitively a non-fiction article. You’re supposed to have a plan, a purpose, in mind before writing. I don’t. But, I hope you bear with me as I try to sort some thoughts out, anyway.

Setting the Scene

The Four Nations Face-Off made me do a lot of thinking. A lot of reflecting. What I found myself thinking about a lot was patriotism, nationalism, sovereignty, fascism, and the morality of being a sports fan. Yeah, a lot, I know. But, how could you not? The Four Nations Face-Off was not merely some fun exhibition: it was political. The NHL didn’t intend for it to be so but made it political from the start through the exclusion of Russia. Then, Trump came into office and started threatening Canadian sovereignty. This tournament became more political than that alone. Then the anthem booing started. More political. Then the American players started running their mouths off about being offended by the booing and how much they loved Trump. The intensity of emotions and importance of the politics couldn’t be stronger after that. From then on, it was strictly a political tournament. At least, for Canada and the USA.

Even before this tournament, I found myself struggling with what I thought of patriotism. Is it inherently nationalism? Many would argue it is. Personally, I lean towards “no”, though as I’ve thought about it in regard to Trump’s threats toward Canada, the more uncertain I become. I won’t fully dive into my thought process here, as it would be too long. That would need to be an entirely different article, and is probably more suited to my political newsletter, The Hudak Report, or my personal blog, Black Hole Blog. So, I won’t break it down here. But, for the sake of this article, I still lean towards there being a division between patriotism and nationalism, but maybe the slippery slope is a lot more slippery than I previously thought. Maybe the dividing line is a lot more thin and blurry than previously imagined.

But, the questions about patriotism don’t end there. What about patriotism when your country is neo-Confederate or fascist (depending on whether you think America is heading more towards being fascist Italy or the Confederate South)? What about patriotism when the athletes representing your country are openly fascist or neo-Confederate? What about patriotism when your country is openly threatening the sovereignty of other nations? All of these also fall under my questioning of the morality of being a sports fan. Because, let’s be real: at least in North America, if you’re a sports fan, you’re rooting for fascists/neo-Confederates. Many athletes, ESPECIALLY in hockey, come from rich families. Rich families are usually, at the bare minimum, conservative, if not outright fascist/neo-Confederate.

Now, I recognize most of you are probably not used to seeing the term “neo-Confederate”, and I do plan to write an article, eventually, probably on Black Hole Blog, talking about this term further. But, I do want to say this: I do not believe America will become a Nazi state. I don’t even see Trump as anything close to being a Nazi. If he’s close to being any Axis leader from World War 2, he’s more Mussolini. But, between him and other Republicans, I don’t believe that we’re likely to even see Italian fascism here in America. If Republicans get their way, I believe it’ll be more akin to a second coming of the Confederate South. I find their plans to be far more aligned with the Confederacy than fascist Italy or Nazi Germany. Now, I recognize some groups and some individuals are neo-Nazis, and some are fascists. But, as a whole, as a larger conservative movement, is heading more towards bringing back the Confederacy than anything. So, when I call someone a “neo-Nazi”, it’s because I see them as literally advocating for Nazism. If I call someone a “fascist”, it’ll be because I see them advocating for a Mussolini-era Italian fascism. I do not plan to use those terms loosely and I find it disheartening to see them used interchangeably. There are genuine differences and they shouldn’t be blurred. Plus, I think most conservatives are pushing more for a new Confederacy, so, from here on out, be prepared to see me generally refer to them as neo-Confederates. Anyway, back to the broader point of the article.

Personally, when it comes to rooting for athletes or teams, I’m numb. I’ve learned to throw my morality aside and not give a shit. The only time I’ve stayed strong on my morals was when the Minnesota Frost tossed out Darwitz because she was opposed to the abusive culture created by Klee and Coyne Schofield. To be honest, though, it was a lot easier because Amanda Leveille, my favorite women’s hockey player of all time, was retiring, and she was the sole reason I chose the Frost as my team anyway. If Leveille had returned to the Frost, I probably wouldn’t have dumped them. Now, I don’t have any PWHL teams to root for, as I’ve discussed before, but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, so my morality has long been thrown out the window in sports. It happened sometime between finding out about the allegations against my childhood idol, Chauncey Billups, and the Detroit Red Wings signing James Reimer and the Columbus Blue Jackets trading for Ivan Provorov. That, and the Blue Jackets making Mike Babcock their coach. So, sometime in summer 2023. I had already been growing numb, especially after having held my nose as the Red Wings had neo-Nazi Thomas Greiss in net. I didn’t feel good about him being on my team or rooting for the Red Wings after signing him, but I held my nose. Eventually, in 2023, after so many things happening that I found morally reprehensible to my teams, I had to do some soul searching. I did a little bit, decided it was too hard, I just wanted to enjoy sports, and decided that I would throw aside my morals and bravely fight against bad people by mocking them on Twitter. I am a moral coward, I know. The selling of my morality was finalized after the Red Wings went out and signed Patrick Kane. I was horrified…at first. I won’t go into details, because it would be too long, but I don’t hate him anymore. I genuinely cannot bring myself to. I’ve watched my teams go after and celebrate too many people I found morally reprehensible, including people who don’t believe I have the right to exist. At some point, you have to decide: stick with your morals and dump your teams, or just numb yourself and accept that you have to root for terrible human beings. I chose the latter. Am I proud of it? No. Not even one bit. But, it’s the bed I chose to lie in. It was that or give up caring about the teams and league I grew up caring about. If I was principled, I would’ve chosen otherwise. But, I’m not. I’ve accepted that America is an inherently white supremacist Christian nationalist country and that being a sports fan means I will have to root for white supremacists and Christian nationalists. We’re rooting for Americans, after all. Even if they’re not Americans, as often is the case in hockey, they’re still from rich families in Western countries. They’re probably going to be reactionary and probably believe that minorities are subhuman scum. If you’re going to be a hockey fan, especially a men’s hockey fan, it’s something you have to make your peace with. The thing is, though, some didn’t. I know hockey fans who now only watch women’s hockey because they couldn’t make peace with it. Frankly, I envy them. I envy them for being more principled than me. Not envious enough to live out my stated morals, though. No, I will continue to hold my nose and watch my morals get slowly chipped away. I will tell myself that this is America and therefore, something I must accept. You know, that there’s nothing I can do about it, so it’s ok to root for people who wish and advocate for harm to come upon me, my friends, and my family.

Patriotism and Me

So now, let’s talk about this and how it intersects with patriotism. First, we’ll talk about me. Later, I want to talk about the patriotism or lack of patriotism, I saw from other Americans during the tournament. But for now, let’s talk about me. Is it moral to root for a white supremacist settler colonizer imperialist nation that’s being represented by right-wingers who openly support Trump, who is openly bringing back the Confederacy? Honestly, I don’t know. That answer may come as a surprise considering that when it comes to clubs, I was pretty strong on it not being moral to do so. Here, though, I do think there could be more nuance, and that’s because of the patriotism question. To answer this question would be to answer, “Is it ok to want good things for a genocidal colonizer imperialist state?” Or, “Is it ok to root for a genocidal colonizer imperialist state, even in sports?” That’s a much more complicated question. Many would say, “Yes, because in sports you’re not rooting for the genocide. You’re rooting for wins in an athletic competition”. That’s a fair argument. Frankly, that was my view up until recently. Now, I’m uncertain. I’ll be completely real: I genuinely don’t know what I believe anymore. I’m writing this article to help process my thoughts on it, to see if I can come up with an answer. Maybe I’ll circle back to, “Yes”, but maybe I’ll end up saying, “No”. Speaking of “No”, what would be the argument saying you shouldn’t root for a country like America, even in sports? It would be something along the lines of, “Sports are inherently political, and you’re rooting for a representation of a country. Countries with a strongman leader often use sports as a symbol of their strength, the strength of their leader. Under Trump, the athletes have made this quite clear. Our sports teams represent the soul of a nation, in this case, white supremacy, genocide, worker exploitation, and imperialism.” That is also a very fair argument and one that I cannot set aside easily. Since Four Nations, I have been unable to make any sort of peace with this argument. I have been unable to both go along with it but also been unable to reject it. I don’t know how it fits into my worldview.

It’s made harder by the fact that many of the people who I see go along with that second view, the people who claim it’s immoral to root for America because our teams represent all of our ugliness, immediately go on to root for other genocidal white supremacist imperialist states. Whether it be Britain, Canada, Australia, or frankly, any European nation. I fail to see how rooting for any of those countries is better than rooting for America when they have just as ugly, and in a few cases, uglier history, than America. The argument against what I just said would be that America is the largest power in the world right now. We are the one major imperialist state that has much of the world doing our bidding. Many countries, like Australia and Canada, have been subservient to America for decades. Frankly, they are sovereign in name only. They technically have their own country, but everything that they do is in service to America. That would be the argument against what I said. It’s one that frankly, I can’t argue against. Not saying I agree with it, because frankly, I don’t. I do not agree with that argument. But if you were to ask me why, I wouldn’t be able to answer you. Maybe that’s a sign that I should agree with it.

I don’t know. But anyway, back to the earlier point, I would probably find it easier to go along with the idea that rooting for America is immoral if those who argued such a thing didn’t root for European countries, Canada, or Australia. When I see those countries, all I see is genocide, white supremacy, and imperialism. Just like America. If they were to root for one of the five communist nations, I’d take them far more seriously, but they don’t. They’re usually anti-communist and whine about communist nations being “authoritarian” (something I would strongly disagree with, but that’s a different topic for a different article). What I’m saying is, that I could take these arguments more seriously if they were fellow comrades and not, at best, radlibs, making the argument. It just feels disingenuous coming from that group considering most of them gladly support Democrats such as Kamala Harris and yelled at Marxists like me for refusing to support genocidal candidates. Meanwhile, my fellow comrades I see generally just root for America, for some communist nation, or whatever nation their ancestors emigrated from before coming to America. But the vast majority just root for America.

Maybe I’m in the wrong Communist circles, but when it comes to sports, generally it seems most American Communists are able to find some patriotism. I haven’t talked to too many about it, but the small handful I have do so because they see themselves rooting for a place rather than an idea. They’re rooting for their home, not a political statement. Maybe, it’s a bad worldview. I mean, the American players and General Manager made it very clear that they represented Trump. So, it is possible to separate that and root for a place instead? Me, as I sit here processing and thinking about it, I think “Yes”. Though, as I type it out I feel a small amount of discomfort. I don’t know if I’m truly happy with that answer, but it’s the one I think I may agree the most with. For me, when I want good things politically for America or in sports, I’m rooting for the people. I’m rooting for the land. I’m rooting for the place I reside in, and not some political idea. I never have rooted for some political idea. But, some are unable to separate the political when it comes to national teams, and I do accept that, in some cases. We will get back to this, I promise. But for now, I want to address one more thing. One that pertains to me as an individual.

During the Four Nations tournament Canadians were rather active in my Bluesky mentions. I kept being told by our neighbors up north that I should be “ashamed of [our] fascist players” and that I should be ashamed of what America is doing. The thing is, I AM ashamed of America’s genocidal actions and imperialism. I AM ashamed by America’s threats against Canadian and Greenlandic sovereignty. I find them despicable and vile. I want Canada and Greenland to remain their own countries, but more than that, for Canada to eventually gain independence from being a country that merely does America’s bidding and for Greenland to separate from Denmark. I AM ashamed of the actions of our national team players and their open love for their neo-Confederate cult leader. It’s disgraceful. That said, I don’t know why I should be especially ashamed now of all times. I don’t think I would ever have heard this in previous times. Now, here is where we will circle back to the end of the last paragraph and tie everything together.

Why the Lack of Patriotism Now?

Now we come to my great befuddlement, the thing that really sent me over the edge into pondering all these questions. Why now? Why was the Four Nations tournament what destroyed any sense of patriotism in American liberals? Why now is when we’re supposed to be ashamed of America? It genuinely makes zero sense to me why threatening Canada is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Why this is the moment American liberals decided it was no longer ok to be patriotic and when Canadians decided it was no longer acceptable for Americans to root for America? The thing is: America has been threatening everyone’s sovereignty for centuries. Literally. We’ve been starting wars with other countries, making them territories, starting civil wars, installing leaders friendly to us, and annexing territory for centuries now. These threats against Canada and Greenland did not come from nowhere. In fact, I would argue that they were inevitable since the American people continually refuse to rise up and put an end to our imperialist ambitions. If Trump didn’t, someone else would. Even a Democrat. It was always going to come to this if America’s imperialist ambitions were not ended by the working class (or some other major power deciding they had enough and beating us or forcing us to stalemate in a war that would destroy our ability to keep acting as an imperialist power). Imperialism, if not stopped, will not stop. There has never been an imperialist force that was happy with what it has. It must always expand its power.

The thing is, as despicable and vile as the threats against Canada are, because let’s be real, liberals forgot about the threats against Greenland a month ago, it’s nowhere near the worst thing America has done. It’s not even the worst act of imperialism it’s committed this century or the past 10 years. It’s not even the worst act of imperialism since Trump’s second term began (his actions and threats against Gaza along with his actions against Cuba and Venezuela are far worse). So, why now? Why have American liberals gotten disgusted by imperialism now? I know I will anger many by saying this, but I think it’s because Canadians are generally white, and outside Quebec, speak English. Canadians look, sound, and act like us. Frankly, the average American just thinks of Canada as weird America. They’re America, but with hockey and maple syrup, and South Park loves to make fun of them. If we’re being honest, many Americans' views probably aren’t too different from South Park's portrayals of Canada. But, back to the point, because Canada shares a border with us, they look, sound, and act like us, we see ourselves. Whereas, when America blatantly goes in and overthrows a democratically elected government in South America and installs a dictator, well, they’re not white and speak a different language. So, who cares? The news probably won’t even cover it. They’re not white and speak a different language, therefore, their lives aren’t as important. Besides, don’t you want cheap bananas? Furthermore, look at American liberal's reaction to America’s support of the genocide in Gaza. It’s only happening because we allow it to. Everyone knows this. Yet, liberals yelled at us leftists to shut up about it, covered their ears (literally), and since the election, have bragged about supporting companies that support Israel and even often joining in on the genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians. Not saying all liberals have done that, but enough have. What America is allowing and actively funding and arming in Gaza is far and away worse than threats against Canada. Trump is not going to bomb Canada to annex them. He hopes to do so economically. Once again, this is terrible and something that must not be allowed to happen. It’s unconscionable that one would even consider doing such a thing. That said, non-Indigenous Canadians will not be ethnically cleansed and forcibly removed from their land, like Gazans. Something our government, including when it was Biden running the show, actively supported and cheered on. For all of these reasons, I feel justified in saying it’s whiteness and English-speaking abilities that have made it so that now, after all this time, liberals care about American imperialism.

I want to make clear: we all have to wake up at some point and realize the evils of imperialism. If this is your wake-up call: welcome. Now, take the next step and start caring when it’s people who don’t like, act, and sound like you whose sovereignty is threatened or actively destroyed. The only way we’ll ever move past all this, move past annexation threats, tariffs, genocide, etc. is if the American people take a stand against imperialism of all forms. Against imperialism done against every nation by America. To do that, we’d need to address the root of the problem: Capitalism. Imperialism is the highest form of Capitalism. The only thing that can root out this disease that allows for such evil is Communism. It’s the only economic system that addresses the material conditions that lead to imperialism. All others eventually lead to imperialism.

The thing is: this is what America is and always has been. I can’t help but get annoyed when I see liberals say “This isn’t who we are” and call Trump “Un-American”. Trump is quite literally what this country has been since its founding and the most American President to ever exist. The only real difference between him and previous ones is that he has no filter. He doesn’t even try to hide the ugliness that lies at the foundation of this country. He’s exposing for all of us Americans and the Western world what we are. We cannot hide from it anymore. We cannot hide from what all the countries who have been victims of our imperialism have always seen. It’s only us, Americans, mostly white Americans, who have willfully chosen not to see it. Why? Because ignoring it benefits us. America has always been an imperialist, genocidal, colonizing, and exploitative state. It’s becoming too much to ignore. To combat this, we must not live in denial as many currently are with statements of this not being “who we are”, but instead, root out the cause of it all: Capitalism.

So, to round it all up, I frankly find the newfound consciousness against imperialism by liberals, as displayed in refusing to root for America in the Four Nations tournament, to be disingenuous. Most don’t have any genuine objections towards imperialism. They are nowhere to be found most of the time when our government makes such threats or carries out imperialist actions. Now, that said, I hope many of them do wake up, and start becoming principled anti-Imperialists after this. I truly hope so. But I doubt there will be that many. This is likely to be a one-time thing for most. They’ll be back to yelling at us leftists to shut up about imperialism soon enough. I hope I’m wrong, though.

Conclusion

The thing is: it’s rough to be a sports fan and on the left. The sports world hates you. If you’re a minority, many in sports probably want your existence eradicated. We have to make many moral compromises so that we can be entertained. Where you draw the line is up to you. There are many difficult questions to be asked and answered for us left-wing sports fans, and I don’t have the answers to them all. Even though much of this article is me saying, “I don’t know”, I hope that it provokes thought and maybe even thoughtful discussion among those on the left, especially the American left. These are questions worth thinking about and discussing. Things will not get easier for us left-wing sports fans anytime soon, but no matter where we draw our lines, what principles are worth sacrificing or not worth sacrificing in the name of entertainment, may we be united. Hopefully, we will be able to have difficult discussions without spiraling into sectarianism. We will have to be united if we want to ultimately win this political and cultural war against the right. Let us come together and put aside our grievances, at least until we have power. I dream of a world where we don’t have to compromise our morals and principles to enjoy sports, where no tough questions have to be answered. A world where we can support our national teams without any moral questions popping up.

If you found value in this article, please consider paying for a subscription here at Prism Hockey, as subscription money goes to other subscriptions such as DeepL (for translating articles in other languages to cover hockey news around the world) or Google One (necessary for storage for my articles and graphics on social media) to ensure I can continue to cover hockey. If you aren’t able to buy a paid subscription, please consider at least getting a free subscription as all articles are free, and sharing this article. I’d also love to hear your thoughts on this article in the comments below (only paid subscribers can comment) or on social media. I can be found on Bluesky, Instagram (Personal | Prism Hockey), Mastodon, Threads, and Tumblr.