Armstrong: Lie Forever

I wanted to put up an article about someone who mentioned taking off Livestrong bracelets because Lance Armstrong is taking a tumble for accusations (and loads of evidence) about his doping. I'm not posting that link because it was obviously linkbaiting, but there's something that I wanted to address with this Lance Armstrong thing.

I know I go on about it, but it's related to Newt Gingrich's moon base. Now, Gingrich is the kind of organism you accidentally track into your house, but the moon base idea was a good one. Not because going to the moon is so great, but because it's a big idea. It's something that we can believe in. If you can call folks who hate gays "homophobic," then you can call people who hate big, aspirational ideas, "megaliophobic."

And that's the insane thing. It's not that there are half-wits who get off by sulking around a group that likes something, just so they can snipe about how it's not so great. I get that. Some people are shit who can only feel good about their lives if they can feel better than people who like a certain god, band, movie, or book. It's the irrational insistence on the part of some that Lance Armstrong should say he cheated because that person is so certain he did. Getting past even the arrogance of that, Lance Armstrong is someone that aspiring athletes look up to.

Assume there are two groups of people; those who care about Lance Armstrong and those whose lives are unaffected by Lance Armstrong's existence (Yo.). Now, of that first group, I'm not sure why someone who thinks he's innocent would start doping. If they irrationally think Armstrong is innocent (We're also going to skip over the "whys" and "wherefores" of that particular divide.), I'm pretty sure it's because they think that doping is bad. The rest will think that he cheated and some of the ones who think he cheated will be discouraged, but not start doping. The remainder who think he cheated will ignore the fact that he got caught and emulate that behavior. Only one of these groups is affected by an admission of guilt from Armstrong.

Just want to make sure we're all clear; he's been stripped of his titles and forbidden from competing (though that second one's a pretty weak blow at 41). He's been punished. Even the Livestrong organization (which he has stepped down from) is taking a lot of flak for it because somehow people think that he cheated at beating cancer which is not only impossible, but commendable if it wasn't, unless you count being rich as cheating.

So his admission of guilt erases the irrational belief that keeps dedicated fans in the "drugs are bad" camp. The only--the only--thing that is served by an admission by Armstrong is the satisfaction of some tiny-dicked obsessive-compulsive who goes crazy when someone has the temerity to deny that what they believe is absolutely true.

Fuck those morons. Armstrong should never admit to all of those drugs he obviously used. He should keep lying. He should lie until dies, breathing softly on the embers of all those other morons who still have to believe he's innocent so that they won't start doping themselves. It's also, just a little bit, so that some people can have something great to believe in. Because nothing great is really pure; any foundation big enough to be great is going to have some bones in it and Jesus Hotel Christmas, it's riding a fucking bike, but here in the US we can't believe in anything great if it carries the slightest flaw. No moon bases if a Republican suggests it. No cures for cancer if a liar supports it. No world peace if it involves so much as a single janitor who didn't get holiday pay for working on Rosh Hashanah. So if the rest of us reasonable people don't have the stomach for greatness, then maybe we should let the idiots dream.
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Oh shit. Armstrong, Livestrong. Man, I just got that.