Evolution of Armstrong's talking points or the last retreat of his fanboys ?

[mewmewmew13]

The shot of him crossing the finish line says it all....
what a tool

 

[thirteen]

please, i had the misfortune to come across this article and actually start to look at the comments (where is the barf emoticon?)... i never quite realised how much man love there was for LA, even if it's paid interns... feel free to red arrow (and make sure you have a strong stomach before you even look:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...on-invented-Navy-Seals--wins-record-time.html

 

[mewmewmew13]

please, i had the misfortune to come across this article and actually start to look at the comments (where is the barf emoticon?)... i never quite realised how much man love there was for LA, even if it's paid interns... feel free to red arrow (and make sure you have a strong stomach before you even look:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...on-invented-Navy-Seals--wins-record-time.html

I'm not looking...
it's like banging a brick on my head...don't need to do that

 

[MarkvW]

We have all witnessed Armstrong's PR machine spewing out their talking points on a daily basis for months and years. Pick your favorite flavor of the day.

Witch Hunt has to be # 1 on any chart
Never tested positive
Tested over 500 times
Most tested athlete in history
No due process
Kangaroo court
Vendetta
Spanish inquisition
Does so much for cancer research
blah blah blah

But lately I have been noticing a change or perhaps an evolution. We all remember the old chestnut of something like "Everybody else was doping also so it was a level playing field and he beat them all"

Lately I have noticed that this has kindof evolved into something more like
"Well - everybody else was doping so he is no worse than anybody else."

Which has more recently morphed into "Lance isn't any worse than the other cheaters. Why aren't you going after them too"

Anybody else notice this lately ? What say you.

Orchestrated PR evolution or the last retreat of his fanboys.

The last evolution / retreat is about as much as we can hope for. At that point the fan realizes that everybody doped, including Lance. This acknowledges everything important.

Who really cares about convincing fanboys how big a jerk Lance is or how he led the most crooked and corrupt sporting organization yet discovered? His personal characteristics are for the People Magazine crowd, and the astounding depth of USPS/Disco/Astana corruption is only relevant to those who are involved enough in the sport to effect change (or fans like us).

More importantly, though ... Once the fanboys get to the place where they acknowledge that Lance doped, leave them alone. That truth is very corrosive: It will eventually eat away all their rationalizations and leave only a sense of betrayal. Because Lance didn't just dope, he lied on an enormously grand scale. They will realize for themselves what a liar and a cheat Armstrong is. And things people realize for themselves are the things that they hold on to longest.

I mean, c'mon, Lance lied to Oprah's face. You just don't do that and get away with it!

 

[snackattack]

The last evolution I mean, c'mon, Lance lied to Oprah's face. You just don't do that and get away with it!

has she ever crushed better then in this peep, if I didn't know just would've jumped

 

[sublimit]

The shot of him crossing the finish line says it all....
what a tool

I was thinking that, can a person love themselves as much!?
Probably did that for his sad followers to drool over and go home happy.

 

[delleErbe]

A few weeks ago, I saw an article on one of the US newspaper's websites about Lance's difficulties. A very vehement Lance defender - in a lengthy diatribe, the kind we've seen tens/hundreds of times (usual arguments), dropped in the line "It doesn't matter if Lance did or didn't dope." Made me raise an eyebrow and think, "Oh, that's different."

There's definitely a switch in the defense of Lance as the OP noted here.

It's pretty crazy that it seems to be the same people who would swear that Lance never doped ("500 tests! Never failed!") are still defending him just as hard, but with different arguments. It seemed that having staked so much on Lance's innocence that they'd give up on him when proven wrong. Not the case.

There's some psychological trait many people have where, when one disproves a closely held belief - rather than switch their view in the face of overwhelming logic, they dig in even deeper. A classic example is the end-of-the-world nuts who survive their scheduled day of doom. Some become disillusioned and wander away from their cult. But many, unable to accept they were so wrong and had effectively thrown away their lives listening to some lunatic, become even more fervent in their belief and come up with twisted logic to explain why they're still around. ("Our belief had God spare us...", etc.)

We are going to run into a lot of that with the Lance zealots. Nobody wants to believe one's messiah was a fraud.

 

[montagna lunga]

clearly, its Bush's fault. Surprised you haven't figured it out

- and you've won, haven't figured that out either, have you all?

Whatcha gonna do now?

 

[enrecul]

Whatever about fan boys retreating it still annoys me that Ligget has poisoned every YouTube video out there on cycling with his bulls**t ......that ain't ever going away

 

[D-Queued]

clearly, its Bush's fault. Surprised you haven't figured it out

- and you've won, haven't figured that out either, have you all?

Whatcha gonna do now?

Bush is not an Armstrong fan. Or, didn't you figure that out either?

Won? Hardly. Something about the return of ill-gotten gains, with interest and damages, that awaits.

Dave.

 

[doolols]

There's some psychological trait many people have where, when one disproves a closely held belief - rather than switch their view in the face of overwhelming logic, they dig in even deeper.

Denial and minimisation. We're going to see an awful lot of that soon.

 

[Bushranger]

Denial and minimisation. We're going to see an awful lot of that soon.

Fanboys are busy building an arc. Its about to rain testimony for 40 days and 40 nights.

 

[BigBoat]

Guys, his conscience is clear. He wants to compete at ironman with an 800cc refill of whole blood and corticoids to the max...just like the old days. Why cant he? I mean, who has the right to say that somebody cant dope to win a race? Its no different than a college grad writing up a great resume.....that totally misleads an employer but is still perfectly legal.

"you cant turn a donkey into a race horse". Why cant Lance's competitors take blood refills at ironman? If they want to win they should have to fork out the money. That's how it works. The US space program isn't cheap. Just because India cant afford it doesn't mean its bad.

 

[TubularBills]

"I was raised in a way, and maybe my mom was this way, and her life wasn't perfect, it was complicated. But she always looked forward. She looked a day, and a month, and a year, and 10 years from now. Some people don't do that. They sit around and talk about the past. You always get high-school friends who sit around and talk about "hey remember that time?" and I'm like "why are you asking me about that?"

"I wake up and my mind and my conscience and my view on my life and my world, my future and my kids' future is perfectly clear."

So he's blaming his mom? Lance's Mom was a doper?

 

[Tinman]

"I wake up and my mind and my conscience and my view on my life and my world, my future and my kids' future is perfectly clear."
[/IMG]

Another Lance lie, denial, or insecure self centered view of the world. But what the statement says more than anything is that Lance knows very well that soon his kids will work out what his career was all about. And they may not have his respect...

Unless he comes out he will pay the heaviest personal price of all and live a lie not only to the fanboy masses in denial but much worse: also his kids.

Not much time left... And clearly on his mind, otherwise why the statement...

 

[coinneach]

50 shades of gray

Just to keep the argument going.....
Can I suggest that the world isn't as simple as black and white?
Anyone reading Tyler's book would realize the pressures, compromises and shades of gray pro-cyclists were subject to back then.
I am so glad the truth is finally coming out and being acted on, but would wish those posting their hatred/disgust of Lance would show a bit more compassion. Because, although he may have been the worst/most successful, he did it in a system that was flawed and open to corruption.
By focusing on Lance, you can loose sight of what needs to change.
I'm not trying to portray him as a victim, I'm not a member of his fan club, and I sure hope he can have the courage to face up to what he has done. He may not be there yet, but by demonizing him, and seeing him as all black, you can miss the 50 shades of gray. (Not that 50 shades of gray portrays much reality, that's just a cheap way of getting your attention)