NFL players are protesting what they claim is pervasive and systemic racism and oppression in America.  If their narrative were actually true, their protests would have been suppressed swiftly and brutally, and the protesters persecuted or even lynched – because that is what happens in countries where there is genuine oppression.

But that is not what happened.  Instead, the players protest with impunity, knowing full well that their freedom to demonstrate is guaranteed by the country they are protesting.  They are like a child Grandpa has to hold up to slap Grandpa's own face.

Displeased fans booed.  The president called them names.  Their actions have prompted a flood of letters to the editor, hours and hours of media air time, and miles and miles of ink.  But no one has been arrested or sent to secret jails to be tortured or killed.  There has been vocal disapproval, but nothing like an oppressive response.

That the protests have not been extinguished by force, but allowed to continue is both an utter refutation of the thesis of the protest and a vindication of the freedoms the kneeling players imply they do not enjoy.  The protests demonstrate, with a power and eloquence beyond words, the freedom from oppression the protesting players actually experience in America.  Here, in the nation for which they express such contempt, they have liberty, opportunity, success, and prosperity unprecedented in world history.

The protest is therefore self-discrediting – an irony that seems lost on the protesters and their sympathizers.