19 comments on "2010 Olympics anti-graphics"

  1. Is it me or have the Olympics got a little out of hand? The bully tactics by both politicians and Olympic committees seems borderline police state. To stand up and question the sanity of holding the Olympic games is now put on a par with treason.

    Speaking as a Brit, many of us have misgivings about a country that is facing savage public spending cuts in order to pay for the bailing out of the banking industry, while at the same time being obsessed with out doing the Beijing Olympics. Are we to spend twice, three times, four times as much on a fireworks display to show them we can do better?

    We also have politicians telling us all that we should seriously lower our carbon footprint, which is fine. I’m not sure however, what size of carbon footprint the 2010/2012 Olymics will create, and how many extra flights will have to be created in order to ferry in athletes, the media and spectators.

    Anyone who says that the Olympic games is above politics is probably being selective with the history of the games. They have always been down there in the mire of politics. The games are a nationalistic orgy and with so many other pressing concerns on the planet should we really be indulging in what is now rapidly becoming a highly expensive political scrap for gold medals?

  2. I concur; the Olympics as we know them are a huge money grab for sponsors, and has nothing to do with amateur sport. The notion of international brotherhood via sport is a thinly clad face for sheer greed. I’d like to fly the flag pictured above during the torch relay through Calgary.

  3. Love the olympic cock rings…. I saw them stuck all over everything while I worked downtown… not allowed to now tho… I had to move to Abbotsford to find a company that would hire me during the olympics… sux.

  4. if I’m not mistaken, I believe that my olympic cock n balls…..not my image……is hanging at the Vancouver Museum.
    sponsored by the cultural olympiad….muah ha haaaaaaaaa ….. for now.
    like, until I mentioned it…… : D

  5. I do not have a problem with PEACEFUL protests. What concerns me is that a good number of protesters are not there for moral reasons but simply protest against the “establishment”. They often cite their “rights” to protest but do not consider the rights of the majority who want to enjoy the festivities without the threat of violence or the impeding of their lawful right to watch and or participate in a lawfully sanctioned event. The time for protest is over now that the Olympics are here and the protesters should ensure the success of the games so that in the end more money would be available for housing etc. I also wonder how many of the protesters actually work with the homeless and charities etc. or do they just like to make noise and protest.

    1. I’m starting to receive a lot of off-topic posts criticizing violent protest, so this is just a reminder that this post is about graphics. It’s an illogical leap to equate a political cartoon with violent protest, and I don’t need to point out that taking the next step of equating the two in law would create a state in serious breach of human rights. Nowhere did anyone who is disenchanted with the Olympics mention violence here. Where violence and a threatening or lecturing tone have appeared in this discussion, they have come from a pro-Olympics position. What interested me when I wrote this post was the sheer extent and variety of these anti-Olympic graphics and cartoons, all very creative variations on a single theme. The fact is that these graphics, despite their variety and number, are in fact virtually invisible amidst the plastering of Vancouver in corporate logo-ridden Olympic visuals. What’s really amazing to me is that a collection of a few graphics offered as a corrective to a corporate monolith could arouse so much animosity.

      Lastly, around the time of the abolitionist movement in the U.S. there was a saying: “you don’t have to pick cotton to oppose slavery.”

  6. I don’t believe that you need to “actually work with the homeless and charities” to voice your disapproval that a corporation has basically hijacked your city.
    There is a spectrum of views on why the Olympics aren’t great for us or our city.
    I’m making the protest a family event, so I certainly hope the police won’t be all jacked up looking for a fight.

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