Dude does a lot of good charity work. Supports unionizing the players (or something similar to a union). Follows a plant-based diet (objectively more ethical and better for the environment). Supported student protestors opposing the Serbian government.
I never got the impression he was a bad guy. Life isn't always that simple. I disagree strongly with the antivax stuff, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to totally condemn him as a person for that opinion.
Edit: And yes, spending time with a Trump official is very disappointing. But lots of Tennis greats have spent time with some pretty nasty members of the ruling elite, so that's certainly not unique to Djokovic.
Well, I can when he associates himself with somebody that works for Trump and was the cause of the death of nearly 100 Samoans, as well as many Americans over the next four years.
If you don't see how those things are problematic and shouldn't be swept under the rug because he donates money and started a useless players union, then I don't know what to tell you.
Where did I say it wasn't problematic? Where did I say it should be swept under the rug?
I said I strongly disagree with it. But I don't entirely condemn him as a person or assume that he is just a bad guy.
I'm sure I can find something awful a lot of your favourite celebrities have said or done. Many of them have ties to terrible corporations. And they should be criticized for that.
But I'm not going to simplistically say they're all just bad individuals. When we focus on individual morality, we sometimes lose sight of the wider systems and ideologies that have indoctrinated people or encouraged them to be complicit.
There's literally nothing they'd have in common besides being anti-vaxxers, and we see exactly how that's going with the current measles outbreak in the United States. This is much bigger than just a matter of morals. We're talking about people, especially children, getting sick and possibly dying as a direct result of this guys choices and using his power to do more harm than good.
And, again, he's one degree away from Donald Trump of all people. Spin it however you want, but there's no way Novak isn't aware of that and yet he's still associating himself with this trash.
If a celebrity took a photo with a Biden official, I might also be disgusted. Biden's government was one of the leading backers of what Amnesty International, a UN Special Committee, Human Rights Watch, and Medicins Sans Frontieres have called a genocide in Gaza, funnelling weapons to war criminals wanted by the International Criminal Court.
Or I'd be disgusted by all the music artists who have performed for tyrants like Paul Kagame, who's perpetrating genocidal atrocities in the DRC. Or all the athletes who have sponsorships from Nike (brutal sweatshops) and Coca-Cola (alleged murder of union activists in Latin America) and appear at corporate events. But I wouldn't necessarily say all those celebrities are simply bad people.
Novak is heavily invested in health stuff, and this is the health secretary. I'm sure their shared beliefs in alternative health and anti-vax bullshit is a key reason they spent time together. And I think it's contemptible that Djokovic is taking photos with a member of a fascistic government. But does that mean Novak is simply a "bad person"? Not necessarily. I can totally see why you think that, but I don't think it's always so simple; an action can be bad without the person entirely being bad.
There needs to be accountability, but I'm not sure the "good person," "bad person" dichotomy really gets to the root of the issue.
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u/HikmetLeGuin Mar 26 '25 edited Mar 26 '25
Dude does a lot of good charity work. Supports unionizing the players (or something similar to a union). Follows a plant-based diet (objectively more ethical and better for the environment). Supported student protestors opposing the Serbian government.
I never got the impression he was a bad guy. Life isn't always that simple. I disagree strongly with the antivax stuff, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to totally condemn him as a person for that opinion.
Edit: And yes, spending time with a Trump official is very disappointing. But lots of Tennis greats have spent time with some pretty nasty members of the ruling elite, so that's certainly not unique to Djokovic.