Kopech the latest MLB player with questionable Twitter history

[SoxAce]

3 hours ago, fathom said:

And it's a little ironic everyone calling him a racist considering his girlfriend and how close he is to his nephews.

And the N word had an A at the end. Not the ER that Hader had. Speaking as a person who is of (half) African American decent, its not nearly in the same stratosphere. It's getting ridiculous though. As you said, his nephews are both half black and he's always with them as an uncle. He's dating a woman whose black. He is far from a racist. But he must be a homophobe since he called somebody a f**, which is what myself and most of America does as a teenager to their friends as a joke... yea.... pussification.

Edited August 24, 2018 by SoxAce

[oldsox]

Our country has turned into a whole slew of tattletales.

[soxfan49]

1 minute ago, oldsox said:

Our country has turned into a whole slew of tattletales.

You’re a joke

[The Sir]

He was a teenager. Teenagers do and say stupid stuff. I'm happy that social media didn't exist when I was a teenager. The end.

[caulfield12]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/white-sox-rookie-michael-kopech-latest-player-exposed-racial-homophobic-tweets-223632861.html

Now it's starting to make it to the national news websites...

[Texsox]

At least I have a topic to discuss with my seniors next week. 

The benefit to society of him getting taken to task is it stops today's kids from publicly saying stupid stuff. There are no training wheels, posting on line is the real world that plays by adult rules. Society isn't going to tolerate I'm just an idiot 17 year old. 

[The Sir]

15 minutes ago, Texsox said:

At least I have a topic to discuss with my seniors next week. 

The benefit to society of him getting taken to task is it stops today's kids from publicly saying stupid stuff. There are no training wheels, posting on line is the real world that plays by adult rules. Society isn't going to tolerate I'm just an idiot 17 year old. 

We ought to. We don't sentence <18 teenagers to death, or life without parole, when they commit murder. We don't allow them to vote. We don't allow them to consent to sex (yeah yeah, the AOC varies by state, whatever). We don't allow most of them to drive, and when we allow it of the older ones, it's generally under greater restrictions than the rest of the population. We don't allow them to buy guns. We don't allow them to drink.

I'll stop now, but we set these restrictions because teenagers are stupid and we realize it, we expect it, and we know we have to mitigate the risks. It's a stupid thing to call someone a f** when you're 17, but unless you're still doing it when you're 25, I'm not going to hold it against you forever.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Kopech was dumb for not deleting these, but in my opinion, there is a distinction between saying a hateful word and making a hateful comment. His tweets were not hateful, he just used a couple of slurs that are frowned up. Step foot on to any High School, even college, and you'll hear everyone calling eachother gay and the N-word, white or not. It's because they are trying to be funny or cool, not because they are trying to hurt anyone or cause trouble.

EDIT: So he deleted them a while ago, and apparently this girl was sitting on these screenshots until he got called up and someone said she tried to go to TMZ with these first, likely for money. Awful.

Edited August 24, 2018 by ChiliIrishHammock24

[footlongcomiskeydog]

7 hours ago, SoxAce said:

The kid grew up in rural Texas so I'm not surprised by these tweets. Safe spaces, looking at things through an equity lens, and reading Dan Savage and Ta-Nishi Coates isn't really happening there.

The only thing that really matters is that this kid turns into a stud pitcher. The guy isn't a hero. He is just a dude who can throw a baseball really fast.

[pcq]

Let's just sweep over ignorant white culture. It's not just common but seems prevalent.

[Richie]

10 hours ago, Scoots said:

Like, who ever intentionally digs this up needs to get a life.

I honestly am just reading those tweets and wondering what the hell is so bad about that coming from a 17 year old. "Mexican rapist version of Super Mario"... how is that racist? He's just saying the guy looks like a creepy ass Super Mario. "Are you calling us f*gs?"... Really? This is homophobic? lol.... Then he clearly says "ni**a" in a manner which is simply conveyed as "dude". 

Don't get me wrong... I get the implications of the words f*g and Ni**a. However, this is ALL completely normal for a high school kid. Myself and people I grew up with said far worse.

Teenagers don't have a frame of reference for this stuff. They don't understand the weight it carries. They have no life experience. They're still learning all of this. That's the point of growing up... lol. You say/do dumb shit. You learn from it and then you look back going "Jeez I was dumb". 

I couldn't even pretend to act like that stuff is a reflection of an adult's character. 

My god, did I say stupid shit at that age. Not even out of anger or hate. You just don't get it at that... ZERO of Kopech's tweets were angry or actually making implications pertaining to a group of people.

[Jake]

I'm not mad at the people who found the tweets even if they did it for silly reasons. Kopech said the stuff and he should answer for it — and he did. I don't think what he said then appeared to reflect a deep-seated bias or hatred, but that doesn't make it okay. But he was young and he hasn't made excuses or pretended it wasn't wrong, so I'm happy to move on from it.

[GGajewski18]

The people that dig these old tweets up are losers just trying to get in the limelight.  Kopech deleted them, he addressed them and apologized.  Let it go and honestly, I don't think anyone cares anymore.

[bmags]

1 hour ago, GGajewski18 said:

The people that dig these old tweets up are losers just trying to get in the limelight.  Kopech deleted them, he addressed them and apologized.  Let it go and honestly, I don't think anyone cares anymore.

See I think the act of him apologizing is important.

Let's keep this in perspective: Kopech isn't losing his job, he's not losing his money, he's not being suspended. He's had to answer to stupid and immature public writings when he was younger, that he has since deleted and now apologized for. This twitter stuff is new territory, and (having been on this site since a teenager) I guarantee you could find a previous post of mine that would be incredibly disappointing or horrifying to me now.

This is a good thing and it's an opportunity for teenagers, who struggle with the ability to comprehend the public-nature of their communications now and the same toxic in-crowd behavior that makes us sick to our stomach when we our older, to see this play out and think about how the way they talk sounds when presented outside their friends group.

And the way this is being held over him by some probably teenagers should hopefully be a learning experience for them.

[bmags]

3 hours ago, Jake said:

I'm not mad at the people who found the tweets even if they did it for silly reasons. Kopech said the stuff and he should answer for it — and he did. I don't think what he said then appeared to reflect a deep-seated bias or hatred, but that doesn't make it okay. But he was young and he hasn't made excuses or pretended it wasn't wrong, so I'm happy to move on from it.

This was a much more succinct and better way of saying what I tried to say below.

[iWiN4PreP]

There is not a single thing wrong in those tweets. Not a single thing when considering context.

[southsider2k5]

1 hour ago, bmags said:

See I think the act of him apologizing is important.

Let's keep this in perspective: Kopech isn't losing his job, he's not losing his money, he's not being suspended. He's had to answer to stupid and immature public writings when he was younger, that he has since deleted and now apologized for. This twitter stuff is new territory, and (having been on this site since a teenager) I guarantee you could find a previous post of mine that would be incredibly disappointing or horrifying to me now.

This is a good thing and it's an opportunity for teenagers, who struggle with the ability to comprehend the public-nature of their communications now and the same toxic in-crowd behavior that makes us sick to our stomach when we our older, to see this play out and think about how the way they talk sounds when presented outside their friends group.

And the way this is being held over him by some probably teenagers should hopefully be a learning experience for them.

I would also point out that the perception of what is acceptable and not acceptable has changed a ton in the last 5 years.

[ChiSox59]

17 hours ago, Buehrle>Wood said:

May as well dump them. They were deleted long long time ago. He was dating a few famous actresses so theyve been kept ever present.

Not that my opinion means much, but this isn't that bad.  Kid was chatting with with buddies on a social media site.  Did he say some dumb shit?  Sure.  Should he have been smarter than to do it on a public forum?  For sure.  But like someone else said, pretty much any guy that is 18-35 (I only use that range because I am in the middle of it) said dumb shit like that when they were teenagers. 

[southsider2k5]

36 minutes ago, ChiSox59 said:

Not that my opinion means much, but this isn't that bad.  Kid was chatting with with buddies on a social media site.  Did he say some dumb shit?  Sure.  Should he have been smarter than to do it on a public forum?  For sure.  But like someone else said, pretty much any guy that is 18-35 (I only use that range because I am in the middle of it) said dumb shit like that when they were teenagers. 

And I promise you that the older in age you are, the worst what you said was as a teenager, because more and more was socially acceptable in those times.

[wrathofhahn]

15 hours ago, oldsox said:

Our country has turned into a whole slew of tattletales.

It's like these people sit around their computers looking for ways to be offended. How does what he said when he was 17 affect anybody anywhere?

And why do you care? Why are you even looking at his tweets from 5 years ago? It reminds me of the Colts announcer who supposedly said somesort of racial slur the outrage mob didn't even have any idea what was said the only thing they were sure of is they were deeply offended by it.

Edited August 24, 2018 by wrathofhahn

[Sockin]

There are people still on Twitter saying they dont accept the apology because he never said I'm sorry. The dude was 17 and is clearly remorseful, what the hell?

[wrathofhahn]

Just now, Sockin said:

There are people still on Twitter saying they dont accept the apology because he never said I'm sorry. The dude was 17 and is clearly remorseful, what the hell?

I couldn't care less whether some random dude on twitter accepts his apology and neither should Kopech.

[bmags]

16 minutes ago, Sockin said:

There are people still on Twitter saying they dont accept the apology because he never said I'm sorry. The dude was 17 and is clearly remorseful, what the hell?

Are they prominent people? I mean, you could look up the twitter conversation on an upcoming hurricane and there will be people saying weird/offensive/crazy stuff.

[hi8is]

Hey... look! People change and stay stupid stuff. What’s the next segment on “Breaking News?”

[3GamesToLove]

4 hours ago, iWiN4PreP said:

There is not a single thing wrong in those tweets. Not a single thing when considering context.

Calling people gay as an insult because they don't tweet back to you is pretty bad.

 

EDIT: also, interesting note that I didn't realize until I bought the tickets today: his projected next start at home, next Friday against Boston.....is the Sox's first ever Pride Night.

Edited August 24, 2018 by 3GamesToLove