In today’s political world, professional athletes often enter the political fray to give their takes on current events. But sometimes, athletes get dragged into debates unwillingly, especially when old, “controversial” comments, Instagram posts, or tweets resurface and the social media mob demands an apology and retraction for whatever “sin” the athlete may have committed.
Enter Major League Baseball player and Boston Red Sox right fielder J.D. Martinez.
Earlier this week, the social media mob dug up a nearly six-year-old, “controversial” Instagram post from the baseball star.
The post, seen below, is a picture of Adolf Hitler, with the following quote attributed to him: “To conquer a nation, first disarm it’s (sic) citizens.”
In the post caption, Martinez voices his opposition to the meme and defends the Second Amendment. It reads, “This is why I will always stay strapped! #thetruth.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/UUDOLtkWOn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Though Hilter didn’t say the quote itself, Hitler did say something similar, as many in the comments noted.
The book “Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941-1944” attributes to him the following:
The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjugated races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjugated races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let’s not have any native militia or native police.
Of course, social media users and reporters forced Martinez to respond to the post. And though he apologized, in a way, by saying he wasn’t trying to offend anyone, Martinez still stood his ground and voiced his support for the Second Amendment.
“…As most of you guys know, I’m Cuban-American,” he told reporters. “And most of my family was run out of Cuba because of a brutal dictator.”
“It’s terrible, and it’s one of those things where I’ll never get to meet some of my family members because of it,” he continued. “It was one of those things where I was touched at the time, and you know, I saw it. And I posted it. And I had no intent to offend anyone, but it was mostly just to state a point, a political point at the time that I believed in.”
Martinez concluded his interview by saying, “I love my country, I love this country, and I stand by the Constitution, and I stand by the Second Amendment, and it’s something that I take pride in, and it’s something I’ll back up.”
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