It takes a concerted effort to destroy goodwill. You have to be blind to the obvious, do performative bullshit for no reason other than to piss other folks off. Then you gotta be an asshole in public to destroy any good feelings folks might have had about you coming back from adversity.
The US baseball squad managed all of this over a two week stretch. Even them tying the championship game in the eighth inning became a groaner moment when Bryce Harper (who has never served in uniform) rounded third and gave some dickish salute to the crowd.
They lost in the ninth. It made me happy that a team from a nation we recently both invaded and kidnapped their leader did that.
