#so much for not being on tumblr except during race weekends jfc

[ellie-mayflower]

You've spent a lot of time arguing with people over Lewis and Max supposedly saying the same thing so Max shouldn't be getting any heat. But he's getting heat because of his bad joke. One Lewis and several F1 people were uncomfortable with. I'm not sure why you're using Shaw (who's a Max fan) or misinterpreting Lewis as an excuse when you could just say, wow, Max sure says dumb stuff and leave it. Using misinformation to seem right? Disappointing from you when you seemed smart in past posts.

Whoa buddy, what misinformation? That’s a big word to be throwing around without anything specific.

Anyway, I wasn’t saying that Max shouldn’t be getting criticism, I was saying it was hypocritical to *only* criticize him while praising Lewis for supposedly saying something different. 

That was 100% the issue at hand. Max wasn’t getting criticized because of a “bad joke”, he was getting criticized for the content of his answer, for saying that he didn’t believe a driver should be able to opt out of continuing a race like Sunday’s.

I'm not sure why you're using Shaw (who's a Max fan) or misinterpreting Lewis as an excuse when you could just say, wow, Max sure says dumb stuff and leave it. Using misinformation to seem right?

I’ll be sure to let Edd Straw (I’m assuming that’s who you meant?) know that he can rub out silly things like “editor-in-chief of Autosport” from his CV and simply put in “Max fan” instead.

He took part in the press conference in question and then wrote an article about it, why wouldn’t it be extremely relevant that he explicitly said that the answers Max and Lewis gave were the same in substance but not style?

We’ve seen that Lewis is perfectly happy to correct inaccuracies in the media when reporters misrepresent something he said, I can’t imagine his press officer missed such a prominent article. 

But the only reason people started arguing about Lewis’ answer vs Max’s was because it was a classic case of people twisting themselves into knots when the fun of bashing someone they dislike is complicated when the zoom-out reveals that someone they like said it first.

It’s exactly like that situation after Baku 2017 when that quote of Lewis saying that if Vettel “wants to prove that he’s a man, I think he should do it out of the car face to face” spread like wildfire and buckets of ink were spilled on castigating Lewis for his ‘toxic masculinity’.

I mean, that quote made headlines in every mainstream outlet, not just the F1 press and fans on social media.

Except, as it later emerged, the language he used was simply echoing Vettel’s own statements about racing as men to explain away his decision to swerve into Lewis under the safety car as a response to his (incorrect) feeling that Lewis was brake-checking him.

Vettel’s words were put to Lewis in an interview and that’s what provoked his response. Yet it was only Lewis’ response that got those headlines and made all that buzz, and fans had a grand old time criticizing Lewis and Lewis alone.

Like now, ultimately both Lewis and Seb used the same sort of heavily criticized language and displayed similar attitudes.

Like now, only one of them found their words spread and got criticized, in part because just like Max, Lewis’ phrasing was more extreme and delivered far punchier headlines.

And just like now - when people pointed out that if Lewis was getting criticized for this supposed toxic masculinity then why not dish some of that criticism out to Seb too, the response was to try to claim that actually what they said wasn’t the same and shouldn’t be put in the same category etc etc.

What Max said in that press conference was pure gold to those who don’t like him and they gleefully seized on the opportunity to talk at length about how he was a sociopath who lacked any empathy for not thinking drivers should have the chance to opt out after seeing something shocking.

Which is perfectly fine, that’s a valid opinion. 

What drives me up the wall is that when it emerged that Lewis also didn’t believe that they should have that option somehow not only are the standards completely different, people refuse to accept that the bottom line of both their answers is the same.

Idk, I mean, I understand why that’s the case. Once you’ve said something so extreme about Max it’s hard to either put Lewis in the same category or climb down from that oh so very high horse.