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https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-22 https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-22 My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks o

by tpmx 4y ago

https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-22 https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-22 My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you. What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort. I didn’t have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I’m already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.

HorizonXP 4y ago
Honestly, as much as I’d like to lean into the conspiracy theories here, I think this post highlights the likely cause of his death. Won’t stop people from speculating though.
- somrand0 4y ago
  the conspiracy here, is the way this system of employees and companies pretends that it's very different from masters and slaves. the real difference is that a slave has one master, but an employee is some sort of partial-slave that is shared amongst many masters in a way that the employee gets to chose who gets to tell them what to do and that's it.
  - BurningFrog 4y ago
    You really need to learn more about slavery. We all hate our jobs from time to time, but keep it in perspective.
    - somrand0 4y ago
      I think I added far too much perspective... so this comment may as well go unwritten, but whatever... reddit shadowbanned so many replies like these, because replying under a -4 points comment was still too visible. hn, otoh doesn't notify of replies so that covers the visibility reduction. I'm trying to understand what "public" means.. an employee is a public slave. also, don't undermine the meaning of my qualification of "partial"... I'm not saying they're the same thing but I'm also observing the necessity of there being a lot of people without enough choice/privilege/safety-nets to say "NO, I won't take that job ever" furthermore I'm thinking (trying to) in terms applicable to entire countries. slavery is often portrayed a an individual phenomenon. but what about a scenario when one country employs another entire country? without much choice about the terms? like, for example during a colonial period?
      - tpmx 4y ago
        "without much choice about the terms? like, for example during a colonial period?" Does that apply to you or the sports journalist?
      - BurningFrog 4y ago
        The difference between employment and slavery is the same as between rape and normal sex: Consent. The consensual and forced versions can involve the same activities, but morally there is a big difference. It's true that you may need to work to afford food and housing etc. But to me, that's just the human condition. We all need certain things, and most of them we need the help of other people to get. Work and money is how we help each other and make sure everyone contributes.
        somrand0 4y ago
        consider people working at an amazon warehouse .. those companies rely on there existing an entire class of people unable to refuse to get into a job where they may get in trouble for taking too long of a bathroom break; those people are clearly employees. a less famous example would be people picking apples, or working in a meat packing factory. where's the consent to exist in a situation that prevents refusing some jobs? jobs without which everything would get way more expensive for the privileged american consumer. in any case, I don't think I can argue my perspective to you any better than this; we all believe (and notice) whatever we want and makes us feel alright. it truly is a consequence of privilege that you see work and money as a way to collaborate and work together, because as I understand them, money is a social technology, hence it can be used as it has in your experience, as well as used to exploit and coerce people into crappy scenarios for the sake of the 'consumer's experience'
- shawabawa3 4y ago
  Couldn't his feeling unwell (potential heart attack?) be caused by poison? This doesn't necessarily contradict the conspiracy theory
  - lupire 4y ago
    Sure, everyone could be poisoned. It's not useful to think in terms of non-falsifiable hypotheses to further a narrative.
- bitexploder 4y ago
  Yeah, yikes. Those are clear and dangerous symptoms. Literally worked himself to death. I find the conspiracies a little hard to swallow knowing how severe his symptoms were, and I love a good conspiracy. I would not entirely discount murder, but that was really not smart of him to keep working through such severe medical condition.
newaccount74 4y ago
Sounds like a heart attack.
- jacurtis 4y ago
  I agree. Conspiracy theories are fun. But the fact he experienced chest pain for days leading up to his death, does seem to imply it was a true medical issue. It’s very possible his heart was moving in and out of AFIB for a few days and then finally gave out in the form of a heart attack. He fought through it because it’s obviously the biggest few weeks of the year for his job (as a soccer journalist). The fact that the pain was significant to write about it publicly in his newsletter implies that it was obviously getting pretty bad. Not just a passing chest pain. It was probably very bad. It does question why better medical attention wasn’t given to him. If he had this pain for days leading up to a sudden attack, then it’s very sad because it was likely preventable.
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    To me it seems more that he wasn't willing to take the medical attention. Likely cause work seemed more important. 10 days of cold is pretty bad run and if it was getting worse and still kept pushing... I'm not sure if any sufficient care would have been accepted.
  - newaccount74 4y ago
    I used to work as an ambulance driver, and people with heart attacks often had no idea. One time a patient even called a doctor, who visited him at home and told him it's probably just a stomach bug, but he should get it checked out in the hospital just to be sure. I was driving with an experienced colleague, who looked at the patient and said, that's no stomach bug. Turned out to be a severe heart attack, they immediately rushed him to the cardiac catheter lab at the hospital. Anyway, people die from heart attacks all the time because they don't realise what's going on before it's too late.
- gabereiser 4y ago
  induced by pneumonia or acute bronchitis.
jtbayly 4y ago
So the guy writing about people in Qatar being overworked and dying… is overworked and dies. To some this means that the west and capitalism are just as bad as the “slavery” of the petrochemical state. To others this means that the petrochemical state probably gave him an accident. I’m sure there are other interpretations, too.
Ekaros 4y ago
That really looks to me that he should have taken at least a few days off.

by tpmx 4y ago

HorizonXP 4y ago

Honestly, as much as I’d like to lean into the conspiracy theories here, I think this post highlights the likely cause of his death. Won’t stop people from speculating though.

somrand0 4y ago
the conspiracy here, is the way this system of employees and companies pretends that it's very different from masters and slaves. the real difference is that a slave has one master, but an employee is some sort of partial-slave that is shared amongst many masters in a way that the employee gets to chose who gets to tell them what to do and that's it.
- BurningFrog 4y ago
  You really need to learn more about slavery. We all hate our jobs from time to time, but keep it in perspective.
  - somrand0 4y ago
    I think I added far too much perspective... so this comment may as well go unwritten, but whatever... reddit shadowbanned so many replies like these, because replying under a -4 points comment was still too visible. hn, otoh doesn't notify of replies so that covers the visibility reduction. I'm trying to understand what "public" means.. an employee is a public slave. also, don't undermine the meaning of my qualification of "partial"... I'm not saying they're the same thing but I'm also observing the necessity of there being a lot of people without enough choice/privilege/safety-nets to say "NO, I won't take that job ever" furthermore I'm thinking (trying to) in terms applicable to entire countries. slavery is often portrayed a an individual phenomenon. but what about a scenario when one country employs another entire country? without much choice about the terms? like, for example during a colonial period?
    - tpmx 4y ago
      "without much choice about the terms? like, for example during a colonial period?" Does that apply to you or the sports journalist?
    - BurningFrog 4y ago
      The difference between employment and slavery is the same as between rape and normal sex: Consent. The consensual and forced versions can involve the same activities, but morally there is a big difference. It's true that you may need to work to afford food and housing etc. But to me, that's just the human condition. We all need certain things, and most of them we need the help of other people to get. Work and money is how we help each other and make sure everyone contributes.
      - somrand0 4y ago
        consider people working at an amazon warehouse .. those companies rely on there existing an entire class of people unable to refuse to get into a job where they may get in trouble for taking too long of a bathroom break; those people are clearly employees. a less famous example would be people picking apples, or working in a meat packing factory. where's the consent to exist in a situation that prevents refusing some jobs? jobs without which everything would get way more expensive for the privileged american consumer. in any case, I don't think I can argue my perspective to you any better than this; we all believe (and notice) whatever we want and makes us feel alright. it truly is a consequence of privilege that you see work and money as a way to collaborate and work together, because as I understand them, money is a social technology, hence it can be used as it has in your experience, as well as used to exploit and coerce people into crappy scenarios for the sake of the 'consumer's experience'
shawabawa3 4y ago
Couldn't his feeling unwell (potential heart attack?) be caused by poison? This doesn't necessarily contradict the conspiracy theory
- lupire 4y ago
  Sure, everyone could be poisoned. It's not useful to think in terms of non-falsifiable hypotheses to further a narrative.
bitexploder 4y ago
Yeah, yikes. Those are clear and dangerous symptoms. Literally worked himself to death. I find the conspiracies a little hard to swallow knowing how severe his symptoms were, and I love a good conspiracy. I would not entirely discount murder, but that was really not smart of him to keep working through such severe medical condition.

newaccount74 4y ago

Sounds like a heart attack.

jacurtis 4y ago
I agree. Conspiracy theories are fun. But the fact he experienced chest pain for days leading up to his death, does seem to imply it was a true medical issue. It’s very possible his heart was moving in and out of AFIB for a few days and then finally gave out in the form of a heart attack. He fought through it because it’s obviously the biggest few weeks of the year for his job (as a soccer journalist). The fact that the pain was significant to write about it publicly in his newsletter implies that it was obviously getting pretty bad. Not just a passing chest pain. It was probably very bad. It does question why better medical attention wasn’t given to him. If he had this pain for days leading up to a sudden attack, then it’s very sad because it was likely preventable.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  To me it seems more that he wasn't willing to take the medical attention. Likely cause work seemed more important. 10 days of cold is pretty bad run and if it was getting worse and still kept pushing... I'm not sure if any sufficient care would have been accepted.
- newaccount74 4y ago
  I used to work as an ambulance driver, and people with heart attacks often had no idea. One time a patient even called a doctor, who visited him at home and told him it's probably just a stomach bug, but he should get it checked out in the hospital just to be sure. I was driving with an experienced colleague, who looked at the patient and said, that's no stomach bug. Turned out to be a severe heart attack, they immediately rushed him to the cardiac catheter lab at the hospital. Anyway, people die from heart attacks all the time because they don't realise what's going on before it's too late.
gabereiser 4y ago
induced by pneumonia or acute bronchitis.

jtbayly 4y ago

So the guy writing about people in Qatar being overworked and dying… is overworked and dies. To some this means that the west and capitalism are just as bad as the “slavery” of the petrochemical state. To others this means that the petrochemical state probably gave him an accident. I’m sure there are other interpretations, too.

Ekaros 4y ago

That really looks to me that he should have taken at least a few days off.