I don't think it's debatable at all. Just look at Mayweather or Conor McGregor. Both spend most of their time telling everyone how great they are and people are fine with that, as long as, like Ali, they back it up with results.
Golden age fallacy?
Off the top of my head, here are few people who fit that description in various ways and who seem to be doing quite well, despite today's "softer world":
Donald Trump, Kanye West, Peter Thiel
Also, softer world? He faced constant death threats. Also: "Almost as quickly as Ali had arrived, his World Boxing Association heavyweight title was gone, revoked after he claimed conscientious objector status in refusing the draft. He also was stripped of his passport and all of his boxing licenses. He faced a five-year prison term after losing an initial court battle defending his objection to serving in a war that he called "despicable and unjust." Ali lost the chance at tens of millions of dollars in endorsements while appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Also, this idea of a "soft world" is contradictory. Your claim seems to be that back in the day, because things were less "soft", Ali was allowed to be more self expressive. Yet, it's precisely this "soft world" which promotes the kind of diversity which, for example, would make Ali's conversion to Islam far less of a controversial issue today.
I take offense to the idea of the "golden age fallacy".
Let's constrain fallacies to actual logical mistakes.
Some things actually have had a golden age -- e.g. for bebop it can be fairly accurately be told to be certain decades, and it's not wrong to point to that to say that things are not the same anymore.
(And even if individual outliers might produce an X equivalent to a "golden era of X" artifact, statistically it would still be true to say that now it's not like the golden era of X, if less such works are produced in total and even less consumed and appreciated -- e.g. if I make a great "Miami Bass" tune, it wont mean that the late eights weren't the "golden age" of Miami Bass).
In fact the golden age is so much not a fallacy, that is a valid historical construct (e.g. for Roman democracy the golden age was so and so centuries -- no ifs and buts about it).
That doesn't mean it's false.
> Roman democracy the golden age was so and so centuries -- no ifs and buts about it
Historiography is always changing.
So like Kanye West?
If you believe throwing someone in Jail at the prime of his career, on top of other atrocities he fought through his career while he had to stand up for himself is "society valuing individual struggle and determination", then I believe you need to sit down and open a dictionary. This is some amazing revisionist history.
Joe Frazier supported Ali financially when he was unable to box and supported the restoration of Ali's licence.
"The greatest" [sic], who for reasons you have stated should have been more aware than most about racism and abuse, paid back this great friend who supported him while others persecuted him in the most foul, racist ways (Ali had links to the KKK and gave at least one speech to a KKK rally), calling Frazier an "Uncle Tom" and a "gorilla".
This post obviously won't go down well with Ali fanboys who only accept the hype and mythology and who don't want unfortunate facts about Ali getting any wider exposure, but Ali's reprehensible treatment of Frazier was so egregiously appalling - even had Frazier not been such a decent and loyal supporter of Ali - it should not be hidden, forgotten or excused, any more than the persecution Ali faced should be.
Anyone who hasn't seen it should check out HBO's brilliant documentary from a few years back, centred around the Thrilla in Manila. It's on Youtube:
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/02/25/467247668/...
It's been several years since I read Malcolm X's autobiography, but he did specifically talk about his relationship with Ali and what happened, which was the real basis of my comment. Malcolm's depiction of the events is much more negative from my recollection. I just provided the above link instead, since I wasn't able to find an excerpt from the book.
Not sure why my previous comment was voted down, given that it was both true and on topic. I can only assume someone would prefer to keep their hero on a pedestal rather than admit everyone has their flaws.
Same reason mine was. Tedious and predictable Ali fanboys.
It's really nice that he finally got around to expressing some kind of weak regret decades after the event - as if the only reason he didn't apologise at the time was Malcolm got himself killed just before he could do so ("he was killed before I got the chance").
The reality is Ali spent a decade after Malcolm's death fully endorsing and promoting the very organisation that murdered him (after they'd found their replacement mouthpiece, from a sport they had zero respect for, and prior to Ali had zero time for).
What? You think current public figures are being prevented from being out spoken? Have you seen 50cent's twitter? Have you seen Donald Trump's? Lots of people are being out spoken, maybe more than I personally like, but whatever floats their boat.
Muhammad Ali had much to say. He was an outspoken civil rights supporter, anti draft activist, and convert to Islam, and a true believer in all those thoughts even when the majority of the country, even his fans, were against his positions. Hell, I'm against two of the three of those, and I still respect him enormously. He had a well spoken, eloquent, and coherent speaking style. He made you understand what his precepts were, how they shaped his philosophy, and he came to conclusions that you could respect. He wasn't simply outspoken, he was a good orator and a philosopher.
There's a great interview with him in The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. Tom Wolfe is not his intended audience, but is utterly enthralled. He comes across as genuine, progressive (in a meaning of that word that is positive), and concerned with his fellow man (if intending to be insular in parts of his philosophy.) He's no saint, but one of the most genuine people in the stardom limelight.
> My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father... Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.
In France we had some old celebrity known for their very funny yet inapropriate one man show. Everybody said that he would not be able to do the same today. Well, all his friends responded, at the time neither. He got sued. Threaten. Physically and financially attacked.
Disruption is always hard. And eventually others benefit more from it than you do.
His words were met, in the media, with challenge. Having his words even echoed was a feat in and of itself. You or I could not replicate his feat as we don't have the stage. People hinged on his every word because of his prowess in a field people could understand. Guys like LeBron James and Michael Phelps are the only folks who could garner the same level of respect in the here and now, but the field has changed, there's too much money at risk...
Case and point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l35nC0jVNuk
Yes, that may seem like nitpicking, but whether it's fair and logical or not, people will at least partially base their assessment of your message (or argument, or what have you) on the language you use to convey it.
Who would that be ? I immediately thought about Desproges.
And yet you call him by a name he himself changed and hated.
"no intelligent white person watching this show, or no intelligent white man in his or her right white mind, want black boys and black girls marrying their white sons and daughters, and in return introducing their grandchildren as half brown, kinky haired black people"
"It ain’t sad because I want my child to look like me, every intelligent person wants their child to look like them, I’m sad because I want to blot out my race and lose my identity? Chinese love Chinese they love the little slanty eye, pretty brown skin babies. Pakistani love their culture, Jewish people love their culture, a lot of catholic wanna be with Catholics and want the religion to stay the same… who would want to spot up yourself and kill your race? You’re a hater of your people if you don’t want to stay who you are. You ashamed of what god made you? You think he made a mistake when he made you?"
[0] From a 1971 interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Y693cSF7E