Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

B. I tend not to go to "tent pole" movies (well, occasionally) nor really consume a lot of blockbuster type music. Those would likely be the largest consumers of subsidies, or at least I'd guess that.

C. Music and movies occasionally intersect with "art" which I mostly support some subsidy of.

You did ask a good, thought provoking question. But as I said, I do like sports, and do use some of my discretionary spending to attend games. I don't support the massive subsidies that professional sports in the US gets.

Is it really? I'm not a Christian but that would be an easy way for me to have something in common with most of America.

And the value of "it's good to go with the flow" isn't arguably good: http://mic.com/articles/92479/psychologists-have-uncovered-a...

Now that I'm not 18 anymore, I can see where this article is coming from. I don't have the luxury of only talking to people in my peer group, and I've learned a little bit from sports about how to get excited from other people's excitement. Still, I feel like I had to leave an environment where sports were Mandatory Fun to get that enjoyment.

"Take, say, sports -- that's another crucial example of the indoctrination system, in my view. For one thing because it -- you know, it offers people something to pay attention to that's of no importance. [audience laughs] That keeps them from worrying about -- [applause] keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have some idea of doing something about. And in fact it's striking to see the intelligence that's used by ordinary people in [discussions of] sports [as opposed to political and social issues]. I mean, you listen to radio stations where people call in -- they have the most exotic information [more laughter] and understanding about all kind of arcane issues. And the press undoubtedly does a lot with this.

You know, I remember in high school, already I was pretty old. I suddenly asked myself at one point, why do I care if my high school team wins the football game? [laughter] I mean, I don't know anybody on the team, you know? [audience roars] I mean, they have nothing to do with me, I mean, why I am cheering for my team? It doesn't mean any -- it doesn't make sense. But the point is, it does make sense: it's a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority, and group cohesion behind leadership elements -- in fact, it's training in irrational jingoism. That's also a feature of competitive sports. I think if you look closely at these things, I think, typically, they do have functions, and that's why energy is devoted to supporting them and creating a basis for them and advertisers are willing to pay for them and so on."

http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/1992----02.htm