Historically, as empires near collapse there becomes an obsession with sport, food and celebrity.
Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
211–220 of 511 posts
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#212When you show overt contempt for sports you are showing contempt for most everybody and that is problem with your social skills. It's called being a snob. The disdain for working class culture among academics was part of the reason I choose not to pursue a formal higher education. I suspect this overt snootiness keeps many gifted working class kids from participating in higher education. I grew up working class and w…
I don't care about sports. If you start a conversation with me about sports, it'll be short. I'm not being mean to anyone who likes sports, I just don't care. You don't get to tell me that I'm wrong for not sharing your interest. Liking sports isn't obligatory.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#213i always found Chomsky's take on sports to be quite interesting... "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…
I find this view to be highly overly teleological. The idea that there's really a secret nefarious purpose is one of those extraordinary claims that needs extraordinary evidence
Your criticism is valid, but something does not need to have been deliberate for those in power to take advantage of it. Sports serve much the same purpose in secular society as rituals do in religion.
Also, the sport calendar can be used to time communications, particularly those w/ a populist message. Natural events are used this way fortuitously all the time (storms, natural disasters, 9/11, etc.)
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#214I was wondering if Ben was reiterating an old point of his. Nope, this is his same post from 2012. May be worth changing the title to highlight that.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems to me that rooting out and shaming "snobs" is becoming something of a cultural pastime. It really bothers people when you don't like what they like. So it must be because you're an asshole snob, not because you just don't like it. It's related to all the anti-"hipster" crap that has popped up in recent years. It's fun because skewering "hipsters" is puncturing pretensions, you're taking cultural snobs down a…
It isn't about not liking what other people like, it's about being a jerk about it. I for instance don't care for sports. And that is how I phrase it when asked. If there is a sports related conversation taking place I am generally more upset at the snobs demanding to be a part of the conversation just so they can shit all over sports in general, than the people that are spending an hour talking about a specific play…
A lot of people are gonna say I'm a jerk and think I'm militant if I don't like what they like. Fuck that. People decide they don't like you even if you didn't do anything wrong, all the time.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "It implies that there is no valid reason for liking X." Taken more charitably, it merely implies that one does not understand the valid reasons for liking X. There's a difference between saying "there's nothing of value here" and "I don't see why this is of value" -- one is phrased as an objective statement, while the other is a statement of perspective. Long ago, my wife told me she didn't understand why people l…
"Taken more charitably, it merely implies that one does not understand the valid reasons for liking X." And therein lies the rub. Interpreting others statements charitably and trying to make your own clear and unambiguous can reduce an awful lot of social friction.
This is a really good point. I try to interpret every statement charitably (until the point where it strains credulity). As such I don't tend to think about those who prefer seeing attacks in every comment and thus don't usually think about the "be careful about avoiding ambiguity" part of your comment.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#217When you show overt contempt for sports you are showing contempt for most everybody and that is problem with your social skills. It's called being a snob. The disdain for working class culture among academics was part of the reason I choose not to pursue a formal higher education. I suspect this overt snootiness keeps many gifted working class kids from participating in higher education. I grew up working class and w…
I love playing sports and always have. But I have major issues with categorizing everyone who has issues with them as elitist. Some of us dislike them because they're destructive to society. I'm sure I'm not the only one who went to a high school where athletics were more important than academics, and not going to the football game was worth a couple nitpicked points off on your chemistry quiz or some teacher who bec…
That's an interesting perspective, in a similar wheelhouse to my own, but I don't blame professional sports for the many ills caused by school sports. You picked on high schools, but the problem is far worse in colleges. I much prefer the european model, which focuses on clubs rather than schools.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#218When you show overt contempt for sports you are showing contempt for most everybody and that is problem with your social skills. It's called being a snob. The disdain for working class culture among academics was part of the reason I choose not to pursue a formal higher education. I suspect this overt snootiness keeps many gifted working class kids from participating in higher education. I grew up working class and w…
Professional sports are for the dumb - a modern version of the Roman circus to keep the unwashed masses occupied and away from the important things in life - politics, finance, economics.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, disinterest and contempt are very different things. Saying "I'm not interested in X" has very different connotations from "I can't see why anybody is interested in X".
This article isn't talking about disinterest. It's talking about the contempt self proclaimed intellectuals have - not the "oh I don't really follow NFL" attitude, the "oh, you like sports? Here let me post the tim and eric sports video to show how disdainful I am of sports." You know the type, they think they're so clever calling sports terms by the wrong name. Really sticking it to society by saying things like, "y…
You are projecting. Someone doesn't share your interests, or finds sports boring. It really, really doesn't mean they think they're clever, or "too good". That implies that secretly, they like sports but just get off on pretending not to like them to be elitist. But it's simply untrue.
Sorry you have a grievance with your exes who were bored by your preoccupation with sports. Nobody is obligated to share your interests any more than you are obligated to share a certain autistic person's interest in trains. If you find talking about models of trains boring, that's your right. Period.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love playing sports and always have. But I have major issues with categorizing everyone who has issues with them as elitist. Some of us dislike them because they're destructive to society. I'm sure I'm not the only one who went to a high school where athletics were more important than academics, and not going to the football game was worth a couple nitpicked points off on your chemistry quiz or some teacher who bec…
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Nice straw man you got there. Where do you get from that he thinks sports should be banned?