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Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

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Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#321

Post by XorNot »

Implicated wrote: post #268
Glyptodon wrote: post #172

Earlier 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…

> I feel like sports culture deprives lots of regular public high school students of an education, and I don't think it's elitist at all to dislike professional sports for their contribution to this mess. While I respect your position I feel that you really don't understand the perspective of sports from the athletes side. You're completely glossing over the positives that sports bring to the lives of people involved…

That's not his point though. His point is that for every bit of handwringing of how ghastly some people's comments on sports are, there's the reality that the football coach is the highest (in the millions of dollars range) paid position at almost every university in the US, how the sporting department despite those figures manages to be a net budgetry drain on almost every school which has one, and the reality that college-level sports is hugely abusive and exploitative to the players which actually play it.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#322

Post by siegecraft »

austerity wrote: post #300

I cultivated interest in golf to build rapport with the upper class. That didn't sound right, did it? Now is there any real difference between that and what the author is saying? I don't see one.

Apparently you missed where you used the word "upper" or thought that it was equivalent to "lower," when in fact they are opposites. My apologies for this gentle correction if you are not a native english speaker.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#323

Post by remarkEon »

SapphireSun wrote: post #296
remarkEon wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I love sports, but every time I watch or support them I feel like I'm destroying civil society and undermining democracy and helping to destroy the last vestiges of effective public education. Hyperbole. In a lot of ways, sports can bring a city or group together in ways that other events can't. I feel like this is where I have to make the usual acknowledgement that yes of course the NFL is run by a bunch of morons…

It's the coming together / tribalism part that unnerves me. There's no rational reason for people to get so excited about it, so it rubs me the wrong way the same way most political rallies do. Small scale sports don't have quite the same effect on me, but large heavily marketed ones do as there is a pressure to conform (i.e. care, participate, hold certain opinions that positively reflect on the enterprise).

>It's the coming together / tribalism part that unnerves me.

Why? Is community bad? I need that argument to be unpacked a bit more, because for me my experience living in several different cities as their teams make a playoff run has been a fun, electrifying experience. Neighbors are hanging out. Kids are having sleep overs watching games. There's a (usually very) healthy bump to the local economy. For all the room-for-improvement there truly is with managing the sport, the sense of community is what's actually valuable to me.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#324

Post by spydum »

SapphireSun wrote: post #296
remarkEon wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I love sports, but every time I watch or support them I feel like I'm destroying civil society and undermining democracy and helping to destroy the last vestiges of effective public education. Hyperbole. In a lot of ways, sports can bring a city or group together in ways that other events can't. I feel like this is where I have to make the usual acknowledgement that yes of course the NFL is run by a bunch of morons…

It's the coming together / tribalism part that unnerves me. There's no rational reason for people to get so excited about it, so it rubs me the wrong way the same way most political rallies do. Small scale sports don't have quite the same effect on me, but large heavily marketed ones do as there is a pressure to conform (i.e. care, participate, hold certain opinions that positively reflect on the enterprise).

I have the same almost instinctive reaction. I think we're probably guilty of it as well, just not as aware of the shape it takes (just look at the emacs vs vi folks, perl vs php, .net vs j2ee).

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#326

Post by SamReidHughes »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #19

I think professional sports are the closest we have to real-life dramas, tragedies, or even comedies, and they have profound life lessons. I am a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan. I grew up when they were a dynasty in the 90s, and at the time it seemed like going to the Super Bowl is something they were supposed to do every year. I cried after some tough losses. Sometimes I get into other local teams when they are doing w…

> I am a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan.

Wow, I can't think of anything you could say that would make me hate you more instantly!

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#327

Post by remarkEon »

rational-future wrote: post #306
JoshMilo wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have forgotten that Niels Bohr was an olympic athlete as well as a nobel prize winner in physics.

Yeah, never mind the 99.99% of Nobel winners that aren't/weren't athletes.

The point was that being a tremendous athlete and an intellectual/scientist aren't mutually exclusive.

Edit: Also, astronauts.

So there's that.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#329

Post by XorNot »

im3w1l wrote: post #264
timr wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"When you show overt contempt for sports you are showing contempt for most everybody and that is problem with your social skills." That's nice. What other corporate products must I consume in order to be a validated member of your social caste? How about this: "when you show overt contempt for fast food, you are showing contempt for most everybody, and that is a problem with your social skills." If I don't eat at McD…

>That's nice. What other corporate products must I consume in order to be a validated member of your social caste? I guess you ask that rhetorically, but I think it is an interesting question. I'd say you have to listen through the music top charts. You also have to watch most popular movies every year. There are more TV-series than there is time to watch, so I'd guess I'll say you only have to watch one or two of yo…

Eh. This is more like just saying that you need enough general knowledge to sustain a conversation if you want to get along with people, and that you don't repeat yourself too often.

The person who is into is always tiring to be around after a while (and can create a very one-sided social interaction).

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#330

Post by Rapzid »

graeme wrote: post #58

I played sports in school, and have no problem understanding them. But watching sports doesn't interest me. This doesn't seem to cause me problems. I can talk to working class people about other topics easily. I also have no reason to go around bashing sports, so this helps I'm sure. One thing I've noticed is that it does block me from being close friends with certain men. Because their favorite leisure activity is w…

Same experience here. I've rotated through a few number of personal sports into adult land though. That really helps because you'll find others that similarly enjoy what you're doing and don't care for watching sports either. Good exercise too. Stuff like cycling and rock climbing are particularly good cause it makes sense to go on road trips.
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