Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports • Hacker News Board

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#471

Post by Hasu » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 3:45 PM UTC

briandear wrote: post #449

Hasu wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I heard was that college football tends to pay for all of the other sports at a school. Yeah, at the most successful football schools. That's a minority among schools that have football programs. [1] [2] >If anything sports creates a lot of opportunities for students that otherwise could be done due to budgets. No, sports diverts scholarship funds from scholars to athletes, and the athletes rarely take full ad…

Where do those scholarship dollars come from? It must be all te donations the sociology department attracts.

Scholarship money comes from a lot of places, but usually from wealthy alumni.

It definitely doesn't come from sports at most American universities.

There's something for the argument that sports attracts students who will become wealthy alumni and donate after graduation, but AFAIK, there's no data proving it, and some that contradicts that notion.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#472

Post by ansible » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 3:45 PM UTC

ZenoArrow wrote: post #442

ansible wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, are you talking about modern-day football hooligans? When I say "small-scale skirmishes", I'm talking about relatively small border conflicts and the like that last less than a year and kill tens to hundreds of people. As opposed to regional or national conflicts where the casualties get into the thousands or much higher.

Are you talking about football in the American sense or to describe soccer? I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in the UK football hooligans are a dying breed. There have been a few Hollywood films made about UK football hooligans, but it's more about the situation at it was in the 70's/80's. I'm not an expert on it, but it strikes me it was born out of boredom. You'd travel to an away match, see some goalle…

Are you talking about football in the American sense or to describe soccer?

No, I was asking if dragonwriter was referring to football (soccer) hooligans from the UK or other countries. Argentina guys in particular seem to get pretty rowdy, and there have been murders too.

But there isn't any sort of hooliganism where I am, I was just trying to figure out what dragonwriter was talking about with regards to pro sports being the focus of conflict. Which I don't see being anywhere close to the level of conflict (like actual war) that I was talking about.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#473

Post by golemotron » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 3:49 PM UTC

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #409

golemotron wrote: post #46

I won't deny that there's a cultural aspect but I've never been into team sports for the same reason I'm not into religion. When I was a kid I realized that thinking your home team is better than everyone else's is something that happens just because of where you are. It's the reason why people believe that Jesus is better than Buddha or Mohammed also, or any other ordering of those three. Teams sports amplify and di…

The whole discussion here is about intellectuals not liking sports but of all these supposed intellectuals here in not seeing a lot of intellectual reasoning. Rooting for a team is not the same as believing the universe is actually based on some particular religion, I don't think we can equivocate the two at all.

They come from the same sociological root: in-group/out-group dynamics. I don't know how much more intellectual you want to get.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#474

Post by j2kun » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 4:00 PM UTC

While I don't condone rudeness about sports (I don't like watching sports, but when my friends and family want to do it I politely watch and listen), politeness about what people love is a two-way street that I understand vividly in my profession: mathematics.

Because if there's anything that people compete to show their ignorance about, it's basic mathematics. I would gladly become a die-hard sports fan if it meant the average person I meet didn't talk they way they do about math.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#475

Post by Rusky » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 4:03 PM UTC

doktrin wrote: post #469

s_kilk wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, yeah. Some of us were abused mercilessly by the "jocks". On top of that, the school administration, and wider town culture didn't give a shit, because to them the young sports players were local superstars, and could do no wrong. And if a few young nerds kill them themselves because of the abuse, what harm right? As long as our school sports team is on form it's all cool. If not liking sports makes me a snob then…

> If not liking sports makes me a snob then ok, I can live with that. but let's not pretend working class sports culture is all good clean fun. It can be as venomous as any other culture. As evidenced by the top comment in this very thread calling out non-sports fans as being elitist snobs without social skills. What a joke.

There's a big difference between not being a sports fan, and going out of your way to be an elitist snob about it (even if that "going out of your way" stems from emotional self-defense).

Same thing happens with math, or programming, or various other intellectual pursuits. People will specifically talk about how bad they are at math, and wear it like a badge of pride. Or, they can just not enjoy it without being rude.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#476

Post by mavsman » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 4:32 PM UTC

Many comments here are very informative. My takeaway here is that closing ourselves off from certain topics or ideas entirely will in turn, and to a certain extent, close us off from a certain subset of people. Just be open minded.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#477

Post by selimthegrim » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 4:49 PM UTC

aaron-lebo wrote: post #427

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well there's putnam for ya, letting the obvious visual difference between southern and northern italians sail right over his head.

I must admit your point is going over my head, too. Do you mind explaining?

He's probably making some crack about perceived race

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#478

Post by jonathansizz » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:00 PM UTC

belorn wrote: post #57

solson wrote: post #20

When 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…

> It's called being a snob I kind of disagree with that label, as it imply that its only is a problem with higher education. The working class show the same overt contempt at people who watch e-sports, snooker, and other sports which isn't directly associated with the working class culture.

Snooker is very much a working class game. Just go to any snooker club around the UK.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#479

Post by remarkEon » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:02 PM UTC

mgkimsal wrote: post #468

remarkEon wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's a very sad and depressive way to look at sports fans, and indeed I think the argument that they're part of some fascist tribal conspiracy is silly and immature. I guess my experience growing up as a baseball fan was less "tribal" than football fans in Europe, but I don't think that's reason to decide that the whole experience is without value...which I think is what's being implied here and elsewhere o…

re: "less tribal" Baseball is... much slower than european football. I grew up as an american baseball fan, but could never understand the fascination with american football. Ever. It's just a weird game, but it tends to be faster than baseball, and certainly more physically intense (tackles, etc). And soccer, basketball and hockey are even faster. The speed tends to hype people up, I think. It feels easier to watch…

I guess I grew up always thinking about the math aspects of the game (dad was a bond trader), so even hockey for me, which is probably the least deterministic of the professional sports, is fun to watch. American Football has always been my least favorite...but probably because that sport's been immune to the kind of deep-level analysis (at least until recently) that a sport like baseball (and even basketball) are subjected to. So, I guess I agree with your perspective insomuch as it involves how "deep" someone can get emotionally involved with a game. Soccer though to me is just mind-numbingly boring - so the "tribal" nature and violence associated with European soccer fans is a complete mystery to me.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#480

Post by canvia » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

billyvg wrote: post #395

canvia wrote: post #314

There are several reasons why I dislike sports. Professional sports are expensive and inefficient forms of entertainment. What is your cost (and opportunity cost) per hour for sports? Compared to films, books, video games, or board games you are burning money/time on a completely passive experience. When was the last time you learned something about yourself or others while watching a sporting event? Do they cause yo…

- You can watch sports at home, on a TV, through your OTA antennae, costing you nothing - When was the last time you learned something about yourself or others while watching an eSports event? Do they cause you to think at all?

Except for the games that are only carried on cable networks like ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL network etc. which you MUST watch if you are a true fan.

The hosts of many Twitch channels talk about their philosophies on life and interact directly with their fans to have meaningful discussions.