My indifference is not cultivated. It comes from a native disdain of authoritarianism and tribalism. Not sure why it would be desirable to make small talk with people about uninteresting things.
I do enjoy some heavy metal, though.
Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
181–190 of 511 posts
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#182Earlier 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…
Having a valid reason why some activity is intrinsically bad (e.g. fast food) is very different from disliking such activities because they are "beneath" you. Sports are widely loved and not intrinsically bad. (I'd even argue that fast food itself is not intrinsically bad, but that's a different discussion) However, even expressing contempt for intrinsically bad activities can be interpreted as offensive and hostile.…
If you don't enjoy an activity, it is intrinsically bad for you.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#183I think the problem that many geeks have with sports is the tribalism and the blind devotion. We have a lower tolerance for religious fanaticism, even barring the distro and editor wars. "Your" team won? Really? In what sense are they your team? Are you the coach? Are you a player? Or is it just because your parents were fans, or you grew up near them, or they won last year?
When programmers engage in these kind of religious wars about their languages or text editors (other than in a tongue-in-cheek way) they are considered rude and antisocial neckbeards. But somehow it's rude or antisocial to not get behind this massive time, energy, and money sink that makes a few people fabulously wealthy?
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#184i 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…
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Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depth can have a real defined meaning, though. If you're in the context of discovering a process that will make electricity cheaper and cleaner, that is useful to everyone around the world in some way and then to have someone overshadow that achievement or ignore it entirely because 'the game' is on, is ridiculous. I live in the south east where when a college football coach has a problem with the university presiden…
>NFL players go bankrupt shortly after their career of being paid far more than will reflect their contribution to the future of mankind. Isn't that supposed to be because of the mental illness brought on by the repeated concussions that players suffer, which causes physical injury to the brain? I'm not sure how you can blame the players for that.
I'm not blaming the players for anything. It's the institution that society has propped up and praised that puts people in a position where they feel the best way to be validated by society is to put themselves in danger doing nothing of lasting good for mankind.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#186I'm not sure how I feel about this article. On the one hand, it had a weird highbrow tone. It reads a bit like an ivory tower academic discovering what "the poors" are up to. Some choice quotes: "Albert suggested that sports reflect the go-to topic for small talk and building rapport across class and context" "Sports are popular because people, in general, find them fun to watch". No shit! Lots of people like sports.…
Intellectually gifted individuals can be quite adept at rationalizing their behavior and deluding themselves (and drowning others) with logical-sounding word vomit. This is evident as they get lost in the details of their rationalizations, but fail to consider the broader assumptions/principles at work in their justifications.
For example, point number 4:
It’s not all great. Football, like most professional sports, is deeply permeated with advertisements, commercialism, and money.
We see that's really just a statement full of bullshit, because it's likely pretty easy to find counter-examples of things the intellectual individual thinks are great (Apple products?) which are deeply permeated with ads, commercialism, and money.
Intelligence is a highly-fluid "thing", but society tends to view it as book-smart depth in a few micro-niches... i.e. the less something can be understood, the more "intelligent" one appears. And yet that sort of "intelligence" defeats the compounding interest of knowledge, which occurs when we can communicate it to others in an understandable fashion. Even further, a mother who raises her children can be highly intelligent, but she often gets little honor from a society that defines smart as a Physics PhD.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#187I have always assumed that, like most geeks, disinterest in sports was not so much "cultivated" as it was a kneejerk reaction to the fact that the football players were the people making my life miserable every fucking day in public school.
A huge chunk of my disinterest in certain genres of music (e.g. heavy metal) come from the same wellspring.
Of course high school was many years ago for me and I have moved on with my life. But until a strong-enough counterforce is applied, football (and Led Zeppelin) will continue to elicit a vaguely negative response.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#188Earlier 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…
Having a valid reason why some activity is intrinsically bad (e.g. fast food) is very different from disliking such activities because they are "beneath" you. Sports are widely loved and not intrinsically bad. (I'd even argue that fast food itself is not intrinsically bad, but that's a different discussion) However, even expressing contempt for intrinsically bad activities can be interpreted as offensive and hostile.…
I'd say sports as an activity are good, but sports as a culture are often bad, it's just the most people don't draw a distinction.
Just look at tailgating -- at any university you can witness loads of adults setting a great example for their children by getting dead drunk en mass in front of them at every Saturday home game.
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#189i 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…
predictably well put from mr chomsky.
to effect a classic double flashback, fight club style, here's a dose of bread and circus from juvenal from CE 100:
"'It is scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated.' Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things----Bread and Games!"
Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports
#190Earlier 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…
I use the "I'm not a sports guy" variant. It just doesn't interest me. Unfortunately, most movies, music, and tv have lost my interest as well. No snobbery or moral objections, it just doesn't interest me.