Fun Stuff > CHATTER
WE HATE SPORTS
Johnny C:
--- Quote from: Jimmy the Squid on 01 Dec 2010, 05:45 ---I didn't say it was a good idea for a thread, I'm just confused as to why Johnny C doesn't understand Khars very obvious intent. Again, didn't say it was a worthwhile intent.
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so it's a thought experiment, like i said
KharBevNor:
Fool’s Gold: How the Olympics and other international competitions breed conflict and bring out the worst in human nature.
--- Quote ---I'm not done. Our own political discourse, already emaciated enough, has been further degraded by the continuous importation of sports "metaphors": lame and vapid and cheery expressions like "bottom of the ninth," "goal line," and who knows what other tripe. Hard enough on the eyes and ears as this is—and there are some cartoonists who can't seem to draw without it—it also increases the deplorable tendency to look at the party system as a matter of team loyalty, which is the most trivial and parochial form that attachment can take. Meanwhile, the sponsorship racket means that a string of thugs and mediocrities is regularly marketed and presented for "role modeling" purposes, and it's considered normal for serious programming to be postponed or even interrupted if some dull game goes into (the very words are like a knell) overtime.
I can't count the number of times that I have picked up the newspaper at a time of crisis and found whole swaths of the front page given over either to the already known result of some other dull game or to the moral or criminal depredations of some overpaid steroid swallower. Listen: the paper has a whole separate section devoted to people who want to degrade the act of reading by staring enthusiastically at the outcomes of sporting events that occurred the previous day. These avid consumers also have tons of dedicated channels and publications that are lovingly contoured to their special needs. All I ask is that they keep out of the grown-up parts of the paper.
Or picture this: I take a seat in a bar or restaurant and suddenly leap to my feet, face contorted with delight or woe, yelling and gesticulating and looking as if I am fighting bees. I would expect the maitre d' to say a quietening word at the least, mentioning the presence of other people. But then all I need do is utter some dumb incantation—"Steelers," say, or even "Cubs," for crumb's sake—and everybody decides I am a special case who deserves to be treated in a soothing manner. Or else given a wide berth: ever been caught up in a fight over a match that you didn't even know was being played? Or seen the pathetic faces of men, and even some women, trying to keep up with the pack by professing devoted loyalty to some other pack on the screen? If you want a decent sports metaphor that applies as well to the herd of fans as it does to the players, try picking one from the most recent scandal. All those concerned look—and talk—as if they were suffering from a concussion.
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Still perenially shocked to see so many people on these forums whom I know to be intelligent talking about sports. Like it makes me anxious and fearful: when are you guys going to start the threads about TV talent shows or a thread about how only faggots like reading books? It is dreadful.
David_Dovey:
You'd think a guy who is into heavy metal, industrial music horror movies, Lovecraft novels, and far-left radical politics would be a bit more hesitant to call other people's interests the Death of Civilisation or whatever, but I guess not.
LOL! :mrgreen:
KharBevNor:
--- Quote from: Ptommydski on 17 Feb 2011, 09:36 ---If you just absolutely ignore every good aspect of sport it probably seems pretty weird but you wouldn't do that unless you had an irrational agenda.
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Well since you and other sports fans will ignore or dismiss every possible criticism of sport perhaps we could see it as providing balance? It is interesting that fans is of course derived from the word 'fanatic', and you ignore or reject all criticism of professional sport, the olympics committee etc. without even properly addressing it, just trumpeting the same unsupported talking points over and over again. Kind of like when you question people about their belief that the Earth is only 6000 years old or Xenu infested everyone with dead alien mnd parasites. I have an irrational agenda though, definitely.
Anyway this is the thread for people who hate sports, as I have tried to make clear several times before. Now where was I?
I read a pretty good article linking the rise of professional sports to 19th century ideas about masculinity and how to control it. Like, rugby, football etc. all arose in elite British all-boys schools, and were thought to discourage masturbation and sodomy, provide good experience for a future life in the army etc. Then the various sports were spread deliberately to the lower orders because such control and discipline was also felt to be good for them. And so it goes! That article may have been on JSTOR though so I will have to rootle for it. It's interesting though; like when you compare the huge bread and circuses, shit waste of money, glorify idiots sports of today with like traditional sports you might see played at a super traditional village fete or whatever, that actually are mostly about having fun and bringing people together, the contrast is pretty marked. It's not cool to guzzle down the opiate of the masses.
negative creep:
I would be interested in reading that article if you can find it.
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