8 ms·

As a non-sports person, I never understood our country's obsession, preferential treatment, and worshiping of anything that has to do with NFL, NBA, NHL, and ML

by pcurve 7y ago

As a non-sports person, I never understood our country's obsession, preferential treatment, and worshiping of anything that has to do with NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, be it tax subsidies of stadium, cable bundling of sports channel, or looking down on people who are not into sports.

beart 7y ago
I can imagine some Roman citizen saying the same thing at the local market thousands of years ago, in reference to the games.
- TomFrink 7y ago
  Reminds of Juvenal's Satire X: ... Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses
cmrdporcupine 7y ago
Politics itself has become sports, too. Red team or blue team. From up here in Canada the weird fusion of school and sport down there is also bizarre. Yes, people play sports in our schools... but wow is it cultish down there.
- ratsmack 7y ago
  This describes the majority of voters which do not have a clue as to what they are voting for, or the platform that their favorite candidate stand on. The just blindly vote the party ticket because that's their team. Generally, it is the swing voters that are more informed on politics and don't necessarily vote the party ticket.
  - taborj 7y ago
    I heard this argument a lot, and perhaps the people I find myself around are abnormal, but I'm trying and failing to come up with people I know who vote along party lines simply because it's one party or the other. Just about everyone has at least one major issue that keeps them from voting the other way, and most have multiple reasons. I guess I have seen something like it, now that I'm thinking about it -- but it's generally a negative condition, i.e. "I'm not voting for X simply because they are part of party Y." They're not necessarily voting for their party because it's their party, but they're doing it because it's not another party, or more specifically, not a particular candidate.
- komali2 7y ago
  One of my favorite things about the shitstorm that has been the last 4 years is the red and blue teams ripping eachother to pieces when Kaepernick kneeled, and then the NFL responded. Other sports drama has been fun as well. I suspect some people with a lot of power benefit a great deal by a binary division of the population, but sports throws a nice fat wrench into their Best Laid Plans.
- unapologetic 7y ago
  It's crazy. I can't imagine a "sports school" in Canada.
aunty_helen 7y ago
It's not just your country, my former city of Christchurch, NZ has a council hellbent on spending money it doesn't have for a stadium it barely needs. The same promise of economic growth and touted fears of not being a 'real city without a stadium' applies. > The stadium profits won't cover operating costs, so ratepayers will have to top it up to the tune of $4.2m a year ($4.1m already budgeted). >It will bring $395.6m in economic benefits, which includes $53.9m in "civic pride". Civic pride.... https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/117262170/christchurch-stadium-plan-facing-funding-shortfall-of-up-60m?rm=m https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/117262170/christchurch-stadium... https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/117978037/christchurchs-470m-stadium-plan-revealed-25000-seats-clear-roof-finished-in-5-years https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/117978037/christchurchs-...
- JackFr 7y ago
  Ballet companies, museums and philharmonics are money losing propositions in nearly every case, and cities invest in these typically without complaint. Complaining about about a sports stadium because it's low culture rather than high is elitist and undemocratic. On the other hand complaining because the benefits of a ballet company are enjoyed by the city's ballet fans, while the benefits of a sports stadium are split between the team ownership and city's sports fans is legitimate. What I would like to see more of is stadium deals in which the municipality gets an equity stake in the team.
  - unapologetic 7y ago
    We generally don't build stadiums costing hundreds of millions so a billionaire can bring in Ballet. We might build a new theatre where Ballet can be performed, but it's also used for decades for thousands of art projects. It's not shitting on football to expect a billionaire owner to pay for their own damn stadium. It's insane corporate welfare to give them even 1 cent.
    - JackFr 7y ago
      > We generally don't build stadiums costing hundreds of millions so a billionaire can bring in Ballet. I specifically pointed that out -- but I get it, you said 'billionaire' where I said 'team ownership'. As your the other point, yes NYC built Lincoln Center to the benefit of generations. But they also put about $2.5 million annually into the New York City Ballet's operating budget. (Which is absolutely fine -- but don't kid yourself that they're self funding.)
labster 7y ago
If you think we’re obsessed with sports now, try reading up on the Nika Riots in the Byzantine capital. There’s something about human nature that leads to sports fanaticism that I just don’t have, but team sports have always impacted matters of state. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots
cortesoft 7y ago
Is there anything that you are really into? A hobby you like to read about, talk about, and follow?
- komali2 7y ago
  I've had this discussion before on HN, if I find an easier way to search my comment history I'll try to turn it up. But basically, I don't think that does it - there's a difference between, say, collecting watches, reading watch blogs, browsing eBay for watches, watching videos of watchmakers etc, and screaming gleefully at the pitch/field/TV as your favorite team plays. Someone else is saying something about mirror neurons, I wonder if that's what I'm not having in enough abundance to "miss out" on the fun I see my dad have when he watches the Packers. I'd like to participate but I feel nothing beyond interest in watching the plays play out. Whether the Packers get it done or not, eh, I don't really care, and not for lack of trying.
  - cortesoft 7y ago
    I don't really think it is different.... sure, watch enthusiasts don't cheer for their favorite watch, but that is not how watch enthusiasts enjoy their hobby... cheering is how sports fans experience their hobby.
reroute1 7y ago
As a sports person I understand it, but am still conflicted by it. There's something unsettling about teachers and police officers getting paid a sliver of what a pro athlete does and in some way I have contributed to this. But it's also a source of joy and inspiration for many people, that has to be a good thing.
- komali2 7y ago
  Interesting thought though. Why do NFL players get paid so much? Where's the money actually coming from? I don't know too much about this industry but it seems their NFL salaries come from ticket sales and TV licensing deals, and the TV companies can pay them because of advertisements, which they can sell because people watch football thus tv thus ads. Must be why NFL, NBA etc get so fuckin salty when people upload highlight reels and stuff to youtube. I can't think of anyway to similarly monetize teaching and I really don't think anybody should go down that route, it sounds terrifying. But how do you convince a bunch of people watching football, which kinda costs them either nothing or like 90$ a month for their cable subscription, that they should also spend a % of their income on teachers?
  - reroute1 7y ago
    Yes that's right, that's what I meant by me contributing in some way, via ticket sales, merchandise, it all adds up to some athletes being mega millionaires. Although nowadays the big stars have lots of advertising deals and make big $$ outside of their regular paycheck also. I don't know how to fix the teacher's pay. It's just unfortunate that by comparison they make pennies.
  - iamatworknow 7y ago
    >Must be why NFL, NBA etc get so fuckin salty when people upload highlight reels and stuff to youtube. For what it's worth NBA has actually taken the opposite stance from the other leagues in terms of highlights online. See https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-silver-nba-ok-highlights-social-media-twitter-gifs-2018-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-silver-nba-ok-highlight...
  - 7y ago
sneak 7y ago
Most normal people in the US do relatively little, and 100% of the variety in their (IMO) boring lives comes from television programming, hollywood big-budget movies, and sports. Remove those, and it’s just the usual identical routine of work, alcohol, driving, grocery shopping, dealing with kids, and sleep. We don’t really have third places besides church. (Instagram falls somewhere in-between, depending on whether you only follow the forty boring people you know, or choose to use it as an adjunct to mass media feeds to keep up on celebrities and bikini models.) Sports provides a regular stream of relatively unpredictable events that someone in need of such can make emotionally relevant.
beat 7y ago
It's a civic pride thing. Even though I don't follow any sportsballs, I do take some pride in the fact that my city has professional football, baseball, basketball, and hockey teams. It's a "we matter" thing. I may not love those sports, but many of my neighbors do. Likewise, I take great pride in the fact that we have two world-class museums, one focused entirely on modern art, and I hope the sports fans see the value in that, too.
- sneak 7y ago
  Except that the sports team has absolutely nothing to do with the city in which it is physically located. This is like being personally proud of your city’s Apple Store (for cities that are not near silicon valley). Much like nations, it is a way of making you proud of achievements that you did not perform, carried out by people whom you have never met and do not know and have no association with whatsoever.
  - rconti 7y ago
    Other than the fact that the games are played there, the people who live in the area watch the same teams and have conversations about the games (home or away), and it can be a sense of shared experience.
  - beat 7y ago
    Society is made of achievements we did not perform. This sort of hyper-individualist rejection of our sense of community is incredibly bleak and depressing to me. What is the logical conclusion? How far do you take it? Should I, say, not be proud of my children's accomplishments? After all, I didn't do them, they did. I'm a musician and play in bands. Should I not be proud of things my band has accomplished? What my band does is stuff that I can't do alone, and they can't do without me. Obsessively focusing on the individual and rejecting one's role in society is nihilistic and alienating. If you gotta do it, I suppose you do you, but please don't drag me into your sad, lonely world. I'm going to enjoy my place in my family, my town, my country, etc.
    - sneak 7y ago
Diederich 7y ago
Just a quick, somewhat glib opinion in response to this. Some experts believe that humans are, at best, only somewhat sentient, and only part of the time. Our mind automatically back-populates a story of thought and consideration before every decision, when in fact, our limbic system (more primitive, where our baser emotions come from) is pretty much running the show. Many/most humans have the need to vigorously compete in groups. Again, some experts have compared this to troops of monkeys fighting over territory and/or dominance. This is still the case because while our neocortex has developed quite a bit, our emotional centers are still relatively primitive. At least, a lot more primitive than we're widely comfortable in admitting to. I think that participation in sports is a necessary and mostly healthy outlet for these mental structures. This can all come across as very high minded, and I don't mean to say that people who are into sports are more primitive than people who aren't. I was never into sports, but I competed in different ways. And I've known people who were truly not competitive in any typical way, so it's complicated. Also, the above paragraphs are loaded with simplifications and assumptions. (: One way or another, I think organized sports are a useful and necessary thing for a large percentage of the human population. Of course, we as a society need to do it as 'well' as we can.
- foldr 7y ago
  The NFL etc. are largely about watching sport, not participating in it. You'll find lots of countries that (i) have better publicly accessible sporting facilities than the USA and (ii) spend far less public and university money on sports teams.
  - wasdfff 7y ago
    Most of the big football programs make the universities money hand over fist, and keep alumni engaged.
    - foldr 7y ago
      https://splc.org/2016/01/post-series-college-athletic-spending-records/ https://splc.org/2016/01/post-series-college-athletic-spendi...
mmcconnell1618 7y ago
I believe the deep interest in sports is partially genetic. Some people's brains have very strong "mirror neurons" so when their sports team does something great, they feel a portion of that success as a real thing in their head. Some people (actually a lot of people) are just hard wired to enjoy the bread and circuses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron
- Accujack 7y ago
  That's not just some people, it's everyone. There are very strong survival benefits to being able to receive that chemical high for believing we belong to a particular group.
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    Watching sport had always made me want to go out and do it, as a kid I'd try to fit in but after 5mins I'd have to go out and play. Watching other people have fun playing football made no sense. Why would it be "believing" we're part of a group that makes the high and not _being_ part of a group.
    - Accujack 7y ago
      Because identifying as part of a group is part of the mechanism that lets humans act collectively. Same kind of thing as the need to belong to some group, organization, or clique. Humans acting collectively are safer, stronger, better fed, and in general reproduce more successfully than humans who do not. Being able to essentially choose a group to belong with is beneficial - it's a shortcut to most of the benefits of group membership (in ancient history, I mean) without having to be born into the group or be one of the "O.G." members. There are advantages for the rest of the group, too - they can get more people on "their side" and committed to their welfare without having to birth/raise/feed them.
wuliwong 7y ago
> looking down on people who are not into sports. I think it's interesting you added this. I am someone who does enjoy watching professional sports and to me it seems quite the opposite, I more often notice people who do not like watching sports vocalizing negative feelings towards people who do. But maybe I'm just noticing that because of where I stand on the liking/not-liking watching sports question. Judging by the language you chose in your comment it is apparent you harbor some pretty negative feelings towards people who like to watch sports. Dare I say, it seems like you look down at them?
- unapologetic 7y ago
  "hurr durr I watch the sportsball" seems to be a pretty common view. It's silly, but I get it somewhat. I've been at a dinner/drinks thing before and literally every person was talking about football. It really sucks to not be part of the in crowd, but football also sucks so I'll just zone out on my phone rather than watch it.
- criley2 7y ago
  +1 I've never in my life met someone who looked down on people for not liking sports, but if I bring up sports in the wrong geek community, man I get eviscerated by holier-than-thou types who simply must explain why it's a waste of time and I'm stupid for liking it. (EDIT: I notice the other reply to you does exactly this, 'hurr durr sportsball', which is a perfect validation of my claim that this kind of attitude is very common. Unironic usage of 'handegg' is also very common -- they think it's really clever) Is what it is, I suppose. For those wondering why: Communication. Sports is one of the only things that truly transcends race, gender, religion, politics, etc. (EDIT: And the other reply to you describes someone who would rather fail to communicate with a dinner full of people than learn a shared topic, the exact case I worked to avoid!) When I started waiting tables in college I needed an ice breaking subject that was far away from politics/current events and "the weather" is too boring. Sports is probably the #1 common discussion topic, even more than the most popular TV show of the time. For every "Game of Thrones" convo I could start, I could probably start 5 based on baseball, football or basketball. Truly a great way to connect with different people that you'd otherwise not have basically anything to talk about with.
- 7y ago

by pcurve 7y ago

beart 7y ago

I can imagine some Roman citizen saying the same thing at the local market thousands of years ago, in reference to the games.

TomFrink 7y ago
Reminds of Juvenal's Satire X: ... Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses

cmrdporcupine 7y ago

Politics itself has become sports, too. Red team or blue team. From up here in Canada the weird fusion of school and sport down there is also bizarre. Yes, people play sports in our schools... but wow is it cultish down there.

ratsmack 7y ago
This describes the majority of voters which do not have a clue as to what they are voting for, or the platform that their favorite candidate stand on. The just blindly vote the party ticket because that's their team. Generally, it is the swing voters that are more informed on politics and don't necessarily vote the party ticket.
- taborj 7y ago
  I heard this argument a lot, and perhaps the people I find myself around are abnormal, but I'm trying and failing to come up with people I know who vote along party lines simply because it's one party or the other. Just about everyone has at least one major issue that keeps them from voting the other way, and most have multiple reasons. I guess I have seen something like it, now that I'm thinking about it -- but it's generally a negative condition, i.e. "I'm not voting for X simply because they are part of party Y." They're not necessarily voting for their party because it's their party, but they're doing it because it's not another party, or more specifically, not a particular candidate.
komali2 7y ago
One of my favorite things about the shitstorm that has been the last 4 years is the red and blue teams ripping eachother to pieces when Kaepernick kneeled, and then the NFL responded. Other sports drama has been fun as well. I suspect some people with a lot of power benefit a great deal by a binary division of the population, but sports throws a nice fat wrench into their Best Laid Plans.
unapologetic 7y ago
It's crazy. I can't imagine a "sports school" in Canada.

aunty_helen 7y ago

It's not just your country, my former city of Christchurch, NZ has a council hellbent on spending money it doesn't have for a stadium it barely needs. The same promise of economic growth and touted fears of not being a 'real city without a stadium' applies. > The stadium profits won't cover operating costs, so ratepayers will have to top it up to the tune of $4.2m a year ($4.1m already budgeted). >It will bring $395.6m in economic benefits, which includes $53.9m in "civic pride". Civic pride.... https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/117262170/christchurch-stadium-plan-facing-funding-shortfall-of-up-60m?rm=m https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/117262170/christchurch-stadium... https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/117978037/christchurchs-470m-stadium-plan-revealed-25000-seats-clear-roof-finished-in-5-years https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/117978037/christchurchs-...

JackFr 7y ago
Ballet companies, museums and philharmonics are money losing propositions in nearly every case, and cities invest in these typically without complaint. Complaining about about a sports stadium because it's low culture rather than high is elitist and undemocratic. On the other hand complaining because the benefits of a ballet company are enjoyed by the city's ballet fans, while the benefits of a sports stadium are split between the team ownership and city's sports fans is legitimate. What I would like to see more of is stadium deals in which the municipality gets an equity stake in the team.
- unapologetic 7y ago
  We generally don't build stadiums costing hundreds of millions so a billionaire can bring in Ballet. We might build a new theatre where Ballet can be performed, but it's also used for decades for thousands of art projects. It's not shitting on football to expect a billionaire owner to pay for their own damn stadium. It's insane corporate welfare to give them even 1 cent.
  - JackFr 7y ago
    > We generally don't build stadiums costing hundreds of millions so a billionaire can bring in Ballet. I specifically pointed that out -- but I get it, you said 'billionaire' where I said 'team ownership'. As your the other point, yes NYC built Lincoln Center to the benefit of generations. But they also put about $2.5 million annually into the New York City Ballet's operating budget. (Which is absolutely fine -- but don't kid yourself that they're self funding.)

labster 7y ago

If you think we’re obsessed with sports now, try reading up on the Nika Riots in the Byzantine capital. There’s something about human nature that leads to sports fanaticism that I just don’t have, but team sports have always impacted matters of state. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots

cortesoft 7y ago

Is there anything that you are really into? A hobby you like to read about, talk about, and follow?

komali2 7y ago
I've had this discussion before on HN, if I find an easier way to search my comment history I'll try to turn it up. But basically, I don't think that does it - there's a difference between, say, collecting watches, reading watch blogs, browsing eBay for watches, watching videos of watchmakers etc, and screaming gleefully at the pitch/field/TV as your favorite team plays. Someone else is saying something about mirror neurons, I wonder if that's what I'm not having in enough abundance to "miss out" on the fun I see my dad have when he watches the Packers. I'd like to participate but I feel nothing beyond interest in watching the plays play out. Whether the Packers get it done or not, eh, I don't really care, and not for lack of trying.
- cortesoft 7y ago
  I don't really think it is different.... sure, watch enthusiasts don't cheer for their favorite watch, but that is not how watch enthusiasts enjoy their hobby... cheering is how sports fans experience their hobby.

reroute1 7y ago

As a sports person I understand it, but am still conflicted by it. There's something unsettling about teachers and police officers getting paid a sliver of what a pro athlete does and in some way I have contributed to this. But it's also a source of joy and inspiration for many people, that has to be a good thing.

komali2 7y ago
Interesting thought though. Why do NFL players get paid so much? Where's the money actually coming from? I don't know too much about this industry but it seems their NFL salaries come from ticket sales and TV licensing deals, and the TV companies can pay them because of advertisements, which they can sell because people watch football thus tv thus ads. Must be why NFL, NBA etc get so fuckin salty when people upload highlight reels and stuff to youtube. I can't think of anyway to similarly monetize teaching and I really don't think anybody should go down that route, it sounds terrifying. But how do you convince a bunch of people watching football, which kinda costs them either nothing or like 90$ a month for their cable subscription, that they should also spend a % of their income on teachers?
- reroute1 7y ago
  Yes that's right, that's what I meant by me contributing in some way, via ticket sales, merchandise, it all adds up to some athletes being mega millionaires. Although nowadays the big stars have lots of advertising deals and make big $$ outside of their regular paycheck also. I don't know how to fix the teacher's pay. It's just unfortunate that by comparison they make pennies.
- iamatworknow 7y ago
  >Must be why NFL, NBA etc get so fuckin salty when people upload highlight reels and stuff to youtube. For what it's worth NBA has actually taken the opposite stance from the other leagues in terms of highlights online. See https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-silver-nba-ok-highlights-social-media-twitter-gifs-2018-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-silver-nba-ok-highlight...
- 7y ago

sneak 7y ago

Most normal people in the US do relatively little, and 100% of the variety in their (IMO) boring lives comes from television programming, hollywood big-budget movies, and sports. Remove those, and it’s just the usual identical routine of work, alcohol, driving, grocery shopping, dealing with kids, and sleep. We don’t really have third places besides church. (Instagram falls somewhere in-between, depending on whether you only follow the forty boring people you know, or choose to use it as an adjunct to mass media feeds to keep up on celebrities and bikini models.) Sports provides a regular stream of relatively unpredictable events that someone in need of such can make emotionally relevant.

beat 7y ago

It's a civic pride thing. Even though I don't follow any sportsballs, I do take some pride in the fact that my city has professional football, baseball, basketball, and hockey teams. It's a "we matter" thing. I may not love those sports, but many of my neighbors do. Likewise, I take great pride in the fact that we have two world-class museums, one focused entirely on modern art, and I hope the sports fans see the value in that, too.

sneak 7y ago
Except that the sports team has absolutely nothing to do with the city in which it is physically located. This is like being personally proud of your city’s Apple Store (for cities that are not near silicon valley). Much like nations, it is a way of making you proud of achievements that you did not perform, carried out by people whom you have never met and do not know and have no association with whatsoever.
- rconti 7y ago
  Other than the fact that the games are played there, the people who live in the area watch the same teams and have conversations about the games (home or away), and it can be a sense of shared experience.
- beat 7y ago
  Society is made of achievements we did not perform. This sort of hyper-individualist rejection of our sense of community is incredibly bleak and depressing to me. What is the logical conclusion? How far do you take it? Should I, say, not be proud of my children's accomplishments? After all, I didn't do them, they did. I'm a musician and play in bands. Should I not be proud of things my band has accomplished? What my band does is stuff that I can't do alone, and they can't do without me. Obsessively focusing on the individual and rejecting one's role in society is nihilistic and alienating. If you gotta do it, I suppose you do you, but please don't drag me into your sad, lonely world. I'm going to enjoy my place in my family, my town, my country, etc.
  - sneak 7y ago

Diederich 7y ago

Just a quick, somewhat glib opinion in response to this. Some experts believe that humans are, at best, only somewhat sentient, and only part of the time. Our mind automatically back-populates a story of thought and consideration before every decision, when in fact, our limbic system (more primitive, where our baser emotions come from) is pretty much running the show. Many/most humans have the need to vigorously compete in groups. Again, some experts have compared this to troops of monkeys fighting over territory and/or dominance. This is still the case because while our neocortex has developed quite a bit, our emotional centers are still relatively primitive. At least, a lot more primitive than we're widely comfortable in admitting to. I think that participation in sports is a necessary and mostly healthy outlet for these mental structures. This can all come across as very high minded, and I don't mean to say that people who are into sports are more primitive than people who aren't. I was never into sports, but I competed in different ways. And I've known people who were truly not competitive in any typical way, so it's complicated. Also, the above paragraphs are loaded with simplifications and assumptions. (: One way or another, I think organized sports are a useful and necessary thing for a large percentage of the human population. Of course, we as a society need to do it as 'well' as we can.

foldr 7y ago
The NFL etc. are largely about watching sport, not participating in it. You'll find lots of countries that (i) have better publicly accessible sporting facilities than the USA and (ii) spend far less public and university money on sports teams.
- wasdfff 7y ago
  Most of the big football programs make the universities money hand over fist, and keep alumni engaged.
  - foldr 7y ago
    https://splc.org/2016/01/post-series-college-athletic-spending-records/ https://splc.org/2016/01/post-series-college-athletic-spendi...

mmcconnell1618 7y ago

I believe the deep interest in sports is partially genetic. Some people's brains have very strong "mirror neurons" so when their sports team does something great, they feel a portion of that success as a real thing in their head. Some people (actually a lot of people) are just hard wired to enjoy the bread and circuses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron

Accujack 7y ago
That's not just some people, it's everyone. There are very strong survival benefits to being able to receive that chemical high for believing we belong to a particular group.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Watching sport had always made me want to go out and do it, as a kid I'd try to fit in but after 5mins I'd have to go out and play. Watching other people have fun playing football made no sense. Why would it be "believing" we're part of a group that makes the high and not _being_ part of a group.
  - Accujack 7y ago
    Because identifying as part of a group is part of the mechanism that lets humans act collectively. Same kind of thing as the need to belong to some group, organization, or clique. Humans acting collectively are safer, stronger, better fed, and in general reproduce more successfully than humans who do not. Being able to essentially choose a group to belong with is beneficial - it's a shortcut to most of the benefits of group membership (in ancient history, I mean) without having to be born into the group or be one of the "O.G." members. There are advantages for the rest of the group, too - they can get more people on "their side" and committed to their welfare without having to birth/raise/feed them.

wuliwong 7y ago

> looking down on people who are not into sports. I think it's interesting you added this. I am someone who does enjoy watching professional sports and to me it seems quite the opposite, I more often notice people who do not like watching sports vocalizing negative feelings towards people who do. But maybe I'm just noticing that because of where I stand on the liking/not-liking watching sports question. Judging by the language you chose in your comment it is apparent you harbor some pretty negative feelings towards people who like to watch sports. Dare I say, it seems like you look down at them?

unapologetic 7y ago
"hurr durr I watch the sportsball" seems to be a pretty common view. It's silly, but I get it somewhat. I've been at a dinner/drinks thing before and literally every person was talking about football. It really sucks to not be part of the in crowd, but football also sucks so I'll just zone out on my phone rather than watch it.
criley2 7y ago
+1 I've never in my life met someone who looked down on people for not liking sports, but if I bring up sports in the wrong geek community, man I get eviscerated by holier-than-thou types who simply must explain why it's a waste of time and I'm stupid for liking it. (EDIT: I notice the other reply to you does exactly this, 'hurr durr sportsball', which is a perfect validation of my claim that this kind of attitude is very common. Unironic usage of 'handegg' is also very common -- they think it's really clever) Is what it is, I suppose. For those wondering why: Communication. Sports is one of the only things that truly transcends race, gender, religion, politics, etc. (EDIT: And the other reply to you describes someone who would rather fail to communicate with a dinner full of people than learn a shared topic, the exact case I worked to avoid!) When I started waiting tables in college I needed an ice breaking subject that was far away from politics/current events and "the weather" is too boring. Sports is probably the #1 common discussion topic, even more than the most popular TV show of the time. For every "Game of Thrones" convo I could start, I could probably start 5 based on baseball, football or basketball. Truly a great way to connect with different people that you'd otherwise not have basically anything to talk about with.
7y ago