3 ms·

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, basketb

by 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
    This is a straw man. It is rather silly to conflate your immediate family or a band in which you actively participate with a bunch of athletes and business owners who have never met you and have no association with you whatsoever save for living in the same metropolitan area. One is family or friends. The other is a bunch of rich strangers. They are not the same thing. To pretend that I was suggesting that they are equivalent is... baffling. PS: My world is neither sad nor lonely, and I am not sure how you arrived at those conclusions.

by beat 7y ago

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
  This is a straw man. It is rather silly to conflate your immediate family or a band in which you actively participate with a bunch of athletes and business owners who have never met you and have no association with you whatsoever save for living in the same metropolitan area. One is family or friends. The other is a bunch of rich strangers. They are not the same thing. To pretend that I was suggesting that they are equivalent is... baffling. PS: My world is neither sad nor lonely, and I am not sure how you arrived at those conclusions.