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Well, consider sports fans for a moment. There’s nothing rational in particular about worshipping a uniform, and yet you will find sports fans all over the plac
by overgard 7y ago
Well, consider sports fans for a moment. There’s nothing rational in particular about worshipping a uniform, and yet you will find sports fans all over the place. And sports fans are almost all haters of the other team.
And yet... there are plenty of wildly successful people that are fans of sports, and haters of the rivals. Obama is famously a basketball fan, for instance.
I get that it’s a lot milder than hating on a person, my point is that this is a thing that is in almost all of us. The smart people just know when to compartmentalise those feelings.
- fuball63 7y agoI thought of sports too. I personally have irrational hatred for rival players that, for example, accidental injured a player on my team in a big game. But it's almost like a joke or game; if I met the player in person I wouldn't act crazy. I think the compartmentalizing you mentioned is interesting. In American politics right now, the home team and rivalry mentality seems to have spilled out into actually important areas of discourse. At the same time, neighbors still live in relative harmony in their day to day lives. I just wonder if PG's theory really is more about trolls, despite him specifically addressing the distinction.