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> It's no more a cult than cheering for your school mascot To just react to this part: from the perspective of someone growing up in a country without school m

by Beldin 6y ago

> It's no more a cult than cheering for your school mascot To just react to this part: from the perspective of someone growing up in a country without school mascots or inter-school sports competitions, the whole US treatment of school sport teams and their mascots (or, at least, their depiction in media) is rather cultish behaviour.

dvt 6y ago
I think this is a bit unfair. I grew up in Europe -- which had no mascots or crazy "American" sports -- and during my childhood, Maradona (who also sadly passed away just last week) was absolutely idolized.
JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> the whole US treatment of school sport teams and their mascots (or, at least, their depiction in media) is rather cultish behaviour It’s tribal. Or team like. We don’t have a good word for it in English. Being strongly affiliated with a group isn’t a bad thing. It drives innovation in companies and research groups and campaigns. It’s easy to mock. Often, there is some totem Kool-Aid everyone rallies around. This cult-ish mode isn’t antithetical to individualism. We freely choose to associate this way. Unlike cult members, there is an out. And at a certain level we know it isn’t life and death. Though it’s fun to pretend it is, since so infrequently does the modern world let us fight with a team to life or death.
- vkou 6y ago
  > This cult-ish mode isn’t antithetical to individualism. We freely choose to associate this way. Unlike cult members, there is an out. There is an incredible amount of social pressure to conform, whether it be to cheering for school mascots, or daily pledging your unconditional allegiance to a nation, years before you are old enough to understand what half of those concepts mean.
  - skrebbel 6y ago
    > or daily pledging your unconditional allegiance to a nation Wut, that's some serious 1984 shit, where is this common?
    - ceilingcorner 6y ago
      Most schoolchildren do the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, but in my experience, the only people who think it's some sort of dystopian practice are foreigners whose primary knowledge of America comes from watching Netflix. For actual Americans, it's a mildly respectful gesture that simply implies patriotism...and it's not a particularly huge deal.
      - elsjaako 6y ago
        As someone who had never heard of the practice before moving to the US as a teen, it seemed pretty culty to me. I understand most Americans aren't that bothered, but that makes it even more creepy to us foreigners. I'm sure North Koreans are used to the Kims' pictures in every room, but that doesn't make it less weird from an outsiders perspective.
        ceilingcorner 6y ago
        Comparing the Pledge of Allegiance to North Korean indoctrination is exactly the sort of absurd nonsense that I'm talking about. It's a basic tradition that helps instill patriotism, which from a purely practical point of view, is almost a political necessity in a country as diverse as America. Criticizing one's own country, which is probably one of the most American things one can do, is absolutely not possible in North Korea. I don't want to assume the country that you're from, but I'll say this: Europeans often have this constant attitude that they're the forefront of civilization and that anyone who doesn't match their highly subjective standards is ethically "behind." It's nauseating and frankly just the new flavor of Eurocentric imperialism.
        Gibbon1 6y ago
alasdair_ 6y ago
I was about to comment something very similar. I grew up in the UK and that sort of thing was often viewed as just a step away from the nationalism of the nazis.
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- np_tedious 6y ago
  Aren't there literally violent gangs associated with soccer teams?
  - daedalus_f 6y ago
    Yes, but the hooliganism of the 70s and 80s has largely gone away. It was conducted by gangs of thugs who were mostly associated with a small number of first division teams, and generally roundly denounced. I don’t think it’s fair to imply it was representative of the countries cultural approach to group affiliations.
burnthrow 6y ago
You know well it's because we as a people are mentally and morally deficient to the core.
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ceilingcorner 6y ago
European and South American obsession with football and footballers goes far, far beyond anything Americans do with sports. Unless you live in West Texas, it's fairly easy to avoid anything to do with it.
- Kephael 6y ago
  Yeah, the US has nothing like the "Soccer hooligan" culture that's found in Europe. I'm not sure why someone would think high school sports are a massive deal. I think it's due to media depictions of small towns being engrossed with them.
- mr_toad 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras
unishark 6y ago
In what way is it like a cult? It's more like cheering for your country in international sports competitions. If that's a cult then I guess fans of any competitive sports are a cult to you. If you're talking about the actual guy in the mascot suit some schools have, they're just clowning around to entertain people. Drunk fans appreciate them the most.

by Beldin 6y ago

dvt 6y ago

I think this is a bit unfair. I grew up in Europe -- which had no mascots or crazy "American" sports -- and during my childhood, Maradona (who also sadly passed away just last week) was absolutely idolized.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago

> the whole US treatment of school sport teams and their mascots (or, at least, their depiction in media) is rather cultish behaviour It’s tribal. Or team like. We don’t have a good word for it in English. Being strongly affiliated with a group isn’t a bad thing. It drives innovation in companies and research groups and campaigns. It’s easy to mock. Often, there is some totem Kool-Aid everyone rallies around. This cult-ish mode isn’t antithetical to individualism. We freely choose to associate this way. Unlike cult members, there is an out. And at a certain level we know it isn’t life and death. Though it’s fun to pretend it is, since so infrequently does the modern world let us fight with a team to life or death.

vkou 6y ago
> This cult-ish mode isn’t antithetical to individualism. We freely choose to associate this way. Unlike cult members, there is an out. There is an incredible amount of social pressure to conform, whether it be to cheering for school mascots, or daily pledging your unconditional allegiance to a nation, years before you are old enough to understand what half of those concepts mean.
- skrebbel 6y ago
  > or daily pledging your unconditional allegiance to a nation Wut, that's some serious 1984 shit, where is this common?
  - ceilingcorner 6y ago
    Most schoolchildren do the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, but in my experience, the only people who think it's some sort of dystopian practice are foreigners whose primary knowledge of America comes from watching Netflix. For actual Americans, it's a mildly respectful gesture that simply implies patriotism...and it's not a particularly huge deal.
    - elsjaako 6y ago
      As someone who had never heard of the practice before moving to the US as a teen, it seemed pretty culty to me. I understand most Americans aren't that bothered, but that makes it even more creepy to us foreigners. I'm sure North Koreans are used to the Kims' pictures in every room, but that doesn't make it less weird from an outsiders perspective.
      - ceilingcorner 6y ago
        Comparing the Pledge of Allegiance to North Korean indoctrination is exactly the sort of absurd nonsense that I'm talking about. It's a basic tradition that helps instill patriotism, which from a purely practical point of view, is almost a political necessity in a country as diverse as America. Criticizing one's own country, which is probably one of the most American things one can do, is absolutely not possible in North Korea. I don't want to assume the country that you're from, but I'll say this: Europeans often have this constant attitude that they're the forefront of civilization and that anyone who doesn't match their highly subjective standards is ethically "behind." It's nauseating and frankly just the new flavor of Eurocentric imperialism.
        Gibbon1 6y ago

alasdair_ 6y ago

I was about to comment something very similar. I grew up in the UK and that sort of thing was often viewed as just a step away from the nationalism of the nazis.

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np_tedious 6y ago
Aren't there literally violent gangs associated with soccer teams?
- daedalus_f 6y ago
  Yes, but the hooliganism of the 70s and 80s has largely gone away. It was conducted by gangs of thugs who were mostly associated with a small number of first division teams, and generally roundly denounced. I don’t think it’s fair to imply it was representative of the countries cultural approach to group affiliations.

burnthrow 6y ago

You know well it's because we as a people are mentally and morally deficient to the core.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ceilingcorner 6y ago

European and South American obsession with football and footballers goes far, far beyond anything Americans do with sports. Unless you live in West Texas, it's fairly easy to avoid anything to do with it.

Kephael 6y ago
Yeah, the US has nothing like the "Soccer hooligan" culture that's found in Europe. I'm not sure why someone would think high school sports are a massive deal. I think it's due to media depictions of small towns being engrossed with them.
mr_toad 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras

unishark 6y ago

In what way is it like a cult? It's more like cheering for your country in international sports competitions. If that's a cult then I guess fans of any competitive sports are a cult to you. If you're talking about the actual guy in the mascot suit some schools have, they're just clowning around to entertain people. Drunk fans appreciate them the most.