Why are some people so fixated with professional sports?

It's called Bread and circuses, look it up

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
sports followers are sheeple.

That makes about as much sense as saying people who listen to music are sheeple.

Originally posted by canselmi

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
sports followers are sheeple.

That makes about as much sense as saying people who listen to music are sheeple.

No , saying saying "people who listen to music are sheeple" does not make any sense while the reasoning behind my statement was backed up will proof of the design of sports in the first place.

Dont try to compare one with other as its a poor strawman argument.

Its a tribal thing. Its also brainwashing, sports followers are sheeple.

Right.. along with anything else that is brought up on this site. I think it's funny how a select group of people feel they are super-clever, insightful and intelligent because they are not "sheeple." If they go against everything that is mainstream or popular, then they are mystically transformed into an "awake" or "eyes open" individual who suddenly realizes everything is a false flag, that the government is evil, that a super-secret group of people are trying to take over the world for whatever baffling reason, and sees how worthless stuff like fast food, tv, sports, and in fact, anything they don't personally do, really is.

Get over yourselves - people like different things. Local sports teams foster a bit of geographic nationality if you will. People enjoy watching their teams do well. Yes, pro athletes imo get paid far too much for what they do. Other professions do as well however. Actors.. these people get paid millions of dollars pretending they are someone else for others enjoyment. It is what it is - some folks enjoy movies, some enjoy sports.. some music.. and I honestly don't know what you feel we SHOULD be doing with our time.

Let me guess.. you spend all your free time either painting, helping the homeless, and making your own soap right? Whatever. I'm sure many of you hypocrites spend your free time playing video games, posting on boards like this one, and reorganzing your bobs. Before modern methods of entertainment, what do you think people did in their spare time? They spent it doing other potentially worthless activities that helped make their lives less stressful, and more enjoyable.

reply to post by fleabit


did you even read the rest of that post before commenting?

Sports as entertainment was designed as a way to control the working class population and enforce social order in the 20th century. Ill add the quote again.

H. G. Wells before the advent of National Sports teams talked about “Arenas,” Wells offered, over a hundred years ago, that arenas could be set up all over the world for sports. Now at that time when Wells offered that idea, sports was something that children participated in while, exceptions notwithstanding, adults would go on to adult things. It was unimanigable during Wells time that there would be a need for adult sports on the scale we have it today. Wells idea at the time was to eventually create a “Sports culture” for the men, using a tribal system where men would form allegiances according to a tribal system where men in set geographic areas would exhaust their aggressiveness in a vicarious identification with “their team.” Because men would be more disengaged then ever before from their own destiny a “Sports culture” was developed for them in order to provide an outlet for aggression that might otherwise be channeled in things that really were matters of consequence for responsible male citizens of a commonwealth. Between the passivity created by the entertainment model as well as the messages downloaded for conformity by the elites, and the pseudo and abstract aggressiveness aligned with a tribal team men would be effectively neutered in leadership and castrated in resistance. This in turn would allow the cultural gatekeeper elites to have their way in terms of setting the agenda for the social order.

Of course its enjoyable for the personality types it attracts, but that doesnt mean it wasnt designed as a method of control.

People enjoy what people enjoy. I am a Texas Rangers season ticket holder of many years now. I love going to the ball games. Other people have different interests. No biggie. Why are some people so fixated with (fill in the blank)? One could easily ask the same thing about almost anything, including conspiracy theories...

I was the same. They are into it because its live and makes them feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. For others its so the other men think they are manly.

Never been a big sports fan. Sure I've played hockey, softball, soccer, etc. but never really got into these games. I've never sat down and actually watched a full season (or kept track of it) in my life. I watch a couple of hockey games during the season and sometimes I'll watch the NHL playoffs. Me personally I like the shorter NHL season, makes the playoffs more random. Hell, Toronto is in the playoffs, lol. I've never watched baseball, football or soccer, too boring IMHO.

I don't get pro sports either.

A bunch of adult men running around acting like kids, and getting paid millions for it.


Edit: Additionally, I find sports fans think in very black and white terms. People that are very into sports are very "us vs. them" -- and this in turn spills over into their politics. People love the inclusive feeling, even if they don't even understand they are being played for a tool.

On ATS we complain that both sides of the political spectrum are really the same thing in different outfits. Sports fans don't understand this, won't understand this and can't understand this. Being raised to see the world in absolutes programs and wires the brain in such a way that any other alternative viewpoint is instantly dismissed.

So no to sports, no to us vs. them and no to a world of absolutes.

The older I get, the less I watch TV sports. I used to watch most everything in my 20s...basketball (pro and college), baseball, hockey, football (pro and college), golf, NASCAR, you name it. Now in my 40s, I really only watch a little football during that season and Team USA soccer if I happen to catch them playing . There are just so many better things I can do than watch sports. I think part of it too is I just don't identify with or look up to the players anymore. I am older now than most all pro sports players, so I don't have the connection I once felt. Sometimes, I also just think I've already seen the scenarios countless times, so whatever happens in a game or season will not be new and exciting. Just the same old stuff, so why bother watching?

It is usually men who become fixated with sports because it's tribal instinct to see your tribe (or team in this case) win a war (or sporting event in this case). Men are suppressed to the point that we can't even act normal without it being "offensive" or "sexist" so most men just use sports as an outlet to... act normal once a week.

I enjoy watching sporting events. I do not enjoy playing video games. I love to read books (of many types), articles, and even posts by pseudo intellectuals. I do not enjoy watching TV shows. I enjoy going to music concerts and festivals. I can't stand to go to the movies. I love to hunt and fish. I do not like to bake. I love cooking any and every other type of food. To each their own. I think it's really cool the variety of things that people can enjoy, and be content doing. I do not think it's cool when someone thinks there is a problem with someone who enjoys different things than they do. Like Taj Mahal said, "why don't you mind you're own business, then you won't be mindin' mine!"

WHO DAT!?!

reply to post by Lingweenie


Kinda for the same reason i used to like watching fighting till it went mainstream with UFC. You know what is going on since you have done it before and it is fun to watch others who have more skill than you do things you cannot do.. either because you lack the skill, physical ability or vision.

Except since i stopped practicing I began to watch less and less.

I do however not watch college or professional sports. I think it is a waste of time. I have a buddy who instead of watching it he plays semi pro for the fun of it since he misses football so much.

My opinion why so many become such zealots about their team is simply because it is a way to pass the time and numb your mind from the rut you are in. It is a nice distraction. I don't like it but I i do understand... and sometimes i think they have the right idea.

sometimes.

I just got through six years living next to a large park and in the summertime it was hell. Every evening some baseball team or other would be playing for a few hours. When somebody hit a ball the noise from the onlookers was deafening. When people get excited at that sort of event, you definitely understand evolution because it sounds just like a field full of chimpanzees gone crazy because one of them spotted an approaching Lion. I have no clue as to what people find amusing or interesting about sports...Zip, Nada!

reply to post by rickymouse

It's also less aggravating to talk about sports than to talk about politics.

I am not sure by much, it seems in some places even wearing an opposing team color can start a fight.

I like watching sports because it entertains me. Simple as that. Why does it entertain me; it allows me to escape from reality a bit, and just watch people comete at a high level. There is more strategy in play than just having people running around aimlessly trying to win.

It's like asking people why they are so fixated with watching people play a instruments, recite a poem, play video games, act out scenes in a movie, or some other hobby that they like that you don't care to observe.

It's a matter of preference.

Originally posted by LastStarfighter
I was the same. They are into it because its live and makes them feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. For others its so the other men think they are manly.

Haha! So true, my husband hates sports, and he is a vegetarian because he loves animals, but I have seen him talking sports, both football and hunting and fishing with guys and they would not have a clue! I am always directly honest about who i am and it stuns me that people can do that!

I have only attended a handful of professional events and EVERY time the tickets were either free or less than 30 bucks. I refuse to contribute to stadiums that charge people 100 bucks to sit in the nose bleed section just so some ball player can make 10 million a year dribbling a ball or throwing one.

You can't blame the players for accepting the money but you can blame the system that has priced median income families out of enjoying a day at the park.

My new hobbies include things that are free like bike riding, skating, surfing disc golf and many others.

If everyone took a stand we could bankrupt them back to reality.

Why are some people so fixated with collecting stamps? There's nothing objectively good or entertaining in any of these things so it's an impossible question to answer. If you don't like professional sports, the likelihood is that no answer given is going to suffice.

The sports I watch tend to be highly athletic and physical. I like the often violent, gladiatorial nature of these sports. I enjoy the skill, the spectacle, the community aspect of it of course, but I'd say I have a particular bloodlust, which is reflected in the fact I only have time for american football, rugby, boxing, ufc etc. I want to see violence, it's almost primal in a way.

The biggest mistake non-sports fans make is in assuming that sports fans aren't aware how pointless watching sport actually is.

People who don't like sports I tend to be very anti-social and somewhat odd. There's a tendency on ATS and such for people to bash sport as if it's the symptom of some over commercialised, meaningless society populated by sheep. But then that ignores that playing and watching sport is inherently human. You can't find a society in the world, advanced or primitive, that doesn't play and enjoy sport. Sport is community and humanity at its best. It's as natural as eating food and having sex.

I also think that sports, like books, like tv, can be the poor mans meditation. What better way to slow your brain down, put aside the constant worrying and fret, what better way to focus on the here and now and get rid of the background noise than watching and immersing yourselves in sports? It's an escape there's no doubt about it

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
A lot of people dont realize that the idea of sports is a relatively new idea in human history. designed to keep the more aggressive people focused on things that wont upset the running of countries and governments.

Complete hogwash. Your post is an absolute lie, either that or you're criminally uneducated.

Sport has been around forever and is completely natural, it's not "designed" by anyone. Sport isn't even restricted to humans, most animals in the animal kingdom have sports of their own kind. They might not be billion dollar industries, but they're sports no less.

Educate yourself.