General Politics Discussion (X) [ARCHIVED] • Page 6

We can debate whether or not sports in general are bad or toxic or whatever but in reference to the tweet my relationship with my dad is definitely better because of sports. We talk about and have plenty of other things in common but sports is a big thing that we share because my mom and brother don’t really care about them.

 

I think the smaller amount of people involved in the “community” watching the sport allows it to be more of just a genuine simple thing to bond over. Just you and your dad bonding over it makes total sense.

 

But it should be acknowledged that it permeates through sports and it’s a problem when, for example, being a good athlete causes people, teams, and the media that covers the sport to excuse serial sexual assault. Instead of shrugging it off and inserting a bunch of whataboutisms and anecdotes it’s better to address it head on.

 

Sports is also a conduit for our terrible drinking culture in this country but even if you eliminate sports it would not get rid of that. That is where I think a lot of the negative aspects of sports fandom derive from. As I post this with a bit of hangover from tailgating at sports yesterday.

 

Yeah but---how many industries of rich powerful men is this the exact same paradigm? It took an entire metoo movement to even put it on the radar of "maybe this is wrong" for, like, every industry and, seemingly, every widespread hobby and interest that people have/are into, where sexual harassment and assault was just seem as "the norm" for a long, long time. That's kind of my point here--the things you're saying "permeates through sports" pretty much permeates through every other industry in our country. Sports just seems an easy one to blame it on "the culture" of because so many more of us are either directly or tangently involved in said culture as fans of sports teams and we watch it on TV. Also probably why the other big industry we talk about it the most with is show business--because so many of us watch these people and consume their work.

Or, in other words, I think "sports culture" is just yet another thing that (mostly) men have found ways to inject their learned behaviors into, in ways that stretch from minor to horrible, and if we're being honest it's something we've seen marked improvement on in the last 20 years, hence why the right wing is thrashing and wailing over their sports being invaded by politics and wokeness and etc. And I don't think that's because we've made some huge strides in "Sports culture", but rather because society at large has become more aware of these things, and that's starting to bleed into "sports culture" a bit like it is with everything else.

 

everyone in PA hates the fucking cowboys

 

Re: the last tweet in this thread...I've seen some folks on twitter point out that Chile's GDP per capita (or some other such number like that) is higher or has grown more or etc. than most of the rest of it's South American brethren over the last few decades, and the response is generally the inequality that exists. So hoping you have more insight here: how bad is the inequality in Chile? I often wonder why the inequality here in America doesn't spark a bigger leftwing movement/shift, and when I think about it, my guess/hypothesis is that, generally, the quality of life in America is so "high" (for lack of a better word) that even our working poor generally have a place to live, can generally eat enough to keep themselves nourished even with food insecurity (which "only" impacts about 10-12% of our population based on studies), and we have a huge huge amount of what I guess the left would call "petty bourgeoise" who lead generally good lives despite the fact that they're earning so much less than the extreme wealth that gathers at the top. So my question is, if you know, does Chile lack all of that these days? Is that why the left was able to gain power today, because the inequality there is so bad that the GDP per capita number or whatever is super misleading?

 

That's my teammate...that's my senator

 

Does… does he think you dunk the ball in football?

 

137 posts already?

 

The funny part is Fetterman found that tweet of his from 2013 lmao.

 

I’m sure someone sent it to him.

 

I’m a little busy so can’t reply to everything. But I mean, gdp isn’t a measure of equality.

i listened to a recent episode of American Prestige which covers the recent left wing movement in Chile as well as the recent vote against the redraft of the Pinochet Constitution which basically enshrines neo-liberalism. It goes over the rise and failures of the current Chilean left.

https://overcast.fm/+4wD7sfdP4

 

I feel bad for laughing at these, but I think it's more laughter out of sheer WOW than it actually being funny.

 

I think I’m at the point where it’s been long enough for me to laugh at them without feeling guilty about it….but yeah a lot of them are “woooow holy shit lol” laughs haaha

 

My wife goes on the history subreddit and they have a rule that 20 years has to go by before you joke about a tragedy like 9/11. Needless to say, last year was a blast.

 

yeah historymemes is one of the few Reddits I actually know of.

it was fun a few years ago when The Phantom Menace passed 20 years so them and prequelmemes had a day or a week where they switched forum themes or melded them together or what not haha