fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2414 ]

[ SECRET POST #2414 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2414 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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02.

[Akumu-chan / My Little Nightmare]

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03.

[Star Trek: The Next Generation/Deanna Troi]

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04.

[The Borgias]

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05.

[Kaiba Seto and Jounouchi Katsuya from Yu-gi-oh!]

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06.

[Spring Breakers]

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07.

[Murder Rooms]

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08.

[Twin Peaks]

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09.

[Mass Effect]

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10.

[Despicable Me 2]

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11.

[Ice Age]

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12.

[Arrested Development]

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13.

[Super Junior]

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14.

[Halloween]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 064 secrets from Secret Submission Post #345.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do you seriously not find sports economics troubling?

Do you really think and I quote, "Sports is a cancer?"

That's not a bad way of describing the exponential increase in costs it's been undergoing at all levels, yeah.

Then let us agree to disagree.

Because to me sports is one of those universal things that anyone can do. Yes, you have the big oevents like the Superbowl but you have the neighborhood games of touch football or soccer where anyone who wants to can join in. But according to dethtoll, everything about sports is a cancer.

Unless you're disabled. Yeah, some disabled people can still do sports, but some can't.

I don't agree with dethtoll either. Obviously, there are some financial issues with sports, but I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with sports. I'm just saying, there is no universal hobby out there.

If you are going to be nitpicky then, yes, some people can't do many sports NOW. But soon when technology advances and mecha suits, artificial limbs and gene therapy fix all of the problems, then everyone can have the chance to play. (Yes, you might say some people might not be able to afford such things but we don't know how the global infrastructure will be in say fifty years time.)

But what I am saying is sports is not only for the white, rich and influential. Any race, creed and class is open to have a go. In that way, it is universal. It's not exclusive but inclusive.

I just don't see how that's exclusive to sports. Any race, creed, and class can walk into a library and pick up a book.

I didn't say it was exclusive to sports.

Read again. I said, Because to me sports is one of those universal things that anyone can do.

ONE of those universal THINGS. Meaning one of many. Not Only universal THING. Singular.

Alright, I concede. I misread.

Because to me sports is one of those universal things that anyone can do.

lolno.

With say certain physical disabilities aside, how can you not play a sport? I am not saying you can play all sports like yacht racing but a game of handball against the side of a brownstone? You could do that. Anyone can do that.

I'd have said it was clear - implicitly at least - that dethtoll wasn't on about all sports right down to a kickaround in the local park.

Sport as a thing that humans do together is, as you say, a universal. Sports as an industry has many elements that annoy the fuck out of me, up to and including gender-discrimination, class-discrimination, multinationals monopolising the money made from high-profile events, detrimental effects on local businesses and communities, and a focus on sporting achievements to the detriment of academic achievements in some schools.

Yeah, maybe anyone can. That doesn't mean everyone can be good at it (and these days that's all anyone cares about) or wants to do it.

And let me tell you, it sucks unspeakable amounts of ass to be that kid in Quiz Bowl, or Odyssey of the Mind, or Chess Club, or Jazz Band, or any academic or artistic activity of your choice (except Marching Band, of course) and have to watch everybody heap praise (and school funds) on the jocks day after day while you're lucky if they even remember to mention at announcements that oh yeah, you won your state championship.

To say nothing of the despicable shit the town sports heroes get away with because they're the town sports heroes...

Sports isn't bad in itself, though. There's a difference between criticizing elements of the economics of sports, and going from there and saying that professional / top level sport is worthless and no one should pay attention to it.

If we were only paying attention that would be fine; the problem is how much money top level is absorbing from us, much of it non-voluntarily through mechanisms such as corporate welfare, university budgets (ie. ballooning tuition fees) and mainlining payments from cable subscribers who do not watch sports.

This is mostly a clarification of the big long post I wrote downthread, because I probably could have made my point clearer there.

I think things like corporate welfare, NCAA athletic budgets, and cable bundling are the aberrations, not the norm. The way I look at it, these things are economic phenomena floating on the wave of the massive popularity of and money in sports, not the cause of it. And so talking about those things isn't an criticism of sports in itself, it's an argument for reforming sports, one which is completely compatible with keeping professional top-level sports around, and one which many sports fans would be in total agreement with (for instance, see Patrik Hruby at Sports On Earth, who's written a ton of great pieces about the economics of sports, especially in the context of the NCAA and cable bundling).

I find sports economics very troubling, but I don't think it's a good idea to introduce them into a discussion of boycotting the Olympics over Russia's disgusting anti-LGBT policies. Because if we're all boycotting all sports anyway, why would this motivate Russia to change said disgusting policies?

Because it's not an either/or thing? I heard we area also boycotting Russian vodka, and we can do that while also questioning the culture of the alcohol industry as a whole. Anyway, Russia has already thrown down the money and will now be trying to recoup as much of their investments as possible, and hopefully they will fail even more spectacularly than most Olympic host nations do.

But if you bring up the economy of sports, all you get will be an argument about the economy of sports, because people REALLY REALLY REALLY like their sports. It's like we're talking about fast food worker unionization and we switch to whether it should be legal to manipulate people into buying such incredibly unhealthy food. Suddenly no one is thinking about the people who are just trying to make a living wage, because you are threatening to take away their Big Macs. It's not a very good strategy.

Anyway, Russia has already thrown down the money and will now be trying to recoup as much of their investments as possible, and hopefully they will fail even more spectacularly than most Olympic host nations do.

I don't get it. Is the point to prompt Russia to change, or punish it for being crappy?

The point is to prove that we can hurt Russia economically and politically if it refuses to change. It worked on South Africa in the 1980s.

They're not trying to recoup their investments. The relevant stakeholders already recouped their investments, when Putin channeled the flow of all the construction and investment to cronies who were blatantly embezzling it.

A ton of the discussion of the economics of the Olympics has relatively little to do with sport.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #2414 ]

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