the Bostonian Drunkard brings up sports

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2287160

Oh my.

WilliamPitt  (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 02:40 PM
Original message
 
Hunter S. Thompson was a huge football fan.

So am I.

Just wanted to throw that out there. Seems like enjoying football is being painted as anti-liberal around here of late.

The Bostonian Drunkard started a real barn-burner on this one.

CaliforniaPeggy  (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 02:44 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Child abuse can happen anywhere, my dear Will... 

The fact that this time it happened in a football venue does not mean we should condemn the sport.

My 2 cents...

Recommended.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 02:53 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
5. The only thing I condemn is the cultlike following who enabled this man to keep on raping children for as long as he did.

I admit I don't get football. I won't watch it if there's paint drying somewhere in town. I don't get churches, C&W music or gambling, either. There are a lot of things out there I don't get. Personal boundaries prevent me from telling other people they shouldn't get them, either.

However, when people who do get these things and support them to the point of fanaticism use them as excuses to shield some man from the consequences of raping children, they lose any tolerance I've managed to summon up for them.

That means the Penn State athletic department, the school administration, the cop who decided to ignore the whole thing, and the punks who rioted over seeing a coach get canned. I regard them exactly the same way as I regard the Vatican.

And that's bad.

RagAss (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
14. Disagree...it wasn't "cultlike" ... it fits all the criteria of an actual Cult.

GoCubsGo  (1000+ posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 03:23 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
21. That is my big issue with it, too.

I haven't seen any posts that paint football as "anti-liberal". I have, however, seen plenty of anti-liberal behavior coming from its fans. As I posted in another thread, I was recently called "unAmerican" by an acquaintance because I don't like the game. WTF? I don't understand the attraction to the game, either. And, I certainly don't get the cult-like behavior, especially when it comes college football. And, I really don't understand why some of its fans feel the need to bash those of us who have no use for the game.

And, don't get me started on how I have to pay an extra buck for a copy of the Sunday "The State" newspaper, during the football season. They jack up the price for the special SC Gamecocks section every friggin' week. Why the hell can't they just sell it separately?

TheWraith (1000+ posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 02:45 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. It's just a form of elitism, a way of playing the "more liberal than thou" game.

Football is enjoyed by the masses, and associated with certain stereotypes of "manliness" or less than dainty conduct. Therefore, clearly it's evil, must be sneered at, and anyone who likes it treated as mentally or morally inferior.

Frankly I don't give two shits for football, and far less than that for college football, but I do get tired of the snobbery and broad-brushing, no matter where it's directed.

pipi_k  (1000+ posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 03:26 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
23. And then there's the...

"more intellectual than thou" attitude that groups everyone who likes things like reality TV or American Idol, etc., into the intellectual Neanderthal category.

As if people can't be interested in serious issues AND a bit of "mindless" entertainment.

The Royal wedding in the UK was just one example. Lots of people turned their noses up and acted like they were just too intelligent to care, while those of us who enjoyed it were, in their opinions, minnows biting mindlessly at the pretty shiny objects.

ErikJ (424 posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 02:57 PM
Response to Original message
 
6. Sports breeds Apathy -more bread and circuses

Politics is my sport.

The sheer number of stats and facts and figures in politics to remember leaves NO room for sports. Politics is INFINITELY more interesting. And it has REAL lasting effect on MY life.

Superbowl is here and gone in one day. Who won last year? Who knows or cares? Pffft.

I'm with Thom Hartmann-too many people thaT ARE JUST INTERESTED IN SPORTS AND MUSIC AND NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO POLITICS IS WHY WE HAVE BEEN ASLEEP FOR 30 YEARS.

Ironically though, the 3 leading MSNBC hosts are big sports fans. Schultz, Rachel and Keith (now Current TV). But none can compare to the political knowledge of Hartmann.

zerox (109 posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
17. I can't decide whether this is a serious post or not...

Are sports pretty much just light entertainment? Yeah, probably. But most people are able to hold many interests that are both different and competing.

I mean, *******, I guess nobody should really watch movies or listen to music or go to art galleries or read fiction, cause it's all just a distraction anyway. What we should be doing is watching looped footage of John Boehner and Mitt Romney and MSNBC all day, because that's what really keeps us awake.

Sport doesn't breed apathy. Apathetic people just happen to like watching balls go back and forth.

bigmonkey  (1000+ posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 05:48 PM
Response to Reply #17
 
50.  Light entertainment that indirectly, but crucially, interfered with the pedophilia investigation.

For me, that's the thing. So much in the way of resources, so much money in this "light entertainment" that to avoid interference with it is worth the health of young adults (injured in the game) and children (injured by "too big for the law" characters in the game). That's how I see it.

For me, it's not the game per se, it's the demonstrable distortions of other institutions to support the smooth functioning of the business around that game.

Rebubula  (1000+ posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 03:23 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
20. I am wise enough...

...to process all of these AND MANY MORE!

I am glad that you find politics interesting. Some people do not.

Some people are Vegetarians and think meat eaters are killer - there are vegans who have the same opinion of both.

Life should not be monochromatic. I can love watching football, college hoops or tennis AND STILL know the name of every Senator in the US Congress and recite the list of English Kings\Queens since 1066.

One passion does not preclude another.

Arrogance is not a pretty trait.

pipi_k  (1000+ posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 03:39 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
27. Fortunately for most of us...

we possess more than just a handful of brain cells.

That means we can be interested in a whole lot of things at one time. Yes...shocking, but true!

And I would say that politics itself is a whole lot of Three Ring Circus as well.

a la izquierda  (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 03:46 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
29. Oh please...

I have a PhD in history. I like college football. I don't like people who disparage others with some sort of moral superiority. Do you have any clue how much history I have to remember? Here's a hint- it's multiple cultures and nations over a couple thousand years.

I think my brain has some room for a little sport.

Good grief.

garybeck  (1000+ posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 02:57 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. he was also into guns and fireworks.

I used to live a few miles from him in Colorado.

Personally I think people should enjoy their football if they like it, but for me I don't get a lot of joy watching people smash into each other. I prefer baseball.

donco  (698 posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 02:59 PM
Response to Original message
 
8. Lotta herd mentality around here lately.

Nostradammit (1000+ posts)      Fri Nov-11-11 03:03 PM
Response to Original message
 
10. I'm not sure it's the actual sport that's getting painted.

I think it's the culture that has grown up around it.

I grew up in a family of football fanatics and cried like a baby when my team finally won a Super Bowl but
at some point something just snapped and I saw that there might be something just a little wrong with our
society's infatuation with the thing.

After years of watching it from the outside I have concluded that our "win at all costs" mentality about
it is keeping us from evolving. It is good that a divisional playoff game between Cleveland and Pittsburgh
keeps its citizens from picking up weapons and invading each other and there are certainly many lessons about
cooperation and overcoming adversity to be gained by the individual players, but the deification of those players
and their coaches by the general public is unhealthy.

It's hard to see from the inside, I know.

Enrique  (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 03:10 PM
Response to Original message
 
12. Hunter S. Thompson is hardly a role model for liberals

talented writer, yes.

This is not to comment on the game of football.

And on and on it burns.....

[BattleHymn]

CaliforniaPeggy  (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 02:44 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Child abuse can happen anywhere, my dear Will...

Yes, and adult abuse occurs anytime, anywhere someone sits down to read one of your 'poems'. 

[Skul]

Pro ball I don't much care for.
College ball is a different story.

[Carl]

RagAss (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
14. Disagree...it wasn't "cultlike" ... it fits all the criteria of an actual Cult.

Yet greenhouse effect,global warming,climate change,whatever we have to call it next since this isn`t happening doesn`t?

[Vagabond]

Saburō Sakai commented that American style Football gave us a tremendous advantage in combat, especially air combat, against the Japanese.  He said that each person having a role to play an playing it unselfishly for the good of the whole wasn't a comcept that the Japanese understood from a warriors point of view.  The Japanese viewed aerial combat to be an extension on samurai combat and approached it seeking individual honor.

(I think it was Saburō Sakai, I might be wrong.)

[AprilRazz]

Pro ball I don't much care for.
College ball is a different story.

I was never a football fan.
Now boxing on the other hand I love. I get into it's primal civility. Two guys are going to beat the piss out of each other but there are rules. I like it so much I put in my Cut Man application with the state not long ago.
But that is a sport that has the primitives wetting their skirts.

[Skul]

Saburō Sakai commented that American style Football gave us a tremendous advantage in combat, especially air combat, against the Japanese.  He said that each person having a role to play an playing it unselfishly for the good of the whole wasn't a comcept that the Japanese understood from a warriors point of view.  The Japanese viewed aerial combat to be an extension on samurai combat and approached it seeking individual honor.

(I think it was Saburō Sakai, I might be wrong.)

Although he was an opponent, he was an amazing man.

[thundley4]

WilliamPitt  (1000+ posts)        Fri Nov-11-11 02:40 PM
Original message
 
Hunter S. Thompson was a huge football fan.

So am I.

Just wanted to throw that out there. Seems like enjoying football is being painted as anti-liberal around here of late.

Methinks WillPitt has more in common with his pedophile co-author than Hunter S. Thompson.