this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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Unpopular Opinion

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Reasons to just do away (I am not suggesting a government ban) on competive sports. Ex. basketball, football, baseball, damn near everything else. I wasn't always like this. Had a conversation with wife of a co-worker 20 some years ago and thought she was nuts. Funny how time and reconsideration can change a person outlook.

A huge waste of time. Unproductive except for large corporations and inflating players egos.

It reinforces division and us vs. them attitudes. Not unity and cooperation like what is needed today.

Add in b.s. like taking a knee during the anthem and men in womens sports, let's just do away with competive sports.

If you want to 'stick it to the man' of overpaid athletes and mega-rich sports conglomerates, please consider.

I now spend my sundays at the rifle range.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Add in b.s. like taking a knee during the anthem and men in womens sports, let’s just do away with competive sports.

I agree with everything else, but not this turd of a sentence.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they meant BS like [transphobes complaining about] men in women's sports?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

That is what I assumed they meant.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

You don’t like to do anything where people compete against each other? Board games? Multiplayer video games?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 hours ago

co-op is always more interesting

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

I'm all in for the co-op, let's work together type.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Don't put money towards any of the major sport franchises.

Want to see a game? go to a local lower level league.

NBA/NHL/NFL/etc ... stop going and more importantly stop buying their merchandise.

Want to really stick it to them? Vote for a government that will properly tax the every living SHIT out of these mega franchises.

What are your thoughts on

Competitive rowing?

Competitive lumberjack competitions?

Car Racing? Sailing? Airplane Racing? (involving a piece of equipment)

1 person competitions like Golf?

1 on 1 sports like Tennis?

Maybe your issue isn't the 'competitive' nature?

Maybe your issue isn't the 'sports'?

I suspect your beef is with the over the top American Sport Major Sport Leagues and how they are run.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

There are other competitive sports that aren't just a pile of corporate greed, you just have to look beyond your TV.

[–] HobbitFoot 5 points 6 hours ago

Eh, I look at it as a relief valve for humanity.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I've always had this opinion... I never got the hype...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago

I never followed any competitive sports, always found them quite boring. Add to it the insane levels of corruption and abuse prevalent in commercial sports and I find it hard to understand how people can even enjoy them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago

I don't have a problem with competitive sports and such, but I do wish that it wasn't such a large part of our collective culture. I don't follow sports, and especially American Football. I have blue hair and last year nearly everyone was asking if I did it for the Detroit Lions. People who knew I had it for two years previous were asking me. Strangers in the store. I see ads for sports adjacent things when I don't go to the websites like that or watch the games. Tired of seeing it everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I have long thought that there’s way too much emphasis placed on pro sports in society, but there are a few aspects to this. First, I agree that it inflames division and tribalism. I’ve had people act angry and want to start fights with me because they saw my license plate and grumbled something about football, or I was wearing a hat for some sports team I wasn’t even aware of and people were upset about it. The amount of attention and money spent on basically watching adult adults play little kid games is absurd. Incredible amounts of money are spent on stadiums and salaries.

Still there are positive aspects. The competitive and high profile nature does propel people to exceptional feats of athleticism. The same goes for Olympic sports. Olympic stadiums are a bit of an excess, but there are benefits to international relations that come from the Olympic games. A question I have is as far as the Olympic it goes, what sports are not competitive? Even solo sports are done as a competition.

But generally, my perspective is that if people are interested in sports, they should play them themselves. I don’t know why it would be so exciting to go watch someone else play basketball or something. You should just play basketball if you like it so much.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

But generally, my perspective is that if people are interested in sports, they should play them themselves. I don’t know why it would be so exciting to go watch someone else play basketball or something. You should just play basketball if you like it so much.

While I agree playing is superior and I don't watch any sports wher I don't personally know the players/competitors, there are plenty of people who are not able to play themselves because of age, injury, complete lack of ability, and they still want to be a part of the experience. Watching kids play is fun, as long as the competition is friendly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

I was commenting on pro sports and somewhat college athletics. Kids sports are cool imo except for how overly engaged and competitive the parents get about it.

Sure, not everyone can play sports themselves. If they tried it more though, they'd be more likely to be able to. I'd bet the majority of sports fans are not unable to engage in athletic activity. I do realize that watching sports is also different than playing sports. That's what I'm being critical of though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 hours ago

Bread and circuses.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

And how, praytell, do you propose to enforce this? All it takes to play a game of footie is a field and a ball.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 hours ago

I don't enjoy watching sports but there's something to be said about collective excitement

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

What do you mean with "competitive"? Really anything with competition or just like major league/television/huge money etc.?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Obsession over corporate sports is a problem but many people enjoy it. I'm sure you have hobbies or activities that aren't productive.

I don't follow professional sports but I also don't care if people aren't interested in 3d printing, cats, cooking, sci-fi media or any of my other hobbies.

(Cooking falls into hobby because it's not about survival but taste.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

Definitely unpopular!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

You imagine a world too beautiful for humans.

Sport sucks, it's boring and teaches kids how to sort people into us vs them based on arbitrary nonsense.

But like belief in divine agency, it's presence across most societies throughout history probably means it's just unfortunately a part of the human experience.

Edit: "men in womens sports": this is absolute garbage that doesn't happen and being worried about it marks you as gullible, hateful and ignorant.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Well run sports programs for kids teach them to work together and challenge themselves. The best even teach ways to handle failure and to grow from practice.

Poorly run ones promote the us vs them and other negative aspects.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 hours ago

The existence of professional sports teaches children how to arbitrarily hate people by sorting them according to team support.