Re: "Sports sucks" - I can see the clever thinking in the na
Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 6:54 am
Wisconsinite, your message would have been more effective if you had introduced yourself and provided personal information about your background before you started lecturing us. I have an easier time understanding someone's point of view if I know where he's coming from. I prefer communication and understanding to the tit for tat that is so typical of online board messaging. This forum is so small that you actually have an opportunity to have an in-depth communication with someone instead of the one-liners and zingers that get to be boring after a while.
From what little you've said about yourself, I have no idea what your motivation is for visiting this website. I don't know if you've been personally offended because you're sensitive (nothing wrong with that) or if you might want to try to help someone here or if you just want to have a debate (nothing wrong with that, either). I'm amazed at the hysterical reaction of some of the sports fans who visit this website. The currently active members of this forum and other supporters of this website are not an advocacy group. No one here is under the illusion that we are fomenting some kind of social revolution, as a few sports fans have previously assumed (which I find to be quite amazing). This forum is simply a ranting board. It only represents a personal preference. You might as well argue with someone about which flavor of ice cream is the best.
I have difficulty understanding why anyone would want to visit a website that they know will offend them (in this case, just from the title of the website). Just for laughs, perhaps? But seriously ... For example, there are websites for the Communist Party USA, pedophiles, the playboy philosophy, white supremacists, black racists, and anti-Semites. These websites represent evil causes, yet I have no desire to visit them. I even have a personal reason for detesting the John Birch Society, which tried to blacklist my sister in the early 1960s (falsely accusing her of being a Communist, which is absolutely outrageous); yet I have no desire to register to post in their forum (if they even have one) for the purpose of heaping invective upon those people.
As far as some people hating sports (or labeled as such) is concerned, so what? Why does this bother you or anyone else? Why should you care? (Incidentally, I even reject the label "sports hater" for myself. I have nothing against ball games and athletic activities; I'm a critic of the culture that is not inherently a part of, but is only associated with only two or three school sports. (I feel like a broken record having to say this over and over again to people.) I'm amazed at sports fans who seem to be incapable of making a distinction between certain sports and the culture associated with them. A critical observation of the culture in no way can be construed as an attack upon the game (an illogical assumption), but this is precisely what too many sports fans do. Does this website pose any threat to sports? Are sports lagging in popularity now? Are sports threatened in any way today? Do sports need someone to defend them? Personally I wouldn't expect any secure sports fan to visit this website. I would think the secure sports fan would just shrug it off. So, why have you come to this website? What is your motivation? What stake could you possibly have in even the most extreme and unfair statements made in this forum? I don't get it.
You say that we shouldn't make generalizations about people who like sports, yet you've already made generalizations about the members of this forum who support this website. I doubt if you have the full story about the currently active forum members, even though we're very few in number. If you did, perhaps you wouldn't be so quick to judge us. Do you know any of us personally?
Few though we be, we're still quite diverse. As I've said before to others (who don't seem willing to listen), we don't practice groupthink. We even disagree amongst ourselves.
I hope you'll post again. Most of us would be willing to have a civil dialogue with you. I hope you won't turn out to be just another "hit and run" critic who isn't willing to defend his position. The critics of this website who have truly impressed me have been those who were civil and were willing to stick around and listen to others challenge them or just simply express a different point of view.
From what little you've said about yourself, I have no idea what your motivation is for visiting this website. I don't know if you've been personally offended because you're sensitive (nothing wrong with that) or if you might want to try to help someone here or if you just want to have a debate (nothing wrong with that, either). I'm amazed at the hysterical reaction of some of the sports fans who visit this website. The currently active members of this forum and other supporters of this website are not an advocacy group. No one here is under the illusion that we are fomenting some kind of social revolution, as a few sports fans have previously assumed (which I find to be quite amazing). This forum is simply a ranting board. It only represents a personal preference. You might as well argue with someone about which flavor of ice cream is the best.
I have difficulty understanding why anyone would want to visit a website that they know will offend them (in this case, just from the title of the website). Just for laughs, perhaps? But seriously ... For example, there are websites for the Communist Party USA, pedophiles, the playboy philosophy, white supremacists, black racists, and anti-Semites. These websites represent evil causes, yet I have no desire to visit them. I even have a personal reason for detesting the John Birch Society, which tried to blacklist my sister in the early 1960s (falsely accusing her of being a Communist, which is absolutely outrageous); yet I have no desire to register to post in their forum (if they even have one) for the purpose of heaping invective upon those people.
As far as some people hating sports (or labeled as such) is concerned, so what? Why does this bother you or anyone else? Why should you care? (Incidentally, I even reject the label "sports hater" for myself. I have nothing against ball games and athletic activities; I'm a critic of the culture that is not inherently a part of, but is only associated with only two or three school sports. (I feel like a broken record having to say this over and over again to people.) I'm amazed at sports fans who seem to be incapable of making a distinction between certain sports and the culture associated with them. A critical observation of the culture in no way can be construed as an attack upon the game (an illogical assumption), but this is precisely what too many sports fans do. Does this website pose any threat to sports? Are sports lagging in popularity now? Are sports threatened in any way today? Do sports need someone to defend them? Personally I wouldn't expect any secure sports fan to visit this website. I would think the secure sports fan would just shrug it off. So, why have you come to this website? What is your motivation? What stake could you possibly have in even the most extreme and unfair statements made in this forum? I don't get it.
You say that we shouldn't make generalizations about people who like sports, yet you've already made generalizations about the members of this forum who support this website. I doubt if you have the full story about the currently active forum members, even though we're very few in number. If you did, perhaps you wouldn't be so quick to judge us. Do you know any of us personally?
Few though we be, we're still quite diverse. As I've said before to others (who don't seem willing to listen), we don't practice groupthink. We even disagree amongst ourselves.
I hope you'll post again. Most of us would be willing to have a civil dialogue with you. I hope you won't turn out to be just another "hit and run" critic who isn't willing to defend his position. The critics of this website who have truly impressed me have been those who were civil and were willing to stick around and listen to others challenge them or just simply express a different point of view.
Hey, kid, "sulking" is not the word that describes my own reaction to the mandatory sports-centered P.E. I had to endure from the 4th grade through junior high way back in the 1960s before some educators finally realized that the traditional approach was failing the nonathletic students. The word I would use is "scared." Believe me, I did not sulk. In other words, I did not have an attitude problem, as you seem to imply. I was scared of the humiliation. Blaming the victim, perhaps?Wisconsinite wrote:If you were regularly bullied in gym class because you sat around sulking instead of just trying to make the most of it for 45 minutes a day, it wasn't because you weren't athletic. It's because you were introverted and scared to try new things.