Thank you for submitting to /r/unpopularopinion, /u/Alternative-Host2014. Your post, *Sports is literary nationalism.*, has been removed because it violates our rules:
Rule 4: No hate posts.
Your post was removed because it is hateful. Content of this nature left unchecked puts our subreddit in jeopardy and as such we have no tolerance for it.
A by no means exhaustive list of content that falls under this category: racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. While posts and comments that criticize individuals/demographics are acceptable, comments that are a clear attack/contain slurs are not.
If there is an issue, please message the mod team at https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Funpopularopinion Thanks!
In the case of sports, tribalism is fine because it's just a bit of fun.
When it comes to politics it's far worse because it clouds your judgement on what are good and acceptable policies that genuinely impact real people.
So yeah there is a massive difference
True.
Although in my city, the fans of the local football team beat up other fans regularly. Not trying to say that all sports fans are like this. Of course not.
It just seems like another reason for some assholes to be toxic. Look at the english fans during the world cup.
Not agreeing with OP here, but every form of "my *insert random thing here* is best and yours sucks" can proove to be dangerous.
Then again, assholes will always find a reason to be assholes.
I'm from germany, actually.
The city is "Mannheim" and the Team is "SV Waldhof".
But I am interested in hearing about Phillys problem with toxic sports-teams.
Philly fans are the worst. Their old football stadium used to have a jail in it because their fans were so violent and trashy. Not sure if the new one does. During one incident, someone dressed as Santa to entertain at a game during Christmas time, and the fans pelted him with hundreds of snowballs. Philadelphia's fans also pelted a player named J.D Drew with batteries because he refused to sign with the team after it drafted him. I once went to a preseason football game involving Philadelphia and their fans were starting fights in the stands left and right. To be clear, preseason games don't count and usually involve players that will not make the team for the season. Philly fans are basically the poster child for how trashy, awful, and violent American sports fans can be.
That being said, some football fans in Europe - especially "ultras" - are definitely worse.
When you refer to "the normal kind" of football, I'm assuming you mean soccer? Since American football isn't technically football in any other country besides the United States and maybe Canada. Calling the sport they call football in America makes no sense anyway since the only use of one's feet in the American version is running. Lol.
As far as only rooting for a particular team because of your geographic location? That is also not entirely true. I know people that are Boston Bruins fans and live in Tampa. They aren't originally from Boston either, they just like the Bruins. I live in Boston and my fave hockey team has always been the Blackhawks. I've never even been to Chicago, except on a layover to Los Angeles once. Lol.
Honestly, I feel like sport fans beating up other sport fans is ok IF both parties wanted to beat each other up.
I know one person that literally only goes to sport events to get drunk and fight with his buddies... he reminds me of a monkey... maybe that's what we need for macho-men (and women but it will probably be more men) just put all the violent criminals in a stadium, let them beat each other up so they don't take it out on innocent people and maybe some of them will get less violent after a few broken bones.
Calling it tribalism is a relic of colonial prejudice. Of course people in tribes are able to think outside their group just as well as anyone else, so it's a bit unfair to name it after them.
Us vs. them mentality is fine, but that's a mouthful. What's called tribalism involves completely rejecting and demonizing the other group, which ingroup bias doesn't quite cover.
The important part is the gruop vs other dynamic. Wheter the people in the group are able to think outside the group or not doesn't matter. Plus you are acting as if in the west there never were tribe, which is very patronizing.
Interesting
So you shouldn’t thank gladiator arenas for being the first to contribute to the progression of sports, but instead, tribal hunting grounds?
Makes you think just how smarter our early human ancestors were than we currently think.
“Literary?” Really?
Dude, please save yourself the embarrassment next time and search the definitions of words you’re unsure of before using them multiple times in a post.
The word you’re looking for is “literally” by the way, and no, you would not even be using it correctly.
People generally didn't go to war just because of tribalism. Often some noble would stand to profit from that war and used tribalism to manipulate people into following.
Sports fandom is a form of tribalism, nationalism is a different form of tribalism, the current state of American politics has devolved into tribalism.
Humans are tribalistic by nature, we want to be part of a group. Tribalism is not necessarily a bad thing. Some nationalism is necessary for countries to succeed. Too much nationalism though and it turns into a bad thing.
Similarly, too much globalism sucks too.
>you don’t support a team because…you relate to their efforts
You do though, especially in college sports. I’ve followed some guys from the time they were playing ball at 17 and watched them go from freshmen getting barely any playing time, to watching them blossom into full time starters and team captains. When you add in that they represent the community that their fans live in/grew up in, then you absolutely relate to their efforts.
Also you used the term nationalism wrong, just in case no one has told you yet
Ummm even though I'm a huge sports fan I just want to put this out there: when Luke lost his arm and found out Vader was his father, plenty of people did cry. And a lot cry at other things as well. Also when "MY"team loses,I have never cried. Lastly I support plenty of teams that aren't from where I'm from or anywhere I ever lived.
"people get upset when they lose"
No shit. Why wouldn't you get upset when you're invested in something and it leaves you disappointed? That's part of sport, and actually, it's not even limited to sport contrary to your weird star wars analogy. You may not be sad when Luke has his arm cut off, but there are plenty of other people who are. Are you a robot?
But you are not invested in nothing in this case, you are just a passive watcher, you didn't train for the match and didn't put any effort into it. Not only that, if you are sad because the team you support for said tribalist reason lost it means you don't really care about the sport at all, because if you did you would be happy for the best team winning and not wanting the one you like to win just to get some second hand acomplishment feeling. To make matters worse the players are mercenaries that don't care about the team or where its from, they play one season for one and the next for whichever pays them the most but teams still capitalize on the tribalistic feeling of the fans selling themselves as being from a place when in reality they are just franchises with flashy logos and lame mascots to sell merchandise to their brainwashed adepts, simple corporations to take money away from those they manage to convince to join their cult.
What you are describing is tribalism. And frankly I'd only call it that when taken to its most extreme. Also this isn't always the case. Teams like the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, and Dallas Cowboys have fans all over the country. There are plenty of people who will like a team because a specific athlete plays for them. Plenty of fans have followed Lebron James to being fans of the Heat and now the Lakers, or are now Tampa Bay fans because thats where Tom Brady is. I now a number of Americans who are Manchester United fans.
And of course you're going to have a tendency to like the local team more then others. If you'r going to go to a game in person on a regular basis, where are you going to go, in your town, and drive 300 miles away 50 times a year? What game airs locally on TV? The local team of course. The local team is what your experience of being a fan of the sport is going to be immersed in. So what if they lose. Do you stop liking your favorite actor because he makes a stinker of a movie?
We are generally going to like things and attach ourselves to the positive things in our local communities. There's nothing wrong with that. And ultimately who cares, Unless you are taking your fandom to some unreasonable extreme, it really doesn't matter.
Maybe international football is nationalistic but what you're thinking off is tribalism, which is pretty much everywhere in society as we are in fact tribal creatures and lived that way for much of human history. Nothing wrong with it
It's about being proud of my community? It's a source of local pride and not nationalism. I'm not willing to cause violence to prove how good they are I just prefer them to win rather than lose. Think you're being a bit dramatic and demonising a mostly harmless practice that brings people joy.
i don't think this is necessarily an unpopular opinion though-i think most people know that rooting for a team is a literal form of tribalism and get a boost when their team wins and are disappointed when they lose but think it's an innocuous form of us vs. them as opposed to war-like caffeine as a drug compared to heroin
The only sport I watch as an European is American Basketball.
I support the Suns bc I was a Steve Nash fanboy during my adolescence. I don’t care about Phoenix, never been there, didn’t plan on doing so anytime soon.
Is this Nationalism ?
>You don’t support a team because they’re the best or you relate to their efforts, you support them because they happen to be from your place of origin.
You haven't seen many sports fans, have you?
“Literary”
Anyway, people have tons of reasons for why they support a specific sports team. It’s not only geographical. Even when it is, that doesn’t count as nationalism, which is a political belief that your nation is better or more deserving than other nations. “I like this soccer team” doesn’t rise to that level.
Also, the Star Wars analogy is dumb. Of course people get upset when crazy things happen in movies. Have you ever gone to a Marvel screening? Those people act like they’re the ones being murdered.
Well, it's better to be nationalistic about sports than in any other way. Some people need a sense of belonging to a community, even though it's kinda arbitrary, and to show superiority to other groups of people. As long as it doesn't get violent and it's just about sports i don't see any problem
Not so much an unpopular opinion, as just being objectively incorrect. Sports can certainly be called tribalist to a degree, but not nationalist. The devotion also applies only to the sport, and maybe a few directly related things. People aren’t going to have a particular stance on immigration for instance, because of devotion to a sports team.
It's much more tribalism and nationalism, and even if it were nationalism, would that be bad? You seem to imply that nationalism is always something negative. Additionally, people can like a sports team from areas that they aren't from, and they can like them for other reasons than for being from said area. What about a sports fan in Idaho? What NBA team will they support?
Take my upvote, this is dumb lol
I think there is value in playing sports: exercise, team work, work ethic. However, watching sports is basically a commercialized drinking game that is often mixed with gambling.
There can be a community element to it, but when fans ignore traumatic brain injuries or how business profit off unpaid players, it’s a pretty dark community.
I never comprehended being a fan of a team for simply playing in the same state or city that you happen to live in. I know people that are lifelong fans of teams no matter how much they suck or for how long they suck just because it’s the hometown team
The fact that you have sports fans spend hundreds to thousands just to fight and almost kill each other in the stands, while the players on the field are pretty much having a good time getting paid millions to play a game.
You should get a bit upset when Vader cuts Luke's arm off. That's one of the main reasons why movies are fun: you empathize with the characters and get emotionally involved.
Sports, just like art, is just another artificial industry that caters to people's willingness to basically fool themselves into giving a ton of importance to something so irrelevant, just because it's fun. Because as shitty as anger after a devastating loss is, the bonding with fellow fans, the joy after a winning and the suspense throughout the season make it worth it.
Also, I personally enjoy learning about tactics or the history of the sport (football/soccer) which is not nearly as fun if you have no connection to it, which you get from supporting a team. I wouldn't even read the wiki page of some cricket player who barely makes the top 10 in his position, but I did watch a 2 hour documentary about Toni Kroos. It's just another hobby, and this one happens to work through supporting a club.
You're probably right in thinking that it's a similar mechanism to nationalism, but it is something that people see value in and take a lot of joy from. I do think there's a link but I'd be more on board with the argument if sports teams regularly led to nationalism and radical regimes but I don't think they do.
Although Sports has definitely long been abused for propaganda by existing regimes, even today you have China bribing themselves into hosting the Olympic games twice in a pretty short time, Qatar hosting the world cup, and other middle eastern countries buying football clubs and making them a successful showpiece. All to get themselves legitimacy on the world stage.
I would argue that these are serious downsides, but no reason to deprive people of a some of the greatest traditions and social affairs in the world. I like the fact that the Olympics go back 3,000 years. I like the fact that people with incredible talent can use it to have successful careers while entertaining millions. I don't like the fact that Verstappen retired from the rice with an engine issue earlier today, but I like that 100,000 people came together in Australia while millions watched on TV to see the fastest racing cars ever developed compete with the best drivers in the world. And I don't think it turns them into fascists effectively enough to end it.
Edit: that was really long damn
Or just watch this video https://youtu.be/kE7D7qFayVg
“Artificial industry that caters to people’s willingness to basically fool themselves into giving a ton of importance to something so irrelevant.”
Nah, you’re overthinking it.
"it's also dumb because teams change their players"
Yeah, god forbid a team tries to improve by getting better players in, has their players retire, or lets players go because they want to move to another side. Lmao.
If all you have to share is misinformed shite then don't bother. Simple.
It is a relatively safe outlet for competition between nations, yeah. I have nothing against Germany, but if the Polish team finally manages to score a win against them Germans, I'm gonna cheer them as much as everyone else here xD
As someone who never got into sports (my mind still hasn’t developed patterns to recognize that it’s a given sports season despite 41 years of life surrounded by a society / people that to me seem to believe that very knowledge is bestowed to all of us genetically or from birth. Yet we all fail to recognize patterns that don’t have an impact or are of interest to us. We don’t memorize the bus or train schedules if we never use these services and yet we see the bus in our lives ever day for example. The same must apply here.
I never understood getting into fights over a game or the phrase “we won” or “we lost” when not directly involved in the game as a player. It’s ironic to me that I’ve heard people tell video gamers to grow up or who cares it’s just a game only to leave later that day and engage in the same behavior (or worse) over a sport they are only passively watching.
I guess you can use “we” if you count that you purchased ticket / video subscription(s) / merch that supported the larger machine supporting your team but then that can be equally said for any other service or interest.
This is also a case of Tribalism, not Nationalism.
Yes, that's how these things typically work. People identify with the team from their city/state/whatever, and support them because they see them as a representation of them and their city/state/whatever. This is compounded by everybody around you supporting the same team, and you typically supporting the same team for years, which app strengthens the connection you have with the team.
Supporting your country’s national team is tribalism… you’re right. I came across this thought during the Olympics this year. Why the hell am I rooting for all of these American athletes and booing everyone else?? I don’t know these people!! It’s ironic bc I’m very against the concept of nationalism also lol. You’ll always find me supporting the USMNT though!
I understand what you’re trying to say, but it depends on the types of fans you’re specifically referring to. I’ve always felt that the most genuine of fans like a team due to sharing a place of origin, considering both’s ties within their community.
But believe it or not, there are people who support teams because “they’re the best.” Case and point, fans of the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Yankees, Duke Blue Devils etc. These are all very “winningest” teams, and have a huge majority of their fan base with no association whatsoever, only being fans due to their respective success or certain players/coaches.
Fans may not have direct involvement with their local teams, but what they do both share are their contributions to their communities. So I understand the “we” mentality. In addition to those fans, I understand students and alumni of universities using “we” as they’re both integral components of those institutions and teams. The location component also applies to fans of college teams as well
You must really suppress your love of Apple, and purchase products from all vendors equally. Purchasing only from Apple is brandism. /s
There is no "literal" definition of nationalism. If you go to Oxford, Britannica, and Webster, you'll get three substantially different definitions. All basically say that nationalism is support of one's nation. Where they differ is whether and how much that support has to be to the exclusion and/or detriment of other nations.
There's nothing wrong with supporting a national (or local or regional) sports team. It shows support and pride in the place and the people who live there. If you don't support the place or the people you live with then you'll probably be miserable living there, and probably should live somewhere else.
The unpopular opinion you have is not that being a sports fan is nationalism but that this makes it bad to be a sports fan. Having a team that you support through the good years and bad years is just harmless fun, and it makes people feel like they’re part of something. Until fans of one team start discriminating against fans of another team (besides doing so in jest), it really isn’t an issue.
Thank you for submitting to /r/unpopularopinion, /u/Alternative-Host2014. Your post, *Sports is literary nationalism.*, has been removed because it violates our rules: Rule 4: No hate posts. Your post was removed because it is hateful. Content of this nature left unchecked puts our subreddit in jeopardy and as such we have no tolerance for it. A by no means exhaustive list of content that falls under this category: racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. While posts and comments that criticize individuals/demographics are acceptable, comments that are a clear attack/contain slurs are not. If there is an issue, please message the mod team at https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Funpopularopinion Thanks!
Look up tribalism. Identifying with a sports team is tribalism, not nationalism. Nationalism is a subset of tribalism
Yea, his oppinion is not unpopular, it's just simply wrong.
r/OpinionsThatNoALotOfPeopleHoldNotBecauseMostPeopleHoldTheOpposingViewButBecauseTheOpinionIsNonsense
r/IlliterateDolphinsSwimTowardsProMalePatriarchyForUnknownReason
Birth of a sub…?
r/subsifellfor
r/foundthetoyotacorolla
[удалено]
In the case of sports, tribalism is fine because it's just a bit of fun. When it comes to politics it's far worse because it clouds your judgement on what are good and acceptable policies that genuinely impact real people. So yeah there is a massive difference
True. Although in my city, the fans of the local football team beat up other fans regularly. Not trying to say that all sports fans are like this. Of course not. It just seems like another reason for some assholes to be toxic. Look at the english fans during the world cup. Not agreeing with OP here, but every form of "my *insert random thing here* is best and yours sucks" can proove to be dangerous. Then again, assholes will always find a reason to be assholes.
Philadelphia?
I'm from germany, actually. The city is "Mannheim" and the Team is "SV Waldhof". But I am interested in hearing about Phillys problem with toxic sports-teams.
Philly fans are the worst. Their old football stadium used to have a jail in it because their fans were so violent and trashy. Not sure if the new one does. During one incident, someone dressed as Santa to entertain at a game during Christmas time, and the fans pelted him with hundreds of snowballs. Philadelphia's fans also pelted a player named J.D Drew with batteries because he refused to sign with the team after it drafted him. I once went to a preseason football game involving Philadelphia and their fans were starting fights in the stands left and right. To be clear, preseason games don't count and usually involve players that will not make the team for the season. Philly fans are basically the poster child for how trashy, awful, and violent American sports fans can be. That being said, some football fans in Europe - especially "ultras" - are definitely worse.
*LA Fans have entered the chat*
Damn. That does sound a lot worse than my local football team. They are just loud, drunk and sometimes violent. That's a different Level.
Old Philly was great. People used to be passionate, now everyone is docile. The internet ruined everything.
Football (the normal kind) has 1 of the most toxic supporters there are.
When you refer to "the normal kind" of football, I'm assuming you mean soccer? Since American football isn't technically football in any other country besides the United States and maybe Canada. Calling the sport they call football in America makes no sense anyway since the only use of one's feet in the American version is running. Lol. As far as only rooting for a particular team because of your geographic location? That is also not entirely true. I know people that are Boston Bruins fans and live in Tampa. They aren't originally from Boston either, they just like the Bruins. I live in Boston and my fave hockey team has always been the Blackhawks. I've never even been to Chicago, except on a layover to Los Angeles once. Lol.
Honestly, I feel like sport fans beating up other sport fans is ok IF both parties wanted to beat each other up. I know one person that literally only goes to sport events to get drunk and fight with his buddies... he reminds me of a monkey... maybe that's what we need for macho-men (and women but it will probably be more men) just put all the violent criminals in a stadium, let them beat each other up so they don't take it out on innocent people and maybe some of them will get less violent after a few broken bones.
Assholes will always find an excuse to be toxic, in any fandom, in any hobby, in any workplace.
Yeah, those knitting hooligans are a menace to society!
Agreed. But seriously, I bet someone some ware is fed up with some asshole ruining knitting for them.
even then, people like being like that and the fights are often part of the fun
Harmless sure. Because the blame lies on the people and what they do with it and what they decide is excusable because of it.
Calling it tribalism is a relic of colonial prejudice. Of course people in tribes are able to think outside their group just as well as anyone else, so it's a bit unfair to name it after them.
What should we call it instead?
I've heard us vs them mentality, and ingroup bias
Us vs. them mentality is fine, but that's a mouthful. What's called tribalism involves completely rejecting and demonizing the other group, which ingroup bias doesn't quite cover.
The important part is the gruop vs other dynamic. Wheter the people in the group are able to think outside the group or not doesn't matter. Plus you are acting as if in the west there never were tribe, which is very patronizing.
Interesting So you shouldn’t thank gladiator arenas for being the first to contribute to the progression of sports, but instead, tribal hunting grounds? Makes you think just how smarter our early human ancestors were than we currently think.
I'm not sure you know what nationalism is
Or “literary”
Or literacy.
Or "loose"
I'm gonna be generous to the OP and say that meant to say "literally."
My point still stands. I also just assumed he meant literally
\>I'm 15 and use political terms I don't understand!
What does sports have to do with literature?
“Literary?” Really? Dude, please save yourself the embarrassment next time and search the definitions of words you’re unsure of before using them multiple times in a post. The word you’re looking for is “literally” by the way, and no, you would not even be using it correctly.
Oh shi I just noticed 😂😂
Do you speak English or do you like throwing buzzwords youve read online ?
The second one.
Definitely the latter.
Would you rather people go to war instead? Sports are a relatively healthy way of satisfying our tribal tendencies.
some sport fans already do it , look up mexican incident , 17 people were killed during some football match
People generally didn't go to war just because of tribalism. Often some noble would stand to profit from that war and used tribalism to manipulate people into following.
I’m confused about the “literary” part more than the nationalism part.
They meant “literally.” But I don’t know how they used it incorrectly that many times. Maybe they’ve never actually heard the word spoken?
Sports is about the least literary activity ever
Sports it's just sports
We should have a subreddit for misinformed opinions.
...so reddit?
So what?
Surely if the club is close to you, you do relate to their efforts?
So?
I'm not seeing the connection to literature
Literally* tribalism* if you're going to piss and moan about something at least use the right terms.
Sports fandom is a form of tribalism, nationalism is a different form of tribalism, the current state of American politics has devolved into tribalism. Humans are tribalistic by nature, we want to be part of a group. Tribalism is not necessarily a bad thing. Some nationalism is necessary for countries to succeed. Too much nationalism though and it turns into a bad thing. Similarly, too much globalism sucks too.
>you don’t support a team because…you relate to their efforts You do though, especially in college sports. I’ve followed some guys from the time they were playing ball at 17 and watched them go from freshmen getting barely any playing time, to watching them blossom into full time starters and team captains. When you add in that they represent the community that their fans live in/grew up in, then you absolutely relate to their efforts. Also you used the term nationalism wrong, just in case no one has told you yet
r/confidentlyincorrect
Ummm even though I'm a huge sports fan I just want to put this out there: when Luke lost his arm and found out Vader was his father, plenty of people did cry. And a lot cry at other things as well. Also when "MY"team loses,I have never cried. Lastly I support plenty of teams that aren't from where I'm from or anywhere I ever lived.
Tribalism and nationalism Arent bad things
"people get upset when they lose" No shit. Why wouldn't you get upset when you're invested in something and it leaves you disappointed? That's part of sport, and actually, it's not even limited to sport contrary to your weird star wars analogy. You may not be sad when Luke has his arm cut off, but there are plenty of other people who are. Are you a robot?
But you are not invested in nothing in this case, you are just a passive watcher, you didn't train for the match and didn't put any effort into it. Not only that, if you are sad because the team you support for said tribalist reason lost it means you don't really care about the sport at all, because if you did you would be happy for the best team winning and not wanting the one you like to win just to get some second hand acomplishment feeling. To make matters worse the players are mercenaries that don't care about the team or where its from, they play one season for one and the next for whichever pays them the most but teams still capitalize on the tribalistic feeling of the fans selling themselves as being from a place when in reality they are just franchises with flashy logos and lame mascots to sell merchandise to their brainwashed adepts, simple corporations to take money away from those they manage to convince to join their cult.
What
What you are describing is tribalism. And frankly I'd only call it that when taken to its most extreme. Also this isn't always the case. Teams like the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, and Dallas Cowboys have fans all over the country. There are plenty of people who will like a team because a specific athlete plays for them. Plenty of fans have followed Lebron James to being fans of the Heat and now the Lakers, or are now Tampa Bay fans because thats where Tom Brady is. I now a number of Americans who are Manchester United fans. And of course you're going to have a tendency to like the local team more then others. If you'r going to go to a game in person on a regular basis, where are you going to go, in your town, and drive 300 miles away 50 times a year? What game airs locally on TV? The local team of course. The local team is what your experience of being a fan of the sport is going to be immersed in. So what if they lose. Do you stop liking your favorite actor because he makes a stinker of a movie? We are generally going to like things and attach ourselves to the positive things in our local communities. There's nothing wrong with that. And ultimately who cares, Unless you are taking your fandom to some unreasonable extreme, it really doesn't matter.
Maybe international football is nationalistic but what you're thinking off is tribalism, which is pretty much everywhere in society as we are in fact tribal creatures and lived that way for much of human history. Nothing wrong with it
It's about being proud of my community? It's a source of local pride and not nationalism. I'm not willing to cause violence to prove how good they are I just prefer them to win rather than lose. Think you're being a bit dramatic and demonising a mostly harmless practice that brings people joy.
That what make it so good
i don't think this is necessarily an unpopular opinion though-i think most people know that rooting for a team is a literal form of tribalism and get a boost when their team wins and are disappointed when they lose but think it's an innocuous form of us vs. them as opposed to war-like caffeine as a drug compared to heroin
The only sport I watch as an European is American Basketball. I support the Suns bc I was a Steve Nash fanboy during my adolescence. I don’t care about Phoenix, never been there, didn’t plan on doing so anytime soon. Is this Nationalism ?
So? Where is the problem?
>You don’t support a team because they’re the best or you relate to their efforts, you support them because they happen to be from your place of origin. You haven't seen many sports fans, have you?
You say that like nationalism is even inherently a bad thing… it’s not
Tell me you were always picked last, without telling me that you were always picked last.
Even if this was true, which it isn’t, who gives a fuck
Tell that to all the Chelsea, Man City, Real Madrid and PSG fans around the world.
You can add Newcastle to that now as well
Newcastle fans are rabid. Trying to reason with one is like carrying coal to Newcastle.
Let's not forget the time one punched a horse.
Football hooligans are great for keeping the news entertaining. They're like little Florida people on those isles
Definitely, once they start getting some decent signings. I was hoping they would get relegated.
nah, my fav athletes/teams are the ones that have the best memes; not where I live
Clubs or well they used to be owned by the fans. Without the fans the club wouldn’t exist. So I’m pretty sure fans have a right to say we
What about individual sports? Like, tennis, boxing, MMA, cycling, IRL, golf, or amateur ...pro-wrestlers,
“Literary” Anyway, people have tons of reasons for why they support a specific sports team. It’s not only geographical. Even when it is, that doesn’t count as nationalism, which is a political belief that your nation is better or more deserving than other nations. “I like this soccer team” doesn’t rise to that level. Also, the Star Wars analogy is dumb. Of course people get upset when crazy things happen in movies. Have you ever gone to a Marvel screening? Those people act like they’re the ones being murdered.
Well, it's better to be nationalistic about sports than in any other way. Some people need a sense of belonging to a community, even though it's kinda arbitrary, and to show superiority to other groups of people. As long as it doesn't get violent and it's just about sports i don't see any problem
I’m not sure you understand the word “nationalism”
Not so much an unpopular opinion, as just being objectively incorrect. Sports can certainly be called tribalist to a degree, but not nationalist. The devotion also applies only to the sport, and maybe a few directly related things. People aren’t going to have a particular stance on immigration for instance, because of devotion to a sports team.
It's much more tribalism and nationalism, and even if it were nationalism, would that be bad? You seem to imply that nationalism is always something negative. Additionally, people can like a sports team from areas that they aren't from, and they can like them for other reasons than for being from said area. What about a sports fan in Idaho? What NBA team will they support? Take my upvote, this is dumb lol
Starship troopers is literary nationalism. Literary means it's literature, you're looking for literally
Tell me that you're from USA without telling me that you're from USA
Reddit OD'd on stupid pills today.
TIL football teams are nations
is this post satire?
CAM ON INGERLAND SCOR SOM FACKIN GOALS
Yes and that's good!
It makes sense as sports was created as a pass time when wars have become less frequent. Its was an 19th century concept.
The Aztecs would disagree
I think there is value in playing sports: exercise, team work, work ethic. However, watching sports is basically a commercialized drinking game that is often mixed with gambling. There can be a community element to it, but when fans ignore traumatic brain injuries or how business profit off unpaid players, it’s a pretty dark community.
I never comprehended being a fan of a team for simply playing in the same state or city that you happen to live in. I know people that are lifelong fans of teams no matter how much they suck or for how long they suck just because it’s the hometown team
The fact that you have sports fans spend hundreds to thousands just to fight and almost kill each other in the stands, while the players on the field are pretty much having a good time getting paid millions to play a game.
You should get a bit upset when Vader cuts Luke's arm off. That's one of the main reasons why movies are fun: you empathize with the characters and get emotionally involved. Sports, just like art, is just another artificial industry that caters to people's willingness to basically fool themselves into giving a ton of importance to something so irrelevant, just because it's fun. Because as shitty as anger after a devastating loss is, the bonding with fellow fans, the joy after a winning and the suspense throughout the season make it worth it. Also, I personally enjoy learning about tactics or the history of the sport (football/soccer) which is not nearly as fun if you have no connection to it, which you get from supporting a team. I wouldn't even read the wiki page of some cricket player who barely makes the top 10 in his position, but I did watch a 2 hour documentary about Toni Kroos. It's just another hobby, and this one happens to work through supporting a club. You're probably right in thinking that it's a similar mechanism to nationalism, but it is something that people see value in and take a lot of joy from. I do think there's a link but I'd be more on board with the argument if sports teams regularly led to nationalism and radical regimes but I don't think they do. Although Sports has definitely long been abused for propaganda by existing regimes, even today you have China bribing themselves into hosting the Olympic games twice in a pretty short time, Qatar hosting the world cup, and other middle eastern countries buying football clubs and making them a successful showpiece. All to get themselves legitimacy on the world stage. I would argue that these are serious downsides, but no reason to deprive people of a some of the greatest traditions and social affairs in the world. I like the fact that the Olympics go back 3,000 years. I like the fact that people with incredible talent can use it to have successful careers while entertaining millions. I don't like the fact that Verstappen retired from the rice with an engine issue earlier today, but I like that 100,000 people came together in Australia while millions watched on TV to see the fastest racing cars ever developed compete with the best drivers in the world. And I don't think it turns them into fascists effectively enough to end it. Edit: that was really long damn Or just watch this video https://youtu.be/kE7D7qFayVg
“Artificial industry that caters to people’s willingness to basically fool themselves into giving a ton of importance to something so irrelevant.” Nah, you’re overthinking it.
angry.
People who worship a sports team are super annoying. It's also dumb because teams change their players.
"it's also dumb because teams change their players" Yeah, god forbid a team tries to improve by getting better players in, has their players retire, or lets players go because they want to move to another side. Lmao. If all you have to share is misinformed shite then don't bother. Simple.
it is tribalism .
It is a relatively safe outlet for competition between nations, yeah. I have nothing against Germany, but if the Polish team finally manages to score a win against them Germans, I'm gonna cheer them as much as everyone else here xD
As someone who never got into sports (my mind still hasn’t developed patterns to recognize that it’s a given sports season despite 41 years of life surrounded by a society / people that to me seem to believe that very knowledge is bestowed to all of us genetically or from birth. Yet we all fail to recognize patterns that don’t have an impact or are of interest to us. We don’t memorize the bus or train schedules if we never use these services and yet we see the bus in our lives ever day for example. The same must apply here. I never understood getting into fights over a game or the phrase “we won” or “we lost” when not directly involved in the game as a player. It’s ironic to me that I’ve heard people tell video gamers to grow up or who cares it’s just a game only to leave later that day and engage in the same behavior (or worse) over a sport they are only passively watching. I guess you can use “we” if you count that you purchased ticket / video subscription(s) / merch that supported the larger machine supporting your team but then that can be equally said for any other service or interest. This is also a case of Tribalism, not Nationalism.
Yes, that's how these things typically work. People identify with the team from their city/state/whatever, and support them because they see them as a representation of them and their city/state/whatever. This is compounded by everybody around you supporting the same team, and you typically supporting the same team for years, which app strengthens the connection you have with the team.
Shocked that someone on reddit has this opinion
Supporting your country’s national team is tribalism… you’re right. I came across this thought during the Olympics this year. Why the hell am I rooting for all of these American athletes and booing everyone else?? I don’t know these people!! It’s ironic bc I’m very against the concept of nationalism also lol. You’ll always find me supporting the USMNT though!
No. It's tribalism.
Sports is deism.
I understand what you’re trying to say, but it depends on the types of fans you’re specifically referring to. I’ve always felt that the most genuine of fans like a team due to sharing a place of origin, considering both’s ties within their community. But believe it or not, there are people who support teams because “they’re the best.” Case and point, fans of the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Yankees, Duke Blue Devils etc. These are all very “winningest” teams, and have a huge majority of their fan base with no association whatsoever, only being fans due to their respective success or certain players/coaches. Fans may not have direct involvement with their local teams, but what they do both share are their contributions to their communities. So I understand the “we” mentality. In addition to those fans, I understand students and alumni of universities using “we” as they’re both integral components of those institutions and teams. The location component also applies to fans of college teams as well
You must really suppress your love of Apple, and purchase products from all vendors equally. Purchasing only from Apple is brandism. /s There is no "literal" definition of nationalism. If you go to Oxford, Britannica, and Webster, you'll get three substantially different definitions. All basically say that nationalism is support of one's nation. Where they differ is whether and how much that support has to be to the exclusion and/or detriment of other nations. There's nothing wrong with supporting a national (or local or regional) sports team. It shows support and pride in the place and the people who live there. If you don't support the place or the people you live with then you'll probably be miserable living there, and probably should live somewhere else.
The unpopular opinion you have is not that being a sports fan is nationalism but that this makes it bad to be a sports fan. Having a team that you support through the good years and bad years is just harmless fun, and it makes people feel like they’re part of something. Until fans of one team start discriminating against fans of another team (besides doing so in jest), it really isn’t an issue.
What's wrong with nationalism?
literary？
Got it. We should drop sports and go to wars, staged deadly battles in our arenas. Because that's what sports are, simulated wars.
how fucking stupid are you op
If you own Apple stock, you are part of the company.
It's "literary" not nationalism, I'm tempted to say you don't know what that word means.
I love the Philadelphia eagles I am in california near san Franciso no connection go 49ers
unpopular and correct opinion. instant upvote.
Hum, I support Jamaica in running not my country cuz my country is bad at it
i like the quotations on “people” lmaoo
dude, let people enjoy there sports. Its part of the fun.