My treat is lecturing others on why their treat consumption is bad. And cocaine, I really really love cocaine.
tbf at least 20% of the brain damage seen in football players comes purely from being am*rican
Anyone else here lie completely outside of the American_civil_religion_loop (football, basketball, marvel, star wars, game of thrones, breaking bad) for the last 30 years?
Sorta. I still like star wars, but it's sw the way i remember it from when i was 15. But yeah otherwise super alienated.
Andor and The Mandolorian are worth pirating. The rest of it's not great.
Yeah. And i'm super obtuse about it. I liked rogue one a lot bc of the themes of "actually you should kill fascists" and little people fighting back. I liked last jedi bc i thought it handled the force well, portraying it as more of a spiritual thing that helps you be a sneaky bastard instead of just making you a super hero. I liked mandalorian when it was doing monster of the week stuff and not a plot, but only watched season one.
If you haven't seen Andor, YOU HAVE TO SEE ANDOR. It's like if in 1979 George Lucas decided to go all in with the Viet Cong allegory. I guess the evil empire being opposed being the stsr wars one got it through Disney, but it is genuinely the most leftist show ever maybe by accident but it explores the reality of forming a revolutionary insurrectionist rebellion in a very real and grounded way. It was made by libs but Andor is based on Stalin in his youth and cause it's star wars the libs let him be the hero. I cannot overstate how fucking good Andor is. I've tested the waters and libs don't see the stsr wars empire as a metaphor for any real empires, but for a leftist it feels weird this was even allowed to be aired. All it takes is the smallest amount of media literacy for it to be the best thing you've ever seen. It's by a wide margin the best thing stsr wars has produced period. The first movie and empire aren't even in the same conversation. Andor is a fucking masterpiece, the first 3 episodes don't feel it cause they're setup, but once things are going, I completely guarantee you'll not only like it but love it. It's that good
If that doesn't convince you, I'm a star wars nerd sociologist more than a fan. I only like the first 2 movies and even then I think empire isn't as great as people think. Buy I find star wars and everything surrounding it to be fascinatingly stupid. Andor isn't stupid. I'm being as adamant as possible, watch this specific show, there's no lore bullshit or fanservice and all you really need to see gor it to work is the 1977 original movie
I am 100% on board. I just watched a video essay about how it differs from the self indulgent star wars slop and the quotes they were using as examples just kept hammering me, like "Oh shit whoever wrote this gets it, there's no way they don't get how horrible and necessary revolution is". Rogue One had a really strong resonance for me, hitting what I always though Star Wars ought to be about. I've never understood a lot of SW fans, because to me the story was always instructional; This is what you're supposed to do when you're faced with the Empire. This is the military side of it, the fighting and dying, and here with the Jedi there's the spiritual, moral side of it, the ideals that keep you from getting twisted up inside. I'ma queue it up.
yeah this mindset is not conducive to a happy life in my opinion. and i find it odd how many people are proud of bassicly never being able to make small talk.
oh I can make small talk just fine, that's not the problem. I guess feeling community requires a little more. I did not experience hand-clapping joy at the DunKings commercial
I feel that, there’s something nice about being able to be a part of the crowd.
I wouldn't call that The American Civil Religion. That's just mainstream cultural media.
I was going to answer yes because I'm entirely estranged from streaming services, but there's plenty of entertainment products I consume. I guess I partake in slop as a treat
Nah. I dont watch sports anymore but i do watch and enjoy all those scripted things.
My treat is lecturing others on why their treat consumption is bad.
Still a treat, you're still treat chasing.
And cocaine, I really really love cocaine.
Cocaine is like the worst treat. It's made by slave labor and sold to fund right wing paramilitaries, all just to make you feel like you drank four red bulls with a prozac. Seriously, eating a T-bone while watching Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and jerking it to BDSM porn is probably more ethnical than a Coke habit.
BDSM is likely going to be a safer porn to watch than vanilla stuff. But you're talking about something with a shit-ton of rules (if it's done right) and a community that is more likely to be showing off their stuff willingly.
A lot of the theory and practice around positive, informed, active consent that I've learned over the years I learned from people in the BDSM scene. The good folks in that scene understand it and take it extremely seriously. Like no matter how vanilla the sex is, I always talk about safe words with people first, and check in regularly, because its a useful tool to have even if you never need to use it. And I learned that from hanging out with BDSM people.
I wonder if this is going to be like those oxycontin commercials from the early 2000s. It's non-addictive, you can get as much as you want for anything that hurts, trust me I'm a pharmacist bro I'm regulated. Las Vegas really solidifying sports betting as the anything anytime anywhere casino seems so ominous.
I have friends betting on which song will be played at half time 🫠
I used to be a big fan, but I'm slowly weening myself off. It's really indefensible. Also I just saw a 'stop Jewish hate' ad which I'm assuming really means 'stop criticizing Israel'.
But they got MLK's draft speech writer in the commercial. Clearly that means the zionist entity is wholesome and good.
Just wait'll someone tells him when they finally stopped sterilising black Jewish folks.
Libs would probably claim he'd amend his "I have a dream" speech to say that if black Jewish people don't like it they can leave.
I'm capable of writing a speech about why you should never betray you comrades for treats and writing a speech about the way I like to self pleasure. Only one of them is of particular use to an audience.
Just another chapter in our very boring dystopia. Millions of Americans desperately searching for some sense of community and attaching themselves to a billionaire’s chess game and developing a parasocial relationship with their team, all for some fleeting dopamine
Sounds like everything else in America eh
There's gambling. I'm a stats nerd so I gamble tiny $ on football games because of that. It's a lot of fun.
One thing I've never understood; The players aren't even from your home town or state. They're just random dudes. Why are you so attached to the franchise? It's not really related to you at all, it's just a brand.
I'm a huge mma nerd so I'm not allowed an opinion on the damage of football lol and that's ok.
Aha. I should've read the top comment before making a long one defending football.
What did you as a fan think of "fighting in the age of loneliness" if you've seen it? Its basically my only foray into any sort of combat sport.
I would have to watch it again, it's been a second, but I did enjoy it. I thought it was an excellent general history of the modern era of combat sports. The political tie ins were a little...I guess just kind of tacked on? I understand what Felix and Bois were going for, how the rise of it coincided with these political vibes, but I remember it not coming together as nicely as I thought it could. Regardless I enjoyed their views on that, since even if not optimal it's more nuanced and abstract commentary on a topic that is dominated primarily by fucking morons who probably think the matrix was the most confusing film ever made.
The political tie ins were a little...I guess just kind of tacked on?
Yeah im with you on that the political connections were tenuous at best but appreciated none the less. But good to hear that it was a good overview/primer/entrance point to the sport, thanks !
No prob! Ufc 298 is this weekend as well. I also watch ONE FC every Friday for dope muay thai fights. I won't lie, the sport attracts a lot of real weirdos, But don't let it deter you if you are interested in jumping in. Ultimately it's a really cool competitive sport. I hope someday it evolves past the UFC shenanigans and becomes something more, but I'll steal all the ppvs in the meantime lol.
MMA fighters take less hits to the head then most other combat sports so they actually get less concussions. More bodily injuries though.
Kinda depends. A lot of mma guys are sparring boxing/muay thai/kickboxing basically constantly. Dudes sparring 10 hours a week are going to take a lot of damage over a couple decades. Obviously football and boxing also have issues in training and are rougher during actual time, but it can be really bad for MMA guys too. Chute box dudes are known for sparring at almost 100% all of the time and regularly having gym wars. Also if a fighter finds success in weathering the storm then those guys are gonna be real bad off (Spencer Fisher, Tony Ferguson)
American football causes brain damage and the sport should be mandatory until every American is a drooling moron incapable of inflicting more horror upon the global south.
Half time show is a guy bungie corded up on the front of a mack truck playing riffs on his flamethrower guitar
People used to die all the time playing football with no or leather helmets.
Yes, but if people died so frequently bartending that they needed safety equipment, it would be silly to say that removing the safety equipment would result in safer bar tending practices.
We already have data on what happens when football players don't have helmets; head injuries so severe they literally die.
and now "safety" pads have gone the weapon route. so, what do?
IDK. Require a warning, read live by someone with severe CTE, before broadcasts?
Maybe there's a mechanical solution, such as helmets that track how much trauma someone experiences between practice and games, kinda like the "lifetime radiation exposure" concept.
CTE happens in sports without pads, like soccer and rugby. However, Im assuming it’s worse in American football.
From what i understand they found that pads and helmets meant guys could hit each other harder and more often, which lead to more minor cte/tbi events that accumulate over time.
you typically don't full-tilt headbutt another 250 pound guy in those sports.
it's not that injuries happen at all, it's the rate, severity, and long-time coverup.
Rugby is safer for that reason. Players learn the helmet can be a weapon so then the rules committee had to ban that.
Mixed on football, but what really pisses me off is when I’m being critical of it and I get a bunch of “🤓 ummm football is actually one of the most complex sports in existence and you’re showing your ignorance. There’s nothing that comes close to such intellectual prowess”
Godamn I really need to move to China, maybe AI will make the language barrier easier to work through
It's so complicated that a four hour long game broadcast only features ~ ten minutes of actual play.
Hey its literaly exactly like chess realy, you're just big dumb for not realizing it yet, it only takes about 1s to move a piece, if each player does 40 moves that is just barely 2 minutes of action in a 3 hour match, perfectly normal cool and good, the real battle happens in their minds not on the board.
That's why I only watch chess-boxing, which to my knowledge has only ended in checkmate a handful of times because it's usually resolved in the ring.
They also like sports in China. You're gonna find weird superiority-compexed nerds everywhere frankly.
It’ll probably never happen tbh and sports are good, American pro sports are not
I really want to but I’m kinda worried about how I’ll be judged by the people in my life. Pretty sure they see China on the same level as North Korea 😵💫
Subtlety hint to them that they need to pretend China is amazing or else they'll lower your social credit score
It’s the institutional aspect imo
Would be a lot better if billionaires didn’t own the teams and players
“🤓 ummm football is actually one of the most complex sports in existence and you’re showing your ignorance. There’s nothing that comes close to such intellectual prowess”
And then football itself is just "bunch of big guys do a running hug so hard they all get brain damage, this goes on for 15 seconds and then there's a half hour commercial break. This continues off and on for 5 hours."
I've been watching for 25yrs. The rules are crazy complex and more complex than chess or any other sport. Complex rules don't make for a smarter game though. Now the rules are getting more complex in the name of player safety.
Smartest sport is definitely Chess Boxing
Soccer/football has a concussion problem that no one talks about either. Hugo Lloris like had a year of play lost because he was kept in game. Sports have physical risks ✌️
I mean when blood sports and combat sports exist, are extremely popular, and haven't died out or been banned despite getting punched or kicked in the head to the point of losing consciousness being a key part of these sports, I don't see how contact sports like American Football or Rugby will be banned or die out. I do think more needs to be done to make contact sports safer though. I like the changes rugby made with regards to cards for high tackles and the scrum, it makes the sport look safer than when by friends played it in high school.
Get rid of the pads, longer time outs after a concussion, a maximum number of concussions before forced retirement, solid education of players on the effects of repeated TBIs, high pay for athletes to compensate for that risk, high quality healthcare for those that do suffer injuries, and of course nationalize it so that the profit motive doesn’t fuck with the rest of those things
Oh and do ban it for minors, that shit’s fucked. High schoolers can play flag football but tackle football has to go
maximum number of concussions before forced retirement
Then they're just not gonna report them. Sports are big money
and of course nationalize it so that the profit motive doesn’t fuck with the rest of those things
There are professional athletes worth hundreds of millions of dollars who kept playing sports at the top level, even though they had no cartilage in their knees for instance. Or played through horrific injuries lunch as damaged or torn ligaments. Or even both, like Zlatan Ibrahimovic in his last AC Milan stint, played with no ACL and needed injections for knee pain. Luis Suarez is going to Inter Miami so he can play football with his old teammates one more time, even though he has an extreme amount of visible scar tissue on his knees from all the knee surgeries he got.
Professional athletes at the top are just at a different level. They will absolutely lie about concussions or convince their coaching staff to do so so they can play more. They probably already so in sports with concussion protocols.
making a sport your whole life and identity needs to go if you want to stop that shit
Yeah, at some point there’s only so much you can do to protect people from themselves.
You can put up railings, put up signage, and educate people on the risks, but if people climb past the railing all you can do at that point is take care of them if something bad happens
I knew kids, like teens but still kids, in highschool who were gymnasts and "chose", for whatever that means for a kid, to go on diets that meant they didn't have periods, and to compete in floor on broken ankles and wrists. Kids. Professionals, I agree, definitely will lie.
Honestly people would still not report. Playing sports at the professional level isnt the same thing as working as a mechanic. People who do that really love playing their sport. Getting rich doing it is a bonus.
Yeah, at some point there’s only so much you can do to protect people from themselves. Have the safeguards and education in place, and if people really want to climb over the railings all you can really do is take care of them afterwards.
Nationalization might improve coach pressure on players, but I don't see how you can square "even higher pay" with athletes being willing to report concussions that will force them to resign. Median NFL salary is almost a million dollars; people are just going to lie to keep their jobs. Guarantee some sort of pension? Either it's too little, so they under-report, or it's too much and they do soccer-style overacting for an easy retirement. You have to do so much to salvage this sport, it's like trying to make boxing safe.
A big problem is they basically pull kids from highschool, give them vast amounts of money with no guidance, then dump them. Afaik most pro sports people blow through all their money in a few years and often have no job skills.
American Football causes brain damage and the band needs to be banned. Happy listening!
Imagine if
did a cover of Never Meant. It would heal America. Mom said it's my turn on the lathe of heavenAmerican Football house (Taylor’s version) and it’s just a mansion
+ gooning
