Not exaggerating when I say this comic was the cultural version of a war crime

one of the times where "let people enjoy things" is valid

using it to kill discussion of [thing] because [thing] has become part of your identity, bad

using it because you are minding your own business trying to do [thing] and someone is being obnoxious, good

Listen you might not like the comic but "let people enjoy things" is much less unpleasant sounding than "don't yuck someone's yum" because saying that phrase makes me feel a visceral disgust as it slides out of my throat like a thick ooze

The sports fandom really can be toxic and overbearing. As much as I love some sports, the way it was always expected for me to give a shit about the local football or baseball team was obnoxious. Not to mention the excessive doting on sports, to the point that schools will slash their arts department and lay off teachers so the middling football team there can get more concessions.

anyone whos ever said “sportsball” in earnest is a loser

Death to America

Even the maker of the comic made a followup where the "let people enjoy things" thought terminating cliche was dragged out back and shot.

About the only single comic that I can think of that did as much lasting ideological damage to western cultural discourse was "Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" from Penny Arcade which was used to justify/excuse nazi shit across the nascent internet and also made people assume that everyone was a shitty edgelord the moment they could get away with it, which lowered the bar steeply for how many people expected others to act.

Queer coded bad guy, speaking of sports and society enforcing gender norms

sports haters are incredibly annoying and childish. critiques of how athletes are treated and the culture around sports are valid but "haha sporbsball amirite" makes me think you're never interacted with someone outside of the internet

Fairly obvious that a lot of people's resentment towards sports comes from simply not being good at it in school and getting picked last for the team or whatever. It's like the inverse of people hating on nerds, where it's obvious that they hate nerds because they were never good at math in school.

Apparently, the author of this comic has retracted it, views it like an inventor or scientist who sees their creation as gone horribly wrong.

Sports fans have it so hard! 😞

https://youtu.be/pQtSdsR1-H8?si=Ut-6O_eyDci1N1jS - "Wealthy people profiting off the physical misery of mostly minorities - what could be more all-American than that?"

Ohhh hey, you watchin' some 9/11? How's the stupid 9-

Y'all didn't learn from FFX that big sports events give the masses in a shitty world a reason to feel happy and cheer for a bit.

And also a racist soccer player will help kill god.

This comic is so cringe it feels like a strawman

I think the Sealion comic is similarly harmful and annoying, but less prolific.

I think the synthesis here is that yes sports are dumb. So is dungeons and dragons. Adults can like dumb things, just acknowledge they are not serious and are for playing around.

Liberalism: willingness to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one's own; openness to new ideas.

Letting people enjoy things is literally liberalism. After the revolution, everyone will be compelled to enjoy and dislike the things that I, he One True Socialist, enjoy and dislike.

I watch 0 sports and the terms sportsball makes me angry. To the point I've thought about a gamer equivalent to throw back. Closest I can think of is controllertoy

Let people enjoy war crimes

Wait no

There is a lot of unexamined in this thread.

I'm not defending the use of the term "sportsball", of course its cringe its from like over 10 years ago. And there is nothing inherently wrong with sports, playing sports, or watching sports. They can be fun.

For me personally, i grew up hating sports, because i had no real interest in them yet they were used by society to police gender. I hated and resented that sports were what i was "supposed" to like, expected to like, and maligned for just not liking. I was not allowed to "just enjoy things", what i liked was stupid, a waste of time.

What I really hate and am upset by is the patriarchy of course, not sports themselves. I recognized that now that I'm older. As i kid, i only understood it as hating sports. But while i can delineate between the two, its also impossible not to notice how bound up sports, patriarchy, an gender policing are.

I think its important to keep that in mind when someone dislikes sports and criticizes its manistream and hemegonic acceptance as the default male gendered interest. Its not just a hobby, its bound up in America's enforcement of gender.

I hope its not as extreme as when i was younger, but i doubt it has gone away entirely. Either way, its pretty depressing to see dissmissive takes in this thread and not seeing any expression of self crit on these issues

I like sports. They are fun to play and watch.

heyyyy i’m high too

Ireland stays winning (as usual)

Gaelic football and hurling are the only good sports. There are no professionals, the highest level of the game is played entirely by amateurs with full time jobs. The players can only play for their local team, there are no transfers.

Tbh it's what organized sports should be. The local club is the heart of just about every small town.

If y'all are going to struggle session you could at least try to have fun while doing it.

I don't get it.

It seems there is a whole cultural american background to the term “sports” that I just dont get so I will just repeat what my friend said the other day:

“If you arent yearning for Marcelo Bielsa to coach your team you are a fascist”

Some of y'all never witnessed student athletes get preferential treatment from teachers and administrators while those same students bullied you and it shows.

This actually doesn't even match my experience that well (teachers usually liked me, in highschool at least, and not all my bullies were athletes and in fact some jocks were rather nice to me) but I have heard horror stories from my friends at schools that sucked a lot more about stuff like this.

Is it necessarily rational to let out the aggression from that bullying trauma on sports in general? No not really. Is having some irrational opinions because of your bullying trauma kind of understandable? Yes. Is bullying trauma real trauma that the internet often treats as something petty that you should "just get over"? Also yes.

liking sports isn't homophobic, but trying to keep me from being a hater is

I dont play or watch soccer. But its a lot of fun to grill while hearing a friend tell stories about smuggling beer to the stadium or kidnapping an oposing teams mascot. Sports should be a social activity you do with your friends, if you only focus on the millionates kiking a ball you are missing all the fun. i think thats the reason a lot of you dont get it.

I used to sail when i was younger(a 9 ft craft that was worth about 500 usd) and while atmitedly quite relaxing and enjoiable it was a one man boat. Maybe i could get someone else to join me if they were ligthweigth. So i never devveloped the sort of nostalgia about sailing people have about soccer.

However i did went to and hosted a few lan parties and even if age of empires and warcraft are objectvley not the best games there is a certain nostalgia atached ti them due to the social experience of lans.

I dont play soccer because were i grew up it was 50+ c outside for most of the year.