People who destroy property over sportsball outcomes: Why?
I've seen tables flipped, tv sets punched through, furniture thrown. And that's just in the home.
How does one get to a place mentally where burning and destroying things, over a sportsball game seem a reasonable thing to do?
Should ask somewhere else, you won't find these people in a federated open-source communist link aggregator website.
People who destroy things over computer game outcomes: Why?
I've seen keyboards flipped, monitors punched through, controllers thrown. And that's just in the home.
How does one get to a place mentally where burning and destroying things, over a computer game seem a reasonable thing to do?
More relatable?
Ironically, the only game I've ever damaged my own stuff over was a sportsball game.
Most games you fuck up due to your own incompetence, but football games and the like make you feel like you could do nothing wrong in a game and still lose. It's infuriating.
Not really. It's just as irrational. Why destroy something because you lost a video game? I've been frustrated before due to a game, but never anywhere near frustrated enough to destroy something that I paid a lot of money for and am very happy with. At most I'll slap my desk or something, but that's nowhere near hard enough to have any effect.
I'd say, based on most of the answers here, that the reasons behind the sports scenario (people who are spectators) and the reasons behind the video game scenario (personal failure) are very different.
Apples to oranges.
It's called displacement aggression The sportsball fan identifies with his team to the point that it feels like he lost the game himself. Since he can't express his frustration and subsequent aggression towards the opposing team (since he is in front of his TV several 100km away), he expresses it towards the next best thing that is weaker and accessible, e.g. furniture, walls, wife and kids...
It’s also really heavily about tribalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribalism
Because people like to be part of a specific group and feel like the goals of said group are their goals, regardless of the reality of the thing
Since he can't express his frustration and subsequent aggression
towards the opposing teamin a way that someone who can regulate their emotions would...
It is always weird to hear fans refer to what happened in a game as "we"
Yeah... Kinda like a political party or government?
I think you're missing two large parts; escapism and booze.
From the sportsball moniker, I imagine you aren't a fan. Sometime, it's worth it to go to a bar that supporters of whatever team go to. There's something magic about hooting, hollering and cheering with a crowd of complete strangers about this one thing. And in that brief couple of hours, it becomes larger and more magic. And some folks chasing that feeling get drunk and go too far when it goes wrong.
You're missing the final piece, gambling losses.
I dunno.
But I work in contract security. When the Super Bowl came to Minneapolis, it was one of the worst nights of My working-life.
I was walking through a bar to touch bases with their management (the bar was tenants of my client,) and a philly fan broke a bottle off and tried to shank me. That was the night before. All I did to provoke it? Walk behind him.
Another incident the night before, 3 guys were kicking the shit out of an oldish guy while two howling wives egged them on.
They were late twenties early thirties, their victim was a late-50’s black guy.
Their only “reason”? He was wearing a Vikings cap.
Over all, the only night that we had more arrests happen was when the city decided to set up a soft checkpoint for a trump rally with a day’s notice to my client next door.
When ever I start listing incidents other Philly fans are quick to say “no we’re just passionate!”
Green Bay is passionate. They dress up in their cosplay and drink all the beer then go home. (Though, probably some of the best tailgating you’ve ever seen…) they don’t beat the shit out of people.
As a philly native, I will say that the vast majority of philly fans are more reasonable levels of passionate, I've never personally been around anyone getting violent over a game, at worst just a lot of yelling and cursing directed at no one in particular.
But yeah, our worst fans definitely have a way of going the extra mile into the heart of crazytown.
Philly has a tough image and we're proud of it and embrace it, but a lot of assholes don't understand that being tough doesn't mean being needlessly violent, offensive, and destructive.
Personally, I like the lunatics here that climb light poles and think of the city greasing them up as a challenge, that's the kind of crazy fan I want to represent my city.
that didn't take long.
I mean, seriously. You're aware that after a 49er's game that turned violent, Eagles added jail cells - oh I'm sorry, the proper term is "holding cell"- to deal with all that... "passion". and... no. I don't mean a holding room that locks. they had full on jail cells. and before that, Veteran's Field didn't just have jail cell- it had a full on court room.
There's also those incidents with the D-cell batteries. Plural. Totally normal fan-rivalry things to do. totally.
then there's that time that eagle's fans beat up Cheif Zee (redskin's super fan.)- broken legs, ribs, and other injuries.
And what the fuck did Millie ever do to get harassed by crowds of phillie fans? she was a 90+ year old grandmother for crying out loud. the only thing she did to get the attention was get recognized for being an old vikings fan. Even then you had to drag out your geriatric fan and that wasn't enough?
sure. Not all eagle's fans are total assholes. most fans "aren't that bad". But you do realize, when other teams say the same thing, they're talking about people that are singing a little too loud, or shouting obnoxious jingles or maybe they just got a little drunk. (I'm not kidding about packer's fans drinking all the beer.)
Really. A native and you’ve never personally seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7sW-0D_qhI
I only knew of one but after googling there appears to have been a few.
I personally can't say why I would because I don't but I can tell you why my friends do. Its because they drink a fuck ton of alcohol, bet way more money than they can afford and get caught up in the mob mentality.
Because many of these people are just fucking dumb and don’t have much going in their lives. Seriously talk to an ultra fan and all they do is talk and think about their club. They have wrapped their entire lives and persona around the club. When their club loses they feel like that’s an direct attack on their own person, because the club is all they are. So because they feel attacked they have this urge to defend and lash out. Combine that with booze and cocaine and multiply that with hundreds of bozos and you have yourself a riot.
I live next to a sports bar. And many of the patrons definitely have lost a couple of screws.
Last week in my city people rioted because they couldn’t watch their precious football game. Because the cops were on strike and the mayor banned the match because of that. It’s like these people can’t find joy in anything else. Just football, booze and cocaine. Basically Bread and Circuses.
The UK sports experience
"Sportsball normie Lemmy user" reporting in and I have the answer! The answer being: I DON'T KNOW . Not all of us are the same. My usual response to my team having a disappointing season is just trying to enjoy the rest of the season from an entertaining perspective while dying inside over my team's showing.
When my team has won the Superbowl (will not disclose the amount of times), I have ridden that sublime high for well, all of my life since that fateful year(s) in a sun kissed peace almost like a runners high. I never felt the need to fuck shit up is what I'm saying
They use sports as an outlet for all their emotions. Happiness, sadness, anger, grief.
I would say, witnessing the other side of this is beautiful. I was in Buenos Aires when Argentina won the world cup. I think it was over 3 million people that gathered on the main road by the obelisk monument. Everyone was crying of happiness, dancing, celebrating. There were no political, class, or race divides. Boca & River fans celebrated together. Everyone was just Argentinian that day.
The sportsball team you cheer for is your tribe.
Your tribe meets up to go to war against other tribes regularly, you wear the same colors to recognize each other.
The goal is to beat the other tribe, show them who's boss and acquire the shiny thing at the end.
The great thing is, you don't even have to do anything to be part of the tribe, except wear the right colors and cheer (or boo) at the right time.
It's a pretty civilized way to channel our stone-age tribal urges into something that happens on a weekend, doesn't interfere with your work, and can even be turned into profit. And sometimes a few things break, but that's much better than the constant bloody feuds that were normal during most of human history.
Miserable people who put all of their happiness in a weird location such as how your city's sports team performs. That is how these clowns achieve emotional validation.
When I was a kid I would get emotionally invested in the game, hoping my team would win and gritting my teeth because they might not.
I really cannot relate to this at all anymore. I might wish for my home team to win but if they don’t play well then that’s on them, and I am not going to lose sleep either way.
I can only guess that I got caught up in the games as a kid because my whole family was into them, rooting and clapping and groaning and swearing at the refs. I was small and my brain wasn’t fully formed and I just got caught up in that culture.
It looks patently ridiculous from the outside. But I guess some people’s entire society is so into sports that they reach adulthood with this tribalism intact. It is after all a form of entertainment and people crave excitement and something to care about.
I got sick of my emotions being caught up in an arbitrary thing that might go either way. It’s the same reason I hate holding stocks. When you wake up each day and see that you gained or lost money based on arbitrary forces you can’t control, it’s like having your emotions manipulated by RNG.
Gamers know that when a game is entirely driven by RNG its bullshit not worth playing.
As on reddit, no one who does this is ever going to take accountability for it.(And no one who does this is going to be on Lemmy to begin with)
Some people never get helped past the wall-crayon stage, but still need to express poetry no one wants.
Destroying things and acting like a bully feels powerful and strong. They can't do anything else, it's a lack of problem-solving capabilities .
It’s just an excuse to vent, it them having to fight an actual person an probably get thier ass kicked. It’s just people being basic.
I would go ahead recommend and not be a pompous ass who says sportsball, you are not better than others or unique because you don't like sports.
And then to answer your question I don't think it has much to do with the sport itself.
Or to quote Man in Black "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals, and you know it."
Think about January 6, you think if you ask then individually if it's a good idea to go to the capitol alone and overthrow try to overthrow a government and theyd probably call you stupid for the idea, but put them in a crowd where they mutually encourage each other and give each other a sense of security and they will go ahead and do it the dumb bastards.
And then to answer your question I don't think it has much to do with the sport itself.
To think of another example, I've seen a lot more violent anger in living rooms triggered by a video game than a sporting event.
I have yet to see any video game cause a riot.
You should see what happens when political tribalism takes place in the United States.
Strong emotions and financial strain with the working class at an all-time high, disdain towards other groups, and fights break out.
Assassination attempts and murder of activists and politicians due to disagreements.
I think it goes back to dividing the working class and keeping us entertained so we don't pay attention to the status quo.
The easiest, but not necessarily the most applicable answer, is that it is possible to wager money on the outcome of sports games. Very large sums of money. Ruinous, life-altering sums.
The more common answer is that this is a sense of personality for some people. They identify with a certain sports team and spend a lot of their time cheering them on and building up the belief that they are the best team, undefeatable under any fair circumstance. When that team loses, they then take it personally. After all, if their team lost, could it mean they're not actually the best team? Did I choose wrong?
No. Impossible. It's those damn referees, blind as they are, missing the most obvious fouls and treating my team unfairly, punishing my team's players more harshly for the tiniest infractions. Nay, not even that; my team didn't break the rules; it's that other team's fault!
&c., &c., until you get bored.
It isn't reasoning driving these decisions. It's emotion. And before any of us get too haughty about it, it's also a very human reaction. Humans were not designed to reason, we were designed to feel. And yes, everyone has a set of circumstances that will cause their logical processing to shut off and allow emotion to take control. It just might not be sports.
Sportsball is kinda a shit term - you don't have to like sports and yes society venerates it over far more important achievements/pursuits, but it's a bit childish to refer to it in that way.
My theory is that a lot of that kind of poor behaviour is generally from men who have grown up with the toxic masculinity traits of believing that sad is bad, angry is manly. I've seen people openly weep over the outcomes of a game - I think these people are feeling the same emotions but haven't been given the societal permission to express it in its true form. So they do angry instead. It's not acceptable at all but that's what I think the reason is.
Meh, sportsball sucks.
I think its a perfectly fine term. It applies evenly to ball-based games; football, gridiron football, rugby, basketball, hockey, cricket, baseball, etc... Y'know? Sportsball. The behaviour is similar across the fanbases.
It's also kind of childish to get offended at it, and even more childish to have your ego wrapped up in a game, especially one that you're not even playing
What’s sportsball?
Perjorative term for all sports.
Mostly internet and I would imagine strongly correlated with those who are still angry they had an unpleasant high school experience.
Or those who think there’s an absurd amount of money and resources devoted to literally nothing productive. Every time the fuck cars people post about stadiums I really want to bitch about people who don’t live near or out in the country but seriously there’s WAY to much money spent on these places and events.
After a particular sports event a number of years ago, it was noted that reports of spousal abuse increased significantly that night. This is very sad.
I remember from the las football world cup about someone on internet saying that it doesen't matter who wins the final, Paris' streets will be destroyed anyway
Alpha male behavior up there with beating your girlfriend
Sometimes I think people forget we are animals, who have been acting civilized for a relatively short amount of time. Also, there are plenty of ways to damage our brains and increase aggression (violence, accidents, substances, etc).
Sometimes you just gotta kill a toaster.....
I mean people cry over movies and tv shows. The line between fact and fiction, real and not real, important and inconsequential is pretty blurry in our minds.
The difference is that movies and TV shows are often specifically made to elicit those reactions. Storytelling is essentially a hack that uses our emotions to implant lessons.
The same can't be said for sports events.
Seriously!? A Cinderella team spends a full year working their way to the sweet 16 and perhaps eventually the final four? Then loses by one point. Do you not see the struggle, the passion, the determination and the heartbreak in that?
Or a champion tennis player, significantly past her prime, coming back to championship after multiple years out and winning the title.
Or two soccer superstars at the absolute peak of their field going head to head. Can you not sense the tension, and suspense as these two juggernauts battle it out to see who comes out on top?
Or a man, born without arms, overcoming adversity at all points in his life to become the fastest swimmer and winning the gold.
Do you not see how sport can be an allegory for the human condition? The struggle, the heartbreak that comes with failure, the celebration of success, the toll of aging.
If not, I challenge you to take up a sport for a year, just a year. Try to get as good as you can with it. Celebrate your successes. Reflect on your failures. Document your milestones as you progress . Try not to give up. Make friends along the way. Become the true definition of an amateur. Living through your own experiences, you may discover that sport is full of emotion.
Gambling.
there's this little human thing called emotions that you might have missed, and some people are real bad at controlling them. the reasons behind that can be varied, but often they have a stake in the game (as in they've bet on it or similar).
Sports fans go BRRRRRRR
I'm just a little sad that there are people in the world who have lived such empty, passionless lives that they can't conceive of being so excited and invested in something that they could lose their self control for a moment
You think the only reason people could find destructive, violent behaviour to be unusual or difficult to understand is because they have no passion in their own lives?
I'm just a little sad that there are people in the world who have grown up in such violent, loveless homes that they can't conceive of finding violent behaviour over a sports game disgusting.
I wonder how many of wives and partners who get the shit kicked out of them when their passionate "alpha" male's favourite team loses would agree with you. Oh it's OK, he had just lived such a full, passionate life that he sometimes loses his self control for a moment.