gyrrakavian:

mbulteau:

bogleech:

I think I’m just gonna go back to my “sports are mostly for assholes” teenage nerd attitude after literally thousands of sports fans just destroyed part of a major city because they liked how That Ball Get Kick Good. Not even gonna get into the fact that police broke out more violent tactics against completely peaceful protests (except I just did) or the president’s recent words tying sports into patriotism and even military loyalty (JESUS) or the billions of dollars that get sunk into Ball Get Kicked instead of science or medicine or people in need.

The “industry” surrounding sports needs to die. Sports should be something kids and friends do to relax not a miniature intranational war.

The military loyalty thing isn’t new. I always felt the disproportionate importance placed on sports specifically in US schools is very reminiscent of military training and posturing, and frankly it’s just creepy.

I think the psycholgy term is “branding” (not sure). Like how giving kids candy cigarettes will supposedly encourage them to buy real ones, or how Big League Chew Bubblegum is shaped like and designed to be in packaging similar to some brands of chewing tobacco.

The salary of college sportsball coaches is a sizable chunk of why tuition is so much more expensive these days. And I’m certain we can all think of at least one high school in the school district we grew up in or live in now that prioritized new jerseys for the varsity That Ball Get Kick Good and/or That Ball Get Throwed Through Hoop Good jerseys over arts, music and even humanities courses.