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tithoniumGrocery delivery. Costco delivery by Instacart. Eggs and hashbrowns. Freezer lunch. Catching up on Daily Show.
I've seen a lot of tweets lately, many with links to one or more blog posts on the topic*, complaining about people who complain about professional sports. Complaining about people who call it 'sportball' or 'handegg'. Comparing disrespecting people for their sports fandom to disrespecting people for their Doctor Who or Star Trek fandom.
I've spent a lot of time wondering which of my fandoms regularly result in brain injuries to the people I'm watching. And which cost hundreds of millions of dollars in public money**. And which fine the participants more for wearing the wrong hat than for beating their spouses.
I've wondered how often Star Trek fans have set off illegal fireworks when Kirk beat the bad guys. How many times Doctor Who fans have rioted in the street because the Doctor died and regenerated. How many cars were overturned and/or burned when Captain Sheridan was captured by Clark's administration.
I'm not saying it's not okay to enjoy problematic things. I enjoy a /lot/ of problematic things. But if you think scale doesn't matter, you're an idiot. If you think the degree of damage a thing causes to people, and the costs to society don't matter, you need to be kicked in the head. And if you think I'm obliged to hold my tongue about the problems I have with it, so you can feel better about your fandom, have I got a whole set of revelations for you.
So, I think my response to those tweets, and to those blog posts, boils down to twitter-size as "fuck you, and fuck your false comparison".
* Which I haven't read, for anger management reasons.
** Ok, Doctor Who's been going on long enough, it's getting up there. Apparently, it was ~£3K per ep back in the day, and as much as £1M now. At 813 episodes, that's pushing into Centurylink Field territory. But I don't pay a UK TV licensing fee, so I admit I care less about it.
I've seen a lot of tweets lately, many with links to one or more blog posts on the topic*, complaining about people who complain about professional sports. Complaining about people who call it 'sportball' or 'handegg'. Comparing disrespecting people for their sports fandom to disrespecting people for their Doctor Who or Star Trek fandom.
I've spent a lot of time wondering which of my fandoms regularly result in brain injuries to the people I'm watching. And which cost hundreds of millions of dollars in public money**. And which fine the participants more for wearing the wrong hat than for beating their spouses.
I've wondered how often Star Trek fans have set off illegal fireworks when Kirk beat the bad guys. How many times Doctor Who fans have rioted in the street because the Doctor died and regenerated. How many cars were overturned and/or burned when Captain Sheridan was captured by Clark's administration.
I'm not saying it's not okay to enjoy problematic things. I enjoy a /lot/ of problematic things. But if you think scale doesn't matter, you're an idiot. If you think the degree of damage a thing causes to people, and the costs to society don't matter, you need to be kicked in the head. And if you think I'm obliged to hold my tongue about the problems I have with it, so you can feel better about your fandom, have I got a whole set of revelations for you.
So, I think my response to those tweets, and to those blog posts, boils down to twitter-size as "fuck you, and fuck your false comparison".
* Which I haven't read, for anger management reasons.
** Ok, Doctor Who's been going on long enough, it's getting up there. Apparently, it was ~£3K per ep back in the day, and as much as £1M now. At 813 episodes, that's pushing into Centurylink Field territory. But I don't pay a UK TV licensing fee, so I admit I care less about it.
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no subject
Date: 2015-02-02 04:59 am (UTC)If people hid their like for football and only admitted it to other likeminded people, for fear they'd be mocked as dorks, then it might be a little more comparable.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-02 05:06 am (UTC)Just as a Devils' Advocate
Date: 2015-02-03 04:59 am (UTC)I did see one that said Tae Kwon Do was relatively high, especially after kicks to the head were increased in tournament point value. But I also saw one that said womens' soccer was insanely high (.91 per 1000, i think, but it was an old study). So I'm not 100% sure that using concussion ratios is necessarily a completely valid statistic. Heck, I almost gave myself a concussion going back into my building after smoking one time (and yes, I was sober). And as we've all seen, Boxing can be fucking HORRIBLE to people. And there's a LOT more that could damage you when boxing than just that. Like, kill you damage you. Pretty damn easily.
But then, you could theoretically get a concussion from tennis.
Most every professional sport, in one way or another, costs a LOT of public money. It's, unfortunately, the nature of the beast. It's partly an image thing for the city, and partly as a draw to bring in new other tax revenue, by going, "look! stadium!". That whole "you have to spend money to make money" thing. Admittedly, not necessarily always well thought out...
I don't have a problem with people having problems with American Football, Soccer, Baseball (which I find horribly boring, to be quite honest), Hockey (meh, i watch it for the fights, mostly), or Basketball (see Baseball). If you have a problem with Cricket or Canadian Football, I'll probably be right there with you (too confusing, and ... why?, respectively). I just think it'd be nice if we could have cogent arguments, rather than reductive generalizations.
Let me put it another way. I really just can't get into "Agent Carter". It's not my thing. But I don't go around making derisive comments about it, because, if you dig it, cool. I'm not a huge fan of Arrow or The Flash either, but I can see how you might like 'em, so good on you.