• Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more

Noam Chomsky: Sports is a capitalist conspiracy

Aidoneus said:
And once again we return to your issue with all this; it isn't that people don't engage with politics, it's that when they do, they don't always agree with you.
Click to expand...

Not exactly
Most people do not engage in politics. Period.
 
Puppycow said:
Could you explain what you mean by that?
Click to expand...

Yes.
For many people I believed in the righthood of my country.
Then I undersood I had been lied to, and tried to talk with people about the fact that the system screws up the people for people in the elit te to keep their power.
But people do not listen, and they prefer to believe that the world is squared and spend their time look at the Sopranos or listen to Hirai Ken or whatever.
Since adult people are reponsible for their time, why instead of losing our time to try to convince them, why instead we should move from the side of the Jackasses to the side of the Jackals?
Without committing the atrocities of the Jackals, I mean..
Just do not respect the rules..
 
Watanabe said:
Yes.
For many people I believed in the righthood of my country.
Then I undersood I had been lied to, and tried to talk with people about the fact that the system screws up the people for people in the elit te to keep their power.
But people do not listen, and they prefer to believe that the world is squared and spend their time look at the Sopranos or listen to Hirai Ken or whatever.
Since adult people are reponsible for their time, why instead of losing our time to try to convince them, why instead we should move from the side of the Jackasses to the side of the Jackals?
Without committing the atrocities of the Jackals, I mean..
Just do not respect the rules..
Click to expand...

Sounds like a way to rationalize unethical behavior.
 
dudalb said:
As someone stated, by any use of logic you have to include Movies, TV,Novels,and other form of entertainment as being a "distraction" by Chomsky's definition.
Click to expand...
Not really, cause there isn't the strong jingoism and group element found in sports that he's talking about.
 
Watanabe said:
In this case, I strongly support that you should watch more sports and go to more football match.
I mean, in your case only
Click to expand...

Watanabe said:
Not exactly
Most people do not engage in politics. Period.
Click to expand...

And yet right above you told me I should not engage in politics. How do you rationalize this seeming hypocrisy?

I mean, yes, you did specify it is for me only. :rolleyes: But nonetheless I think the question still stands.

Morrigan said:
Not really, cause there isn't the strong jingoism and group element found in sports that he's talking about.
Click to expand...

I don't know. Have you ever seen a country music concert. :p
 
Being pro-war can be an ethical behavior depending the war the person wants.
Being pro-death penalty might be an ethical behavior depending on the context.
 
I can sympathise with Chomskys disdain if it is just about American sports, which are universally awful, but not if he is talking about any other sport.
 
I happen to think supporting a sports team and chanting the occasional insults about fierce rival teams (helemaal niets in Rotterdam!) is not only fun but a good alternative for the tribalism that is so much part of being human.

Surprisingly enough I've got many other interests besides sports. Including politics, though the usual rhetoric involved is rather off-putting to say the least.
 
Undesired Walrus said:
I can sympathise with Chomskys disdain if it is just about American sports, which are universally awful, but not if he is talking about any other sport.
Click to expand...

I demur from your blanket dismissal.

The Blachawks are universally awesome!

Actually, I find the tone of this whole argument, well, quite snobbish. What would Mr. Chomsky have us all do with our time, drink tea at the local café and debate Proust? Sure, sports is a capitalist enterprise. So what? It sure as heck doesn't serve to exploit the athletes in the US. In fact, probably the most 'exploitive' sport, if you will, is American football. If you are in the US and an American Football fan as I am, you are aware that there is a huge debate raging, and potential transformation of the sport pending, due to the long term consequences of head injuries.

In any case, the sports are where they are today because the fans put their money that way. Look at the career arc of Joe Namath, for one. When football started getting attention due to superstars, advertising money followed. Capatalism is really sometimes just the flow, and sometimes ebb, of where attention goes.
 
Last edited:
Checkmite said:
Chomsky is a toolbag. I'm glad he's discovered that sports are diversion, like all entertainment, but it's just not an epiphany to anyone else. He doesn't say much to support his opinion that diversion is bad; so it's hard to evaluate it aside from "I disagree"; although the fact that his very website and lectures are by definition a diversion to the people who attend them makes it all an exercise in irony (hardly Chomsky's first).
Click to expand...

Pretty much. If sports aren't important, then neither are movies or music or books or any number of other diversions.
 
Undesired Walrus said:
I can sympathise with Chomskys disdain if it is just about American sports, which are universally awful, but not if he is talking about any other sport.
Click to expand...


Exactly!

Look at cricket - We lost again against India on Sunday. A perfect indictment of post imperialist anti capitalist victory. A sport we colonized a fifth of the world with... blah blah blah!

And remember those wonderful near women athletes of before, carefully produced for the good of the CCCP/USSR to counteract the obvious capitalist conspiracy of sport during those golden cold war days.

Who could forget those hormone induced gymnasts from the great..... and so it goes on.

Had the title been 'Sport is a conspiracy devised by those in power', the statement/argument might be given due respect.
 
Last edited:
Travis said:
Alright, since you seem insistent on going down this road. :rolleyes:

A madman takes over a military base, steals a nuke and says he'll set it off in the middle of a city unless a child is raped in front of him.

So one rape = hundreds of thousand of saved lives.
Click to expand...

You thought about this all by yourelf?
Should start a thriller book writing career
 
I confess I never did understand what it is about watching sport that so many people seem to find absorbing. It bores me to death, unless it involves shapely young women in skimpy outfits.
I have long seen sport as like sex- If you do it yourself, it's fun: If you pay to watch professionals do it, it's pornography.

Whether pornography is also a capitalist conspiracy is a question I leave to the internet economists.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom