my unpopular opinion is that they are a waste of time and effort.
Definitely unpopular.
However, I mostly agree with you.
I still like the idea of the Olympics in the way it’s marketed to be, a time of peaceful athletic competition and communication between nations and peoples.
And, I can’t lie, it is one of the few times that individual sports that I’m more into watching ever get air time at all. Like, you don’t see judo, or archery, or shooting, or even wrestling on regular tv often at all, even back when I still had cable. Team sports, you can see all damn day, all times of the year, but individual sports don’t usually have the same kind of industry built around them.
Which, that’s part of the problem, the way some sports turn into a money making machine rather than a genuine competition for sport’s sake.
But, yeah, I get tired of the masturbatory commentary, the circle jerk nature of opening ceremonies, the back room bullshit of how it’s all arranged and located. It’s a shit ton of resources better allocated to actually making things better instead of entertaining the masses.
my unpopular opinion is that they are a waste of time and effort.
Let’s go further and remove Soccer, American Football, Basketball, Hockey and other sports.
All of that is IMO a waste of time, with no value /s
We really should. Sports aren’t only a waste of time, they’re a waste of money, too. It infuriates me that taxpayer money is used to build stadiums.
The modern concept of spectacle supports is a waste, not sport itself. As a psych nurse I wish a lot more people would do sports, especially team ones for the social aspect. The best exercise is one that brings you joy; making people run on treadmills to keep their hearts and muscles functioning isn’t even one of my preferred dystopias to live in. I’m not even fundamentally against spectator sports in and of themselves; just the modern commercialization and the way universities in particular have essentially become sports franchises with side hustles in education. I even enjoy watching the artistry and human physical prowess in the Olympics. But again the issue to me is the commercialization. Capitalism has taken so much from us and to me reclamation is more important than elimination in most if not all contexts.
You should add “professional” before “sports”
What’s the /s for? Watching millionaires play with a ball to make corrupt rich assholes even richer is dumb as fuck
I was with you up until the /s
For the athlets they are evercise andethus of value I don’t understand why you would watch someone exercise though. Much better to watch someone play mandolin…
Because it’s generally fun to watch people be really good at stuff. The competition aspect of it creates stories that people get invested in too
Think of it as a prototype of a better form of complex social hierarchy, and an expansion of human thought.
Our primary form of hierarchical display is wealth. Future peoples will reflect on this as a most primitive barbarism. This form of display places fundamental human needs of survival opposite the fulcrum of social hierarchy. Even at a fundamental level, this form of display is primitive nonsense, as it is largely dominated by hereditary factors instead of individual merit. This system is a major incumbrance of progress, placing incompetent persons in prominent roles of society based solely on inheritance.
The Olympics is a far better prototype of a complex meritocracy and regulating structure.
The other primary forms of hierarchy can be seen in academia’s reputation and accolades, and in The Academy Awards of Merit.
Honestly, not to be mean or anything, BUT, this sorta reeks of “I don’t like it so nobody else should.”
This is a type of mentality that I believe to be highly negative and frankly kinda toxic. Your welcome to your opinion, but I really don’t think the many many hours, days, weeks, months, and years of effort, training and planning that goes into those who both run and participate in the Olympics is a waste of time and effort.
Also we live in a world that you can just block or ignore anything you don’t particularly care for.
Honestly, not to be mean or anything, BUT, this sorta reeks of “I don’t like it so nobody else should.”
As someone who had to learn how to avoid these feelings after growing up with parents who felt this way about everything, OP is clearly just salty that people like something they don’t like.
There are legitimate problems with the Olympics, and the scale of the spectacle, international attention and amount of people and money involved really lends itself to the worst of modern humanity. But that doesn’t mean nobody can enjoy them, that just means that the world needs to push to improve the Olympics further
“…so nobody else should”
I don’t think OP ever said that, nor did they imply it. I interpret OP’s unpopular opinion as nothing more than “it’s not for me”.
But I guess there is some room for ambiguity.
Sure, but plenty of things I don’t like I still wouldn’t call a waste of time and effort.
Also, if there’s any vision, aspiration for better, hope for improvement, expanding the limits of the human body is important, just as aspiring to ever improving science or technology
They all have their world championships already so they can already compete there (and I mean, that’s exactly what a multitude of sports do in fact, hell, climbers weren’t that happy about how the sport was added to the Olympics and some high ranking comes just didn’t bother even trying to go).
The environmental and socioeconomic impact of the Olympics make them something we really should consider at least making permanently held in a specific location.
Hmm, an interesting take. The Olympics, being an international multinational event, being in a singular location could cause political tension between countries. It would have to be on neutral land for such a thing to work. Maybe some of that unclaimed land In Africa?
Edit: messed up the formatting by accident.
That would mean a private company becoming the owner of land that isn’t part of a country, would be kind of weird wouldn’t it?
They’re already registered in Switzerland so let them deal with it, countries should refuse to host them considering the cost and the fact that there’s no return on investment in the end.
While I certainly believe many sports events are really just a waste of money, Olympics is probably not.
Not only does it serve as a way to promote sports worldwide, boosting public health and inspiring people, it also is a remarkable feat of international cooperation, contributing to the relative peace and harmony.
Now, all those football leagues and stuff should really vanish. They cost way more than their benefit could ever be.
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remarkable feat of international cooperation
But it shouldn’t be political. Get rid of the countries endorsement of said athletes, so that both israeli and russian athletes can compete, instead of deciding which one depending on political affiliation.
Of course that would turn the olympics into a purely individualistic endeavour¹, and funding for training athletes would likely fall on private enterprise² who would likely only fund already good budding athletes³ instead of funding schools and communities in general.
¹ - read: “Go Bell!” instead of “Go GB!”
² - read: replace country badges with BMW logos
³ - read: rich kids from good homesSo, in conclusion: *shrug emoji*
I’d agree except that the possibility remains to just build a permanent site to host both the summer and winter games, removing like 99% of the negatives that it actually causes.
It’s a drain on resources intended to boost the prestige of a nation-state and the vile, self-serving elites that control them. The IOC itself is a corrupt bribe-machine that willingly bolsters the reputation of the worst regimes in the world.
It’s the circuses part of ‘bread and circuses’ - a tool of oppressers the world over.
Basically all professional sports.
I believe sports should be done for fun and exercise. Not as a professional career.
Almost nothing good comes from professionally played sports. It only brings the worst of human beings.
The original olympics promoted well-rounded athletes who would compete in many sports, not just yak-shaving on one particular sport.
I think the spirit of the original olympics was more humanistic, as it was implicit that some athletes would be good in some events but not so good in others, a.k.a they were all winners
Globally your position is extremely popular.
My similar opinion is that Americans could have Universal healthcare for a decade if they gave up the money they spend on football for just one year. NFL. College ball, etc.
We could have universal healthcare if we take the money the us government already spends and cut out the middleman. In fact we would save money that doesn’t even include what we spend already. Insurance is a scam and the fact healthcare and insurance became a for profit industry in 1970s…says a whole lot
Ya know, they could keep the football if they gave up the “destabilising countries and murdering brown people” thing
They could have all of that if they gave up even one billionaire. And nothing of value would be lost.
they could have even more money to murder innocent people if they just fixed their stupid system. they currently pay more per person on healthcare than countries with a functioning healthcare system.
See!? Even in a theoretical post you’re not willing to give up football and came up with another thing to point your finger at
Whats wrong with some entertaining sports? You don’t have to watch it. But millions of people want to.
I’m pretty sure people uninterested in the things that interest you would say the same thing.
Honestly, the problem with the Olympics right now is the same problem with FIFA. Both organizations are seeking one thing, you might be surprised what it is - profit. Just a while ago, the Olympics organization wants in on the NFT/Crypto craze that has long bypassed them. If that isn’t a sign of where their priorities are, then yes, this opinion would be totally valid.
However, just like FIFA, the Olympics is totally avoidable.
so hate organized FIFA/Olymlics but like the idea of it?
The only cool thing about it is how it unites many parts of the world through participants.
Really wish that was a real thing in other factors. I don’t understand why it takes tragedy or things like the Olympics to unify people.
Food and sports are the best way to connect people and their respective cultures
There are many reasons to oppose the Olympics, but that the athletes are wasting their time and effort is not one of them
Upvoted because this is definitely an unpopular opinion
I would have no problem with a few internationally funded standardized Olympic facilities with rotating hosts that offer their nations cuisine and hospitality to the games.
Sort of a reverse tourism thing.
