Can you imagine how specialized you would be if you only had one interest? Like the example non-ADD person just into politics... They must know the name of every representative at every level from city to country where they are living, know the detailed history of the political parties, and have a deep knowledge of political movements and their history.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It's why most people are heavily propagandized and proselytized from a very early age to make sports their hobby. Indeed, these people tend to have deep knowledge of their team's and their immediate opponent's histories, with background going back to specific matches half a century ago and impressive retention of numbers and statistics thereof and so on.

All this knowledge of course is absolutely useless politically (and often, socially), which is precisely the point.

[–] Goudewup@feddit.nl 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ehm no? What person or institution or organisation do you imagine going "harrr let's get kids into sports so that they don't bother to learn about politics harr!" exactly? Because it's for sure not schools that are doing that. Most schools even teach about how politics work even.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Err, yes? Family and friends and massive amounts of peer pressure to belong. And Massive spending by the state towards such sports ofc.

[–] Goudewup@feddit.nl 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just because a government subsidises sports (for example for health benefits) does not mean there is some nefarious plot to keep the populace from being involved in politics

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The government building massive stadiums for people to watch sports is not for "health benefits". Cmon now. This is typical "bread and circuses" stuff.

And it doesn't have to be a "nyah nyah nyah" twirling mustache guy thing. Fact of the matter is that the rise of professional sports just so happened to correlate to the rise of the nation state.

[–] TheSambassador@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You've crossed into conspiracy theory territory bud. It's not entirely implausible but it is getting in the direction of "out there."

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago