Olympics disinterest

[Architect]

Anybody following the Olympics? I used to watch when I was a kid, but these days I have more interesting things to do with my time.

 

[The Gopher]

Well I don't have more interesting things to do but I am not watching it currently anyway. If I walk in and something interesting is on I might watch it.

 

[Oedipus]

I watched the opening ceremony with the same sort of attitude as when watching the Eurovision (That is, half digging it and half dying of embarrassment), but I won't be following the actual sports. I guess I might watch the 100m.

 

[Jennywocky]

I forgot it even started, except for the news articles. I thought it was neat that Danny Boyle was overseeing the opening ceremonies, but otherwise I didn't really pay any attention to what actually happened.

As a random bit of trivia, my younger son was born opening night of the 1996 Olympics. A bunch of twisters went through the county in which the hospital was located as well. Weird. An omen?

 

[7even]

Hmm, watching other people participating in sports doesn't appeal to me. Get nothing out of it. People supporting strangers (competing for their country) is beyond me. I'm no patriot either, but I doubt the athletes care about any of their supporters (who they know nothing about and vice versa to a degree, certainly a few exceptions of people I categorize under creepy stalkers). But I'd be lying if I said a few of the events weren't entertaining, like curling, that shit's intense.

 

[Meer]

The stuff with Mitt Romney was entertaining, but other than that, no.

All the nationalism and charading it as a legitimate charity weirds me out.

 

[skip]

Just the equestrian events.

 

[Question Authority]

It's
A) feats of athleticism/sport, which I have no interest in, and
B) grand displays of Nationalism, which I vehemently hate,
so no. I don't care for the Olympics.

 

[Dapper Dan]

The Olympics are cool. I like what they represent, and I like that some different sports get good coverage.

 

[redbaron]

I enjoy the Olympics. The sports that are more popular in Europe/Asia are fun to watch. Handball especially is great.

I don't follow them, but I can enjoy watching close/intense matches in (almost) any sport.

 

[Thurlor]

Heh, I didn't even realise that they had started until I noticed that the google page had changed. Like some others here I used to follow them when I was younger. Now I just see them as a means for a lot of people to vicariously 'play for their country'. It makes about as much sense (to me) as football fans.

Besides, the olympics seem to celebrate nationalism which I believe is much the same as racism or sexism if the individual isn't born to that nation.

 

[xbox]

Sometimes I like looking at the clothes of the different countries. When different countries walk by, the NBC commentators kept talking about political conflicts, and i was just like just shut the hell up for once?

Sometimes the opening ceremony is cool, but I wasn't so sure about this one, I thought it was a little bit messy in some parts. It could have been better. Some parts were cool though.

I like watching the hot guys swimming team. Yum. Come to me.
Volleyball, diving, some of the gymnastics are fun to watch.
But floor dance gymnastics is hilarious. I just can't take it seriously.

 

[7even]

Ban this thread.

 

[Cheeseumpuffs]

Nope. Slowly been phasing the Olympics out of my life. Used to watch it a lot when I was really little and it was like a family thing to sit down and watch it together. Now I just don't care. If I have absolutely nothing better to do and there's an interesting sport on I'll sit down and watch but besides that I don't even care who wins.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Ban this thread.

lol

 

[m.love]

Right there with ya. The last Olympics that made any impression on me was Barcelona. Was there something fantastic about it? Or was I very impressianate at that time? Anyway, that was early 90's. And I'm still in my 20's...

 

[Kuu]

Ban this thread.

Hehehe


Olympics: waste of time, waste of money.

Distraction, distraction, distraction.



I guess it says a lot that the world's nations are only able to come together to engage in trivial shit like sports.

 

[crippli]

I prefer athletic games compared to regular warfare. People seem to need to measure oneself against the others. May be woman to woman, or even nation to nation.

The problem is that it's not easy to do it this way either. The Olympics seems to be constituted with people who is in it for the money. The IOC for one. These are not well constructed structures. And the games suffer in both essence and purity due to these influences.

I was just in Spain, and when going to eat, a lot of people was clustered around the TV. I asked what was going on, and it turned out it was an Olympic ceremony. Then I got to know it is probably an Olympic going on right now, as this was last week. Could be the end ceremony though, didn't ask. I did find it fascinating how everyone was watching the TV.

 

[Melkor]

I dislike the ridiculously over the top and oppressive nature of the security implementations, which either harass the public in the name of national defence or are aimed at keeping at the unwashed masses who keep London going but who were unable to get a ticket due to the poorly organised ticketing. O-o

I dislike the manner in which the organisers and the London bourgeoisie in general have trodden on the average Londoner to get their way in many aspects.

I dislike the fact that it'll cost a massive debt to the taxpayer which if anything will only balance itself out rather than profit the U.K.

I dislike the fact that it's been wracked with controversy, e.g Ticket scandal, security scandal, branding scandal-etc.

I disliked the opening ceremony, which was a load of bollocks. Some dancing nurses and Marry Poppins clones versus Voldemort and the child catcher, and the Victoria period came just after the Beatles!

I dislike the whole national aspect. Look mate, you didn't win a medal. Nor did I. WE did not win a medal. I'm a skinny unathletic Irishman and you're a fat bastard on a pub chair. It was some woman neither of us has ever met or heard of who won said medal, and simply because she was born roughly in the same political union as us, doesn't mean WE OWN THE MEDAL. And NO. That's not a personification of Germany rowing that boat, it's a team of well trained and hopeful athletes who happened to have been born Deutschland!
So for Gods sake leave them alone, they're just people.

However, I enjoy seeing nations trying to outdo each other and for the most part be beaten by Asians and Germans.

There are also a few sports which interest me, mostly Archery and fencing, and while I have no interest in nationalism or all the nonsense and hype surrounding the thing, it turns out watching someone do something they've spent nine tenths of their life doing really well is actually entertaining!

So yeah. I despised the whole event until I seen some sport, most of which I barely understand, but damn it looks impressive.

 

[Amagi82]

I just sat down and attempted to watch the Olympics, and now I see what people are bitching about.

In about 30 minutes I was presented with:
12 minutes of commercials
6 minutes of people standing around doing nothing and/or sobbing
5 minutes of worthless montages
3 minutes of yammering about nothing of consequence
2 minutes of people whining about rules
2 minutes of actual Olympic events

 

[Amagi82]

Also, you folks are spot-on about the obnoxious nationalism shit.

 

[Puffy]

I'm from the UK so it's kind of hard to avoid here. I just have it on in the background as I do other things.

I found the opening ceremony hilarious, it was an absolute cluster-f---. It amounted, largely, to a celebration of pop culture, that they had the friggin Queen jump out a helicopter with James Bond just goes to show how disassociated we (British) are from our own history. Which is a good and bad thing, I'm not a nationalist by any means, but it just seems like escapism to me. And people were still cheering the fact that the Queen was there (arghhhh, why won't they just die already!?), though they did play the Sex Pistols so I don't know if this cancels it out.

But it seems like as long as you have Mr Bean play in the opening ceremony everyone has an excuse to pretend things are good *sigh* That bastard.

Like Melkor said to, Victorian period following the Beatles? Black people dressed in Victorian bourgeoisie clothing? ('let's just forget about slavery okay, guys?')

 

[7even]

I dislike the whole national aspect. Look mate, you didn't win a medal. Nor did I. WE did not win a medal. I'm a skinny unathletic Irishman and you're a fat bastard on a pub chair. It was some woman neither of us has ever met or heard of who won said medal, and simply because she was born roughly in the same political union as us, doesn't mean WE OWN THE MEDAL. And NO. That's not a personification of Germany rowing that boat, it's a team of well trained and hopeful athletes who happened to have been born Deutschland!
So for Gods sake leave them alone, they're just people.

YES! It's the same with football teams; all my friends follow and 'support' a football team and it's part of general conversation on a frequent basis... So ridiculous. I don't give a shit about an athlete I know nothing about, nor does he give a shit about me. Thing is the majority of people like that actually react emotionally to whether 'their' team wins or not. Football players: "Thanks for the millions of pounds, dumb asses."

Love how all INTPs hate nationalism though.

 

[Cogwulf]

Dis-regarding everything else that has been said for just a moment, the single biggest problem with the olympics is the corporatism.
McDonalds the food of athletes? Nuff said.

I sort of disagree with the nationalism argument. This sort of thing will always happen, humanity will always possess a natural tendency towards "us" and "them". Out of all the possible ways that this can be expressed, pride-by-association is the most positive and generally encourages good things.

 

[7even]

Dis-regarding everything else that has been said for just a moment, the single biggest problem with the olympics is the corporatism.
McDonalds the food of athletes? Nuff said.

I sort of disagree with the nationalism argument. This sort of thing will always happen, humanity will always possess a natural tendency towards "us" and "them". Out of all the possible ways that this can be expressed, pride-by-association is the most positive and generally encourages good things.

Agreed on corporatism.

I don't think pride-by-association is a negative thing either, it's just 'nationalism' isn't what it used to be. Today, it's a tool used for hatred, racism, warfare, political corruption etc. - What do people today even have but their past (a past filled with many things nationalists/patriots shouldn't even be proud of) to be proud of? Oppression? An economically stable country (capitalism), at the expense of mass poverty and the destruction of nature? (Not speaking individualistically, ofcourse)

 

[A22]

Stuck at home during the strike, I'm following it pretty closely.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

http://www.google.com/doodles/basketball-2012

Spoiler

[bIMGx=700]http://i.imgur.com/oXXki.png[/bIMGx]

 

[intpz]

I never watched a single sports event. Not on PC, not on TV, not live.

 

[snafupants]

The women's beach volleyball can prove quite stimulating.