Do Progressives hate sports and sports lovers?
If they want the vote and the movement, sports is a great way to do it. But do leftists secretly despise sports?
One of the biggest progressive sports success stories has been St Pauli of Germany. The Hamburg soccer club has become one of the shining examples of leftism in sports. Their stadium was sold to a cooperative of fans, their fans display progressive and leftist slogans on their scarves and tifos.
They have fans all around the world that proudly wear their skull and crossbones as a sense of unity, and a show of loud brash leftism rarely seen in the 21st century. The team and their superfans, the ultras, have an identity that is rooted in visions of inclusion, participation, transparency, and punk rock. They are easily one of the most popular teams in German football, and have no qualms displaying their allegiance to the left.
This is a leftist success story. And it came through the culture that was around them, that the team was surrounded by young punk rockers, and people who were anti-fascists. They were the first club to ban fascists chanting during a time where that was becoming the norm. Through this they became a “kult” club and has continued to this day.
The skull and crossbones image of St Pauli has been a worldwide symbol of leftism throughout Europe. This is a success story. Yet it is few and far between.
Even though St Pauli and it’s legion of fans have found a home for leftist politics, leftism in sports is something that is rare. And not many professional sports teams in North America I can even picture wearing their anti-fascism on their sleeve as St Pauli does.
It’s the nasty double think that sports fans like myself are stuck with. I love the sports I watch, I watch the games, cheer on the players, live and die by the team. Moods change, shirts are bought, and time is spent. But I know that this game is full of conservatives, full of people who loudly and proudly voted for Trump, and who generally don’t care about me at all. I wished my team would care about the plights of people and get involved as St Pauli does, but that’s not the case. It’s rarely the case. It’s so rare that I can’t find any North American examples that even come close.
Yet, I return, and many progressives out there also return to watch and cheer and continue. And every year I ask myself, where are the leftists leaders? Why are they not at the game?
Hockey and Conservatives
This became front and clear when the most famous hockey player of all time has made it public for many years that he supports right wing views and has come out to endorse not only Stephen Harper, but Donald Trump himself.
Gretzky has been a proud Conservative for years, but this year specifically has been egregious due to his positioning around Trump. Edmontonians were so mad that actual feces was smeared on the statue of Gretzky in Edmonton.
However, this doesn’t mean that I still don’t enjoy hockey. Against even my better self, I still plop myself down to watch the Oilers game. Yeah I know they hired Stan Bowman who was instrumental in the cover up of a sexual abuse. Yes I know that most of those hockey players would’ve loved to vote for Trump (or has). Yes I know that the owner Daryl Katz was involved in allegations of sexual misconduct (that were dropped, who knows what happened there).
But I’m here every playoffs against my better self going “yesssss’ when Connor and Leon start doing their thing.
Because for many progressives that don’t enjoy hockey or sports, they don’t get it. They don’t understand that this is a long relationship that has been forged for decades. For us it’s part of the package. We hold our nose and go watch the game. We shake our head, maybe we don’t buy anything, maybe we find other ways to watch the game, maybe we try to avoid it, but we know we will back. We know it. It’s just a matter of time and consequence.
This also means that there is a massive opportunity for progressive leaders, social activists, leftist fans, and progressive people to make a dent. Because there are a major audience that is not being catered to at all.
But I have a feeling that progressive leaders don’t want to. It’s not just that they may feel it’s a lost cause, but I think there’s a true dis-taste to sports and sports fans from leftists that is hard to shake.
This is a massive mistake.
Where are the Leftist Sports Lovers?
The reason I wanted to write about this issue, is this commentary from the Young Men Research Project in the US. Where it says clearly that “Trump is Kicking The Left’s Ass on Sports.”
In the piece it lays out many instances where Trump is able to go to these sporting events with fan fare and is greeted there with mostly applause. It makes sense, a lot of those fans are conservative.
It also mentions the initiatives that he has brought out to stamp out so-called “DEI initiatives” to an absurd point to even downplay one of the most important sports moments of all time, when Jackie Robinson crossed the colour barrier in baseball. The Dodgers, the organization that helped Robinson cross the barrier, and also recently won the World Series, also visited Trump even though they declined to do so in 2018. All the uproar came from sports commentators and fans but we didn’t hear so much as a peep from Democrats or even Progressive leaders about this.
It’s really weird to see the sports space completely devoid of progressive leaders and stars when it used to have some of them at least. From Muhammad Ali, to Kareem Abdul Jabber, to Colin Kaepernick.
In the modern era, the most progressive pro athletes have been the women. The Megan Rapinoes, the Sue Birds, the Serena Williams. Can you name the most prominent progressive sounding male athlete? Maybe it’s LeBron James, but even he’s like “yeah you’re trying I guess.” He’s no Kareem.
But I think it goes beyond that, I think in general a lot of progressives just hate sports and sports fans. I believe this, because as a progressive sports fan, I have seen this attitude firsthand. They are dismissive of the sports around them, furthermore they are dismissive of the massive sports culture around them. They may think it’s childish, or not worth their time.
Or they may feel like it’s cringe, or they may judge other sports fans for the crime of…being sports fans.
Progressives Don’t like Sports Lovers
Here’s what I think is happening. A lot of leftist thought either come from two places, a continuation of familial and cultural values of their past, or a rejection of familial and cultural values of their past. I would also say it’s more likely the latter than the former, especially in North America since we live more in a capitalistic individualistic society. So there’s a streak of contrarianism which is a rejection of things that may be around you.
I became a progressive more so due to the former, that my family and people around me were less concerned about capitalism and more about art, music, family, and food. We as a family didn’t mind sports. We gathered around to watch a lot of soccer, and hockey. This also meant I could keep some sort of balance between my political leanings and my sports watching1.
Since professional sports in North America is something you truly cannot escape, I understand the contrarian and what it may seem like counter-cultural point of view that “Sports suck!”
In a pretty good essay by the at the time student journalist Grace Miller, she outlines all the reason she “really really really hates sports” In the piece she highlights all the things she did to try to understand and like “sports.” Especially in a college town that loves football, she tried to join a team, learn the rules, and see what happens. Still didn’t click. And in it, she found her inner truth, it’s just not for her.
The funny thing about this is that there is a lot of leftists and progressives that DO make “Hating sports” a part of their persona. In the 2010’s it was a “thing” to call sports of any kind “sportsball” in a mocking tone to people who really cared about a giant sporting event. 2
On one hand I get it, fans (mostly men) usually mocked younger people (mostly women) when they got into their feels about their favourite bands and musicians. The same as when a guy got into their feels about their team. So it did feel like a hypocrisy, where one was accepted and one was not.
But as we learned further that the people who just disliked either or (boy bands and sports) was just an unpleasant person to be around. So much so that saying “Oh you’re watching sportsball??” became a cringe meme in it’s own right. Also it didn’t make you special, just like hating on Taylor Swift doesn’t make you cool either.
However, this meant that a lot of leftists/progressives just didn’t know or understand sports at it’s heart. They didn’t understand why people cared so much, why millions and billions of dollars are invested in it yearly, and why it’s important to be there when sports are played. And it’s funny because a lot of them do understand the power of celebrity, the power of gathering, the power of community, and the power of uniting for one cause. Just don’t do it around sports.
In a way I understand why it may seem like an uninviting place too, it’s full of guys, it’s full of people really in their feels, and full of dumb jock behaviour. Also, to follow any kinds of sports, you do end up listening to some of the dumbest arguments made by some of the dumbest people in the world telling you how you should be thinking about a certain thing. It’s exhausting.
But it’s also no different than any other fandom. I’m positive dumb internet behavior lies in most popular fandoms. However if a political or aspirational cultural leader is like “I’m avoiding the Marvel movie/Beyonce concert/K-Pop band tour, because of how toxic it is” they would be told that they’re crazy!
I think it’s due to this narrative that professional sports is not a place for progressives to be in. And maybe a bit of an “ick” factor for leftists to embrace sports as part of our culture. At least the popular professional sports of North America.
Jock culture is never having a good look, but in the 2020’s especially, it’s having it’s true flop era. For example, right now Hockey Canada is having the trials of the players who have alleged to cause sexual assaults in 2008. The UFC is turning into Trump rallies, and some professional athletes are telling us not to get vaccinated. There has also been countless of stories of professional sports athletes doing illegal things, causing endless harm, and saying some of the worst things.
But I think this is such an opportunity.
These conservative jock attitudes should mean that there is a lot of sports loving progressives that would love to see more athletes embrace more progressive stances. This is fertile ground for anyone trying to organize. To galvanize the progressive fans out there and trust me there are a lot of them.
Sticking up your nose on the whole thing seems more for personal snobbery than any type of strategy.
So my question is, do any of the online leftists in Canada even care about sports enough to get involved? Where are they? Where was the NDP during an election year in the Stanley Cup playoffs? Where are the progressives courting young sports fans?
I don’t understand how a story like St Pauli, the German leftist soccer team, can’t happen now. There are many teams located in progressive cities that can easily adopt this, but it needs the galvanization of it’s people and that requires support from leftists. It makes no sense why they’re not anywhere close to there.
And leftist need not sneer at sports fans, especially progressive sports fans, they are as conflicted about cheering on that sport as anyone living through this world. It does us a dis-service to turn away people like that.
It’s time to embrace the sportsball.
There’s also some data that suggest at least in North America, if you’re a soccer fan you lean more leftist. I wouldn’t extrapolate that to the rest of the world though, don’t look up how some European teams like Real Madrid or SS Lazio started
Does anyone remember the whole “Superb Owl” meme?