In episode number 224, I stumbled upon a news clip about the Oakland A's baseball team. The owner wants to move the team due to low attendance and lack of profits, which has upset the fans. The fans expressed their anger towards the owner, even though the team was performing well with a 7-0 record and near capacity crowds. I found it ridiculous how passionate these fans were about a sports team. Personally, I'm not a sports fan because of the exorbitant costs involved. Just the ticket prices for a family of four can add up to $200-260, and that's without food or drinks. It's outrageous considering I remember paying only $10 for a major league baseball game in the past.

The level of fanaticism displayed by these fans is unhealthy and indicative of larger issues in society. People invest so much passion and identification into something as trivial as a sports game, whereas they should focus that energy on improving their own lives or relationships. I want to clarify that I'm not against sports as a recreational activity, especially if it involves spending quality time with loved ones. However, the obsession and vicarious identification with professional sports teams is worrisome.

Unity among fans doesn't automatically make it right or healthy. It's like the quote from the movie "V for Vendetta" where the protagonist says that if we want to know how we got into this mess, we just need to look in the mirror. The news clip from Oakland showed the emotional detachment of the reporters, as if the happiness surrounding the team's success was the pinnacle of existence. This level of fervor is reminiscent of other instances of unity, like the Nazis, which doesn't make it morally or psychologically sound. If these fans faced a real crisis and I proposed they ask a player for financial help, they would think I'm insane.

Most likely, they put their expenses on credit cards, which creates a false sense of payment. The problem lies in people's emotional investment and lack of return from their sports fandom. It's like unrequited love, where fans give their attention, money, and adulation, but the teams or players wouldn't reciprocate when they're in need. The entire sports industry encourages vicarious identification, which is crazy.

We shouldn't invest so much emotion and passion into a sports team. Instead, we should focus on building real bonds with friends and family. Sports teams are meant to be a source of entertainment, not the central focus of our lives. In the grand scheme of things, a player's home runs or statistics won't matter to us. It's time to reevaluate our priorities and invest our energy in things that truly matter.

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yes indeedy this great big beautiful world that is growing smaller every day thank you for tuning in or for tuning in again this is episode number 224 stupid is as stupid does some thoughts you might want to know about your team I was watching something in the news couple three days ago and it was about the Oakland A's baseball team and uh it was uh what I'd call Happy piece um apparently the A's are doing well the fans however are not too happy with the owner because the owner wants to I guess apparently move the

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team um because attendance had been low and he's not making enough money and these guys they basically that's the whole point they never make enough money and here we go with the crazy crazy so this is all I'm gonna talk what I'm going to talk about here is just a whole series of crazy things at least I think that are crazy and they're for you to kick around and see what you think so anywho um yeah just a brief news clip showing really uh some very angry uh sports fans and um in this particular case for this

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episode what they were talking about was the irony of the fact that the team is uh currently 7-0 that makes him happy and the uh crowd was at uh even a better capacity than it had ever been currently and it's like 28 almost 29 000. in the stadium so practically filled to near capacity and um so they wanted to send in doing that they were very happy with the team and these are Die Hard fans and so they're you know they have their these huge Billboards and this one woman that they showed a little clip of and

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she was very vocal and in hating the actual owner of the team and I forgot his damn name but anyway she says um it's you know things like with a huge show you know uh cardboard sign that they have and saying it's not the team she says that the team that has to go it's you that has to go I mean and this is real I mean personal I mean these people are pissed these people are fuman and uh when I heard that they were seven and oh I was like yay because I said you know there's some part of this that maybe a lot of people have not thought

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about Soul that's why I'm here that's what this is about and as it turns out I I dug but it didn't have to dig very deep to go where I'm going and I was really hoping uh that uh you would share uh my uh this pleasure let's say in something that is um well it's not just a something it's actually multiple things that are wrong so I'm going to try to segue properly into this um yeah so I'm I'm watching this whole spectacle in the whole hoopla of the fans and and basically

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I thought it was stupid no I have to explain myself because I guess that should be what you would expect now as you may or may not know I am not a professional sports fan and um so for that reason I don't engage in professional sports regardless of what sport that may be I did many many years ago until I learned a few things and I said oh okay well that's what that's about well the hell with that I'm not doing that anymore and so I haven't and I'm gonna tell you why because when for instance I uh did a

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and I I fully this is not out of the ordinary at all as a matter of fact by many professional baseball you know get-together games are concerned uh they'd say it's probably pretty average but when I priced um a a get together of four so I just figured on two adults two kids now we are talking just the ticket price alone and technically when I checked them out their prices started at um I believe it was around thirty five dollars each and we're talking absolute nosebleeds here I mean this just just horrible seats

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so I split the difference into something you know that I thought was workable and I came up with a price I cost of around in between depending um somewhere between you know 200 and 260 dollars total for four four people two adults two kids and that was that's what I just came up with I I thought that that was a nice way to split it up um we're talking about a venue where tickets can easily go up to 265 dollars each yeah and maybe too many of you that is no big deal you just saw yeah it just doesn't phase you

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and let's see considering and I'm and I'm not that old old but I'm not that old yeah I think I paid 10 bucks the last time I saw a major league baseball game not kidding you yeah and those were in decent seats they weren't the terrible nosebleeds either so um yeah and we thought and kind of thought at the time that was exorbitant where things are gone yet even with that um that kind of cost um the people there and it was like I said near capacity I thought to myself um and these like I said these people in

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unison they were very very vocal about what they liked and what they didn't like and how much they were hating the owner and uh I just thought man my God if you put this much passion into actually you know increasing your own value as far as you know on the job or let's say in your career or for that matter in your you know relationships or anything else instead of something as ultimately meaningless as a baseball game sports game it doesn't matter what sport it is um yeah I bet your lives and maybe even

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the country's life it would be a lot better but I'm you know hey now before we go any further with this part I simply wanted to also let you know that I am not anti-sports okay if you and your family kids friends you want to go out and do some sports you want to play some baseball or softball or basketball or what have you and you're doing it as a family or a neighborhood or as a group of friends and you know you're going to do this and you're going to have some fun and you're going to make it a cookout and

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you're going to make it a day um I've absolutely no problem with that at all none none whatsoever none what I have a problem with here and as soon as what the bigger problem is is that just because I am the one identifying this problem you know I am not the cause of it I am not necessarily bad and I don't mean to Reign on your parade I'm simply trying to tell you that there seriously is something wrong here [Music] you take those P those people those almost thirty thousand people you know that's a that's a good sizable

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chunk of people but there can be in some stadiums and in some places and the absolute Hysteria over you know uh professional sports um is pretty much crazy it's you know it's it's psychotic it really is um the level of vicarious identification is unprecedented and I'm I don't mean as though I'm you know talking Beyond anyone's sound that way um so if you're not many people are not familiar with that term to be vicarious means basically people who choose to fantasize and they live their life

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through others so sometimes for instance um and this is particularly true with uh parents of say gifted children it can be in any area but you know certainly in sports and um some parents um get actually physically you know just they're they're just crazy on the sidelines because they're so utterly into and identifying with their kids performance and that's that's pretty crazy that is not psychologically healthy it's not healthy for the parents and it sure as hell isn't healthy for you know a sub-adult

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Ella it's not even healthy for an adult but when you get tens of thousands of people doing this what I'm trying to say is that if you want a symptom if you want to see what the hell is wrong with America there it is that's just one of them for instance in the old movie if anybody remembers that line from V in V for Vendetta fantastic movie I thought it was a fantastic movie and the little statements that V made and especially during the scene in the movie where he does the broadcast to people and he basically confronts them and he

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says basically you know we're we're in a really bad way here we've painted ourselves in a corner we live in an authoritarian State we you know we live in a nanny State controlled by the governor the government and you know all of this and he says but if you want to know how the hell we actually got here you only need to look in the mirror and he goes on with his his little rant and and all that but I'm basically saying the same thing what was strange if you see this little news clip that was I think only I don't know a

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couple minutes long not very long at all it was out of Oakland I'm sure you can find it and um the people there's the woman and the other man the anchor man but it is the way they're reporting on this is in such a emotionally strange and detached way and it was like it wasn't so much about the fans and how happy they were um with you know the outcome of of a particular you know game or anything it was that it was the be-all and end-all of all of known existence was about just the happiness look at the Oakland A's they're 7-0

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look at the camaraderie and the happy people jumping and and going you know absolutely crazy in the sand isn't this a wonderful spectacle look at this we have Unity and I looked at it and I said God that that's that's really sad that's really pretty damn frightening because I mean if you're going to use that kind of logic well especially when they were winning hell the Nazis had Unity who the is that supposed to you can have Unity but unity in and of itself doesn't make it right and it sure is

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Hell doesn't make it healthy and so there's that I don't I don't really believe that this is again a symptom of a healthy Society now you can choose to ignore what I'm saying but what I've also noticed is that if you take these very people if you could take them on an average let's say and put them in in very different circumstances and then you propose a solution to their problems they would look at you like you're completely insane now let me give you a example a scenario of those nearly thirty thousand people

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I would wager that if they spent even a minimum the average amount that I talked about even if and I'm and I'm sure probably maybe I'm way off but even that alone for this these four people family of four what have you even if that was only just under 300 bucks and bear in mind that's with no food drinks or anything that's just the tickets um where did they come up with that money because you know what I'd be willing to I would be willing to place a wager that that was probably on their credit

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card so in other words think about this they're not even paying for the game really because that card it's not payment in real terms that's just a ponzai scheme because it's just that the bill with interest has not come through yet hello folks I just wanted to take a moment to give you this brief message as you know I don't accept any third party advertising I want you to be able to listen to any and all episodes to your heart's content without that nonsense and it really is nonsense unfortunately though I do need to keep

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the lights on here so I am asking for your support the best way to do that is if you're not here already go to the earnestmanshow.com and you can either click on the put some food in the fridge tab or if you're interested in a little bit of merchandise it's the earnest stuff tab in either way by participating that you will be supporting the show and keeping it commercial free if you have donated already I just wanted to thank you sincerely that's it that's all I wanted to say and again thank you much

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so if I don't have the numbers on this but I probably would wait sure that the majority of them put it on a card vast majority I mean as in money I'm talking about not the wealthy because the wealthy of course don't have to worry about this and of course the wealthy who were doing this they don't have to worry about that either I'm just talking about the average Schmucks who want to this Fiasco as a form of escapism and I get that and I understand also that people need that but there are healthier ways

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to do that that don't cost you nearly anywhere near as much money I just gave one of them a few moments ago you know actually doing things with friends or family things you'll remember forever and those are your friends so those are supposed to be your Heroes your friends or family so but ah if you took as an experiment if you took these same people and let's say they have the inevitable crisis that they do and they will that's for certain um let's say I made a proposal that they um you know that they would have to

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actually go to one of the players of a professional baseball team and ask them for a refund ask them for their money back to see if they that would actually happen they say well yes this particular player let's say you know I know all of your stats I've I've followed you religiously I know how many when you hit this certain Homer that broke a record and when you did this and when you stole this base and and on and on and on with these you know these very I don't know these very arcane facts and figures

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that you know virtually no one else could know or understand or in my case give a damn about but they confront them wherever they can give them a call I don't know how they do it and say so yeah I've been a lifelong fan I went to all these games and you know here's here's what I spent you know tens of thousands of dollars say do you think you can help me with my mortgage payment this month or you know maybe I can't make my my car payment dude but it wait hello where are you going yeah but I I

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loved you and I I identified with you and I did I went to all your games and don't you why are you walking away from me that's what I mean folks that's what I'm trying to that's what I'm trying to say is that that is you you're it's pissing down a dry emotional well for things because there's no in real terms there's no return there's nothing there's nothing there I mean you don't get anything out of it in real terms a real lasting terms and you're not building bonds of friendship

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like again friends or family playing the sport together that's not happening either so um you know I mean yeah because you can't go to any of these people organizations and it's not a two-way it's not a two-way love affair Street vicarious identification doesn't work that way it's like unrequited love it's that means it's one way so you can just give all of your attention and and infatuation and of course your money and you could do that your whole life but if it's ever reversed

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and you're in a spot or you need to they look at you you've got to be crazy I what do you mean you want me to actually help you and do that's what yeah so yeah by the rules of that game they'd look at you like you're crazy what I'm trying to say is overall the entire thing all of it is crazy see that's that's what's crazy so when we're talking in terms of an entire industry and I'm not picking on you know baseball in particular it doesn't matter what particular

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professional sport it is all of it every all of them but they have in common again is vicarious identification you're not supposed to be putting that much emotion and passion into a baseball team or a football team or anything else your team is supposed to be your family you know and I don't know if you got a crappy family well they can maybe try to maybe they're having a bad year use the same analogy that they do for sports people yeah they're a bunch of bums but you know hey maybe next season maybe next

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year you know but that's what I'm trying to say that's something a lot healthier than than all this adulation for basically for strangers for for what what you know for what that's it I'm saying in your life you know if I don't know Donnie Donnie dangling hit you know 355 homers and you know in the next year okay four five six ten fifteen twenty years down what the is that gonna matter in your life at all I'm sure it matters to him because that's his career that's him in a very tiny machine

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in their Sports so yeah to to that small that very small click of people yes all that stuff matters but for most of us it doesn't matter a biscuit thanks for listening