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Oddly enough, I get a lot of flack from my friends for being an openly fair weather fan. With politics, I support policies, not politicians. I understand the draw for rooting for the guy who 'thinks like you', or, if you find somebody who 'gets it', but the flip side of that is that it's hard to reconcile where they're wrong. A lot of people will actually conform their own beliefs to match the beliefs of a politician they like. Polls of the NSA surveillance highlighted some of this; many Democrats who hated the PATRIOT Act under Bush didn't mind its abuses under Obama, and similarly, many Republicans who were okay with the law under Bush hated its uses by the Obama administration. Same law, same nonsense, and admittedly, Obama made at least a token effort to instate the FISA court, if only to give it the appearance of fairness. With sports though, I'm exactly the same. I'm a Ravens fan, but if we don't make the playoffs, I'll pick another team that's convenient and start rooting for them. If we have a years' long streak of bad luck, like the Bills, or the Browns, I'll jump ship and root for a better team. Yes, that makes me a 'traitor' to many 'real fans', but the counter is that I don't get anything out of being a fan other than some manufactured emotions. If it were Green Bay, and I owned shares, that'd be a little bit different, I suppose, but until and unless I get some kind of perk for a winning season (beyond the one I want most, which is to see my team make the playoffs), I just don't see the logic in being wed to them arbitrarily. |
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