Sports and Truth

This summer has been very sporting; in the course of a couple of weeks I attended a World Cup match and a minor-league baseball game. Took pictures and thought about enjoying this stuff. “Haha, sportsball… I know that a whole lot of people, including not a few among my online audience, see neither joy nor virtue in fandom. That’s an attitude they’re entitled to have assuming they realize the absence of joy is a them thing. After joy there’s virtue. Yes, organized professional sport raises serious ethical issues. That’s putting it politely. Many-to-most branches of commercial sport are rife with exploitation, oppression, and corruption. I’m not going to push back, and in fact I sometimes feel guilty about enjoying the spectacle as much as I do. More to come on that. On hating FIFA I’m not going to re-tell the tales of galaxy-scale corruption, the ostentatious displays of wealth and privilege, and the cozying-up to dictators, both real and wannabe. Attending the 2026 World Cup gave me…