dlthomas comments on The Two-Party Swindle - Less Wrong

42 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 01 January 2008 08:38AM

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Comment author: Joseph_Knecht 01 January 2008 10:52:49PM 1 point [-]

Yudkowsky: If the truck drivers of the world did not divide the world into in-group and out-group there would be no such thing as football.

Why do you believe this? You certainly haven't given reasons why this would be the case, but you state it as if it's a prima facie truth.

Some people enjoy football but don't have a favorite team, and thus have no out-group. I personally don't care for football, but do occasionally watch a tennis or soccer match. I don't care who wins. I enjoy soccer, for example, for the same reason that I might enjoy watching a skilled martial arts bout -- to see what physically talented human beings who have dedicated themselves to some discipline are capable of, and to see the strategizing made physical that is the essence of physical/athletic competitions at the highest level.

Please explain how my occasional appreciation of soccer reveals that I divide the world into in-group and out-group, when I couldn't care less who wins and who loses. Or perhaps you think football is radically different than soccer, and that nobody likes football for the reasons I like soccer.