Unpopular Opinions (2 Viewers)

[nuke terrorist]

We could turn hunting rich people into a sport

That belongs in the popular opinions thread

 

[nuke terrorist]

boxing is not a sport.

the marathon runners and 50km runners put themselves through worse than than boxers in the short term at least. boxing is dangerous and even a certain gold medalist's mother won't watch her fights.

Put it this way I watch a lot of bike racing but I am supporting some terrible things in doing so.
but horse racing won't go away just because I don't support it.

so sport is a real blindspot for me - I admit it.

 

[flashback]

Nah..that has got to be running

I'm fairly sure this is horseshit, but I heard a story that went along the lines of:

There's a Finnish guy in WWII who went tearing around on cross country skis with a sniper rifle on his back, he'd hole up somewhere and ping a load of Rooskies in the absolute arseholes of nowhere. Then he'd bate off on his skis again, and the Russians simply couldn't catch him. They'd live in mortal fear of a shot out of nowhere blowing the back of their heads off.

Like, this lad took out hundreds of soldiers. Constant existential fear pervaded the ranks, they had a name for him along the lines of The White Death or some shit.

The Finns, and in reality all of Scandinavia, seem to have this permenent fuck you relationship with Russia, and will take any oppurtunity to throw the dig in. So shortly after WWII some genius comes up with "The Biathlon" which coincidentally enough is about cross country skiing with a sniper rifle strapped to your back, pinging a target, and GTFO of there as pronto possible. As a SPORT though (winky face). And in hindsight it's a fairly fucking contrived sport. The Scandinavians gave it some hurr durr "hUnTinG aNtEloPe" shite, but as everyone very well fucking remembered that one Finnish guy who scared the ever loving shit out of an entire army, and then died of old age long after the end of the war, and wanted fond memory immortalized. So yeah, they lobbied and got it accepted as an Olympic sport. And every four years the Russians get their ass handed to them again by some Scandinavian.

 

[Cormcolash]

I'm fairly sure this is horseshit, but I heard a story that went along the lines of:

There's a Finnish guy in WWII who went tearing around on cross country skis with a sniper rifle on his back, he'd hole up somewhere and ping a load of Rooskies in the absolute arseholes of nowhere. Then he'd bate off on his skis again, and the Russians simply couldn't catch him. They'd live in mortal fear of a shot out of nowhere blowing the back of their heads off.

Like, this lad took out hundreds of soldiers. Constant existential fear pervaded the ranks, they had a name for him along the lines of The White Death or some shit.

The Finns, and in reality all of Scandinavia, seem to have this permenent fuck you relationship with Russia, and will take any oppurtunity to throw the dig in. So shortly after WWII some genius comes up with "The Biathlon" which coincidentally enough is about cross country skiing with a sniper rifle strapped to your back, pinging a target, and GTFO of there as pronto possible. As a SPORT though (winky face). And in hindsight it's a fairly fucking contrived sport. The Scandinavians gave it some hurr durr "hUnTinG aNtEloPe" shite, but as everyone very well fucking remembered that one Finnish guy who scared the ever loving shit out of an entire army, and then died of old age long after the end of the war, and wanted fond memory immortalized. So yeah, they lobbied and got it accepted as an Olympic sport. And every four years the Russians get their ass handed to them again by some Scandinavian.

That was the Winter War where that lad skied around sniping Russians. Think there's a story about him being off his head on drugs for about 2 days whilst doing it too.
But anyway yeah the Finns hate the Russians because of the Winter War, where the Russians invaded and annexed a big portion of Finland even though the Finns technically actually won the thing. This was only a couple of years before Hitler invaded Russia. People always say never fight the Russians in Winter, but the Russians actually learned about fighting in Winter by getting their holes kicked by a comparatively tiny Finnish army in the middle of Winter.
Still the Russians kept the territory they gained up until the nazis attacked, mostly they just wanted a bit of coastline they could sail into the Atlantic from that wasn't always surrounded by ice. In WWII, the Finns took the Nazis side in the hope of getting revenge. They were both meant to surround and lay siege to St Petersburg, which would have had the Russians fucked, but the Finns kind of went back on the deal a bit and only advanced as far as their old territory borders. As a result, despite the nazis enacting the longest siege in history on the city, the Russians were able to hold out by carting supplies and people across Lake Ladoga when it was frozen, which was a supply route the Finns were meant to have cut off but didn't.
After the war, the Russians actually took back a lot of that territory again, but I think the Finns reached a deal to hold on to a bit of it and still give the Russians a bit of coastline or something. Therefore, if you go from St. Petersburg to Helsinki nowadays, the train will take you through/past Vyborg, which as the name suggests was a Finnish city before all this, and is now a Russian city right before the Russian/Finland border.

 

[Cormcolash]

Oh my info is a little wrong, after World War II the Russians actually got back more land than they had taken before, ha. The Finns actually stopped the Russians again in another big battle outside Vyborg, but they must have known the Red Army could walk up and grind them to bits any time once they weren't busy, so I think they signed a peace agreement whilst the going was good.

 

[seanc]

I'm sure it wasn't the longest siege in history.

Modern history, maybe.

 

[Cormcolash]

Yeah sorry didn't mean longest, I meant it's supposed to be the siege with the biggest loss of civilian life in history.
Think there are plenty that were longer than it back through history.

 

[snakybus]

I'd a friend who'd say the only pure sport is darts as it depends puretly on the talent and individual development thereof of the sportsperson, and no amount of financial input or drugging (apart from beer) can change that. Whereas football boxing etc are subject to corporate and chemical influence. Snooker another possible candidate. He may have been playing darts/drinking beer at the time.

 

[magicbastarder]

what separates sport from a game? i suspect there is no line.

 

[snakybus]

Yeah I kind of think sport is bullshit. That's my unpopular opinion.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

what separates sport from a game? i suspect there is no line.

Totally guessing,but would sport have more skill whereas a game depends on chance like the roll of a dice?

 

[pete]

Totally guessing,but would sport have more skill whereas a game depends on chance like the roll of a dice?

By that definition professional wrestling is the purest of all sports and I’m ok with that.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

Professional wrestling is acting.

 

[ann post]

If only there was some kinda book for defining what all these words mean.

 

[flashback]

Totally guessing,but would sport have more skill whereas a game depends on chance like the roll of a dice?

Then chess would be a sport.

I'd probably be ok with that.

 

[Unknown Convict]

I tend to think if you cam smoke while you're doing it, it's probably not a sport.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

Then chess would be a sport.

I'd probably be ok with that.

I always thought chess was a sport

 

[flashback]

I always thought chess was a sport

How Elite Chess Players Can Burn More Than 6,000 Calories Sitting Down

Hint: it's definitely not good for you.

www.menshealth.com

Not sure about Men's Health, but I've heard that serious chess players will regularly finish games a few kilos lighter.

 

[flashback]

I tend to think if you cam smoke while you're doing it, it's probably not a sport.

They used to show lawn bowls on TV, and there was an aul boy who'd be strolling about with a big pipe, wearing funny clothes, probably a hat, puffing away, firing balls off in all direction like a gangster.

A genuine hero of mine growing up. I didn't understand bowls. I didn't care about any other player. I didn't even like the sport. But if that absolute stud was on the grass, I was watching.

 

[Unknown Convict]

They used to show lawn bowls on TV, and there was an aul boy who'd be strolling about with a big pipe, wearing funny clothes, probably a hat, puffing away, firing balls off in all direction like a gangster.

A genuine hero of mine growing up. I didn't understand bowls. I didn't care about any other player. I didn't even like the sport. But if that absolute stud was on the grass, I was watching.

David Bryant. A giant of the game.