this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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MMALeft

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Nice to know there's more of us. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/mmaleft
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It's not a total surprise to constantly see the glorification of conservatives and Trump in UFC events, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one with a bad taste in my mouth. I enjoy MMA, have participated and been a fan for a while, and interestingly enough it's one of the spaces where I think politics make everything worse, especially as polarized as people are these days.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

certainly more. I have trained for decades with others that are decidedly left of center politically. a minority, yes, but still...

love practicing, teaching and watching combat sports, but the politics have always been... rough. to maintain good rapport, politics and religion are usually left out of general conversation, but we all know its the after class training that is really where the action happens and all topics are fair game at that point; ideological leanings tend to slip out.

[–] kennydidwhat 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

When you put it like this, this reminds me a lot of how conservatives handle dating apps. They literally have to hide their political affiliations to have a shot in cities.

With left-leaning fighters/fans, you have to basically hide your political affiliation in a similar manner in order to truly engage with the community as a whole. Fascinating. Edit: We need to go undercover. >_>

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

heh. I am currently in a somewhat conservative area, but I let my freak flag fly as needed - I think the highschool/college kids that stick around for sparring like to see the conservative monoculture challenged.

as an aside, its pure cognative dissonance bliss for me when I am holding pads for someone that I know is pretty right-aligned and RATM comes up on the music queue. I literally tell them, "Listen. To. The. Words. Dude!" if they are experienced and I don't have to call shots, I sing the lyrics for them to, you know, drive the point home.

[–] kennydidwhat 3 points 1 year ago

Good for you that you can put yourself out there. I'm happy for you.

As for Rage Against the Machine in the presence of conservatives, well, that's just such a classic "bruh" moment for me. Where I grew up, we listened to a lot of hip hop despite being majority white and suburban, and it was always wild to me to hear acquaintances rapping along to socially-conscious stuff and then following it up with a conversation about how black people suck. It's like, ayo, you literally just criticized yourself and don't even realize it.