What if maybe, just maybe, there are racial reasons why the NBA is an outlier?

Every sport on the left-hand side has some cultural quality that draws it leftward. Basketball, which does not require large fields to play, is urban in character, as is the left. The other sports on the left either appeal to folks with a European sensibility (soccer, tennis, GrandAm) or youngsters (WWE, Action sports). The only sports which don’t have a good explanation for being on the left side of the spectrum are Monster Trucks and minor league baseball.

Also, note that almost all major pro teams (other than the Green Bay Packers) are centered in urban areas, which dampens the conservative slant of sports generally. Whereas many, many more college teams are located out in the boondocks (College Station, Bloomington, etc.).

Finally, the survey is probably understating the conservative slant of everything on the list, if all they do is subtract dem from rep. Historically, Dem i.d. has a small advantage over Rep i.d., so a sport listed right at zero still has maybe a 5% slant over the population at large.

Of course, heathen that I am, it all looks the same to me.

Could’ve explained myself better. I meant that I don’t know whether being conservative causes men to like college football or if men independently like football and conservatism without any correlation between the two.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t become male because I was conservative.

1) Conservatives are comfortable with a state of inequality, so long as it is arrived at naturally, and generally want to see excellence rewarded. If college football were dreamed up by liberals, they would continually change the rules so that Alabama would NEVER win another national championship.

2) Conservatives are more comfortable with divided loyalties, i.e. I am an American, a Mormon, a Republican, etc. The personal does not have to be political. Thus, I can be a passionate ASU fan and still get along with my Arizona roommate.

3) The results of a college football game are determined on the field, rather than predetermined by some politically correct metric. (Just watch any Hollywood movie and see how the pieties of the left are always rewarded.)

4) Football rewards hard work and self-sacrifice. The “Big Uglies” in the middle are glorified for their anonymity.

5) College football fans are largely male, as are conservatives. Not sure which way the causation runs, though.

I’m sure I can think of more if I have more time. I don’t think the correlation between conservatism and college football is random.

Books.,
Mortal life seems for our “benefit” or purpose, proving to ourselves what we will choose when the answers aren’t obvious.

Since Mormonism asserts that the core of our identity is uncreated–eternal in fact–its possible that we also need the mortal experience of pain and ignorance to get us humble enough to allow God to fix what’s wrong with us.

Now, I would hardly accuse the readers and writers of this august pinnacle of intellectual insight to think that is sufficient. We also have agency which is inseparably linked to both the Creation and the Atonement. We may not have all the choices we think we do, but we may also have more than we think – and I am hard pressed to tell you which is which. But I can discern both the severe weight and swift currents of the Fall and the use of paddle and oar that the Atonement gives, amidst the raging currents.

This seems to be a tremendously complex situation most of us never take above the kindergarten level, when we have graduate level material at our feet.

Since we can’t (yet) step outside of our 3D-plus-temporal-time frame and peer back into it as Heavenly Father does, we can’t resolve the paradox of how our future choices are already viewed by Heavenly Father as having been completed.

I wonder if it relates to how Heavenly Father created all things spiritually before creating them temporally. I can acknowledge that it sounds right, but I don’t know how that works. I can somehow imagine how intelligences and spirit bodies exist (were created/organized) prior to them being clothed in a mortal frame, but that’s about it.

If there is a parallel, I wonder if we made all the choices of our present lives in a previous spiritual existence, and this mortal life is the execution of those choices, merely “proving” to ourselves who we are.

Heavenly Father’s foreknowledge of our choices leads me to believe that our mortal existence is not for His benefit; He already knows where we will end up at Judgement Day. Mortal life seems for our “benefit” or purpose, proving to ourselves what we will choose when the answers aren’t obvious.

Perhaps all the “special exceptions” (the mentally handicapped, those who die young) participate in mortality mainly for the benefit (other than to “receive a physical body” themselves) or testing of those left who are required to make choices throughout their lives.

Should conservatives continue to try to win elections by winning the hearts and minds of the electorate, or would it be easier to just instill a love/participation in sports in the upcoming generation?