Sports spectatorship trains people to accept inflicted pain as strength

Evidence

At the same time the border line between acting and suffering, between internal and external force, is eliminated in the symbolic performance. This is the school for that integration which finally succeeded politically in transforming the powerless into a band of applauding hooligans. One is allowed to inflict pain according to the rules, one is maltreated according to the rules and the rule checks strength in order to vindicate weakness as strength: the screen heroes enjoy being tortured on film. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 129

Categorization

• XREF: The applauding hooligans parallel the crowd dynamics in Adorno’s fascist propaganda essay — the administered masses as a band of howling devotees. — connects to: Broadcasters extract scripted emotional performance from athletes as affective labor — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1614