Pretty much any sport is going to run the gamut from reactionary to prole, no? Soccer is very prole, any group of folks can kick an improvised object around. On the other end you have fucking FIFA, the definition of reactionary.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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Reactionary: Chess, you literally larp as a king and send pawns to their death.
Prole: Russian Roulette. Everyone is equal plus Russian is communist.
Golf is most reactionary in terms of real world effects and the damage it causes to environment and municipal layout
"Sport" Hunting is most reactionary in terms of ethos and aesthetics
Soccer is the most proletarian just by reality of numbers
Soccer is the most proletarian just by reality of numbers
Another important part of football is how simple it is and how little it takes, you go to any poor village in an African country and you will see kids with a ball kicking it to 2 rocks that represent a goal post, sometimes there's no ball sometimes it's just a bottle.
I like the thorough response and reasoning o7
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Most prole = Soccer
Most reactionary = Also Soccer
woah
Frisbee golf is like golf but with all of the reactionary elements stripped away. Just set up baskets in any given nature area and play, foliage is a feature not a bug.
Conversely American Football is like rugby but with a whole host of reactionary elements tacked on. It's the sport with the highest commercials per minute for a reason.
I'm a disc-golf enjoyer and we refer to it as The People's Golf.
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Motorsports are the most reactionary even if just because of the high cost of even participating. Alternatively, golf, I suppose.
Football (soccer) is by far the most proletarian, even if commercialization has been very successful in the last 25 years.
most reactionary: am*rican football
most proletarian: soccer
i will not be taking questions at this time
Combat sports especially boxing=reactionary. Heavily nationalistic and racialised. And it showed the worst aspects from colored world championship due to color barrier that infected sports in general. Even today its more racialised than any other sport I know. You know how many dudes didn't fuck with ryan garcia or teofimo lopez until they went on racial tirades on black people? And the excuse is "oh thats just the way the sport is. Even boxing media doesn't admonish the racism shown because the media is also reactionary
Even the boxing styles are stereotypical do not get me started. Soviet style, mexican style etc. Even though all of said ones have different varieties of style within them its still racialised in a goofy way. Boxing media also contributes to it. If you gave this level of shallow analysis in most other sport (the ones not ruled by the good old boys club) you'd not only be laughed out people would look at you crazy.
Lets not even look at how badly the promoters rip off the fighters. Arum and don king? Shit go back to the days of the mobs running things you'll see how badly these guys got exploited. Several of them used by criminal elements as well to launder drugs etc through the fighters. Given the background of many fighters they may not be the most financially literate. Promoters take advantage of this and get them into contracts that favor their managers and promoters, leading to unfair financial arrangements.
And given how horrible boxing is for health these lot end up in a bad place when their careers are done. Hell career can be shortened by crazy stipulations like rehydration clauses among other things that put them at even bigger risk
Thanks for the analysis, I've never been a fan of combat (blood) sports, but every male friend I have watches or pretends to enjoy MMA 🤮
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Most reactionary is definitely polo, most proletarian is i think football but all professional leagues needs to be burned and remains reeducated (that goes for all big money sports though).
MMA has to at least get a mention for most reactionary sport because of its current real-world intersection with the Trump admin, Saudi sports-washing, Ramzan Kadyrov, etc. Although obviously combat sports historically have a strong prole-streak, at least among the fighters themselves.
Otherwise most reactionary is probably e-sports (because gamers suck) or racing (with cars), since it seems to have a high concentration of rich people and inbred european royals.
Most proletarian is probably soccer, running, and maybe bocce for being so accessible.
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The obvious answer is that sports are generally not characterisable as capitalist or proletarian on their own - you can imagine people whacking things around the land with a stick prior to the enclosure of the common land and subsequently formal development of golf.
That said, if you're providing universal access to F1 racing your society has hit FALGSC pretty hard
Universal access to Group B Rally
you can imagine people whacking things around the land with a stick prior to the enclosure of the common land and subsequently formal development of golf.
Not really? Having acres of land growing an unproductive crop like grass is immensely wasteful, and without being able to mow the grass that sport seems basically impossible anyway since animals aren't going to keep the grass short enough for golf and they'll shit all over. It certainly couldn't be more than a novelty, only possible under very specific circumstances.
People have been playing games similar to modern golf since the iron age. The modern version uses a lot of landscaping because they're trying to recreate the golf that was played in Scotland in the middle ages, instead of adapting the sport to local conditions.
That's why frisbee golf is the modern proletarian take on the sport. No landscaping necessary, just put up some baskets in any given park and play.
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LOKOMOTIV POSTINGReactionary: american football
Prole: soccer, especially HA HA HA HA RONALDINHO SOCCER
Track and Field is pretty prole. All you need is a pair of shoes and a place to go. I’ve seen people practice on a grass field with paint to mark the distances.
speaking as someone who used to run competitively, i don't think just running is gamey enough to meaningfully be a sport, hence "track and field" being grouped up.
Probably soccer on both.
Then Golf is the most reactionary, built as it is on exclusivity and environmental destruction.
Riding bikes is most proletarian. Poor people transportation to work and requires industrialization, made of metal tubes and chains.
Most reactionary is modern golf. It is absurdly expensive on an ongoing basis and is all about weird Victorian ideas of landscaping and maintaining separation from the lower classes via literal gatekeepers.
Hmm, not sure about bikes. Sure as a mode of cheap transport they’re very proletarian, but as a sport - it’s a rich man’s game - competitive road bikes cost (tens of) thousands.
It's true that at the top they spend a ton of money for slight improvements. There's even a big group that tries to copy them, as if a fifth placer in a local race would've won if only their bike was $5k of carbon fiber.
But that is almost never necessary. When starting out, a $100 used (not stolen) bike will do you well for years. Nerds with $3k bikes and full lycra get passed by folks in shorts and a band t-shirt on old cheap mountain bikes. If a person gets competitive, getting a more appropriate bike (road bike for road riding, for example), it might jump up to a $500 used (not stolen) cost. Folks on 80s steel bikes still beat $3k bike nerds in local competitions.
Plus just like in many other sports, there are all kinds of variations, including levels of competitiveness. Like with soccer, mentioned throughout this thread, most people are playing for fun and with pickup games. They have to buy a ball to get started ($10-$50). Once they start getting competitive or just more invested, now they need socks ($10), shin guards ($80), shorts ($15), and shoes ($100+). They'll need that kit for pickup games that are slightly more competitive. Go up a level (on a team in a league) and now they want better shoes ($200) and new shinguards for their preference ($80) and they have to buy a jersey or shirt and maybe even new socks ($50-100). They have to get a gym bag for carrying their stuff to and from events and practice ($20). If they move up to better teams etc etc they will end up getting a whole new iteration of kit and get into personal optimization and travel expenses, etc etc.
But a person can also just play pickup games or go back to them. Or play futsol for fun. Or juggle in their own yard or street. Most people that ride bikes, even those who want to go fast and occasionally race, are mostly just having fun rides of various kinds that don't take any input outside of routine maintenance and wearing padded clothing for long rides.
Cycling has a bigger opportunity for a person to obsess over an expensive material object for sure, though, no doubt. But most expensive bikes, for most people, are really about a consumption hobby more than the activity. Many of the expensive ones you'll see in the street are in no way race-optimized. They are big hunks of steel or titanium with parts milled in the imperial core in batches of 10-20, purchased for aesthetics. They could have spent $300 on an older bike with better steel and fixed it up, but they are instead in a consumerist subculture where they got a brand new, lower quality frame for $800 on its own because it says "soma" on the side. A better new frame from China costs $200-300. And all of these bikes... they just look like normal bikes. Maybe one is orange and the other is blue. But a person with extra cash looking for a consumerist hobby will find options like thst $800 ho-hum frame and obsess over it.
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most proletarian: pancake eating contest followed by dizzy bat race
most reactionary: pickleball
Pickleball is the exception that bucks the rule of 'minuature version of sport > big version'
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polo is the most reactionary, and water polo I guess is less reactionary
Water polo is brutal, I saw photos of competitors coming out of the water and it looked like their legs were attacked by piranhas
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Golf is the obvious answer for reactionary, but it seems like it could easily be prole? Like, the courses are there, it wouldn't be that hard to provide rental clubs for everyone, set up a system for fair tee times for everyone.
The time investment would be the only real blocker, but in a real DotP, that would hopefully be easier to make available for anyone that wants it.
But also, you know, astroturf the whole place or something. The environmental impact doesn't go away with equal distribution, but it might at least be a little more reasonable if it was something that was for everyone to enjoy.
astroturf the whole place
just use native flora!
I mean I agree, but golf's pretty hard even with fancy trimmed grass. I think playing through a loose natural thicket would very considerably change the game to a different thing altogether.
skill issue (idk never played)
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Idk about most reactionary, but most proletarian has to be Futsal. Global south countries consistently make the top spots, and the pro players are some form of construction or industrial worker. And I've seen so many construction workers playing it on their break, with the goals made of a couple bricks.
Most reactionary is e-'sports', most proletarian is fetch
F1 and golf are hardly sports. I'll say polo and (association) football.
I don't think you can define a sport in any serious way that'd exclude either of those.
Agreed, F1 and Golf are 100% sports
Define:
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An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
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A usually challenging activity undertaken for amusement.
No way f1 and golf don’t fall into those definitions.
i think one can but my keyboard is kinda fucked so i'm not going to write a whole thesis on play, toys, games, rules, determining a winner, etc. I find the maximalist approach informed by CLR James trivial and broad to the point of uselessness.
Most reactionary: Big game hunting or that thing where inbred *nglo nobles on horses hunt down foxes with dogs
Least reactionary: Probably football
I'm going to say polo or dressage as most reactionary.
I'd say running, or other track and field, as most proletarian.
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