“The Olympics are a representation of the past,” D’Souza said. “They’re rooted in ancient Greece, and they have this amateurish, natural ethos that is run by a bunch of European aristocrats. The Enhanced Games are very different. They’re run by capitalists, who believe in the future, believe in science and technology.”

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    18 hours ago

    WTF, I’m… WTF?

    Sure, let’s push athletes to just fuck up their bodies completely, for money of course

    Coming to you from the asshole of the world, las vegas

    • iopq@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Not any different from now. Unenhanced boxers get punch drunk just the same, and American football players are fucked up basically everywhere after a few years

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.eeOP
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      18 hours ago

      Honestly, it’s not far off from our broader cultural attitudes towards stars and idols. We’ve been valuing self-degradation for ages now.

      • Chris@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        On top of that all elite athletes are using performance enhancing drugs to some degree.

        • mortalic@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, NFL players get suspended fairly often for PEDS.

          The whole bicycle racing doping program has a documentary about it.

          Track and field, especially in the 80’s/90’s also had a whole documentary about how they did it.

          The entire Russian Olympic team got banned for it…

          And that’s just off the top of my head.

          • catloaf@lemm.ee
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            3 hours ago

            Blood doping isn’t drugs. It’s your own blood taken out, then put back in after your body produces new blood, to increase your red blood cell count or something. I’m not aware of any way it can harm your body (unless you put an insane amount of blood back in).

          • Chris@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            It’s fine, the Steroid scare really shaped the public knowledge and opinion on it.

    • Blubber28@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      I mean, they could just choose to not participate. Especially now that it’s still new, if they can’t get many (or any) top athletes to participate, it will likely flop.

      And if someone does choose to participate, well, they are free to risk their lives for a few million more imo. At the end of the day, these people are paid ludicrous amounts of money to run in circles or jump or throw stuff. Not exactly an essential job and easily replaced by another goon desperate for their five minutes of fame. It would be sad if they got hurt, sure, but they bring it upon themselves by being in that industry in the first place.

      • TimewornTraveler@lemm.eeOP
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        10 hours ago

        Of course it’s their choice, and we structure society around rewarding and honoring them for it. Give up your life for my weekend entertainment. Another young black man has brain damage from trying to escape the ghetto, pass the nachos. Did you SEE what Hannah Montana did at the Grammies?! UGH I can’t believe Brittany shaved her head!! Another star has a psychotic break, maybe they’ll do a crossover with BTS!

        It’s not the idols who disgust me about modern culture… it’s YOU. Who condones it.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Squid Game is also an amazing idea that we should allow. After all, they are freely choosing to participate, so what’s the harm?

        • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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          11 hours ago

          Never watched it but what you wrote felt wrong so i checked and:

          invited to play a series of children’s games for a chance at a large cash prize

          The players soon discover that losing a game results in their deaths

          So they didnt know what they were signing up for which makes it completely different from these enhanced games.
          Dont get me wrong, i also find this stupid and dangerous, but people are indeed absolutely free to choose here and there is zero pressure for anyone to participate.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            Maybe you should watch it before saying I’m wrong. Yes, they don’t know during the first round that losing means death, but after that they vote to go home. After being confronted with the hopelessness of their lives they choose to come back and go on playing, knowing they’ll most likely die.

            It’s an essential plot point, and really what defines the show.

        • Opinionhaver@feddit.uk
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          12 hours ago

          I don’t know what Squid Game is, but we let people do things like cave diving, wingsuit flying, and free solo climbing too. I doubt you’d advocate banning those either.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            The difference is doing it for yourself vs. doing it for the entertainment of others. Everyone is free to take performance enhancing drugs for themselves, they shouldn’t be free to take them for a literal festival.

  • hperrin@lemmy.ca
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    19 hours ago

    Some of you will die. But that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

  • LupusBlackfur@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Oh FFS…

    Let the (enhanced steroid swole) Gladiator Games begin!!

    A fantastically dumb idea having nothing to do with actual sport but simply designed to liberate money from the plebes through ticket sales and betting.

    Our return to the Roman Coliseum. But “enhanced” by tech/drugs.

    SciFi novels have been written about this… 🤷‍♂️ 🤡 🖕

    • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      Hey now thats unfair to the Romans, they had whole mock naval battles in the coliseum in Rome. We have football and soccer, which in my opinion is far far less interesting. Give me a full on recreational of the Nevada and have is slug it out with the Bismarck, if we are going to recreate Roman blood sports give it to us in full!

  • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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    13 hours ago

    we already have wwe, which the “sports” entertainers are juiced to the gills.

  • Chris@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    I’m actually kind of excited about this. Most elite athletes are already using performance enhancing drugs, this just allows it to be in the open.

    This way we can help them be healthier and study the effects better.

    It’d be great if people didn’t want to push their bodies past the point of breaking, but some do, regardless of the rules.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.eeOP
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      10 hours ago

      The research that comes from this is one benefit I suppose. We’ll see where it goes. It might be interesting if it gets enhancements out of regular sports too. But I doubt it will.

      • Chris@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        PED’s I think have a lot of non cheating potential, but they aren’t studied academically all that much, to my knowledge.

        There was one drug being investigated years ago that seemed to help muscular dystrophy patients build back a little muscle.

        But disregarding miracle cures, if an older person could take a small course of steroids and build some muscle they would potentially fall less and have better health outcomes.

        I’m just theorizing but if these drugs stop being illegal and scary, I’m hoping there is some more public good that can come out of it.

    • Merva@sh.itjust.works
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      11 hours ago

      This way we can help them be healthier and study the effects better.

      Yeah sure, that’s the reason.

      • Chris@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Regardless of the reason for the event (money), letting athletes do it in the open will allow them to be healthier and safer.