No, the point is that this level of analysis is meaningless. It has no more utility than saying “stories have a beginning, middle, and end!” It’s not that it’s wrong, it’s that it’s not even wrong. It doesn’t rise to the level of saying something sufficient to be wrong.

... what? That article is criticizing John Edwards and comparing this sort of “all stories are the same” nonsense to his style of cold reading.

Name a fictional story that has a unique plot and characters.

No, I’m sorry, I’ve heard this all before. It’s just as trite and unhelpful as the first time. Every terrible novelist and screenwriter in the world is ruining themselves trying to fit these story beats. It’s a curse on narrative fiction.

I mean, if you want to write a formulaic, trite story, sure.

He cuts just like everyone else does. Height does not define a weight class! That’s the dumbest meme in MMA. His opponent walks around at 230!

A 41 year old natural middleweight whose Achilles heel was always physical wrestlers is going to fight Daniel Cormier at 205 pounds on three days notice. Sounds legit.

This has gotta be the most condescending thing I’ve ever read. Dwyane Wade is a grown man. He’s worth millions of dollars. He’s a savvy businessman. I 100% agree with criticizing the Heat. But Wade is not some mark who got played, and acting like that’s the case isn’t showing him respect. It’s the opposite.

“even the most skilled player can’t account for randomness.”

Count me in the camp that likes the original more than the sequel, though both are all-time classics for me. Just a little bit tighter narratively, a little more shocking and moving.

Following the Nerd, there is now a sect of voices on YouTube whose platform is entirely based around angrily criticizing what they view as “social justice”-infected media, often decrying when creators try to increase diversity, if not openly standing against critics using a feminist or other political lens.

The cool kid sports media take right now is to say that fans should devote their time, money, and attention to sports, but also that it’s pathetic for people to get emotionally invested in them. That allows sportswriters to do pretty much the only thing they do anymore - look down their nose at the snobs - but makes…

Barry, you are voicing the overwhelming opinion of the sports media and acting as though it’s a daring, contrarian take. And you did that all the time.

But the RPM stats love him! (More than Kyrie!)

Fair enough!

No, the point I’m making is that sports commentary has overreacted to the Hot Take so thoroughly that entire subcultures (analytics-oriented baseball fans, NBA Twitter) that base their entire enjoyment of sports on contrasting their own more enlightened attitudes against those dumb, deluded fans who deign to get…

Indeed, it’s a product baked into the system. And yet you and Deadspin and the entire Woke NBA Fan Industrial Complex don’t blame the system; you blame fans, who give you the convenient target of people you can look down your nose at. Funny about that.

And you are spending your Fourth of July getting off on this website by looking down your nose at him and his sad, working class commitment to a sports team. So. You know.

Yeah it’s crazy that fans who pay hundreds of dollars to go to a game, even more on merchandise for their team, whose cities spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build stadiums under threat of teams leaving, who are constantly badgered by those teams to care more, invest more, be “better fans,” might get upset…

Yes, we get it, you’re an enlightened sports connoisseur who looks down on fans, who are forever getting emotionally invested in teams that invest enormous amounts of money in getting fans to emotionally invest in them.