Quote:
Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy
I don't bet either way. Just found it funny that a guys choice to bet against his favorite team so he'd have a reason to be happy whether they won or lost would get him called a coward.
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That was me. I thought it was a fairly innocuous comment with regards to something completely meaningless, and am somewhat surprised that it appears to have triggered you as it has. To be clear, everyone should feel free to spend her/his money as she/he sees fit, and my throwaway blurb made in jest should not affect how anyone feels about it.
But I do think the label is apt: betting against your own team is ensuring a positive result, and also betrays a low level of confidence in a positive outcome. However, I also don't think there is anything wrong at all with being a "coward" most of the time, especially in our culture which inappropriately exaggerates and lionizes characteristics of strength, determination, confidence and conviction to almost absurd degrees.
It was actually a villain in a movie who delivered the line: "Uncompromising men are easy to admire. He has courage; so does a dog. But it is exactly the ability to compromise that makes a man noble." Being a coward can be quite pragmatic, since this often results in a higher chance at self-preservation.