Why does society hate chess?

It is a form of art and one has to spend some time first to learn how to appreciate it.

Hilarious!

Really it's American society that looks down on chess and anything else intellectual. I don't think that it's a problem across the world in general.  

A lot of it has to do with media.  Look at Hollywood, the smartest guy in the movie is almost always the villain.  The hero is almost always the exact opposite of a chess player, spontaneous, unreliable, emotional, doesn't follow rules.

Superiority is associated in the US  with arrogance.  It's viewed as threatening whereas in Russia the ability to produce superior intelligence is viewed as a source of national pride. 

That could be in part a holdover from the rejection of British society with the American revolution, with that snooty class arrogance that somehow languid, directionless upper class twits that come from old money are better than people that actually do something useful.

The anti-intellectual attitude probably primarily derives from American protestantism, which is highly anti-intellectual.  While the Catholic and Jewish religions have reconciled themselves to science, American evangelical protestant denominations pride themselves on inflexibly sticking to claims, such as that the earth is 6,000 years old, that are easily refutable.  Evangelical protestantism in America cannot survive in its' present form without training the followers to be unable to think critically and objectively, and to be closed and aggressively hostile to critical thinking.

That approach has consequences way beyond chess. 

Although protestant denominations collectively are the majority religion in the US, on the US Supreme Court six members are Catholic and three members are Jewish.  That makes complete sense because there aren't going to be a lot of top lawyers and judges that are openly hostile to objectivity and critical thinking.   For the Catholic and Jewish religions it isn't considered apostacy to be lucid, so they fill the vacuum (the US would still choose any faith over an athiest). 

Lighten up, Francis.

Hehe! We know you are!

Have a look at this ytube video: https://goo.gl/Z6rhb2. Some movie villains are really cool. Never felt the charm of a villain watching a movie?

Are Canadians naturally gifted at talking crap, do they do a course in it at school or is it those long bitter winters locked up in a cabin that causes it?

I'm so relieved I'm not the only one here on chess.com supporting cannibalistic behaviours.

Nice.

Yeah I mean I'm definitely not the sort of person who cares about the latest pop song or something like that. In fact I hear about all of it without trying. Like if I'm on youtube, that'll be one of the featured videos, so I have to keep up with, say, Taylor Swift even if I don't really care about her haha.

So of course some news you just don't care about, but if someone did have something interesting to say, it would probably get featured or heard about without you even trying (I know I don't try). Maybe it wouldn't be a new song, maybe it would be some inspirational message, an interesting science video, it could be anything. Maybe a better example is twitter. I myself don't have a twitter or even use it often, but even little things like how chess players now make a little tweet, and people can up-vote it or something like that, the fact that we can have updates from these people as if they were our friends, it's pretty crazy, and pretty connecting. Again, non chess players wouldn't care, but they would just look at the tweets of different people, then. Or like how I can just see vlogs of people like GM Eric Hansen in a hotel room as if I was there with him as he discusses how his games went.

I think we take for granted all the kinds of information we know without even really trying. It shows how effectively/quickly ideas and cool things get spread now. I'm sure there are plenty of pop culture things you know without even really trying, or even if you're trying to avoid it.

"Maybe this makes me look odd or unfulfilled or something, but anyway, that's a little bit about me. I don't think loss of connectivness would bother me. I've sometimes wondered if I had been born long ago if I'd be one of those weirdo hermits who didn't mind living in a cave all alone (although I'm sure they went a little crazy)."

But hey to each their own. I don't know you of course haha.

I don't get how society hates chess. Maybe it doesn't love chess as much as some chess players would wish, but that's not hate.

During the Fischer era chess was a postively cool thing. After that died down, chess went back to being a neutral pastime that most people didn't think about.

Then in the late nineties chess became an educational fad and students began flooding the tournaments. That doesn't seem to have subsided. I stumbled into a couple tournaments at the Mechanics Institute and players were about 50% children and teens.

*sigh*

society doesn't hate chess. Most either don't understand it, or, don't care to learn.

Why do people here care? Oh, yeah, because this is a chess site, and many here think the game should be a part of every society so their one skill can somehow be elevated.

Sheesh, some people need to get over themselves.

You can't explain why America bristles with hostility in reaction to anything intellectual without a 500 word essay on faith and religion.

Maybe chess needs to market more like poker.  Chess tournaments aren't that different than poker tournaments, boring for an observer, halls filled with scruffily dressed participants.

Do what poker did ten years ago, have tournaments in Vegas with color commentary and frequent cuts to people in hot tubs with lots of bikini clad women.  Develop characters to make it more interesting like with poker or UFC.  Have shots of Gata Kamsky's father throwing tables when he doesn't like tournament director rulings.

Remember Kasparov's quote once "Karpov is a creature of darkness.  I will destroy him!" 

That would have been great TV.

I don't think American society hates chess, its just lot of people don't understand chess. I mean ton of people know how to play it, but many don't see the point in learning and studying and constantly playing, etc. Unless your a professional. So its kind of like golf (which I love too), many people don't understand golf and why people invest money and time and practice into the game. Unless your a pro. Chess & Golf are very enjoyable to play, learn and develop (whether your a pro or really good or average) Although, I think if Fischer would've kept playing and winning and not disappeared, the rising surge of chess at that time would've kept going, especially with another US-Soviet rematch.

Great idea. Get people interested in chess by hiring women in bikinis.

I understand where you're coming from, but, there are plenty of atheists and agnostics that disagree.