For a MAGA favorite, mixed martial arts sure has a lot of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
June 14, 20265:40 AM
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Samuel Corum/Getty Images and Getty Images Plus.
I did not ask to be born with the aesthetic preferences of a 12-year-old on 4chan, and yet, here we are. My favorite movie is Fight Club. My apartment walls feature not one, but two pieces of Berserk manga fan art. I’m a gun owner, I love German industrial music, and when it comes to video games, I almost exclusively play Eastern European survival horror. How I long for a single interest or hobby that doesn’t instantly generate that record-scratch noise at well-heeled liberal networking events: to watch soccer without falling asleep, to shazaam NPR music without shrugging, to get literally anything out of bird-watching.
It’s not that I’m ashamed of my tastes. It’s just that, at a time when we’ve decided every facet of daily life has to be blue-coded or red-coded, it all gets a bit lonely to be the only leftist I know who’s looking forward to watching mixed martial arts combatants beat the shit out of each other tonight outside the White House. (Or, as it’s officially known, “UFC Freedom 250.”)
