Why do you feel the need to beg, cajoe, sweet-talk, or bribe her? Why do you need her to enjoy the game? Why can’t you like your stuff while she likes hers?
There’s probably such a thing as “cultivated disinterest” (in other words “snobism”) but I think its prevalence is widely exaggerated. A lot of people assume that those who don’t share popular interests are snobs. I’ve generally speaking no interest in sports and I actively dislike the concept of Valentine day (single or not). When a major sport event (say the World Cup in the case of France) happens, it takes the front page of the news, mostly everybody talks about it, etc…it’s everywhere and unavoidable.
Pick some random thing you have no interest in (say, collecting stamps) and imagine how it would feel like to have people babbling about it for weeks on end, the start of WW3 becoming secondary to the auction of a rare stamp, and so on. You might politely engage in some small talk about the 15 cents Mercury blue once in a while, but you’d quickly be fed up with the whole thing and pray for a quick return to normal.
What would be understood as a normal reaction if people were subjected to intense bombardment about an unpopular topic is easily assumed to be a way to “set you apart” if the topic is popular. When I say I’m fed up with the world cup, it’s simply because I’m actually fed up with the World Cup.
And do you often notice the news starting every day with bird-watching related news, while your coworkers talk endlessly about bird-watching, your social contacts post about bird watching, your taxi driver ask your opinion about bird watching, your friends invite you over for a bird-watching party, etc… ?
At some point, you’d probably begin to mention your lack of interest in bird watching.
I dislike Valentine day. It seems completely antithetic to my perception of romantism to have a “mandatory love day”. Plus, it essentially has been promoted to sell stuff. And people often feel coerced into celebrating it by their SO. And on top of it, it’s most of the time completely cheezy.
I never celebrated Valentine day and never will. I’ve trouble understanding how so much people got sold in a concept that’s so unappealing to me.
Why does it surprise you so much that people might have zero interest in Valentine day?
Mainly because she has a fucking hissy fit if I won’t watch her ferkakte TV shows with her.
Heh. I’d say turn about is fair play then!
Well, there’s mentioning and then there’s mentioning. To take these one by one:
News: I don’t know about what things are like in Paris, but here where I live in the US it’s very rare that the news leads off with anything sports-related. Sports is a PART of the news, same as weather, and entertainment, but starting with sports is really unusual.
Coworkers: “Yeah, I’m not much of a birdwatcher,” said with a smile: “Did you see the movie about…/Didn’t you recently travel to…/Hey, I had lunch at that place you recommended and…?” Astonishingly, people who love sports typically have other interests as well. Yes, you may have to push a little to change the subject.
Social contacts: If it bothers you that much, perhaps it is time for some new social contacts?
Taxi driver: See coworkers.
Friends and party: Do you like the friends? Is it possible, or even probable, that some people will be paying a lot less attention to the game than to other things? Then by all means go. If not, then by all means stay home or find some other friends to do something else with.
You make it sound as though everyone around you is all sports all the time. That’s a shame, but it’s not universal: it certainly is not my experience. Do not lose hope–there are alternatives!! 
To address the OP’s question: yes, of course people “cultivate a disinterest” in some things. There are a number of people in this thread who clearly are cultivating a disinterest in sports, in that they are going out of their way to let people know how much they hate sports and in that they need to let everyone know just how AWFUL it is to be surrounded by people who love sports and have no existence outside of sports 24/7. (Even if none of this is actually, you know, true.)
I’m not trying to pick on them. It’s a human impulse. I do it too. Personally, I cultivate a disinterest in golf. I find golf incredibly boring and incredibly stupid, and I don;t get the appeal AT ALL, and I find enthusiastic golfers to be UNBELIEVABLY boring, and I go out of my way to tell people that (generally not when they are standing there with a golf club in their hand). It’s not just that I have no interest in golf; it’s that it’s important to me that people know I have no use for it. That’s “cultivating a disinterest.”
Contrast that with, say, NASCAR or tennis or lacrosse. I have no interest in them, either, but I don’t cultivate a disinterest in them; I just ignore them and go about my business. And when someone asks me, “Hey, how about that NASCAR race yesterday?” I say, “Was it interesting? What happened?” or “I don’t follow NASCAR; what do you think the governor’s gonna do about…” And my blood pressure stays low.
For the record, I love baseball and have nothing more than a mild interest in any other sport.
Because none of those things are ‘popular’ to complain about. Nobody gets cool points for talking about how lame stamp collecting is. The key is to take something popular to come off as ‘different’.
In High School, I noticed there were various cliques that established status based not so much what you liked but what you hated. In other words, hating things, particularly mainstream things, was considered desirable. Ironically, some of those individuals never grew up and now post vicariously on messageboards. They will insist they’ve always hated Thing, its just that it is so universal they can’t get away with it. Sure.
Like Christians complaining about “Happy Holidays” :rolleyes:
That actually sounds very much like my social circle…
I was feeling smug about *not *feeling smug until I read your post. I do have a snotty attitude about people who watch “real” reality shows, who (like my nurse yesterday) only read Romance novels, and grown women in love with the Twilight characters. However, I control the impulse to deliberately lord my supposed superiority over them, because I have my own issues. I believe that Bigfoot is possibly real, and you need not make me feel stupid if you disagree. I also read celebrity gossip and enjoy feeling that I am “better” than them. And I watch football now because my foster son plays for his school. I don’t enjoy it. I enjoy him enjoying it.