Mande1baum

You really can't take what people say in front of a camera in a police state as remotely truthful. Saying anything but "death to America" could land you in serious shit, especially if caught on tape. Even people turning in family/friends could just as likely be from a state of fear rather than actually hating that person. Like "if this person gets caught with these opinions against the state, I could be guilty just by association or for not turning them in. I have to do this to protect myself and (rest of) my family."

What people say publicly vs what they believe secretly (to literally everyone) are likely completely different.

Hmmm interesting. Definitely could be a culture thing (midwest usa here). For us, if you didn't lift you couldn't be on the team. It was pretty much an extension of practice. At the high school I was at (1600 students) it was a pretty big commitment where we regularly had to do core/cardio/or weightlifting before classes (7am ish?). And on top of that the workout stuff was an all year round thing.

That's really unfortunate (it's great to have a numeric metric to quantify your progress). I know kids who are middle schoolers playing 8 man for a small christian school on a brand new team in a brand new league who are already lifting. When I was in high school, even girls for other sports were frequently working out too, as well as people who opted out to lift instead of gym class (that was a cool system my school had). Kinda assumed it came with the territory. Did your school not have the appropriate equipment (a proper gym is hella expensive)?