You see the same thing in politics, where the "own the libs" mentality is often more important than the actual content of a political action.

I love the idea of BYU (or fans) claiming PAC12 championship. That's a celebration of something impressive we did. It shows that we can compete on the (nominally, at least) P5 level and highlights that the team is really good, not some paper tiger.

But the idea that a lot are throwing around here, that the only reason to do it is because it bothers others just doesn't resonate for me. That's letting someone else control our behavior. It's saying that we can't be happy unless we make someone else sad. That there's certain things we do only to cause others misery.

Like I said, I'm all for it as a celebration of what we've done, but when the only joy we get from it is making others mad, it's just not my favorite thing to see. If it's a side effect, whatever, but it seems more and more that we treat that as the purpose. It's letting them control our actions and live in our heads. Maybe we're also in theirs, but it's evident it goes both ways.

(And yes, I know that Utah and others have done things specifically just to upset BYU, whether it's religious mockery or otherwise, and I also think less of them when they do that. Trying to insult others or make them sad to make yourself feel better is pathetic, no matter who is doing it. Or maybe it's just the result of me not hating Utah so much, but I don't take joy in their misery the way so many here do.)