The bread and circus meme is easily debunked.

Even back in the day, with lots of bread and circus provided by the state, people revolted left and right. There have been lots of revolts despite bread and circus subsidization.

Also, it demonizes peaceful activities just because the state happens to subsidize parts of the activities/events. There is nothing wrong with people going to football games or concerts or reading books or any other recreational/leisure activity/event.

Focusing on debunked memes like “bread and circus stop revolts” wastes time that could be spent pointing out victimless crimes laws, large scale war, and high taxation and regulatory capture.

Today most events/activities (bread and circus) are privately owned and funded privately outside of the state (although there are some funds from the government, as with almost anything today).

We get it, you don’t like football… but your meme is a historic and not factual. Revolts happen all the time while bread and circus is alive and active, and in most cases there’s nothing wrong with recreational activities.