After this world cup, Argentina is being seen as a unique evil, and it's getting more racist and xenophobic. People don't know a single thing about Argentina but Argentinians are all being painted as racist and zionists, and some Argentinian players being violent is apparently the fault of the entire team or even the whole of Argentina. Argentinians are described as uniquely violent. This was not the response after Zidane's headbutt, or Nigel de Jong's karate kick in 2010. Some people are even calling for banning Argentina from the next football world cup. If I was Argentinian I would not feel safe in Europe. I saw a video of Argentinian fans getting beat up by Spain supporters in Spain after the final. Europeans and North Americans are just projecting their own racism onto Argentina and are using that to excuse being racist to Argentinians.
So if you meet an Argentinian, be extra nice to them. And if you're Argentinian: Te apoyamos
On the day of the final, I saw a group of Argentinians having an Asado in a local park, and when I left the park I saw another Argentinian wearing their jersey, probably going to the Asado, and I told him 'Vamos Argentina'. To which he replied 'Gracias'. It sounded like he was not used to hear this support.
Edit: But I don't deny the racism in Argentina at all. My problem is that Argentina's racism is being used as an excuse by North Americans and Europeans to project their own racism problems onto Argentina and to bet racist against them, also impacting the Argentinians that aren't racist
I thought left wing ultras where cool till one of them called me a race traitor, now I just hate them all equally.
My main critique of left wing football ultras tends to be that they could direct the energy they put into football into literally anything else and it would be more productive, instead they direct it into setting fire to bins and shitting on the street when there team loses. They tend to only be leftist in opposition to the other side, in a sectarian way where if you try to talk about leftism they wont know anything and if you try to get them on side they will fall back to liberal biases. Its the kind of person who flies a Palestine flag, not because they support Palestine, but because they think it pisses off the other side.
We don't have this problem in Poland, football ultras are all rightwing with most of them being either neonazi or polofash. And this is after improvement of situation in last two decades.
I've yet to see any left-wing ultras, especially in Eastern Europe.
I mean, progress is progress, I guess? It seems my issue is impatience as I see how much conditions degrade and personally affect me, but staying grounded and recognizing conditions are going to have to affect many more than me, before they can begin to improve.
I remember being dumbfounded when a financially comfortable friend looked me in the eye and said (decades ago) that the poor would feel the crunch of a collapse the least because we had much less to lose and wanting to knock the stuffing out of him. But I kind of feel compassion for him, because while he was super smart, he reminds me of how ignorant we can be, in all our glory.
It seems like a scorched earth policy. Some just don't even know any different or better. I'm also learning that some grounds aren't conducive to planting a seed, so that soil needs conditioning, or recognizing when our resources would be better spent elsewhere.
I still get flustered and even angry, but I'm having a deep compassion awakened, as I realize that while I'm certainly not where I want to be, I've made phenomenal progress, given my circumstances, in just a few years. I hardly recognize myself, sometimes. And progress isn't linear, either.
I understand the nuance, its just that 90% of ultras just end up being thugs drawn to some form of perceived sectarian power trip against an enemy of other working class men typically. The hate mostly just stems from how they like to fight each other all the time here and the states of the streets afterwards.
Maybe. It's not like I encounter any sort of leftist in 3D, and I'm still learning to suss out all differences and flavors.