The divisive nature of football by Ben Dungate
More than ever, I am noticing the divisive nature of football and the effect it seems to have on ordinary people. The historical violence football has incited will long live in the memories of those that witnessed it first hand, or grew up during the era where barely a weekend went by where the news wasn’t filled with scenes of police battling with ‘fans’ in the street, with tear gas and Molotov cocktails passing in mid-air, both sides embroiled in a war neither partly really understood.
In today’s society, thankfully, outbreaks of this nature are very rare, at least in the West of Europe. However, despite the streets no longer being littered with the fall-out of such events, the seedy underbelly of fanatical football support still lives, only now it is mostly hidden away online in the comments sections of football forums and fan sites, where no one is safe even from their own fans. Dare to cast aspersions on a particular favourite and the metaphorical firebombs are instantly launched from all sides. Because in today’s ultra tolerant society, intolerance reigns supreme.
A differing opinion is met with scorn and sarcasm, and occasionally with a well-thought out erudite counter argument; but only very occasionally. Fans cannot and will not stand for a view that doesn’t align with their own and will die on a hill for their chosen one.
But it doesn’t need to be this way. What is wrong with considering how an opinion was arrived at before declaring it to the world? How about pausing before writing that reply – to really assess what you’re writing and why you’re writing it. By all means engage in polite debate with your fellow supporters, because when conducted appropriately and in the right manner fan forums are tremendous places where some truly insightful people share their deepest thoughts on the team, the players, and the game in general.
We all love football. We all love Arsenal. I even love Mikel Arteta (a little bit), even though I find some of his decisions baffling, because he has reignited that belief amongst us that we might once again see an Arsenal captain hold aloft the Premier League trophy, and maybe even take us to the promised land of the Champions League final once more.
I decided to write this article after sending a highly condescending response to someone and then feeling that little pang of shame that I wasn’t better than that. That I was not big enough to accept someone’s argument against my own, and resorted to childish mockery in an attempt to devalue their comment. That is no way to conduct yourself in what is meant to be a fun environment where like-minded people can share their thoughts.
So let’s be a bit more considerate of each other’s thoughts and opinions. Universal agreement should never be expected or sought, but polite conversation is a fundamental necessity if we are to really get the best experience from this site.
Best regards
Ben
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You are totally wrong and I will fight you for it
How could you? I challenge you to a duel!
top comment
A wonderfully insightful and very necessary article.
One of the all time most special JA pieces to make allof us, myself VERY MUCH INCLUDED, really think before react inghastily and aggressively.
I salute BEN WHO WROTE THIS MARVELLOUS PIECE!
Thank you, Jon. A man of your years will have seen it all.
It was a marvelous piece and applies not just to football discussions but to many discussions as well.
I will never be considerate and will fight anyone to the bitter end who after years and years of taking digs and hating on the great Arsene Wenger, Unay Emery and Granit Xhaka, who worked under many under hard conditions financially and complete lack of support from the board, add to that ungratefulness and toxicity from the fans, not only giving Arteta and his flop signing Havertz free pass but also come into his defense religiously as if they are getting paid.
When Arteta has not achieved anything of significance compared to his predecessors while spending a billion pounds and still counting.
No SIR!
Honest, truth and justice are things I value above everything else.
I will judge Arteta and his signings the same way I judged his predecessors, as any truly honest and just person should.
I will not stand propaganda (and I hate propaganda) for Arteta while he is still lesser of the all Arsenal managers I have known.
It was a very thought provoking article.
I do believe that the majority of contributors are polite on JA but there were times, particularly in the early stages of Arteta’s tenure that it all became very heated. The Ozil debate was particularly intense and was often aided and abetted by trolls. Having never been involved in writing my views before, I took rudeness very badly. A lot of what I endured was sexist bullying back then. I think where I’m leading on this is it’s human nature a lot of the time to support like minded people so I kind of knew that lcw would be pretty vile because I questioned the importance of Ozil to the team and he/she thought Ozil was godly. Factions developed and it was all rather toxic until Ozil left.
Next up were those who were prepared to give Arteta time and those who weren’t. Again sides have been taken and it’s not easy to come back from an entrenched position- either way.
Sadly it’s in part human nature. I agree that being deliberately provocative is uncalled for and that if we all decide to post something then it should be properly considered beforehand. Must try harder is my new motto
Trying to express yourself as a woman on a football forum can’t have been easy but I think we are all glad you persevered and JA is a better place for it.
I am definitely a member of the Sue appreciation society. The voice of reason that is often needed on JA….
Cheers AdPat. I love being part of JA and it’s great having mostly reasonable people discussing our great club It beats having to listen to my husband wax lyrical about Liverpool 🤢.
Grounds for divorce
You and I DIFFER ON A GREAT MANY MATTERS PAT, but on the Sue appreciation society, I claim to be the founder member.
Sue and a few excellently wise others are the ONLY reason I stay on JA, always in the hope for some REAL thinking posts to read and debate about – or in Sue’s case, to ALMOST always agree about.
There are a number of others too, but Sue is always the one I honestly look to read first and pray she is on EVERY thread I read or comment on!
Hi Jon and co,
I’d like to add that generally speaking, the tone of comments has improved significantly. For those who spar with each other regularly it’s mostly done with kindness.
I’ve learned a lot over the last 4 plus years and respect for one another really helps in the long run
You forget that there are a lot of wanna be managers out there that do not have the capacity to build a grammatically correct sentence, therefore the only recourse available is to try to cut you down with abuse and degradation that would make a hooker blush.
Listening on Arsenal audio
4 minutes in and an Odegaard goal
Marvellous
MA seems to have struck on a line-up that works well together!
He does. I wonder if the likes of Zinchenko and Jesus will automatically get a recall?
I think it would be detrimental for them to just walk back into the side, especially off the back of the last two results and performances.
The verbal wars of the internet age that is a medium directly prone to that type of flare-up on any subject you can think of is not remotely comparable to the actual violence in real life. Separate issues that share at best vague similarities. Agree with the rest but you started with that.
As to the rest people, particularly effective people are competitive to at least some degree and want to be right. Ipso. There are deeper matters to do with the more negative outlooks but don’t think it’s productive in general to write that out specifically.
That, Angus was a mouthful
Manners maketh a man or woman or anything in between
Sue I am out of date with the sheer amount of genders “inbetween” these days . When I was young there were NO gender in between at all. But some claim around 70 plus now exist!
To be clear, I have every sympathy and consideration for ALL those who feel the need to change from man to woman or vice versa. But my sympathy stops there!
Incredibly, there is a Church of England vicar in my town who identifies as “they”!
Freedom of expression existed out of rebellion against the established narrative and propaganda. Thus, free speech itself cannot go on without criticism and push back. Mistakes, egos, unsubstantiated theories, fake facts, emotional meltdown and etc were put in check through this vetting and scrutinised process. Social media had ruined this process. Many has mistaken their psychology therapy in social media as freedom of expression. It’s just insults, banter and manipulation of dictionary. Defending your words and theories to the end actually improves your knowledge, your understanding and your perspective. Your character, behaviour and understanding of ways of the world will be enhanced as well. Historical facts will continue to survive without corruption and future discoveries can be prompted.
Well said, Mike.
An admirably wise post Mike!
For Ben
Article is of course correct in every sense.
On the whole I have seen more tolerance of late.
Long may it continue.
Thank you, Indian Gunner London. Let’s hope it continues.