To think people genuinely hate England?

[beautifulblue]

Is anyone else sick of seeing the anger/hatred towards England in the World Cup? This 'anyone but england' mentality from almost every other country is disheartening honestly. I've seen every excuse under the sun, we haven't played a proper team yet, 200,000 signatures to re-play the Colombia match because apparently that wasn't fair, blaming a few rowdy fans for not wanting England to win. I'm especially surprised by the amount of Scottish/Irish/Welsh people who seem to feel like this (on social media) i know we'd so be routing for our neighbours if it was the other way round! So... AIBU to think everyone just friggin hates England?!

Isn't this something like the third thread on this exact same topic we've had this weekend...?

Starting to wish I hadn't started this thread! Although it's been generally respectful debating, I'm buzzing now & want to go to bed! 😂 Ahhh we love ya, Ireland, Scotland, & wales. Even if you do hate us!

Yes to this, I'm in England but I genuinely love you all

OMG - the ridiculousness on this thread is astounding - blaming Germany today for Hitler? Blaming English people today for invading countries?

Seriously? Here's another sponge to suck the fun out of!! I don't know what circles some of you mix in but there has been absolutely no violence, trouble or hooliganism - just a community coming together whereby you might not have spoke to your neighbour but 'George' at number 6 put a flag out and you then get in a convo about the football.

Some would say Wales, Ireland and Scotland were first colonised by England though

I would say England was colonised by the Scots.

James VI of Scotland came south and became king James I of England - thus uniting the thrones of a England and Scotland.

I come from a part of India colonised by the Portuguese rather than the British. After a nice bit of Inquisition, some church sponsored forced marriages and mass conversions to Catholicism that meant that to this day swathes of Indians have Portugese names, identities and religion, there followed a few years of military dictatorship. Other European powers were just as bad as the British, and in some cases worse, but don't seem to carry the burden around like a millstone forevermore.

'Where were all these colonies in Wales and Scotland?'

Really?
The Highland Clearances ring a bell?

Now that was a long time ago. But it's the blithe ignorance that they ever fucking happened that tends to get on other people's tits, I believe.

So your parents are English? Their ancestors were the ones that did the damage all those years ago then... along with mine I imagine. But you're better than us now because you don't live here anymore & consider yourself Welsh? 😂👍🏼 Way to dodge a bullet!

Eh? I’m welsh.

Parents were born in England (to parents born elsewhere, actually) but made the wise decision to come here and stayed. Learned the history, the language, worked in the public sector, voted for devolution etc. Basically consider themselves Welsh now because they have made the effort to integrate into welsh culture and life (in a way few English folks do when they move abroad. 😏)

Without the English we wouldn't have the modern western world as we know it.

I think you’ve just managed to sum up the answer to the OP’s question in one sentence.

I'm currently back in England, and work with a very diverse team. In particular the Irish and polish at work seem to detest us tbh

So why are they here? Why come to a country if you hate the people

hmmm - to those saying "no one still slates Germany because of Hitler", I'm not so sure. From "Two world wars and one world cup" to a football-mad boy in my daughter's class announcing he hates Germany because of the war... it definitely still goes on. Of course it's not everyone in England who does this, but neither is it "everyone" in other countries who slates England.

*Really?
The Highland Clearances ring a bell?

Now that was a long time ago. But it's the blithe ignorance that they ever fucking happened that tends to get on other people's tits, I believe.*

As does an inability to understand the meaning of the word 'colonies'.

Again, if anyone can point me in the direction of all those "English colonies" in Wales or Scotland, I'd be genuinely interested.

I haven't really experienced any negativity tbh. But then I don't really mix with negative people, whichever country they may be from. I have a few welsh friends, a few kiwis, and lots of South Africans, and they're all supporting us.

I'm an "English" person in Scotland. A couple of friends here were cheering for Sweden yesterday. It was all in good fun, because we're grown ups who don't react to someone not supporting our football team as though they've just punched our grannies. Social media always amplifies the minority of arseholes in any situation. The same with the idiots trashing Ikea/jumping on cars - obviously the majority of us who watched the match over a couple of beers and then had a nice cup of tea at home on the sofa didn't make the news.

FWIW (and I can't believe I'm doing this here but I'm sick of this shit...) England was never a colonial power in Scotland. The English aristocracy were treating ordinary English people like shit at the same time as they were treating ordinary Scottish people like shit. The idea that my English peasant ancestors are in some way responsible for the poor treatment of my Scottish peasant ancestors is a joke - they were all being turfed off their land to make room for sheep farming at roughly the same time (ditto my Welsh peasant ancestors). Furthermore, many many Scottish people were very happy to jump on the British Empire bandwagon to colonise and exploit the rest of the world. The idea that the history of Scotland is in any way comparable to the past and continued suffering of, eg, large parts of Africa as a result of colonialism is grossly offensive.

I'm going to start a campaign to revive the early medieval kingdom of Northumbria and reclaim the land lost to Wessex and the Danelaw. No wait, I'm going back to my Pictish roots and I'm going to drive out the invading Scots of Dalriada. Fucking hell.

I have a lot of respect for the English team and the majority of the fans.

But I’m sick of it! I’ve never felt more overlooked or marginalised. The British media is supposed to be representative of Britain as a whole, not just England. It’s like they’ve forgotten we exist!

I’m not a football fan, so know nothing about the World Cup. Can anyone tell me why in the Olympics we have team GB but for the World Cup we are divided?

One word.

Brexit.

I’m Scottish by the way!

In my experience, having travelled in dozens of countries around the world, and having lived in a few apart from the UK, the people who hate the English most are largely the English. (Well, apart from a certain number of Scots, that is.).
And BTW, those who,like to bang on about colonialism, other countries had colonies, too - France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany - and they did try to have quite a few more.
Funny how you don't hear the English England-bashers banging on about their colonial histories. And no, they weren't 'nicer' to their colonies than we were.

I think the attitude here of "yes we did x but other people did y so the argument isn't/feelings aren't valid" possibly has something to do with it.

This gives an excellent context for Scottish resentment. Still relevant today:

Furthermore, many many Scottish people were very happy to jump on the British Empire bandwagon to colonise and exploit the rest of the world

I said the same above. The Scots were highly represented among the merchant and banking elite of empire, out of all proportion to their numbers.

In another country staying at an air bnb. The hosts supported England in the World Cup and say it is a great football team.

*Colonies was probably the wrong word hence the ''... you know what I mean though.. Suppression.

No I don't really.*

Yep, and that's exactly the attitude the rest of the UK can't stand 👍🏻.

If you genuinely cannot imagine not supporting the Danes at football if they had invaded you and still ruled over you, and you had to listen to the news every single day as if you were Danish, and not English, then there isn't much else I can say to you. 49% of people didn't want to be ruled by England let alone support their thuggish football culture and the belief they own the bloody game. You have to respect that.

It has nothing to do with England, it is all about the attitude of England team supporters, well some of them, you know... the ones that are portrayed in the media.

They wouldn't be happy with a ton of chocolate or a brewery full of beer either, they seem to be angry all the time or chanting or fighting or something. It is awful.

And I know it's not all of them, but there is some angst under the surface. Where's the fun, the enjoyment, the ecstacy of getting so far in the tournament?