AIBU to wonder if anti-English feeling is mostly about sport

[Batsratscatsgnats]

If you support anyone but England in football or other sports do you dislike English people generally or is it just in sports?

A nice little stereotype that excludes violence from other quarters. Only England fans abuse their partners. Same old lazy tropes.

Most stereotypes are based on truth though, hence the persisting perspective.

Wow, there’s some absolute xenophobia and toxic nationalism on this thread.

So you all hate Farage and Johnson, do you? And yet it’s OK to mirror their language and thinking if it’s about English people? “We don’t hate English people, we just hate the English…” Imagine saying that about other ethnic or national groups!

“Oh, it’s only banter.” A typical Farage excuse.

“The English are representatives of privilege and power.“ And the English are also a people.

Look, I get it when England are just pantomime villains. Bigger, noisier neighbours. I don’t mind the Scots or Welsh or Irish supporting the opponents against England. “Jealous of what?” Jealous of going further in football tournaments than you lot, I guess...

And yet...

When people try and justify their position on this thread , it becomes a nasty and ignorant.

Like, “the English” are to blame for Brexit. Not "the Welsh" or "the Cornish” who also voted as a bloc for Leave?

Or the English are football hooligans. An outdated stereotype.

“Oh, but 700 years ago, Edward 1 conquered Wales.” FFS, do you think Bukayo Saka or Declan Rice or Jude Bellingham are in any sense connected or reponsible or benefit from royal shenanigans rom the 13th century? How is this relevant now?

I’m English. I hate Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson. I also hate the Irish gangs burning immigrants out of their homes, and Farage's Welsh mate who took bribes from Russia, and the Blackshirts marching through Edinburgh a few days ago. But I don’t say that they represent the Scots or the Welsh or the Irish and use that as stick to beat the entire nation with.

Loved seeing our boys with arms wrapped round each other belting out wonderwall with their travelling fans again. I wonder why some people don't like unity.

Yet when those stereotypes are batted back to the left there's the usual excuses. I can think of plenty of ways to describe the left.

That's a phenomenon seen all over the world actually, with various different sports. Of anywhere in the UK, NI is the most dangerous place for women to live because of domestic violence, do judge all men from there?

To be fair, the tactical coverage of Scotland's performances wouldn't last long...

What about my ancestors down the mines and the poor law - who were they oppressed by? The English oppressing the English. I believe that Wellingtons army was majority Irish - Wellington was Irish - does that mean the Irish were the oppressors. The Highland regiments were some of the finest soldiers in the British army - are the Scottish oppressors? The Welsh archers during the Hundred Years’ War? I could go on.
History is way more complex than the English did a bad thing so they are the baddies now.
When the Scottish fans were in Boston, they had loads of really positive coverage all over the media, people loved them. No one complained about the amount of coverage.

I might humbly suggest some people might just need to grow up a bit. Football rivalry is all well and good but mixing in inaccurate, one sided views of history doesn’t help anyone.

Coming from you, that’s rich. But thanks for admitting you know nothing about football 👍

Glad you find the extreme right being foisted on the unwilling humorous.

Not across the empire that is far from true.

Bloody hell you’re grasping for straws. It’s the accent that matters. As has been pointed out the lowland
Scott’s did most of the heavy lifting during the clearances. Not many English on the field at Culloden. Don’t mind the facts listen to the accents of people who died 200 years ago so we can only guess their accents.

That applies to almost every single footballing nation though. So wouldn’t explain the anti-English aspect specifically.

Weird that a thread about people being anti English has turned into one with people falling over themselves to slag off the Scottish.

"It's bantaaaaah."

You’re one of the worst

I will put in it was also a perfect example of class solidarity that transcended nationalities, accent and even cultures. (Wealthy landowners have always been very good at class solidarity.)

It's not slagging of the Scottish
It's more that if you want to talk about colonialism and empire and slavery the that was something that involved the Scottish as well as the English. You could also talk about class differences, and persecution of poorer farmers etc and the deliberate erasure of culture. Which absolutely affected poor Scottish farmers. But it is as much linked to class warfare as differences between the Scottish and English.
Trying to make analysis about colonialism/imperialism fit into an English/Scottish narrative such that the relationship between England and Scotland is the same as that between Britain and Ireland, or between the British Empire and it's colony warps real history so much. It ends up erasing some of the most important aspects of colonialism.

That doesn't mean all Scottish people were evil, or the Scottish today bear collective responsibility for slavery. But it does mean it's not right to portray the Scots as "just another victim" of an English colonial project.

The thread was about England. Now it's about Scotland.

No one is "slagging off" the Scottish.

Some posters have pointed out narrow-minded, ill - informed posts made by some posters in relation to the Highland Clearances and Scotland's involvement in colonialism and slavery.
.

And I never mentioned colonialism. Because I don't see Scotland as a colony. Thought I do see it as a seperate country.

And what about the posts about Scotland being shite at football etc?

Oh wait a minute. You called people wanting to govern themselves "seperatists".

Can you honestly point to one post I have made that "slags off the Scots"?

(I have made precisely one post on this thread which takes the mick out of your progress in the football.)

Is there a bank holiday in England today? This thread has been busier than the M25!