Chelsea fans are to football what democracy is to political systems: the literal absolute worst except for all the other clubs’ fans.
Can you believe what Arsenal fans were saying about Granit Xhaka? “Greatest torture known to man.” “Leave our club.” “Complete waste of time,” “benched asap,” “very lazy.” Oh wait, my mistake. Those aren’t from the Xhaka story. Those are from the headlines on the Chelsea page at NewsNow.
Those aren’t just purposefully inflammatory click-bait. They are actual quotes from Chelsea fans, presumably on Twitter. And they’re not just from random articles plucked off the blogosphere: they are all from NewsNow’s Top Stories and Most Read articles from October 31. We have a problem of both supply and demand in the market for negativity: both are too high.
The Granit Xhaka story illustrates how the digital world can cross into the physical world. Would the booing have caused such a reaction if not for the abuse Xhaka received on social media? Would the fans have booed like that if they hadn’t already been primed for it over weeks and months of escalation on social media, to the point where the only way to get that same hit of dopamine and adrenaline is by graduating from the digital mob to the physical mob? Or is digital just a reflection of what’s always been there, now expressed in different forms and with greater reach? Chickens, meet eggs.
Clearly, what people said about Granit Xhaka on Twitter goes far beyond the slander I quoted above from Chelsea fans. I make that distinction, because it is necessary and relevant, but I have no interest in using it to try to argue where “the line” is.
I’ll just say this: Find a better way to talk about players, both in praise and in criticism. We are certainly not going to tell anyone not to criticize players from the team they support, or any other. But there’s a better way to do it than “very lazy,” “benched asap” and “leave our club.” And when you want to praise a player, there’s a better way to do it than non-descriptive descriptions (“metronome,” “elite mentality,” “Messiah”) or pseudointellectual marshmallow (such as the various Italian and German terms for positions, or “modern full-back”).
None of that accomplishes anything more than reinforcing the most accurate description of Twitter ever put forth: jerk off, fling poo, jerk off, fling poo, jerk, fling, jerk, fling.
Whichever one you’re doing when you talk about a “complete waste of time” (possibly a “trequartista”) in the “half space” ruining things for your “Messiah,” it doesn’t matter. You’re still just jerking or flinging. Just because you’re not doing it at the stadium doesn’t mean you’re any better than those Arsenal fans who Granit Xhaka let off far too easily.
Find something worthwhile to say, good or bad. It doesn’t need to be profound or intellectual. Give yourself something to stand behind, and that someone else (say, an editor or the guy who runs a Twitter account) would have no problem standing behind on your behalf.
Just have either your heart or your head behind it. Either would be better than the hand you’ve been using for the other two activities.