I wonder if these limp-dicks realize they only make themselves look like out-of-touch curmudgeons when they make snarky dismissive remarks like, "What's an MLS?", "Who's Messi?" or "There's a soccer league in the U.S.?" The only thing worse than their vocal disdain of the sport is the lack of effort they put in coming up with new insults to dismiss it.
It's far less than it was in the 1990s. One guy (stereotypical loudmouth American) said I knew more about MLS than any white man should know (No idea what that means). He did go to the game (free ticket) and seemed impressed that local people cared about soccer.
You ever been to the political forum on Big Soccer? Sheesh if you don't think and act a certain way you are basically pond scum. That forum needs to be blown up.
Oh, stop it. As the very frequent target of gang-shaming (for lack of better term), this is a remarkably polite, reasonable place when you compare it to any other online public forum. It's not even close. In fact, P&CE is less of a shitshow that certain parts of the National Team forums.
Sorry Timon I respectfully disagree. The gang shaming on the P&CE is pretty bad... Mob rules and not much room for outside thought. The irony of it all is its people that predicate their belief system of being open to others. LOL-- only if the belief system matches theirs... Maybe it's changed over the past few months-- I don't know. I cant go over there all that much anymore.
You need to get out more. Seriously, it could be far, far worse. Yes, there are assholes who will play dirty and/or who have obsessive habits, but the level of discourse is significantly higher than "hurr durr TEAM RED/TEAM BLUE!!".
Oh, yeah. I haven't been as active lately for various reasons, but my experience with other online political forums has really helped me appreciate the relative sanity @ P&CE.
I will say that I quite often throw out the "TEAM BLUE" epithet (or variations thereof), but it's usually because I expect more of whomever is being a blind TEAM player.
I have very rarely been to the political forum on Big Soccer, and never stayed there long enough to get a solid reading beyond the fact that I didn't want to stay. It is nasty. However, have you ever looked at the comments on articles by newspaper political commentators on their papers' websites? Calling someone "pond scum" would be high praise compared to a lot of the street brawls there. That said, it is true that when I referred to the tone of posters on Big Soccer, I was thinking of the forums on soccer subjects, particularly some of the more contentious ones like threads on Freddy Adu or pro/rel.
I attack right back, ridiculing them and whatever they like, safe in the knowledge that soccer makes them terrified. Hey, defence is okay. I dont go on baseball articles to ridicule how boring I find it, cos I realise such stuff is borne from fear.
I only ever venture into the Politics & Current Events forum to read what DamonEsquire has to say. Which has never stopped being hilarious. I do agree that, as vitriolic as it may seem at times, it really is relatively civil compared to politics forums everywhere else. It's just a really low bar to clear.
Increased Access, Exposure, Storytelling Seek To Grow MLS In Fox's Second Year The comment section for this article feels like a time warp back to the early 1990s. Looking at the profile of the trolls, they fit the stereotypical image of a soccer hater to a tee. - Spammer whose post history includes nothing but anti-soccer and misogynistic posts - Trump zealot - Islamophobe - Small town football yokel - Curmudgeon baseball fan
Well, it is the path to somewhere. Maybe to the Dumbness Hall of Fame. I suppose that it is a victory of sorts, and it does feel good in the short run, but all it proves is that we can be as idiotic as they can. Soccer is not lessened by their stupid comments. So it stands to reason that the sports they like wouldn't be lessened by our stupid comments. So why bother. Ignore them.
I visit a lot of different sports boards--- one in particular is college sports centric and has a HUGE following. There is something called the main board where any topic is discussed. Soccer is always a polarizing topic. Everyday there is a massive thread of various matches usually pertaining to the UEFA Champs league or the BPL. Then you couple a few generic soccer threads talking about USMNT or MLS and it becomes unbelievable how many people like the sport (being a college sports board I can safely assume 99.9% of the people are Americans) However, there is just an equally amount of folks (it seems) that despise the sport. I would say the majority of them are football only guys that want to just talk about Michigan or Alabama football 365. As a soccer fan I'm glad there are a number of soccer fans, but it is disappointing to me that the BPL gets more conversation than the MLS. The interest does not appear to go down political lines or anything else of that nature. As I mentioned the people that hate the sport seem to be football only guys.
I get the impression that a lot of "football-only" guys are probably only casual sports fans at best, since the shorter season is an easy commitment for someone who only watches sports one or two days per week--a sport with an audience that much larger than everything else has to have a fanbase that leans more casual than hardcore. Following an 82-game NBA/NHL season, 162-game MLB season or soccer, which has virtually no off-season, requires more than just casual interest.
I used to frequent a fairly big UK site called footballforums.net, and the P&CE equivalent pages were quite scary at times, as a window to the psyche of the UK. It had some right obsessives on there, particularly with regard to immigration, the EU, and the "dangers" and left-wing thinking. Perhaps the most extreme viewpoint was someone who suggested that Anders Breivik "probably" had the right idea, as left-wingers need to be stopped from ruining Europe. It wasn't a troll comment or a foaming-at-the-mouth rant. but somehow the product of calm reasoning. The problem with any such forum though is that the most vocal posters are usually people towards the end of the spectrum, and it presents an incredibly polarised viewpoint. You can see pretty much the same thing taking place (if you are daft enough to look) in the pro/rel threads.