EPTActually, it's probably worth skipping this one all together having re-read it.
The day started a little different to normal, I was specifically waking up to watch a BW cast, something I've never done before. As a SC2 fan and someone who loves this site and it's team I figured I should take the opportunity to watch the OSL and before I get in to everything else I should say I actually enjoyed the show.
So anyway, since I don't really know much of anything and hoping the chat might provide some insight I could pick up on I made the mistake of leaving it open. Yes, I should have known better but even with an hour long slow mode people were using that one comment, even when they knew about the slow mode, to spew their vomit their crap in public. People were making accounts to get around the slow mode, not to engage in conversation but because they felt they needed to make sure their stench could reach the maximum possible audience.
At first I was sad to see some other SC2 'fans' who had decided they were so proud of being SC2 fans they had to take a dump on BW and it's fans, exclaiming their greatness for liking a different game to the one being shown and expressing that pride purely through the medium of hate. Then others started defending BW, not by ignoring the idiots or calling them out for their crap, but by expressing their pride of liking a different game and being so proud of that, that they must express their hate towards SC2 and it's fans.
This back and forth tripe continued until Sayle's channel was taken out for a copyright notice and then the exact same rubbish started between people who were enjoying his commentary and those who didn't care, with many on each 'side' (which is a stupid term here) taking the position that their position was the absolute right one and the way to express that was pure hate of any who disagreed. In the mean time Sayle simply moved to another channel and co-casted with OminouSC2 and it was quite enjoyable. Not hate, no pride and it was fun.
I did eventually hide the chat, it took me longer than it should have but it astonishes me that even with the hour long slow mode that was what people wanted to express. Just their hate and nothing more.
Then I come back to the TL forums and catch up on everything and with the morning in my mind I couldn't help but notice comments. The expectation of national pride which has been especially prevalent with the Olympics (more on this to come) was obvious in posts that shouldn't have had anything to do with it and even an expectation of hate in others. I originally had a few examples here but I'm not going to use them as I think it detracts from the post to call out people who might never see this, but it's not understandable that being anonymous or having been born should be cause for pride or hate. Even if they were, these aren't good things.
I also watched Assembly and TSL4 today and again whenever an opportunity for an opinion to be shared, however minor, there is an expectation of taking sides. That you must prepare for war against the other side who must be doing the same thing so you can launch verbal diarrhoea at each other to ensure your message of hate defends your unnecessarily placed pride. Well, actually my favourite colour was green, of course I was personally invested in a war against those who liked yellow! WTF people???
Finally, after everything, we have the burning sore. That which over the past year has gradually filled the country I live in, literally, with fake patriotism and a baseless national pride. The Olympics. I've done my best to ignore this event as usual but it seems to have reached the point of impossible. Everyone deciding that they're personally winning or losing because 'their country' played a game. What does that even mean? When I have to listen to someone tell me "we" won I find myself feeling...well, sad.
+ Show Spoiler [Not aimed at you] +
I need to add here, one person specifically might think this section is aimed at them. If you're reading this I promise it's not I was just frustrated at the time, this is a more general gripe.
I am literally expected by the species I'm a part of to have linked someone playing a sporting event somewhere with my personal feeling of pride. It's so common apparently that it's just normal to have that investment. "We" in this sense, doesn't mean a group I'm involved in. It doesn't mean a group the person I'm talking with is involved in. "We" doesn't mean we had any part at all, even peripherally. No, what "We" means is that some talented person (or people) within hundreds of miles of where I happened to be born (so long as they're on the same side of an arbitrary line as defined by centuries of war as I) did well in a sports event and that our pride was assumed to be invested there by default. That's insane.
I don't feel pride when "Great Britain" wins, because I didn't achieve anything. Hell, even "Great Britain" didn't win, as if that should mean anything anyway. Someone who probably trained hard and did their best won and they should feel all the pride they want, and those who helped maybe too. Everyone else should do something with their own lives if they feel such a need to build up some feeling of pride.
Of course though, you can’t just want 'your team' to win. You have to want the other team to lose and actively attack them and anyone from the same country as the people from the country that the people from your country beat. You know what, the reader who makes it this far knows where I'm going with this and I'm just arguing in circles now.
The truly frustrating, worst part about all this is? I hate it. This pride and hatred of others has gnawed at me to such an extent the only feelings I have left towards the subject are sadness and my own hate. Holding a view point and feeling hatred for those who feel otherwise is the very thing that's annoying me in the first place!!!
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGH!!!!!!!!!!!
...
Can we please just make society better? Could we somehow get everyone to drop the hate, stop the gorging on fake pride and just enjoy the things in the world that we actually enjoy? Spare time isn't infinite for anyone, and yet after all these years with our sophisticated modern cultures and society and global communities can we drop the tribal stupidity and the war with everyone. Can we please just prove George Carlin wrong?
