** Warning: this post contains 23 800 characters, so I had to split it in two posts
Part 1:
I have said a few times that there are tons of things to learn even from on online community which can help you in all other aspects of life.
I had suspicions in the past that a person more or less can't fight against the majority/mob in any area of life.
Or that it is very rare with a successful outcome.
And it is confirming here.
I am posting less often lately and I will probably post less, because when you sum it all, it is not worth it.
Here is why:
For a rookie reader, it may seem that all fights (not me, but from any users) are more or less about football.
But when you dig a little deeper, one can understand that football is probably only 50% of fighting here.
User [MENTION=21136]Potroh[/MENTION] and some others asked lately why is there so much negativity in any topic in recent Months.
Imo, there are 5 main reasons:
1. a human nature. We are as individuals wired and created to SURVIVE and to win.
Life and everything in it is a battle. Our genes are forcing us to be "winners" in everything what we do in life.
That means: try to survive, try to not get hit by a car today (or eaten by a bear in the past), try to make more money than people around you, try to get the best girlfriend possible etc.
Similar rules could apply here: try to know as much as possible about football. Try to be the best in judgements of players, coaches, tactics, club's future, everything regarding football.
And on a football level, then you get a pissing contest: Roberto is good. Roberto is not. You are an idiot, Roberto is good. No, you are an idiot, Roberto is not good.
The same happens in every single topic.
So, individuals, survival instincts and egos are a reason no1 for fighting. We can't escape those.
2. no 2 is, as I have wrote yesterday: our animal urges to get into tribes.
Since again: a life is a survival battle. Everyone fights for himself, but it is easier to survive battles and escape from enemies if you surround yourself with more people (especially if you share some bond, like being a family or having a similar beliefs/ideas).
In the early days of humans, if you were attacked by a bear or by another tribe, was it easier to fight with a bear on your own or helped by 20 guys from your tribe?
Or, if another tribe has attacked you, was it easier to fight against them in 1 vs 20 or with a help from your friends in 20 vs 20?
That urge (to get into tribes) is also coded in our DNA as a part of those survival instincts (and how to escape death and problems more easily).
On a Barca forum, this part of a human nature is showing all the time.
A general idea of a majority of Barca's fans are:
1) we play beautiful football and we should always play that way
2) Pep is a God on Earth, no one has ever played better and we should aim to copy everything what he did till the end of a universe (a type of light players, a type of a system, tactics, passes, everything).
3) then there is a strong urge in people to have something to look for the in the future, which in this case means: people want to see young players so that they will have something to look for. If there is no young players and young hopes, people are sad and their dreams for a better future are crushed.
From this area we have an obsession about any semi decent La Masia kid or a huge bias towards all young players whom we signed and a lot of hate towards players who are past their 30s.
Why? Because people see young players as an opportunity to have a bright future.
While older players are almost done, and even if they are still good, people don't see them in longterm (dreamy) plans and so they want to get rid of them quite soon. To make space for YOUNG La Masia players and YOUNG players bought.
Of course, an objective quality of a young player is not too important here, because people will offer their dreamy alibies: he is young and has potential.
If a player has flaws: he will fix them, he is young.
Now insert young players like Puig, Alena, Oriol, Fati, Wague, Todibo and the bias is quite obvious, regardless of their actual footballing quality.
Majority of fans share the same views: young guys are good. Older guys are bad.
Now insert older players: Rakitic, Busi, Suarez, Pique. Regardless of their actual current abilities, and you will get a simple answer again.
3. so, we had: survival instincts, egos and tribes/majority as reasons 1 and 2 (for fighting) on my list.
Imo, other reasons: majority of people are angry or not satisfied by some parts of their real lives.
And internet, and unknown people are a perfect place to vent their anger and frustrations.
4. No4: a lot of guys are very emotionally attached to Barca from various reasons.
Now, if someone is very, very attached to Barca and if Barca is a huge factor in his happiness in life, then a No2 kicks in again, a part with: we need young talents who will give us hope for the future.
The more someone is attached to Barca and the more Barca's success impacts his life and happiness, imo, the higher are the chances that a person will be desperate for "a future hope" and for "objective" reasons/proofs that a future will be bright.
That again mostly means=borderline obsession and a total lack of objectivity towards any young players.
Young players are a sacred cows in that case and ANY bad post or questioning of their abilities are the biggest sin, since that way you are crushing people's dreams.
For example, today, 3 pillars of dreams of majority of Barca's fans are: 1. Frenkie 2. Arthur 3. Fati
The more people are attached to a player, the harder it is to even mention a flaw of a player.
For example, I dare someone to post something bad in Frenkie's topic, even objective things: for example, that he is also quite meh in the attacking third.
Regarding Fati, my first thought when I checked his age and stats was: what if he also cheated on his age, like majority of players from his part of Africa, where cheating is well documented, in order for players to secure good deals (who are usually extremely poor and desperate). We even had our own Etoo and a club also knowingly cheated for years on his age. If a player is older than his official age=if he turns great for us=fine. If he won't turn good for us=we will milk more money from a potential buyer due to to a buyer believing that a player is younger than he is.
I mean, a question like this is perfectly logical, since it happened 100s of times. But if we dig deeper into it, people will get revolted, they will call you names and get angry.
Why?
If I ask this question, I won't actually make Fati 16 or 18. I can't change the reality. He is either 16 or 18. We don't know. I have just asked a legit question.
The answer is=with questions like this, we are crushing people's dreams and their picture of a certain player in their head.
And currently that picture is=Fati is really 16 and he will become a beast. He will be one of our best players and with him one day, we will again be on a top of Europe.
In that state of mind, a life is much simpler and happier for majority. And the future looks good.
A simple test, for any fan reading this post about Fati. Honestly, how do you feel in this moment, even if you only slightly consider a thought than Fati might be actually 18 and that he is way weaker talent than he is, and that Barca's future is thus way less shiny than if he is 16?
You (fans) will get angry and sad and you will hope that this possibility is not true.
Also, some people will immediately get angry at me for writing this.
But then, a serious question: Do I have anything to do with Fati's real age?
Or have I just asked an objective question?
The same applies for posts: Dembele is dumb. Samper will never be a good player etc.
Every single time, we go through a same process.
When I said 2 years ago that Dembele is dumb, I didn't actually lie. Also, I didn't make him dumb.
Dembele was always dumb. I was just the first or among the first who asked that question.
And people acted for 2 years as if I AM THE ENEMY. Lol.
In reality, what happened?
= Dembele was a key factor in heads of our fans as a leader of our future successful project.
In heads of people, Dembele was a generational talent, better than Mbappe.
Regardless of whether that is true, people will always opt for that option. They will always lean towards a positive side and overhyping our (young) players.
Why=again, because that gives them HOPE for a better future. And without hope, what is the point in watching Barca? we are bunch of losers, supporting a losing club who doesn't have any future. And that goes against our survival and winning instincts where we always want to be winners and do (or cheer) for things which are good, winning and worth cheering for. If Dembele is dumb and Fati is 18, we are going against our DNA because we are supporting losers.
And then, in the case of Dembele, people needed to solve an internal process in their heads where they needed to accept that Dembele is not that good, that he won't be our leader and that our future is less bright.
But, a human brain usually has a simple solution for these situations=if one object of dreams fails, a brain will quickly just move attention to the next object who has some potential.
So, Dembele failed, and people's brains and hearts quickly replaced him with Fati. And currently our 3 biggest hopes are: Frenkie, Arthur and Fati.
That again means that a biggest sin is daring to post some flaws of these players.
5. and then, imo, the last reason for fights all the time is=too much of our success in the last 10-15 years.
People are spoiled, entitled and are expecting too much.
Especially younger fans who started to follow Barca around Pep's and Messi's era and they are used to that=winning everything and playing the most beautiful in the world=is a normal thing for Barca.
For me, the funniest thing about fighting is this mob/tribes thing.
What happened last night is a perfect example:
1. I was often accused in the past for cherrypicking stats (aka: posting only stats which suit my love/hate agenda towards a certain player to make him look better or worse).
2. then a lot of users have called me that I am not posting ALL stats, but only stats which suit me (DonAk and DonAndres have called me often)
3. now add into maths that DonAk and DonAndres are a part of the same "tribe" among Barca's fans since they share similar football views.
4. now, DonAndres posted equally shit stats regarding Rakitic (lol, comparing his defensive stats with Busi who is a pivot, in order to prove how Raki was never actually a good defender. Yet, of course that a pivot Busi will have better defensive stats than any CM because he plays deeper and is involved in defending all the time. Similarly, of course that Lenglet or a fullback will always have better defensive stats than any CM, no matter how good a CM in defending, and even if a CB is very bad).
5. so, regarding DonAndres, isn't it a hypocrisy to call someone a fraud (me) for cheryypicking stats, and then doing exactly the same or even dumber thing?
6. even worse, when I pointed to that, DonAk came and defended DonAndres with saying: you did the same, lol.
Ok, fine. I have did the same, and I was called for it. Now the same users who have called me are doing a similar thing.
Someone might simplify this and say: this is about different footballing views.
But for users who are looking at a bigger picture, this is a perfect example of a human nature, survival and getting into tribes to "win against the enemies".
No matter what level of shit will DonAndres write, users like DonAk, Messi2140, KingLeo, Villarubi and similar=won't say a word.
Regardless if they agree or not. Why? Because they are in the same tribe. They will need help and support in the future.
And then, each of them has 2 things to battle with:
1) they can save the energy for a fight against EV's defenders (the enemy tribe)
2) or they can fight with eachother (among their tribe) and then lose a support in bigger battle against EV's defenders.
Now add that survival mode into maths: and a brain of each of those users will decide what is more important for them=it is to "kill" EV's defenders in this moment.
In short=this is why some users will never attack eachother, and yet, they will jump on every single word of users from the "enemy camp".
I won't be a hypocrite, and I will say that my DNA and my brain works the same.
Since I am in this "battle" for years, an animal inside of me also knows that I can't fight alone with 20 or 50 enemies. I will lose eventually.
So, I am surrounding myself, like any animal, with animals with similar ideas, to have more chances against the "enemy tribe" once when we will fight with them again.
This is why, no matter what shit I wrote, users like Tackle, Arizona Scott (where is he lately btw?), Khaled, Messi983, Joan, Vlad, Ursegor, Tricky and similar, will almost never jump on me, even though they know that I am wrong.
For the same reasons. I am "one of them" and why fighting with me over some mistake/shit in my post, when they (or we) will profit more if we'll stick together in a more important battle against "enemies" on our forum.
The funny thing about a human nature is: people always stick together as long as they have an interest.
So, theoretically, DonAk, DonAndres, Villarubi, KingLeo are "friends" in this moment, as long as they have a bigger enemy (us, EV's defenders).
But if they would get rid of us (or if we would stop posting), then there wouldn't be 2 tribes anymore (against EV and for EV).
Then, with no clear enemies in sight, an animal nature and an urge to be a leader and a winner would wake up in those guys and they would start a battle inside of their current tribe and they would create 2-3 smaller fractions (one tribe would call for one type of football, the other would call for different ideas etc), and then they would start to fight and insult eachother, the same as what is happening between us currently.
Again, I won't lie. The same would happen in "my tribe". If only 10 of us would stay on a forum, even among us we would start a new battle for leadership of our tribe and we would create 2-3 fractions between us who would start to fight in order to get leadership.
To be continued in the post below...
