yes that was my point, that they dont use their socialist theory in practice as football fans. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that they keep the realms of football and real life different ie theyre socialists in real life but behave like capitalists in football. If, however, their egalitarian talk is nonsense and they behave like bullies in real life too, then they're scum. I can just about forgive it with them in football, because football is far less important than some people having 10 houses while other people live on the streets. Although, alternatively, the wealth inequality in football trickles down into the real world and people's livelihoods too, so they're not actually separate realms.
Ultimately, we watch a sport where millionaires kick a ball around. if any of us had the courage of our convictions we'd give up football in the first place. We are all hypocrites, but yeah them more than most.
I mean technically celebrities who give to charity are hypocrites too. Even the rare ones who do it out of kindness than for PR. Where do you draw the line? If someone has 50 million quid and gives away 49 million, you can still argue one million is far more than anyone needs to live on (maybe not in London, but certainly in some areas of the world). I know that's a spurious and petty point but I am just saying everyone is a hypocrite to varying degrees.
I understood your point. The reason the level of hypocrisy is so galling with this lot is because they’re forever telling the world their club ‘means more’ - that they’re somehow an example to the world, and an embodiment of being a scouser. Or something like that. I can’t say I’ve ever fully grasped the substance behind all the marketing spiel - I suspect because there isn’t any.
They hold their club up as some sort of an ideal - an encapsulation of what it is to be a scouser. If you want an example of this, look at the recent Twitter meltdown of their official media tub thumper in chief Tony Evans on the topic of ‘scouse not English’ as an attempt to distil and rationalise this load of nonsense.
So if part of being scouse is about advocating for the principles of socialism in Government, and their shitstain of a club is somehow a key emblem or embodiment of being a scouser - a club whose behaviour is indistinguishable from the worst of cartel capitalism - that’s where the hypocrisy becomes more problematic. And that’s why I’d argue the whole thing is pure identity politics - all labels and no substance.
If you look at the reactions of City as a Club - and the response of *most* of our fans - to the Newcastle takeover, you’d see an openness and an embrace of competition. We didn’t conspire to vote against their business model as a Club, and our fans are mostly excited there will be another player on the scene to keep the competition fresh. And this isn’t intended as a statement about the suitability of their owners, but an attitude to the concept of competition.
Look at Liverpool’s reaction - both fanbase and Club - and you get outrage at the idea another competitor might come on the scene, and an attempt to fix the competition by voting to outlaw their business model. Or look at Project Big Picture - created by Liverpool and pushed by their former Chief Exec Rick Parry - to ‘fix’ the competition with special anti-competitive status for the same old clubs, essentially buying off the rest of the football pyramid in a time of financial crisis to cement their place at the top forever. It was such a flagrant land grab it thankfully didn’t get off the ground - but that was their clear intention.
And don’t get me started on their owners, who have proven themselves to be happy to cheat, lie and steal their way to winning whilst investing as little as possible in the game as they can get away with.
Yet these ‘proud socialists’ are happy to swallow it all to keep their club on top. Pure hypocrisy - European Royalty one minute, committed Trotskyites the next. As it suits them. The reality is their club is no different to any other business run by your classic cartel capitalist. The only thing they ‘mean more’ of is more swaggering, arrogant, aggressive elitism.