Relevance to neoliberalism: the World Cup is globalism distilled into its purest cultural form. When different cultures meet, there is sometimes tension. Resolving those tensions is an essential part of a pluralistic society undergirded by human rights.
In this specific article, it's about the anti-Argentinian sentiment that exploded in the West these past few days. The xenophobic harassment and sometimes violence occurring because many observers have extended criticism of the Argentinian NT and its fans with the entire country, oftentimes with references to both Nazis and Zionism, culminating in Samuel L Jackson's now viral tweet calling Argentina "one of, if not the most racist countries" in world history.
I don't want to let Argentinian society off the hook entirely here. There is a long history of racism within their policies, and to this today, it comes out regularly during sporting events that almost never receive punishment from the country's institutions.
I will post a translation shortly.
Posted by J-Jarl-Jim
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Last week, Ignacio H. traveled to Brazil for work. An employee from the company where he is a regional manager contacted him every day, repeatedly telling him that Spain was going to win the World Cup. “It wasn’t a prediction; it was a form of provocation that I tried to avoid. I’d never experienced anything like it,” he says. Another Argentinian woman, an employee of a multinational corporation, considered filing a complaint against coworkers for the harassment she suffered in that same country. María, who studied in Spain seven years ago, was contacted by former classmates who insulted her after the final. Micaela, 23, is astonished by the behavior of a German friend who wrote to her after every match to tell her that everything was rigged, that he was fed up with Argentinians, that they are corrupt and arrogant. These are not isolated cases. They are accounts compiled by LA NACION that are part of a kind of anti-Argentinian wave that has taken hold in recent weeks on social media and intensified after the loss to Spain.
Anti-Argentine sentiment found its primary avenue for amplification in the virtual world. The strong accusation against Argentina of being “one of the most racist countries in the world,” made by renowned American actor Samuel L. Jackson, was one of the posts that gained the most traction in the conversation recently.
Hateful messages began pouring in, and a video that went viral on social media revealed the most dangerous aspect of this onslaught. The footage shows an attack on a young man wearing an Argentina jersey at the Sol metro station in Madrid. The Spanish National Police told LA NACION that no formal complaint had been filed, so they could not confirm when the attack occurred.
The persistent hostility isn’t a perception exclusive to Argentina. Irish political scientist Éamann Mac Donnchada, who lived in Argentina and currently resides in Barcelona, recounted on his social media how he had to block Spanish friends. “They weren’t satisfied with their well-deserved victory and started spewing hatred against Argentina. One even compared El Dibu to a guard at the ESMA concentration camp. What struck me wasn’t the criticism of the Argentine goalkeeper, but rather how easily the criticism of Martínez morphed into sweeping generalizations about an entire people: uncivilized, violent, emotionally immature, morally questionable. Much of their language reflected classic hegemonic stereotypes: ‘we are educated and rational, they are violent and emotional; we face problems calmly, they get angry too easily; they rely on their innate talent; we have systems and progress.’” “I have not perceived a trace of self-criticism on the part of progressive Spaniards regarding the irony of their criticizing their former colonial subjects in this way,” he wrote.
People like Mehdi Hasan were saying completely earnestly that Argentina vs. Spain was a proxy for Israel vs. Palestine, which is completely ridiculous, other countries people were also viewing through the lens of who was the most or least zionist. As an Englishman I don’t like Argentina for football reasons, but that was going too far.
It’s half about their racism, and half about the obnoxious behavior of their players, and how normalized this belligerent and arrogant behavior seems to be among the fans at the WC.
Man, look, the players and fans were definitely obnoxious and deserved to be criticised, but the way it’s flooded outside of football to the country in general is just a prime example on how humans love to be tribal and how social media loves to supercharge it. Genuinely 99% of these people didn’t give a fuck about any of this even a month ago