Now as a preface, I anticipate said posters will jump in right away to lambast me because (1) just because I am the one who posted this, and (2) they tend to be highly defensive when called out while refusing to compromise or self-critique. But at the end of the day, I encourage them to. It's a board - open discussion is important - just looking for some rational discourse.
At any rate, Matt's post re: those who haven't coached and how they may underestimate "momentum" got me thinking. The post was obviously aimed at those who tend to go berserk about every negative thing that happens during the games, and to a lesser extent, the "broken record" types who have been hitting us over the head with how MSU doesn't deserve its ranking, how UM has by mandate earned our respect, etc. (both those points are often promoted by the same people, IMHO). I think I would have even expanded Matt's point to those who never played a competitive team sport, but I digress.
Anyway, as I was thinking about it, I was reminded of the thought that I once had years ago during the 2012 season debacle when there were very few positive voices here. That is, anyone think that those posters who are the most critical (aka "keeping it real" or even "objective", as they will tell you) may have not gone to MSU as an undergrad? Or going a step further, didn't grow up in a MSU family? I can think of at least two members of the unsilent minority that definitely fall into that group.
Again, it's just a theory. But my conclusion is that these posters don't understand that fandom (even "hardcore" fandom) is ok and we don't have to be respectful of UM or critical of our team just because we aren't winning with panache. For many of us, we have been subjected to giving unearned respect to UM while also needing to be disparaging about MSU (or formerly the "Same Old Spartans") just to not be attached by the Walmart majority our whole lives. Accordingly, we aren't going to apologize for wins or go out of our way to objectify everything this team does. For further reading, see Naimless' "mentality" post.
Thoughts?
At any rate, Matt's post re: those who haven't coached and how they may underestimate "momentum" got me thinking. The post was obviously aimed at those who tend to go berserk about every negative thing that happens during the games, and to a lesser extent, the "broken record" types who have been hitting us over the head with how MSU doesn't deserve its ranking, how UM has by mandate earned our respect, etc. (both those points are often promoted by the same people, IMHO). I think I would have even expanded Matt's point to those who never played a competitive team sport, but I digress.
Anyway, as I was thinking about it, I was reminded of the thought that I once had years ago during the 2012 season debacle when there were very few positive voices here. That is, anyone think that those posters who are the most critical (aka "keeping it real" or even "objective", as they will tell you) may have not gone to MSU as an undergrad? Or going a step further, didn't grow up in a MSU family? I can think of at least two members of the unsilent minority that definitely fall into that group.
Again, it's just a theory. But my conclusion is that these posters don't understand that fandom (even "hardcore" fandom) is ok and we don't have to be respectful of UM or critical of our team just because we aren't winning with panache. For many of us, we have been subjected to giving unearned respect to UM while also needing to be disparaging about MSU (or formerly the "Same Old Spartans") just to not be attached by the Walmart majority our whole lives. Accordingly, we aren't going to apologize for wins or go out of our way to objectify everything this team does. For further reading, see Naimless' "mentality" post.
Thoughts?
