ah well, at least the flags will come down tomorrow. 311

On Sat, 1 Jul 2006, Dr Zoidberg

Why do you believe that they are going to any lengths to be ignorant of the world cup? I know very little about it because I couldn't care less about football, it is of zero interest to me. For some reason the notion that some people couldn't give a toss about football enrages people like SteveH. Far from going to any lengths, I simply don't make any effort to catch up on what's going on with it.

However SteveH seems typical of the chav 'supporters' that crawl out of the woodwork during the world cup. I can't stand this fake patriotism that emerges, with people meekly following the crowd and putting flags on their cars 'because that's what people do during the world cup'. It's the same kind of collective thinking that happened when Diana died, and suddenly the country was seemingly united in this mawkish tribal veneer of grief.

This sheep-like mentality creates a short-lived market for patriotic tat, something that manufacturers are quick to take advantage of. There's something of a chav element to these 'supporters' - is it a coincidence that most of the flag-bearing cars I've encountered don't signal and drive like they have little respect for anyone else on the road. It's typical of the "f*** you" generation of little scrotes that are dragged up by their zero-thinking scrote parents on a diet of pooe and shallow atbreastudes to life. You see these thick yobs abroad getting peeed up, acting like complete arseholes and being an utter embarrbuttment to the country.

On the way home this afternoon there was a discarded flag in the road covered in mud and dirt and being driven over every few seconds. I couldn't help feel this was a fitting allegory for the world cup, the throwaway commercial manupulation which underpins it and the fleeting committment of the five-minute supporters who were sucked in by it all.

Over to you SteveH, I'm sure you have a torrent of abuse you want to get off your chest.

-- Chris