Rational/Irrational

[king canary 7,580]

Following a football team is by it''s very nature pretty irrational. It isn''t rational to follow one team above all others even if they are terrible. It isn''t rational to trek hundreds of miles on a Tuesday night to watch your team play in a different part of the country. And it certainly isn''t rational to be posting thousands of messages on a forum like this discussing one football team.

Yet plenty of us do, because we are irrational and that is what makes following a team so great.

So my question is this- why do a certain group of fans on here expect entirely rational and reasonable reactions to events like last night? The amount of posters straight after the game posting ''holier than thou'' sanctimony about the ''bigger picture'' and calling fans ''pant wetters'' or ''nappy crappers'' after a pretty shocking defeat last night was amazing to me.

If you can''t accept that football fans might be a bit emotional after a result like that and might post some angry, heat of the moment posts then I wonder how many fans you''ve actually met...

[lake district canary 4,531]

Some of them live for the conflict and the chance to make themselves feel superior. That''s why. There''s no fight without an opponent and there''s no ego if it has nowhere to look to for assurance.

[Rogue Baboon 0]

Its ok to be happy with results, question performances that haven''t been particularly great & be right pissed off when you lose a game you are winning 3-2 in the 94th minute

It doesn''t make you overly positive or negative, just a fan

[im spartacus canary 0]

if you show disappointment and anger after a defeat you are a usual suspect who doesn''t live in a normal dwelling but under a stone, it''s the way things are round here :)

[Budapest Canary 152]

Football is a religion, and games like yesterday''s address great many issues of faith.

[Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB 1,020]

Defeat brings out certain posters who do not post when things are going well. I am all for debate and discussion, regardless of whether we win draw or lose, unfortunately the manner of last nights defeat is right up the alley of that group, just because somebody has "Canary" in their name it does not make them a Norwich supporter.....

[morty 0]

[quote user="Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB"]Defeat brings out certain posters who do not post when things are going well. I am all for debate and discussion, regardless of whether we win draw or lose, unfortunately the manner of last nights defeat is right up the alley of that group, just because somebody has "Canary" in their name it does not make them a Norwich supporter.....[/quote][:D][Y]

[Wings of a Sparrow 1,410]

When you have supported your team for a number of years, I guess you just realise that its all part of the experience. We win, we lose, we draw, we play well, we play badly, sometimes we have a good season, sometimes not.

There''s not a lot you can do to change the result.

This is just a modern version of talking about it on the way home from the match or in the pub afterwards.

But there does seem to be a lot more hand wringing than I remember there ever was.

[king canary 7,580]

SOB

I agree there are a fair few negative troll accounts that popped up last night- Paul, Keith and Highland both showed up as soon as we fell behind.

This is more aimed at the amount of posts that got at genuine fans and regular posters come rain, wind or shine for being disappointed and annoyed in the manager and the team last night.

[nutty nigel 7,513]

I agree with Kingo. It''s not rational to divide fans who support the same team. But we all do it at some point and this thread is a further example.

[king canary 7,580]

Well if you feel that way Nutty, maybe a moratorium on the terms ''happy clappers'' and ''nappy crappers?''

[nutty nigel 7,513]

Those terms seem accurate to me. It all fits in with my view that it takes all sorts to make a world. I''ve aways been happy to be referred to as a happy clapper. Can see myself in that description and use it about myself.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="king canary"]Following a football team is by it''s very nature pretty irrational. It isn''t rational to follow one team above all others even if they are terrible. It isn''t rational to trek hundreds of miles on a Tuesday night to watch your team play in a different part of the country. And it certainly isn''t rational to be posting thousands of messages on a forum like this discussing one football team.

Yet plenty of us do, because we are irrational and that is what makes following a team so great.

So my question is this- why do a certain group of fans on here expect entirely rational and reasonable reactions to events like last night? The amount of posters straight after the game posting ''holier than thou'' sanctimony about the ''bigger picture'' and calling fans ''pant wetters'' or ''nappy crappers'' after a pretty shocking defeat last night was amazing to me.

If you can''t accept that football fans might be a bit emotional after a result like that and might post some angry, heat of the moment posts then I wonder how many fans you''ve actually met...[/quote]I don''t think that is altogether the point. It is understandable to have an instant emotional - and very negative - response to what was as sickening a finish to a game as I can remember. What I - and I think others - find contemptible are the much more calculating posters (Highland is hardly the only example) who seem to get themselves lost up the Amazon while things are going well but magically find they have access to the internet as soon as there is a bad result. As with the recent excellent run and then the sad end, and even during last night''s game itself (take a bow, Keith Scott) as it went from bad to good to awful.

[westcoastcanary 0]

king canary wrote: "If you can''t accept that football fans might be a bit emotional after a

result like that and might post some angry, heat of the moment posts

then I wonder how many fans you''ve actually met..." The point surely is that some emotional reactions are rational or reasonable, others irrational and unreasonable, depending on the appropriateness of the emotions and degree of emotion relative to their "object", i.e. what they are reactions to. What king canary seems to me to be calling understandable emotional reactions to "a pretty shocking defeat", are clear cases of OVER-reaction, disproportionate to their "object". Is it necessary to have the emotional reactions of someone who appears, in the words of Bill Shankly, to"think football is a matter of life and death", to be able to call yourself a fan?The distinction between happy clappers and pant wetters seems to me to coincide pretty exactly with those whose emotional responses are almost invariably appropriate and those given to over-reaction on the other.

[nu_matik 167]

So... I was the poster referred to as a ''happy clapper'' talking about the ''bigger picture''.

My point still stands. Being disappointed or even angry is ok. Quite natural when you have passion for the club... we all choose to work that energy in different ways.

What I''m saying is that of you feel the need to come and vent angrily and irrationally on a Web forum sad soon as you can because we lost and made mistakes, you''re not a fan, you''re a nappy crapping baby and you make yourself look emotionally unstable.

[morty 0]

😂