Celtic Supporters Thread (contains GB chat)

Depending on what they meant, possibly me neither. The logic that what Israel has been doing in Palestine and all the people who had died because of their oppression somehow made Hamas's terror attacks if not justified at least condonable in some sense is exactly the same logic that justifies Israel's current bombardment based on the terror attacks.

 

Even when I am agreeing with them I don't think of them as speaking for me. I like the atmosphere they bring and have no issue with people making statements at games, but I don't like the idea of a group of fans becoming the proxy spokespeople of the wider support.

 

I'd say the GB are miles off being anywhere close to representing the Celtic support as a whole. I'd also say I don't believe the GB think that either or that is their aim.

 

That's a fair point. To the extent that the wider support don't give their consent; they don't speak for the support.

For me, I do sometimes see them as speaking for me, simply because I have no real voice politically. Quite sensibly, no one is all that interested in what I think and so right now when the GB are asking for people to bring the Palestinian flag to the game, I see them as speaking for me too. However, they weren't speaking for me when they displayed "Victory to the resistance" on the weekend of an inexcusable terror attack which made me want to vomit.

Having said that, your position that they don't speak for you even when you agree with them is also very reasonable.

 

I don’t think so either. It’s strange that some people automatically jump to the “they don’t speak for me” line, when it’s not something the GB have ever claimed to do anyway.

 

Even though they might not claim to speak for the whole Celtic support they surely understand that anything they, as Celtic fans, display or chant inside Paradise gets attributed to Celtic fans in general.

 

I honestly think they are surprisingly spot on much of the time. Not annoying anyone out of literally hundreds of thousands of fellow fans with your political takes is simply impossible. In spite of that, I think they tend to hit the right ball park for your average Celtic fan more often than we have any right to expect. For example, when the British Queen died. There was so much sickening pro-Monarchy stuff around; but equally, there were some truly awful takes on the left, such as hoping she suffered and died in agony. The away support (presumably the GB did the banner) pitched it perfectly with, "If you hate the royal family clap your hands." It attacked the institution not the human being and it couldn't be attacked for being political, because all it did was cleverly reframe the already very political attempt to make them applaud her.

I thought it was genius and have rarely felt so proud of the support.

 

Can we please put this to bed?

It's obvious that the GB thought they were being smarter than they actually were. They, like anyone else with half a Braincell, knew what was coming down the pike for poor people of Palestine after Hamas' wholly STUPID, DISGUSTING atrocity.

We're witnessing it right now. Hospitals, civilians you name it, being bombed out of existence.

The GB thought they were ahead of the curve, and were raising awareness of the eventual and certain repercussions, but neglected to simply read the * room.

They * up.

Hopefully they learn from it.

Let's just draw a line under it.

 

If you want to read through the thread you will see numerous posts where people use the “they don’t speak for me me” line or words to that effect. It’s not really an issue that needs addressed because it’s not something the GB have claimed, ever.

 

They don’t speak for me either.

Problem is when they use their platform it’s in a football stadium with the rest of us in it. It could easily be assumed across the planet that we as a support hold the same beliefs as them because none of us have a platform to despute it.

Doesn’t matter if they mean it or not.

We can and will be painted with the same brush.

 

As they always point out, you are free to bring your own displays with different points of view. Sure, certain points of view are never going to be accepted at CP ("* Save the King!", Swastikas or "Rule Brittania." or whatever) and others will be acceptable but unlikely to get too much support ("* bless Maggie Thatcher"); but there's nothing stopping you bringing a banner saying, "Free Palestine, f*** Hamas!" for example. I think that would be quite a popular banner.

If it could easily be assumed that we all have the same beliefs as the GB, that's not really their fault.

 

But 90% of people in the stadium probably don’t have the capacity to take a banner in? When have you ever seen a random wee banner being held up by two guys?

Aye, you can take one in if you want thats all well and good. But you don’t have a full section helping you and getting the full attention of the stadium and media. The pictures of them are sent all over the World. Large parts of the media won’t know the concept of Ultras, so it’ll be reported as “Celtic Fans”.

So they can say that we are welcome to voice our own opinions, but it’s pretty empty.

Nobody has said that’s their fault, but that’s why people will say they don’t speak for them, because that assumption will be made.

 

True. Not sure there is an answer to that as it pretty much applies to any large group.

Not really that sure that the GB have much of a platform either or what they say matters much. Big of an echo chamber really with the odd stirring by mostly local rags.

Other than one poorly worded banner not too sure that they're current views aren't shared more widely.

 

It’s not their fault and there is nothing they can do, but that’s why people will say they don’t speak for them.

It’s weird to jump on people for trying to dissociate with them.

 

Yep that's exactly why I said it.

 

It wasn't addressing an issue, it was responding to something another poster said.

Even if they haven't said it, their actions show an attempt to speak on behalf of the support especially when they're asking as many fans as possible to bring a Palestinian flag to the game (which I actually agree with) and that is always how it is portrayed in the media.

 

Aye, you were responding to another poster. I’ve never argued otherwise. There’s plenty others on this thread that have said about the GB not representing them when it’s not been in response to another poster however. There’s just loads of people that fall over themselves to have a pop at them for any reason.

I don’t see it as an attempt to speak on behalf of the whole support. It’s something the group believe in. They will know full well that many in our support don’t agree with everything they do. It could be argued they do it to try and raise awareness amongst our support for people who don’t really follow it. If anyone thinks that a section of a support showing a display demonstrates that everyone in that support is fully behind said display, the person who believes that is an idiot in all honesty.