There's a lot in what you say there. Dehumanisation is a tactic used throughout the ages. It's used in all sorts of conflicts. It's difficult to hate people you see the humanity in. It's hard to despise those you can understand and have empathy with.
It's far easier to do so once you dehumanise people and groups of people though. Then, you have little or no empathy for them and you can then give yourself permission to treat them horrendously.
With a lot of opposition fans the facts don't matter. Any narrative that feeds their confirmation bias is gleefully embraced, whilst anything that contradicts it is rejected. They want it to be true that we sing about Munich in our thousands, and three clowns singing it in some random pub means we all do it. One utter arse throwing a bottle at a coach means we're all scumbags. Five clowns singing IRA shite towards Union flag wavers means we are all terrorist sympathisers. They want this to be true. They need it to be true. Because it gives them permission to see us all as less than them. It gives their vile hatred permission to show itself. It means they don't have to care or have empathy because they don't see as human enough to warrant it.
Right-wingers use dehumanisation all the time. They do it with immigrants and benefit claimants. They do it to create scapegoats and divert critical attention away from themselves. It was done to this city by Thatcher and her media cohorts. It was done to us all after Hillsborough. Disgustingly, we've been portrayed as less than human for so long now by our own country and its media. It's no wonder so many people now feel they have the right to pile on and mock the deaths of our loved ones. To them, we don't count. In their self-righteous ivory towers they look down from, we are not worthy of their empathy.
So, do they genuinely believe we sing about Munich? No, I don't think they do. But they want it to be true, so they peddle the lie anyway. Truth doesn't actually matter in the dehumanisation game. All you have to do is say it and keep saying it. So long as it's true in their minds, it gives them permission to absolve themselves of their dignity, their empathy, their morals and their human decency. It allows them to hate whilst still feeling superior.
Great post! I see it more and more now, United fans have always used words like 'vermin' to describe us but it's becoming more widespread. And of course, the justifications for it are ropey at best. "You sing about Munich" (not true), "you killed your own fans" (not true), "you boo the national anthem" (so what? Read a history book and you might too), "you're on the dole" (are we?), "you always play the victim" (what does this even mean?)
These are people singing en masse about 97 people dying at a football game and somehow, they've convinced themselves that
they're the good guys and
we're the 'vermin'. It would be laughable if it wasn't so obscene.
The truth is, lots of people up and down the country are hateful and angry. There's a reason we're in the state we're in as a nation - these are the people that vote Brexit because they hate foreigners, they're the people who vote Tory because they hate the poor. I saw comments online this week where people were congratulating the man who threw petrol bombs at the immigration centre in Dover, they were just sad that nobody had been killed!
It boggles your mind that people can be so angry at a group who have little to no impact on their lives (or anyone else's).
So of course they hate Scousers too, they hate anyone they're told to hate. They're unthinking and on social media they can encourage each other's views. Now you've got Wolves fans or Southampton fans or West Ham fans latching on to lies and false stereotypes because our supporters had the temerity to express some left-wing views that hurt their feelings and now they want to hurt us back. Now they'll look for any tiny thing they can to confirm their bias, doesn't matter if it's true or not.
They absolutely deserve to have their allocations reduced and if the decent fans have an issue with that, then they'll need to get their house in order.
