Last weekend, I suggested you all “sup at the well of pain” and check out the Sevco fan websites, which do a daily dose of rampant paranoia like nobody else. There’s an astonishing thread on the Sevco Media site today, entitled “Institutionalised Prejudice Against Rangers – Are We There Yet?” which has to be read to be believed. It is barking.
Reading like something out of a paranoids fantasy – a kind of Life During Wartime rant all laid out and formatted with red coloured highlighting – it’s one of the finest glimpses into the Sevco mindset I’ve ever seen, and shows you what we’re up against with this lot.
The writer believes the media is biased against their club.
Yes, the media. The people who cheer-led every Ibrox administration into the building these last six years. Which refused to support calls for an SFA inquiry. That has bummed up every manager and every signing like a world-beater. That refuses to use the term Sevco. That has published, without contradiction or investigation every word Dave King has said and continues to although most know they’ve been lied to … oh I could go on but what would the point be? There are so many pro-Sevco personalities in the media that it would be quicker and easier to name those who aren’t of their persuasion. The minute you read this on a forum you know the rest will be lunacy.
The writer believes we run the judicial system.
The example he uses is absolutely perverse; the court case involving Angela Haggerty, who was the victim of a scandalous smear job and a hate campaign which resulted in her going to the police. It was sufficiently serious that people went to jail. The writer is alleging that no crime was actually committed and this was a conspiracy involving her, the police, the SNP, the legal system, the judge, the jury and for all we know the people who clean the courthouse. It is a lunatic’s point, but then the writer does appear to be something of a loony.
The writer believes we run the SFA.
The classic numpty point. The organisation that absolved them from responsibility for the crimes of Rangers whilst letting them have the name and allegedly the trophies. The organisation that let the club investigate itself over connections between Whyte and Green. The organisation that gave them a European license back in 2011 when they weren’t entitled to one. The organisation that had their former director and founder of the EBT scam, Campbell Ogilvie, in post all the way through the sham of an investigation into that affair. That SFA? Run by us?
The writer believes we are influencing how they are perceived.
Actually, all we do is highlight every instance of sectarianism, bigotry, paranoia and cheating that goes on there. If they stopped doing this kind of stuff we’d very quickly run out of ammunition to use against them, but they are stuck in a perpetual loop of this stuff, repeating the same patterns over and over and over again. They don’t even hide their bigotry anymore, preparing to wear it as a badge of honour and daring us to challenge them … and moaning to the whole world about how nobody likes them when they do. Batshit.
The writer makes the following suggestions.
That their board should challenge everything they don’t like and which paints the club in a bad light. Which would be nearly everything they do. Their PR team would be working treble shifts and still wouldn’t cover half of it.
That they should cultivate ties with the journos who do like them. I presume he means like hand-feeding them scraps, inviting them for wee private sit-downs and get-togethers to spread the word from the Blue Room, and bringing along their protégées to learn how to write Level 5 press releases as copy for articles. I have just one question about this strategy, this revolutionary way of engaging with the media. How exactly is it different from what they do now?
They believe in promoting a positive image of their club. I will let you read the exact segment which deals with this; “We have to actively keep promoting a positive image of Rangers and its supporters showing that a respect of Queen, country, tradition, the armed forces and the Union flag is something to be PROUD of and goes hand in hand with welcoming EVERYONE into the Rangers family.”
Everyone except for a bunch of people the writer names in a moment.
“Crazy as it now seems, some of us were briefly wooed by the SNP but now we should ALL be able to see the danger they represent. They must never get another solitary vote from the Rangers family.”
The writer elaborates on this and expands on the exclusion list.
“We need to refrain from giving celtic fans like MOH the blue jersey. This isn’t in the least bit discriminatory or connected to religion, it just makes absolutely NO sense to fill a place in our squad with a man who will never put us first in his heart when playing our greatest rivals.”
Uhuh. So much for “everyone should feel welcome.”
The writer also wants the club’s fans to boycott away grounds, for the club itself to ban ex-players who don’t constantly say nice things about them, and for “hand wringers and apologists” to join them in the “not welcome” category.
The writer believes that there is “an inexorable link between our challenge on the field and our challenge as a community within Scotland.”
So the Unseen Hand is why they have a dreadful football team.
The initial responses to this screed include one or two people who make it clear they think it is paranoid nuttiness of the worst kind. They are quickly termed members of the “handwringers and apologists” fringe and called several not nice names.
Then the crazies start to post in support; one reply in particular makes interesting reading for the complete absence of any sense of proportion at all.
“Doesn’t have to be a masterminded conspiracy to be institutionally biased.
All you would need is enough people in enough positions of influence that are against something. They wouldn’t have had to have met to discuss their conspiracy.
They wouldn’t have sat and come up with a master plan. Just need enough like minded people in positions where they can sway outcomes, portray differences and form popular opinion.
Like Brexit, or Capitalism, or the final solution.
Its terrifyingly simple for lies to become established beliefs. Mob mentality is scary. Look at the hatred for Rangers, look how many clubs absolutely clamoured for our death. Compare and contrast any other club that have had insolvency events in the last 20 years.
That hatred wasn’t always there. It was nurtured and encouraged. Maybe not by a Machiavellian genius pulling strings Moriarty style but by bitter and twisted individuals who worked their way into influence. And don’t tell me it was a reaction to being the best club in Scotland and the reaction to our 9 in a row years where we lorded it over the others.
That’s nonsense akin to “she deserved it for wearing provocative clothing”. Rangers have without a shadow of a doubt been subjected to unfair treatment over the last 10 years by the Scottish establishment …..by the football authorities, by the media and by the legal framework.”
It makes the jaw drop, doesn’t it?
And after the first few posts, almost everyone agrees with the OP and with that lunatic you just read a second ago.
Those who don’t are quickly tarred and feathered and insulted. The difficulty guys like them face, in tackling this mindless nonsense in their support, should not be underestimated. That any of them speak up at all is a wonder.
But they are on the losing side, unfortunately. The lunatics are well and truly running things over there and the problem with the OP isn’t that he is an “angry lone nut” but that he reflects broad opinion within their wider fanbase and, more worryingly, inside the club itself.