Peperoncino

I believe my post has been misinterpreted, and this tweet is one example of such an unfortunate misinterpretation. There’s no criticism in the post about Argentinian people. I don’t see how anybody could read that into it, and any such reading would make me very unhappy. I found the theory I retweeted intriguing. The theory was: the reason why the Argentine soccer team started making harder fouls and also becoming more aggressive in the post-game was because earlier more minor transgressions went unpunished, and this changed norms and perceived rules, enabling further transgressions. This was entirely about the Argentine squad. I prefaced my comments saying that I’m not sure this is the right mechanism or explanation, but it is intriguing. I still think so. I found it intriguing because it has a parallel to how political leaders and influential people (including businesspeople) start misbehaving if rules and norms are not enforced toward them. Here there was no reference to Argentine leaders or people at all. As my comment made it clear, the main case I had in mind was Trump in the United States. Let me also add one thing. One important distinction between patriotism and nationalism is that patriots are proud of their country and its achievements, but also happy to criticize its mistakes and be critical of people who represent their country if they are behaving in ways that don’t meet the highest standards. I fully support patriotism and the pride that Argentines and many other nations feel of their national soccer team. Nationalism supports one’s nation regardless of its misdeeds and potential misbehavior of its leaders. Perhaps I am an old-fashioned liberal in that I still think nationalism is something that is destabilizing and dangerous for the whole world.