This is something that always amazes me. It seems no matter how liberal some European is, no matter how welcoming they are to immigrants of all kinds of super diverse places like Somalia or whatever they are, they somehow instantly turn into Nazis the moment gypsies come up. Either they're openly just "well fuck those particular guys" or they desperately try to change the subject immediately.
It's interesting that Europeans can feel this way, and yet can't understand why Americans treat black asphalt culture which such incredible derision. Someone somewhere said nothing creates tolerance and understanding like exposure, and while true, I can tell you hatred is built up the exact same way.
I actually have a more poignant example though.
There were a good number of meetups I went to for game communities, pub crawls, etc. Just people coming together to hang out, drink, share stories, and have a good time as people. I found that conversation almost never strayed to the topic of the game that brought us together. If it was a game that goons had a presence in though, you always knew. If goons showed up, they were almost always autistically trying to bring up some inane drama from in game no one cared about, they never meshed with the other people there, and if there was more than one, they always huddled together.
In the fullness of time, communities in the country began talking about something referred to as "goon sweat," where you could typically pick out goons because they were always sweating like they were coming down from a high, they were always shifty and nervous, and they were always, always awkward. It became clear that at best most people would merely tolerate them, and at worst people would actually grow hostile to their attitude as nights wore on. Goons would never buy rounds of drinks, goons would never go in on food, goons would always complain that the beer garden wasn't as "authentic as that time their grandparents took them to Germany." Goons would typically wear ill fitting tshirts that had been washed too many times, or button up graphic shirts and shorts that were always size 46+ or higher. You might well accuse me of painting with a broad brush or making generalizations, but I'm not. Pre-troon, this was the goon culture and reality. If they cleaned up they could be presentable, but their entire motif revolved around an almost complete lack of self-care, from basic shaving to exercise to picking out clothes that could be assembled into something akin to a style.
You might find it insane, but they had a body type. They had a distinct culture. They had the same attitude. They had a kind of "aura" that you'd eventually learn to pick up on. Much like the European learned over time to detest the gypsie, so did these average people learn to hate the goon, even if they didn't know what a goon was, or what Something Awful was. Goons never enhanced any group or event, they could only drag it down. Over time you figured out they spent the entire time talking about the dumb games they played because they had no hobbies to share, no work experiences to relate to, no careers to complain about.
Goons are the gypsies of the internet. That's what it is.
