I'm a Hammers fan married to a lovely lady from near Liverpool - Warrington (I call her a posh scouser out of fun and mischief, she takes it with good humour and normally has a dig back at me).
My family originated from the areas and situation you mention, Canning Town - ironically where Johnny Speight was borne. My late Grandfather a humble milkman was at the 1923 FA cup final. Supporting West Ham has run through the generations. What I can comment on having come from a poor nay abusive background on a council estate, is the older school of Hammers have different values to the younger fans who largely do live in Essex (I am still in East/North London).
I am ambivalent about the monarchy and probably a republican if I had to label myself. The difference in Liverpool is probably the largely Irish and Catholic background/heritage of a big chunk of Liverpool supporters, hence ‘part’ of the anti-monarchy aspect and booing of the National Anthem, of course there are other reasons. Speight incidentally was also of Irish origin. The far right/NF you mention is almost true (My father would have supported Moseley and ironically in latter years I found in our ancestors both an Irish and Jewish connection in our DNA. I fell out with him for years over these and other 'racist' issues and ironically the Mother of my two children is Jewish, so in her cultures eyes, so are our two sons. He never got it.
I managed to climb out of the gutter and become successful, so I suspect did Johnny Speight. The East Enders of London old, had a lot of grit to overcome their impoverished back grounds. My own late Grandmother was a widow at 21 and single parent of three young kids in the 1930's, it would have been incredibly tough for her. Remarkably she worked through the blitz helping to pull the dead and injured out of the way. After the war she set up her own business. She loved the Royal Family and even had a corgi in latter years like Queen Elizabeth.
It is a difficult to explain away all these nuances and paradoxes in life. For my part I have written articles on the antisemitism, racism as well as homophobia in football (see WHTID articles). In one such article I had written how I would not attend games against Spurs because of issues like the 'hissing' song and Jew-baiting that went on. Most fellow Hammer fans were totally in agreement with me. I took comfort from that and now attend games against Spurs. There is no profound antisemitism or racism from what I see at West Ham games, although that does not mean there are no racists or homophobic's there.
I guess what I am trying to say is you cannot generalise on fans and indeed groups of people. At football matches it gets tribal and governed by almost a mob mentality and those with the biggest gobs tend to get the biggest acknowledgment and followed by others.
The NF you mention in the 1970's is another paradox. West Ham were one of the first clubs to sign players from African heritage, Clyde Best, Age Coker and Clive Charles in 1972 were the first trio of players way of a darker skin to play in the UK, way before the fanfare of the 'Three Degrees' at WBA.
Most West Ham fans were very protective of them as were the likes of Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. I travelled to Liverpool to watch West Ham play Everton. Clyde Best was treated to total abuse and banana throwing by sections of the Everton crowd and players. Clyde answered that by scoring the most unbelievable solo goal I have ever witnessed live. To their credit the Everton fans stood up and applauded. Clyde and Bobby Moore were my heroes as a child, Clyde was the nearest thing I could associate with Pele
Finally, I guess what I am concluding it is easy to polarise matters as you have mentioned, it is often the silent majority who represent decency and common sense. I often sense a good and healthy respect between most football supporters. All of us have idiots amongst their support including West Ham and Liverpool. It is up to the silent majority to speak out when they can.
Apologies for long winded comment! Good luck for the season ahead… except when you meet us
