We’re taking back control!
Nobody knew a Brexit could be this hard!
Folks need to start punching populists in the face.
I mean, they aren’t as morally reprehensible as Nazis, but they seem to be almost as damaging from an economic perspective… and hell, there’s a big overlap between the two groups.
Settle down, Tyson!
I had been thinking electing Trump was a bigger self inflicted wound than Brexit but now I’m reconsidering. Sooner or later, by losing reelection, Article 25, impeachment, term limits, or simply getting bored and retiring, Trump won’t be President anymore.
But Brexit? Brexit is forever.
I have always wondered, which part of “you can’t have your cake and eat it” did Brexiters not understand?
For crying out loud - no special deal for UK. This is just not acceptable for EU because it renders the entire existence of the EU moot.
So those secret reports in excruciating detail were published. Quite a read.
The ones that say that electricity is important?
They make sense in a world where ministers haven’t heard of certain technical concepts. Like electricity. Or fishing. Or post.
Until Britain decides it wants to rejoin the EU in a generation or so.
You may have read some of them before:
At this point I have largely given up on Britain.
Should I ever go back i’ll always be looking out for myself and simply thinking of ways to stay ahead of the game, and not of how nice it’d be to change the game.
Brexit killed some part of me. Mostly the delusional, naively hopeful part.
A good thing overall, but painful.
And incredibly stupid of our politicians.
Most of the people who voted yes had no understanding at all of what it would mean. Many were screw-the-establishment voters who just knew that Cameron wanted a no vote. Others were UKIP and NF racists who saw it as a fascist rallying point. But a substantial share were simply British know-nothings similar to the stupider type of Trump supporter.
The Tory ministers who forced the vote were confident the remainers would win and supported the vote as part of an internal power struggle within the Conservative party. Even today May’s support for Brexit is based solely on political calculations, not on any expected benefits for the nation, of which there will be none.
Are there any other examples where a group has violently (I don’t mean combat) ended a deal and expected to profit? At a similar scale?
That’s a terrible way to vote; anyone who votes just out of spite regardless of consequences fully deserves everything coming their way. That’s even worse than ignorant voters - at least they may avail themselves of the excuse that they were born sheep.
It’s these instances of collective stupidity that one questions the value of democracy, as the “least worst” form of government.
Indeed. However, in both the US and the UK there has been a concerted, relentless campaign of hypocritical populist propaganda for many years that has drowned out any capacity for rational thought in far too many people. In both countries the right wing has found it advantageous to promote racism, xenophobia, and anti-intellectualism. Had the left*, somehow been able to counter this pattern perhaps results would have been different.
*Such as it is in both countries. The Democrats with a few rare, liberal exceptions are really center-right, and the American Greens are not only almost nonexistent, but to the extent they exist at all they are now a Russian organ. And I don’t know what Labour is, but apart from reflexively opposing the Conservatives they don’t seem very left-leaning either anymore. British Greens are more definitely leftist, but there are almost none of them. The SNP is at least left-leaning, but of course it is just regional and also suffers from populism.
The impact of Brexit will mostly be economic, won’t it? Trump on the other hand is infesting every branch of government and governmental agency.
No, incidents of racism, xenophobia and bigotry have gone through the roof. Brexit normalised it, and people no longer feel they need to hide it.
I think you are confusing cause and effect. A much more convincing argument is that the expression of racism was caused by sudden, very locally concentrated migration.
If you think it’s bad now imagine what it would be like if the result had gone the other way and Farage was on the news every night claiming to speak for the oppressed 48%.