Brexit Butthurt
Wow, I did not have any idea that the Leave option was so idiotically disastrous and inevitably destructive of Western civilization itself... And racist--totally, completely, and inherently racist in every way. And old! That's worse, of course. Old, old, old. Why to old people even get to vote, I wonder?
Anyway, if I'd have realized that there were exactly zero sound reasons for leaving and a nondenumerable infinity of deductively valid arguments from indubitable premises for staying, I'd certainly never have admitted that I had any fond feelings for Leave. I mean seriously.
I'm just astonished to discover that there are so many naive, stupid, ignorant racists in the UK. And old! Don't forget old... Fucking olds.
Frankly, reading the coverage, I can't believe that the world has survived this catastrophe. It's clearly an extinction-level event economically and culturally speaking.
I really can't believe that the UK ends like this. It stood alone against Hitler, but then destroyed itself via referendum. In the end, I suppose the UK really was the only political entity that could take down the UK...
Though it may still be saved by the petitions to vote again! This would be an interesting revolution in democracy: vote...and then, if you lose, vote to vote again! Presumably until you old stupid racist racists can manage to get it right. Seriously. I can't believe nobody thought of that before. We're even getting stuff promoting the petition on PHILOS-L, which used to be the list announcing conferences, calls for papers, etc., but is now the list that announces conferences, calls for papers, and things of interest to leftists. Come to think it, there's actually quite a bit of overlap there...
I'm probably getting too weird and cranky to pay attention to political shit anymore, TBH. I really don't have a real opinion on this--and don't deserve one. But damn, the coverage has been bizarre.
Anyway, if I'd have realized that there were exactly zero sound reasons for leaving and a nondenumerable infinity of deductively valid arguments from indubitable premises for staying, I'd certainly never have admitted that I had any fond feelings for Leave. I mean seriously.
I'm just astonished to discover that there are so many naive, stupid, ignorant racists in the UK. And old! Don't forget old... Fucking olds.
Frankly, reading the coverage, I can't believe that the world has survived this catastrophe. It's clearly an extinction-level event economically and culturally speaking.
I really can't believe that the UK ends like this. It stood alone against Hitler, but then destroyed itself via referendum. In the end, I suppose the UK really was the only political entity that could take down the UK...
Though it may still be saved by the petitions to vote again! This would be an interesting revolution in democracy: vote...and then, if you lose, vote to vote again! Presumably until you old stupid racist racists can manage to get it right. Seriously. I can't believe nobody thought of that before. We're even getting stuff promoting the petition on PHILOS-L, which used to be the list announcing conferences, calls for papers, etc., but is now the list that announces conferences, calls for papers, and things of interest to leftists. Come to think it, there's actually quite a bit of overlap there...
I'm probably getting too weird and cranky to pay attention to political shit anymore, TBH. I really don't have a real opinion on this--and don't deserve one. But damn, the coverage has been bizarre.
posted by Winston Smith at
9:48 AM
2 Comments:
Oversimplifications are even more tempting and dangerous here than usual, Winst -- although it's not at all surprising that you got this impression at this distance. First, it is a disaster -- a comprehensive Mongolian political clusterfuck of a sort unknown in my lifetime. Many who voted to leave are now regretting it just on the basis of the consequences that have now become clear -- never mind the furious backtracking on promises by the main Leave campaigners (eg £350 per week more for the NHS). There's a huge amount that obviously no-one had even begun to think through -- eg Scotland will now dissolve the centuries-old union with England as they have a large majority in favor of Remain and they will definitely hold another referendum on independence soon. And yet British nationalists were supposed to be rather keen on the United Kingdom. It's hard to believe many of the English who voted Leave anticipated, or would not view with much more horror than continued membership of the EU, a 'rump UK' consisting of England and Wales -- and that's if Wales doesn't secede! As for Northen Ireland, please read Fintan O'Toole's recent article in the Guardian, 'The English have placed a bomb under the Irish peace process'. Not a moment's thought was given to a price that may well yet be paid in more blood in Northern Ireland.
The fact that none of this has been thought through, not only be the voters, but by the main campaigners for Leave, is closely and non-accidentally related to the fact that people like Boris Johnson just never thought that Leave would win, and were only backing it to foment conflict among the Tories which they could exploit to their own political advantage. Of course, it was Cameron who called the referendum, for approximately mirror-image reasons: he wanted to 'lance the boil' of UKIP and consolidate his own power in his party and the country. But at least he wasn't lying about wanting to Remain.
And while you are absolutely right to imply that the tarring of Leave voters as stupid, old and racist is disgraceful (as well as in many cases incoherent, since many of the tarrers are supporters of the pathetic Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who was himself not-so-secretly in favor of Leave -- but I'll get to that), there is simply no question that the Leave campaign, as well as being conducted in extraordinarily deep bad faith, frequently appealed to the intolerant and racist instincts they knew they could rely on in a large proportion of their natural supporters (or rather, supporters of the cause they were themselves pretending to campaign for).
Corbyn was officially for Remain, and as an old Far Leftist is supposed to be committed, on independent grounds, to things like open borders and the workers' rights that entirely depend on EU employment law. But another legacy of old-style left-Labourism is a deep strain of Euroscepticism, and Corbyn's heart was obviously not in the Remain campaign, which his people are now revealed to have been sabotaging behind the scenes (he also refused to share any platform with Cameron).
I could go on. The whole thing is a colossal international embarrassment -- a gigantic, hideous monument to the deceitfulness, narcissism, short-termism, venality, stupidity, irresponsibility and above all sheer staggering ineptitude of the entire British political class.
Sorry, meant to write '£350 million per week more for the NHS'; see
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/26/eu-referendum-brexit-vote-leave-iain-duncan-smith-nhs
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