Brexit Independence or Dumbocracy
Brexit Recession 2016
Were Brits taking back matters into their own hands,
or is this an example of uninformed, scared masses practicing Dumbocracy.
Salon: “Brexit” is British for Trump
+250% spike in "what happens if we leave the EU" in the past hourhttps://t.co/9b1d6Bsx6D
- GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
"What is the EU?" is the second top UK question on the EU since the #EURefResults were officially announced pic.twitter.com/1q4VAX3qcm
- GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
CNBC
Google search spike suggests people don't know why they Brexited
The United Kingdom - the country of my birth - has just voted to leave the European Union. The majority of the electorate has chosen to turn its back on the biggest political project in the world, a flawed but forward-thinking union that served as the only concrete symbol of European unity after the continent was torn apart by two World Wars. But why? According to Google, a lot of voters aren't really sure...
The simple answers to that question have already been observed - the British pound plummets to a record low in value, the economy contracts, and the country's political parties scrabble around in the wreckage of the current Conservative government to dial back on ridiculous promises they made. But the real answers, the long-term results of ditching the EU in favor of nebulous ideas of "independence" and a new-found sovereignty, are wildly complex.
Arguably too complex for the average citizen. Referendums are a brute-force political engine, a numbers game designed to spit out a yes or no answer on a simple question. Something as complicated and multi-faceted as Britain's membership of the EU, on the other hand, should not have been decided by referendum, instead weighed up by independent experts versed in the thousands of ways the UK interacts with the biggest economic power on Earth.
But as the proponents of the Leave campaign repeatedly argued, UK citizens had apparently "had enough of experts." Instead the vote became about single issues, with one - immigration - at the core. Tens of millions of "incoming migrants" from Turkey and Syria were the specter with which pro-Leavers spooked the populace, using misleading figures and maps in canvassing materials despite the fact there was no possibility either country would join the EU. The Leave campaign has also kept quiet about the fact that any favorable economic deal a Brexited UK would make with Europe would very likely see it accepting the same amount of incoming immigrants...
Trump Praises 'Beautiful' Brexit
And across the pond, Trump stock just went up again thanks to the results of last night's historic vote, giving him the latest in a never-ending run of free press with which to scare old, white people with, and reassure them that nationalism and tribalism, rebranded as 'smart policy,' is the way to go. As you can imagine, this sure sounds good to members of the Klu Klux Klan.
The TelegraphDonald Trump praises 'beautiful' Brexit and says Boris Johnson will make a good Prime Minister
..Speaking on a visit to Scotland, the presumptive Republican candidate said the British people had “taken back their independence” and predicted the end of the EU could be “on its way” with other member states fed up with immigrants flowing across “Swiss cheese” borders.
He also said there was a “big parallel” with the political mood in the US and elsewhere in the world, including Germany, arguing that people want to “take their borders back” and “have their country again.” ...
Financial Times: You Tell Us: Voters Chose to Leave the EU. Now What?
A quick note on the first three tragedies. Firstly, it was the working classes who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded, and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term. They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another.
Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors.
Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in a HG Wells novel. When Michael Gove said, 'The British people are sick of experts,' he was right. But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has led to anything other than bigotry?
Were Brits taking back matters into their own hands,
or is this an example of uninformed, scared masses practicing Dumbocracy.
Salon: “Brexit” is British for Trump
+250% spike in "what happens if we leave the EU" in the past hourhttps://t.co/9b1d6Bsx6D
- GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
"What is the EU?" is the second top UK question on the EU since the #EURefResults were officially announced pic.twitter.com/1q4VAX3qcm
- GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
CNBC
Google search spike suggests people don't know why they Brexited
The United Kingdom - the country of my birth - has just voted to leave the European Union. The majority of the electorate has chosen to turn its back on the biggest political project in the world, a flawed but forward-thinking union that served as the only concrete symbol of European unity after the continent was torn apart by two World Wars. But why? According to Google, a lot of voters aren't really sure...
The simple answers to that question have already been observed - the British pound plummets to a record low in value, the economy contracts, and the country's political parties scrabble around in the wreckage of the current Conservative government to dial back on ridiculous promises they made. But the real answers, the long-term results of ditching the EU in favor of nebulous ideas of "independence" and a new-found sovereignty, are wildly complex.
Arguably too complex for the average citizen. Referendums are a brute-force political engine, a numbers game designed to spit out a yes or no answer on a simple question. Something as complicated and multi-faceted as Britain's membership of the EU, on the other hand, should not have been decided by referendum, instead weighed up by independent experts versed in the thousands of ways the UK interacts with the biggest economic power on Earth.
But as the proponents of the Leave campaign repeatedly argued, UK citizens had apparently "had enough of experts." Instead the vote became about single issues, with one - immigration - at the core. Tens of millions of "incoming migrants" from Turkey and Syria were the specter with which pro-Leavers spooked the populace, using misleading figures and maps in canvassing materials despite the fact there was no possibility either country would join the EU. The Leave campaign has also kept quiet about the fact that any favorable economic deal a Brexited UK would make with Europe would very likely see it accepting the same amount of incoming immigrants...
Trump Praises 'Beautiful' Brexit
And across the pond, Trump stock just went up again thanks to the results of last night's historic vote, giving him the latest in a never-ending run of free press with which to scare old, white people with, and reassure them that nationalism and tribalism, rebranded as 'smart policy,' is the way to go. As you can imagine, this sure sounds good to members of the Klu Klux Klan.
The TelegraphDonald Trump praises 'beautiful' Brexit and says Boris Johnson will make a good Prime Minister
..Speaking on a visit to Scotland, the presumptive Republican candidate said the British people had “taken back their independence” and predicted the end of the EU could be “on its way” with other member states fed up with immigrants flowing across “Swiss cheese” borders.
He also said there was a “big parallel” with the political mood in the US and elsewhere in the world, including Germany, arguing that people want to “take their borders back” and “have their country again.” ...
Financial Times: You Tell Us: Voters Chose to Leave the EU. Now What?
A quick note on the first three tragedies. Firstly, it was the working classes who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded, and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term. They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another.
Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors.
Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in a HG Wells novel. When Michael Gove said, 'The British people are sick of experts,' he was right. But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has led to anything other than bigotry?