Forum menu
P.s and using the troll clickbait trope "the news you won't see reported cos they don't want you to know" doesn't make it true
#thefunnythingaboutpopulism
#notfunny
About the poor winners and friends thing...have noticed that my most Brexity chum has been absolutely vile since the second referendum I mean general election. As if the barely-suppressed spite was a boil on the brain awaiting release. He’s even been verbally attacking his own family and friends, not attending offspring’s birthday events etc. Nearly ruined Christmas by ranting about ****stanis and ‘****ing leftie traitors’ in the style of F*rage with gloves off. I don’t get it. Shouldn’t he be happy? Seriously worried about him but don’t even know how to approach it. He’s already made it clear (to family and friends) that he hates ‘anyone who didn’t vote for Brexit, you don’t want what’s best for this country so you should **** off out of this country’.
Goes without saying that he thinks Farage is the pinnacle of human achievement, and has even begun talking/ranting with the same cadence and emphasis. Which is weird. I worry about my friend, but also have begun to think that (since all this) - he doesn’t lately think so much about his?
It’s the first time in my lifetime that politics has affected friends and family so deeply and horribly.
Pfft. I used to have about 300 friends on Facebook and now I’m down to about 150 after disowning the nationalists and racists in the last few years.
Thing is you need a few numpties on your friends list to see what BS is being spread otherwise you end up in a bubble.
Effectively this is how they won by using targeted social media 🙁
You don’t need to call them out just report the posts as fake, nipping the propagation of BS in the bud is a good thing.
Thing is you need a few numpties on your friends list to see what BS is being spread otherwise you end up in a bubble.
Totally agree. If you don't challenge the bollocks, they get to spout it freely. I don't think I unfriended anyone, although quite a few unfriended me.
Just had a thought this morning.
What if Brexit turns out to be a roaring success?
Then I woke up...
Malvern Rider, it is maybe because the behaviour of those in power enables the similar behaviour in others; toxic leadership spills over to subordinates and followers and that becomes the new normal.
If your leaders are openly making comments perceived as racists, suddenly it seems ok for you to complain about brown faces everywhere because, well, Boris said it.
Why would any respectable media outlet report the made up fantasies from The National, speaking of cringeworthy. I love them for their optimism and narrow view, but they are propaganda press.
Normally I'd agree with you but did you actually read the article? Nothing particularly contentious especially the Jim Sillars content.
Just saw this afternoon’s behaviour of frog man Farage and his brexiteer entourage of utter **** wits in the EU parliament on newsnight and i can say I hope their plane home ends up in the Channel.
But then a load of innocent people will go down with them and that’s not fair......
Oh, hang on, it is more of an apt metaphor than I first thought......
I've spent the last few days working with colleagues from Scotland, England, Wales, Greece, Belgium, Portugal and Germany.
I'm once again reminded that we're neighbours. We're friends. We share the same stresses and happiness in life. We've joked about our differences culturally.
We've worked hard for full days, sharing best practice, new ideas, successes in an area of education. To the benefit of our children.
I'm still at a loss as to why so many of us think that putting barriers between ourselves and these learned and passionate friends is a Good Thing.
I’m still at a loss as to why so many of us think that putting barriers between ourselves and these learned and passionate friends is a Good Thing.
Petty jealousy and a resulting mistrust of intellect.
In the alternative reality this country has become, this happened. An Alan Patridge cheese dream where he is possessed by the restless spirit of Enoch Powell
I truly despair
Jim Davidson unveils portrait of Nigel Farage titled ‘Mr Brexit’
This is the world we officially enter tomorrow.
I’m having a news blackout this weekend. It’s going to be an embarrassing festival of small-minded, triumphalist, little England *tishness. Farage has already started with his flag-waving bullshit. The *!
Oh, and Brexit positives?
Well without Brexit I would have been denied a classic bit of unintentional comedy genius.
Somewhere on Facebook a gammon misspelled (naturally) the word 'vicious' as 'viscous' when having a pop at a Remainer for their 'viscous' remarks and then got all antsy when it was pointed out and they didn't understand why.
You don't often get three bits of comedy genius interspersed with lip smacking irony, even less so when the protagonist has absolutely no idea why.
Still makes me chuckle now.
Jim Davidson and Nigel Farage in one room?
Gynaecologist's dream.
Jim Davidson unveils portrait of Nigel Farage titled ‘Mr Brexit’
Wait, that would be Jim "I'm not racist really, it was all a satirical act" Davidson, yes?
Somewhere on Facebook a gammon misspelled (naturally) the word ‘vicious’ as ‘viscous’
Thick and sticky?
Also, that painting, has he had botox in his lips?
Looks even more like Dominar Rygel XVI than the real thing does.
Yeah, Botox defo
Holy shit! You've finally found the brexit unicorn!!
ION, our representatives aren't all Farages:
Love the half hidden message in the Farage pic. The fictional dick is much larger than the actual one.
Brexiteers would miss that.
Ha ha.
R4 just now, some silly cow from Sunderland saying she was so happy she could cry.
My advice would be to save her tears for when Nissan pull out.
But, they were told.
And the curtains come down on sanity, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
A fitting end.
Goodbye.
An unbelievably sad day. BBC breakfast trotting out a never ending line of brexiteers.
Something struck me. Throughout all of this, not once have I heard the Brexiteers say they understand remainers must be disappointed. Not once have I heard them say "I promise we'll do all we can to make this work for you".
Theres been lots of nonsense about "the country must unite" which translates as "shut up remainers and stop trying to stop this"
I understand why people voted for Brexit.i don't agree with the reasons, but I understand that they have deep frustrations with life and society that were pinned on the EU.
There's no humility from the Brexiteers as perfectly demonstrated by the jingoist "got Brexit done" tat that the Tories are punting on their website.
Thankfully I'm leaving the country this afternoon and I'll be sitting in Europe proper when we formally leave tonight, sharing a drink with some European friends, and no doubt apologising profusely ☹️
Ha ha.
R4 just now, some silly cow from Sunderland saying she was so happy she could cry.
My advice would be to save her tears for when Nissan pull out.
But, they were told.
But apparently we must all pull together now as patriots, even according to the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/31/remainers-britain-eu-brexit
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHh0V7UjVXI
I'm probably reading too deeply, but was it deliberate that you chose the blind Andrea Bocelli as the singer?
Even more fitting if that was the case.
Is that Farage painting a modern day 'The Portrait of Dorian Gray' unfolding before our eyes?
Thankfully I’m leaving the country this afternoon and I’ll be sitting in Europe proper when we formally leave tonight,
+1. Renewed my Irish passports, which expire in March, last night. Noticed my British one I have for work expired mid-last year - shan’t be wasting money on that.
I'm quite pleased that Farage gave an extra spiteful & petty speech in Brussels yesterday, it contrasted perfectly with the kind & considerate words from other MEPs
Reminds us all whats behind this
Yep I have one co-worker who has been greeting everyone who steps in the office with a slightly pushy "Happy independence day!". He's not had much in the way of enthusiastic responses so far...
Personally I'm not looking to get drawn into any Brexity/political discussions today, we're sort of done with that for the time being aren't we?
If the topic is raised I'll be pleasant but honest, I'm not "celebrating" as Brexit is something I don't think is good for the nation, but I accept some people are very happy about it and they are welcome to express that fact so long as they're not going to be too oafish about it...
Something struck me. Throughout all of this, not once have I heard the Brexiteers say they understand remainers must be disappointed. Not once have I heard them say “I promise we’ll do all we can to make this work for you”.
Very good point, i think sums up why the whole brexit is so toxic.....
BoardinBob
An unbelievably sad day. BBC breakfast trotting out a never ending line of brexiteers.
Something struck me. Throughout all of this, not once have I heard the Brexiteers say they understand remainers must be disappointed. Not once have I heard them say “I promise we’ll do all we can to make this work for you”.
To be fair, while listening to Radio 4 yesterday (or might have been the day before) they were interviewing Alexandra Phillips the Green MEP & somewhat weirdly of the same name, Alexandra Philips Brexit MEP.
The Brexit MEP said several times that she realised that while many are celebrating this event, there was a need to remember that the will be an equally large number of people who will be sad, upset & disappointed by the result and did come across as very 'humble in victory'.
The Brexit MEP said several times that she realised that while many are celebrating this event, there was a need to remember that the will be an equally large number of people who will be sad, upset & disappointed by the result and did come across as very ‘humble in victory’.
Not everyone who voted to Leave is an arsehole, but all the arseholes voted to Leave.
dudeofdoom
Thing is you need a few numpties on your friends list to see what BS is being spread otherwise you end up in a bubble.
Effectively this is how they won by using targeted social media 🙁
You don’t need to call them out just report the posts as fake, nipping the propagation of BS in the bud is a good thing.
I'd go past this....and this is why leave lost and why the Tory's cleaned up.
Dismissing what these people are being fed and dismissing them all as racist nationalists is what pushed increasing numbers into the Brexit fold.
Most of the garbage they get fed is just twisting the truth and a narrative but unless you look carefully you'll never see where this started or how they are dragged in and along.
One example is a friend who was saving his son from being conscripted into the EU army...
Not like that will ever happen .. but it's part of a narrative. (Missing numbers parallel distractions probably due to kippers and bananas)
1) Say the UK lost it's veto.... (based on stretching a 1/2 truth)
7) Quote some rampant EU nutters on EU armies and such
11) Say when these nutters get their way we can't do anything because we lost our veto
We end up addressing #11 .... because we completely missed #1 ... BUT it's established fact in their head...
BUT it’s established fact in their head…
Which is where we start erring towards 'gullible' rather than 'stupid'.
But it is not a great distinction to be trying to give people the benefit of the doubt over, is it?
I'd rather not be classified as either.
Is that Farage painting a modern day ‘The Portrait of Dorian Gray’ unfolding before our eyes?
Looks to me as though it was painted by Doña Cecilia Giménez.
Dismissing what these people are being fed and dismissing them all as racist nationalists is what pushed increasing numbers into the Brexit fold
Nah, not buying that
They were always racist nationalists. The type that bemoaned health and safety rules and claimed they couldn't speak their mind because of "political correctness"
No one prior to the referendum was calling them racist for not being a fan of the EU.
Post victory they were emboldened. They suddenly found solidarity, the mask slipped and the facade dropped. Suddenly they were able to speak freely because they were on the willing side.
Of course not every Brexiteer is racist, but you can guarantee every racist is a Brexiteer
Of course not every Brexiteer is racist, but you can guarantee every racist is a Brexiteer
This.
If in doubt you should look at the company you keep. A point I made on about page 30 of this thread.
If you share views with renowned arseholes (Trump, Yaxley-Lennon, Farage etc) the chances are you are either actively a bad person or you are in danger of becoming one.
This current state of affairs should never be allowed to become normalised.
A man who boasts openly about sexually assaulting women is US President.
A man who openly admitted to making up derogatory stuff about the EU in a newspaper column is UK prime minister and taking us out of the EU against our best interests.
This shit is not normal.
You've got to love stuff like this:
Of course not every Brexiteer is racist, but you can guarantee every racist is a Brexiteer
It's really funny. Brexiteers get accused of over over simplifying things, making rash generalisation and being a bit thick. Then with no apparent sense of irony people write stuff like above to attack Brexiteers. Bonus points for lots of use of "they", because you're creating in your head some sort of group that you can now attack.
Question and attack the ideas behind Brexit one conversation at a time. Calling people thick/rascist etc. will do nothing.
Calling people thick/rascist etc. will do nothing.
Sorry. What's the current politically correct term for thick/racist?
Wouldn't want to offend the definitely-not-snowflakes.
They were always racist nationalists. The type that bemoaned health and safety rules and claimed they couldn’t speak their mind because of “political correctness”
...
Post victory they were emboldened. They suddenly found solidarity, the mask slipped and the facade dropped. Suddenly they were able to speak freely because they were on the willing side.
Bang on.
Then with no apparent sense of irony people write stuff like above to attack Brexiteers.
He's saying the opposite - he's attacking racists and defending brexiters.
but all the arseholes voted to Leave.
I dunno, try scrolling through this thread.
Calling people thick/rascist etc. will do nothing.
Calling racists racists is fair game though. If you don't want to be called racist, don't be racist. Simples.
So… are we all ready for the “doing Brexit wrong” complaints at the end of this year, and start of next year…? Brexit will never be wrong for a great many people, even if/when it negatively effects them when it starts to become more real… it’ll just be handled wrong, or be undermined by betrayal, or be suffering from bad faith actors in other countries.
Nah itll all be brilliant, because the Daily Mail will say its brilliant
We are already pretty insular as a nation, that will only get worse now
Question and attack the ideas behind Brexit one conversation at a time. Calling people thick/rascist etc. will do nothing.
You are Mark Francois and I claim my £5.
This exact same thing happened with him and Will Self. Pompous arse Francois accused moderately less pompous but sensible Self, repeatedly, of insulting everyone who voted Leave.
Will Self said over and over that he wasn't and he hadn't. He was insulting some of them. Although presumably if you are racist then you wouldn't deem it insulting anyway. What with tub-thumping racists always bleating on about straight speaking you would have thought they would applaud it, no?
Question and attack the ideas behind Brexit one conversation at a time. Calling people thick/rascist etc. will do nothing.
Try to come up with an adjective other than:
Stupid
Racist
Xenophobic
Gullible
Then try to argue why it is valid. My guess is the best you will manage is some kind of synonym for 'gullible' like 'easily led'
See how you get on.
Misled? Manipulated? Lied to?
Campaign to Unify the Nation Trophy winners?
Calling racists racists is fair game though. If you don’t want to be called racist, don’t be racist. Simples.
If you could fix racism by shouting "racist" at people we'd be sorted. There're are people I work with who are just a tiny bit racist (I live and work in Brexit Ground Zero). Can I reduce their whole being as "racist"? Nope, some of them do stuff like volunteer for a local hospice, they look after sick relatives, they help me out with problems at work. So they're more than just a racist, and the only way you get to challenge those beliefs* is not shouting "racist" at them every time they stray from the correct thought. Accepting racism and not shouting "racist" at people are not the same thing.
Had a good laugh one day with one of the racist shift managers. He went off on a "the town's full of Eastern Europeans, can't hear and English word etc". Ended up with him getting ribbed from all sides when it turned out how many people were married to Eastern Europeans, and we agreed the local gene pool was hardling thriving. All done in good humour, but actually had an impact on him. I could have gone HR with it and tagged him as racist but it wouldn't have had the same impact.
*The caveat being that we're not talking about full blown EDL KKK nut jobs
Nope. Don't care, not showing these people any quarter now.
Had a good laugh one day with one of the racist shift managers. He went off on a “the town’s full of Eastern Europeans, can’t hear and English word etc”. Ended up with him getting ribbed from all sides when it turned out how many people were married to Eastern Europeans, and we agreed the local gene pool was hardling thriving. All done in good humour, but actually had an impact on him. I could have gone HR with it and tagged him as racist but it wouldn’t have had the same impact.
So, just to clarify, someone was racist so you all called him out for racism, right?
This shit is not normal.
Maybe it is normal, and the last 20 years have been the abnormal blip.
Maybe, what makes me hopeful though Oldnpastit are the youngsters of the world. Each generation seems to the kinder than the last.
Things like this
The contrast between the scenes in Brussels etc last night, projecting the union jack etc, lamenting what they (the EU) are losing, and us draping our own flag all over the place and punting tat.
Chances of us projecting an EU flag? Chance of any Brexiteer giving a passing thought to what we won't be able to do anymore?
It'll be a horrible, insular celebration of what they think is a victory.
dannyh
This current state of affairs should never be allowed to become normalised.
no shit sherlock... except is was ignored
and it continues
Boardinbob
Nah, not buying that
They were always racist nationalists. The type that bemoaned health and safety rules and claimed they couldn’t speak their mind because of “political correctness”
No one prior to the referendum was calling them racist for not being a fan of the EU.
Post victory they were emboldened. They suddenly found solidarity, the mask slipped and the facade dropped. Suddenly they were able to speak freely because they were on the willing side.
Of course not every Brexiteer is racist, but you can guarantee every racist is a Brexiteer
So.. the type who bemoaned H&S rules?
You mean like the plumber who works alone and can't smoke in his van alone because "it's his place of work"? or the person who got sacked for "not putting a lid on a cup of lukewarm tea" or the one who got sacked for "walking down 3 steps without holding a handrail"?
Frankly, I don't have a clue if any of these are as a direct result of being in the EU... (although the latter one happened in Holland to a friend)... but I find it hard to believe they are. BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER because you refuse to listen and the Brexiteers are more than happy to not only listen but blame the EU and offer a solution. They don't EVEN need to be true... but I could list loads of H&S gone wrong that are. [non of it as far as I know to do with the EU but what does that matter if only one side listens]
No one prior to the referendum was calling them racist for not being a fan of the EU.
Post victory they were emboldened. They suddenly found solidarity, the mask slipped and the facade dropped. Suddenly they were able to speak freely because they were on the willing side.
If you want to rebrand xenophobia as racism then it's the same as the H&S.
"I want to live amongst people of my own culture" isn't racist... it's perfectly normal hence why so many immigrants want to live in areas they are "amongst people of their own culture"
Like H&S this attitude puts all the xenophobes with the racists... of the people that didn't unfriend me I see a trend... then you see absolute rubbish claiming "they were always racist, they just couldn't say what they thought" ...
STEP BACK and see how stupid that statement is.... racists are not BORN they are created.
Avoiding being racist against Germans... so you really believe a generation were just born wanting to exterminate Jews? What problem was the "final solution" trying to solve?
So now we have the H&S denyers all in a club with the xenophobes and racists .. and would you believe the climate change denyers....
Some local on my local FB page was complaining about the EU flag being flown over the town hall???
Some guy who blames some polish immigrant for losing his job is claiming the same immigrant came to claim benefits
We have Boris making racially provocative statements and you completely miss the point.
Does Boris believe* in piccanee smiles ... or is he just making a statement saying "look vote for me and you don't need to worry about everything you say being taken as racist, homophobic ...."
*I'm pretty convinced Boris doesn't believe in anything but Boris
Accepting racism and not shouting “racist” at people are not the same thing.
True enough.
“I want to live amongst people of my own culture” isn’t racist…
Also true. But “I want to live amongst people of my own culture and I want everyone who isn't like me to **** off somewhere else” kind of is.
So now we have the H&S denyers all in a club with the xenophobes and racists .. and would you believe the climate change denyers….
There does seem to be a correlation.
acists are not BORN they are created.
Avoiding being racist against Germans… so you really believe a generation were just born wanting to exterminate Jews?
There have been links made between genetics and the five big personality traits -extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. So maybe?
If you start The Wicker Man Final Cut version at 21.32 tonight you can replace the 11pm Brexit triumphalism with the sound of the islanders singing as they torch Sgt Howie.
Group therapy going well I see.
Oh look, the Tory's here
Group therapy going well I see.
Shouldn't you be putting an English-only Spotify playlist together or something?
Misled? Manipulated? Lied to?
All require a degree of gullibility.
Group therapy going well I see.
Yes it's quite cathartic.
What are you getting out of it?
Also true. But “I want to live amongst people of my own culture and I want everyone who isn’t like me to **** off somewhere else” kind of is.
Yeah ... and one is turning into another. If you look at many remain areas (London especially) some of the most ardent remainers are multi-cultural areas (Like my own) ... and many of the most ardent Brexit areas are "little England".... and most of the immigration the little englanders fear most is sod all to do with the EU....
But ... it's over simplistic to get hung up on racism.... it's a big motivator but it's also an end point for many... possibly a poor analogy but... it's like H&S or xenophobia or PC is a "gateway drug" ... but then people start hanging with the "wrong crowd"... and this wrong crowd then increasingly radicalise each other.
it’s over simplistic to get hung up on racism….
I don't think amyone's getting hung up, it's just that "racist" is a key indicator for "Brexiteer".
I personally love it when mefty turns up to provide insight and illumination. Sometimes I wonder how I could ever doubt the wisdom of leaving the EU.
2tyred - The Mash also like a Wicker Man reference too...
Group therapy going well I see
Still got 11 months of being in the EU.
Come back 3 years after we leave mefty, and I'll tell you all about potatoes and how, once, nearly every one could go to a shop AND SEE ONE FOR REAL.
Can I make a suggestion as originator of this thread.
Can we shut this thread down at midnight? The in or out argument has been done here. We have more than covered the ground.
I personally would like a new thread discussing the issues going forward from here. I am happy to hold a spotlight to the decisions going forward.
I don't want to discuss any issues going forward, happy to just let the Brexies wallow in their own shit. I'm not contributing to any further debate other than to indulge in some schadenfreude now and again.
This roughly sums up my attitude -
[Mod edit due to swears]
What are you getting out of it?
Nothing that's why I have been hoovering - house needs to be tidy = big family celebration tonight.
Can I make a suggestion as originator of this thread.
Sounds very sensible and as good a cut off as any.
I think the funny thing is that regardless of the things that have happened since the referendum and regardless of the result of the GE the elephant in the room has been how do we move forwards.
Can I make a suggestion as originator of this thread.
Can we shut this thread down at midnight? The in or out argument has been done here. We have more than covered the ground.
I personally would like a new thread discussing the issues going forward from here. I am happy to hold a spotlight to the decisions going forward.
This sounds like a very sensible idea.
Midnight CET, of course.
Nothing that’s why I have been hoovering – house needs to be tidy = big family celebration tonight.
Awesome.
Meanwhile a good proportion of your fellow countrymen hate you with a deep seated passion.
I'm sure your beloved Great Britain is going to do swimmingly under such a scenario.
Pyrrhic victory anyone?
Nothing that’s why I have been hoovering – house needs to be tidy = big family celebration tonight.
Cool, is it someone's birthday?
Given the original title, it does seem a moot point now.
At 23:01 UK time can you please start the 'EU when can we rejoin?' thread?
At 23:01 UK time can you please start the ‘EU when can we rejoin?’ thread?
I'm certainly hoping this one will be closed by then.
Nothing that’s why I have been hoovering – house needs to be tidy = big family celebration tonight.
What exactly are you celebrating? The fact nothing is changing for the next 11 months?
Could it be that people are born racist and some of them learn not to be?
I'm enjoying watching the folk setting fire to EU flags in parliament square. Stay classy.
Could it be that people are born racist and some of them learn not to be?
Possibly - fear of those not in your 'tribe'
Can I make a suggestion as originator of this thread.
Can we shut this thread down at midnight? The in or out argument has been done here. We have more than covered the ground.
I personally would like a new thread discussing the issues going forward from here. I am happy to hold a spotlight to the decisions going forward.
Agreed, 77k+ posts going back 3+ years. Time to let it die.
There will be a LOT to talk about over the next 11 months (I already smell an extension) until we actually leave, but maybe a new thread might drop some of the baggage.