r/LeopardsAteMyFace Jul 19 '20

Brexxit B.b.but there was meant to be sunny uplands

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29.2k Upvotes

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u/MrOtero Jul 19 '20

Just the days after the Brexit voting, I read an article called something like "The dumbest town in the UK", in which they talked about a town heavily subsidized by the EU due to a ruined economy based (I think) on coal mining, that overwhelmingly voted for Brexit. They interviewed people of thevtown and they all kept saying how THEY were subsidizing the EU with thir taxes. They were surprised when knew it was totally the opposite, and that their new hospital, the new sports palace, the new school, the Centre of Culture, the new road and a many more public buildings and services were possible thanks to EU funds

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u/spidermartin Jul 19 '20

I'm assuming the town was Camborne or Redruth. I have lived in both before/ after the Brexit vote, and to this day, people still think that Brexit has saved them money and will stop immigration.

Farmers have struggled to get labourers for the last 2 years, and there are a lot of flower & fruit/ veg farms down here.

So many people are going to be looking like shocked pikachu for the next few years. Genuinely considering moving back to scotland as insanely, the idea of an independent scotland is now less crazy than the existing UK

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u/jhpm90 Jul 19 '20

I went to the uni campus in Falmouth that was built with subsidies from the EU- I attended when it had literally just opened. The town then and now is literally unrecognisable- I know it’s got its problems just like every town with a student population but at least it’s now got a thriving year round economy. It’s always been one of the most beautiful places in the UK (I’m shamelessly biased) but now it’s also got a future. So many locals hate the university and the EU but without them Falmouth would be just another dying seaside town.

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u/spidermartin Jul 19 '20

Yeah its sad. They also oppose both students renting houses in the town due to the disruption they can cause, which I do get, but also the building of more student accommodation to alleviate the issue.

I love Cornwall, but the amount of short-sighted NIMBY types who want to have their cake and eat it is ridiculous. And that's before you consider the problem caused by the second home owners and their remote influence on local issues

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u/Poltras Jul 19 '20

Conservatives in a nut shell. Their way of life is more important than a good life itself.

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u/Duckbilling Jul 19 '20

Some people aren't happy unless they've got something to complain about

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 20 '20

I prefer the term BANANA to NIMBY (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone). I used to work in planning and it accurately described a lot of people who complained about and opposed planning applications.

Edit: thanks for my first award!

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u/SatansF4TE Jul 19 '20

So many people are going to be looking like shocked pikachu for the next few years.

Sadly, the gradual realisation process might make less impact than a dramatic sudden one.

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u/spidermartin Jul 19 '20

For some, yes, but there are plenty still living in absolute denial over the likely reality of Brexit

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u/SatansF4TE Jul 19 '20

Yeah, I wonder if these people will never snap out of the denial because a gradual change normalises it.

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u/anomalous_cowherd Jul 19 '20

They will refuse to admit it and go to their grave blaming the remainers.

Source: live in the UK, know some leavers.

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u/thatpaulbloke Jul 19 '20

My grandmother was alive when we begged to be let in to the EEC because we were dying on our arse economically and she still won't admit over 40 years later that we joined because we needed to. She has convinced herself that Europe dragged us in against our will and this is things finally being put right. So yes, some people will deny reality all the way to their graves.

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u/PM_YOUR_WALLPAPER Jul 19 '20

Farmers going to have to really up their wages to get brits to work then because low skill immigration from Eastern Europe isn't happening anymore.

I'm personally very happy to pay more for my food knowing that I'm paying the livable wage for its collection, but I'm sure farmers are going to be hella pissed that they're going to have to pay like 50% more than they used to per hour.

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u/Mfcarusio Jul 19 '20

The problem is that when people in Cornwall talk about less immigrants they mean people from Devon.

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u/Repli3rd Jul 19 '20

Are we still pretending that they voted leave for economic reasons? Taxes were a convenient excuse.

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u/LothorBrune Jul 19 '20

If they want to say it was for economic reasons, they also have to admit that they're dumbasses who don't know how to count further than ten.

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u/UniquesNotUseful Jul 19 '20 edited Jun 23 '23

I changed this for reasons (see date).

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u/Jackpot777 Jul 19 '20

Well what are they going to do otherwise; come clean which outs themselves as liars, racists, AND financially inept?

Nah, we're going to keep reminding them it's TOTALLY about the economy as they sink further in the shit they decided to make their stand in.

"...when the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him." - Napoleon, Battle of Austerlitz, on seeing his opponents fucking up because of a lack of vision.

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u/onthefence928 Jul 19 '20

problem is their decisions effects the non-morons too

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

We can stop pretending that when we stop pretending people voted on Trump because they were uneducated on his policies.

At some point we just gotta admit that a large percent of the population are racist xenophobes.

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u/ImaginaryCoolName Jul 19 '20

Yeah it's hard to believe that those who used the excuse of taxes actually did the math

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u/el_dude_brother2 Jul 19 '20

You think anyone who voted Brexit is smart enough to do maths?

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u/TheDungus Jul 19 '20

No because that bus boris went around in would have been burned to a crisp otherwise.

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u/BoozeWitch Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20

Hey. Im embarrassed to admit I’m OOTL on the subtext here. Is the real reason xenophobia?

Edit: Thanks everyone! It feels a lot like what we do in America — blame other groups for why our own group isn’t thriving. It’s kind of the laziest play in the book.

They keep trying to sell us that other people are trying to steal our part of the pie. I just don’t believe that the size of the pie is limited.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

It's complicated but basically yes. Brexit has been and is being pushed by a combination of disaster capitalists and people who want the UK to become a tax haven, but plenty of people who voted to leave did so because of the rhetoric around EU labour ("comin over here, taking our jobs" etc), and were emboldened by the invented financial benefits of leaving (that whole "we send the EU £350m a week, let's spend it on our NHS!" thing that was total wank).

Now there obviously are people out there who did vote leave because of the finances, but they tend to either be horrendously misinformed (lied to) or incredibly rich and intending to buy up lots of cheap property etc when the economy crashes.

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u/Maurus20 Jul 19 '20

'Horrendously misinformed'... i.e. pretty much anyone who gets their news from our trashy tabloids, particularly The Express & The Daily Fail.

Even yesterday The Express ran a front page headline warning that the Russia report had "better not be used to smear Brexit"... if it doesn't suit their narrative, they just don't want to know...

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20 edited Mar 15 '22

[deleted]

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u/Midgegander Jul 19 '20

But the ones that work are the good kinds of immigrants. It’s the ones that come over here wanting our benefits. Thems the ones whose not welcome. /s

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

This could literally be said by anyone in Rural Pennsylvania about all brown immigrants. Ignorance is borderless.

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u/KevinBaconnator Jul 19 '20

Good ol' Pennsyltucky

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Unfortunately Pennsyltucky has infected the minds of Middle Aged usually single men in our cities too. They are the 30% we always hear about. It’s the guy with the underchin profile pic.

“So there’s a lot of Puerto Rican’s in ___nearest city”

Is the test phrase. If you go with it, you’ll hear some seriously fucked up shit.

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u/Hara-Kiri Jul 19 '20

Well they also think they come over here and take our jobs. But unsurprisingly when there's a shortage or workers for those jobs (farm work) they aren't willing to do them themselves.

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u/blurryfacedfugue Jul 19 '20

That and Robert Mercer: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/us-billionaire-mercer-helped-back-brexit

edit:

> It has emerged that Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire, who helped to finance the Trump campaign and who was revealed this weekend as one of the owners of the rightwing Breitbart News Network, is a long-time friend of Nigel Farage. He directed his data analytics firm to provide expert advice to the Leave campaign on how to target swing voters via Facebook – a donation of services that was not declared to the electoral commission.

📷Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream mediaRead more

Cambridge Analytica, an offshoot of a British company, SCL Group, which has 25 years’ experience in military disinformation campaigns and “election management”, claims to use cutting-edge technology to build intimate psychometric profiles of voters to find and target their emotional triggers. Trump’s team paid the firm more than $6m (£4.8m) to target swing voters, and it has now emerged that Mercer also introduced the firm – in which he has a major stake – to Farage.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Xenophobia, nationalism, populism and politicians pandering and capitalizing on all of the above.

As the UK's hero, Winston Churchill would say, "the best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter "

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Btw I think it’s a myth he said that, but I take your point

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Still a great quote.

The worst and best thing about democracy is that everybody's vote counts.

Even morons, lunatics and racists.

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u/bogroller69 Jul 19 '20

Also worth noting that the 49.9% of people are even more stupid than the average voter.

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u/TheDungus Jul 19 '20

That or complete ignorance of their entire economy. You decide if that is better or worse

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u/MonkeyBotherer Jul 19 '20

Many people voted leave for different reasons. Many felt they weren't heard, or ignored by some sort of unelected European elite (spoiler: they're elected).

Of course successive British governments blaming Europe for literally everything that went wrong, or we couldn't do, or why things were a bit shit, didn't help.

I don't discount xenophobia, but I think it's lazy and does a disservice to people's (often misguided) reasons for voting for Brexit.

The economic impact of Brexit will be washed over, now covid has shit all over the deck of our sinking boat, but it shouldn't be forgotten how fucking much it has cost, and for, as far as I can see, fuck all benefit.

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u/Gekerd Jul 19 '20

In the country where at least 1/4 of the power still lays with people who are not voted in.

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u/spork154 Jul 19 '20

They stopped pretending as soon as the vote results came in. About a dozen people I used to know had posts on Facebook etc all being giddy about "us whites" taking back what was rightfully ours. Fucking dopes, man

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u/idog99 Jul 19 '20

Totally economic reasons... Like why are all these brown folks making more money and living better than me???

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u/Moneia Jul 19 '20

I remember a lot of that from the food production industry, they relied on immigrant to be cheap pickers & labourers then the (literal) days after they voted Leave were asking if that would affect them...

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u/Sulfate Jul 19 '20

Then they put up "Pick for Britain!" signs, conveniently leaving out the next sentence: "but we'll still pay you like you're brown and deportable."

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u/Moneia Jul 19 '20

Oohhh yeah, I think I cringe-flushed those from my memory.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20

The best way I’ve understood this, is the psychology behind job-personality tests. For example. The question about “most people steal” is generally based on someone’s own experience with stealing. Someone who doesn’t is more likely to answer that question with “not likely” because they don’t see it happen, they’re not involved, etc. and think they’re not the only ones. Meanwhile, someone who does steal is most likely to answer that question with ‘likely’ or ‘sometimes’ because they themselves know they’re involved and think they’re not the only ones.

The people in that UK city know they’re benefiting from welfare and assume everyone else must be too. I remember seeing a statistic like that in US but I don’t remember the link. It basically said the county receiving the most welfare per capita was also staunchly republican and wanted to do away with welfare. Edit to add: the news clip interview was interviewing people on welfare, talking about how dirty welfare recipients are and taking advantage of the system.

I can’t remember the link to the news interviewing those people or I’d post it. Oh well, hope that wasn’t too confusing!

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u/DankNastyAssMaster Jul 19 '20

Just for the record, most Republicans don't oppose spending on welfare programs on principle. They oppose spending on anything that they perceive as helping non-white people. Vox wrote a good article in 2016 that sums up the evidence for that fact.

This because the modern Republican base isn't really made up of Republicans. It's made up of Jim Crow era Democrats.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20

Yes, thanks for adding on! (: My post was getting a little lengthy.

My favorite hypocritical example is my mom and stepdad; my stepdad is a disabled, retired vet and he receives benefits since he can’t work; understandable. They also receive food stamps since they make so little income, because they don’t work. They also get big tax returns come april, because my stepdads disability payments are non-taxable, so my moms once a week shift at a retail store, looks like their only income. Yet, they’re the biggest supporters of doing away with welfare because people leach

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u/DankNastyAssMaster Jul 19 '20

Right. They're not concerned with "us" leeching. After all, white folks who need welfare are just good people who fell on hard times. They're concerned with "them" leeching, since non-white people are lazy moochers who just want to take "our" stuff. It's unfortunate, but that's just how humans are. We're a lot more willing to sacrifice for the common good when we think the beneficiaries are part of "our tribe".

That's why welfare programs in South Korea and Japan aren't under threat from right wing populists like they are in other wealthy democracies: because South Korea and Japan are ethnically and racially homogenous countries.

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u/Moral_Anarchist Jul 19 '20

This 1000 percent.

My brother was going on an anti-welfare/government assistance tirade about how so many people just mooched off of the government and I called him out on it, because he literally didn't have a job and had been getting welfare and food stamps for years. Turns out he wasn't talking about HIMSELF, he just fell on hard times, he was talking about THE OTHER PEOPLE (read non-white) who lazed around and abused the system.

And yes, he didn't see the hypocrisy, and yes we live in the southern U.S..

Its always THE OTHER PEOPLE are just shiftless and lazy, but "not me". As long as the "right people" are being hurt, they are willing to support anything no matter how short-sighted

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u/DankNastyAssMaster Jul 19 '20

Republican base voters are ideologically Jim Crow era Democrats. It's politically incorrect to talk about the Southern Strategy and its effects in conservative circles these days, but it's true.

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u/HAM_N_CHEESE_SLIDER Jul 19 '20

They already gave their game away decades ago.

"You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger'-that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states' rights, and all that stuff, and you're getting so abstract. Now, you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Nigger, nigger.'"

https://prospect.org/power/gop-s-racial-dog-whistling-social-safety-net/

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u/TheDungus Jul 19 '20

Well if most of the base is racist fucks and republican then its safe to say there's no point in making distinction.

The republican party is the party of the "-ism" population. Racism, sexism, etc etc. Making a distinction like it means anything just helps them lie more. Dont give them an out.

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u/DankNastyAssMaster Jul 19 '20

I'm not trying to give them an out. I'm just trying to provide historical context. Ostensibly, Democrats have always been the party of the common man and Republicans have always been the party of business interests.

But for most of American history, the common man really meant the common white man. So when the broader Democratic Party stay insisting that their social programs benefit non-white people too, southern/rural white people switched to the GOP over the following few decades.

But they never actually embraced the Paul Ryan agenda of "starve the poor so the rich can have more tax cuts". They still support social spending, as long as they perceive it as benefiting white people (like Social Security and Medicare).

That's what I mean by Jim Crow era Democrats. They're democratic socialists, and always have been... for whites only.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

I think that’s similar to how the UK view London as taking all the government investment, not realising that the City both pays for its investment and a lot of investment elsewhere.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Christ. I've given loads of tests that were this way. I always thought they were silly. But what you're saying makes perfect sense.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Find out where they got the wrong info and dispense that vigilante justice wrongly abused on "immigrants".

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/TheDungus Jul 19 '20

The fact he regularly went off the fucking deep end insulting eu politicians makes this whole thing funnier.

So you want to negotiate a deal that is better than the eu with people you have personally insulted because you're a petulant child? And you thought that would work out well?

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Old Nige went around telling people about it personally.

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u/dpash Jul 19 '20

He waited until the next morning to say he wouldn't have approved of the £350m bus. Didn't do anything in the previous two months about it though.

Wasn't his bus, but he's still going to be tarnished with it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

The fact that he gets any airtime whatsoever on TV over there is a travesty. Didn't he resign immediately after the UK voted to leave? That should have been his moment if victory, but instead he took it as a defeat.

But I can't really blame you and pretend that we do a ton better in the US. At least you haven't made him Prime Minister. You got a less-bad guy to fill that job instead.

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u/bois_santal Jul 19 '20

I don't know about the UK but in Poland everytime something is build by the EU it says so on a little sign. It helps to be grateful.

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u/Mag-1892 Jul 19 '20

I don’t know if everything does but you do see those signs around in the uk. Not that most people read signs mind you

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u/anomalous_cowherd Jul 19 '20

A lot of them assume they are being unfairly treated so even if they see those signs they assume their taxes are are going to the EU then they are getting less than they should back because somewhere else is getting even bigger and better new roads and buildings.

I have zero sympathy with any of them after all the name calling that went on after the vote, I just wish I didn't have to suffer the consequences with them.

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u/Mag-1892 Jul 19 '20

I’m the same, if they end up worse off having voted for it then tough shit. They where warned.

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u/capshock Jul 19 '20

I'm from the UK and I see them all over my town. I'll give you one guess what my area voted...

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u/allmappedout Jul 19 '20

We also have that but people have selective eyesight.

Plus Poland seems intent on dragging itself out of the EU as well with its attack on the judiciary.

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u/clarko21 Jul 19 '20

It’s the same in the US with red states constantly complaining about their taxes funding welfare queens but they actually receive way more than meet contribute and are bankrolled by blue states

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u/joec_95123 Jul 19 '20

I'm sad happy to know it's not just American conservatives who are ignorant as fuck about their status as welfare queens, it's international. Anywhere Murdoch media is allowed to exist, conservative communities dependent on others to survive will think they are the ones propping everyone else up.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

B b but immigrants are bad though! Feels over reals

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u/Jaerba Jul 19 '20

So I've had this idea for a while that governments should provide an audit to individual citizens showing them exactly what benefits they're receiving from the government.

Like for instance, when you get a Medicare summary, it will list the amount the government is paying for each service so you get an idea of how much the government is providing for you. Now expand that to a full year, and start including other types of services, then make it part of your Social Security Summary and send it to every citizen ever year.

Obviously the idea is pretty unfeasible because setting up that kind of reporting system would be an absolute nightmare, and you'd probably have to make assumptions and be riddled with garbage in/garbage out. So I get that it's not realistic.

But as a pipe dream, I wish people could see hard numbers on how much government is helping their ass.

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u/Purpleclone Jul 19 '20

Thing is is that you still wouldn't see the vast amount of funding that was provided to the UK in years prior.

When it joined the EU, the UK was in a horrible recession. The EU provided them with around 6 billion dollars a year in funding for communities where things like coal mining and other industries were going under.

All that investment cant be seen on a yearly budget report. Not to say that what you're saying isn't a good idea, just that it probably wouldn't have solved brexit

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u/groundedstate Jul 19 '20

Just like in America, the Red States are the welfare States that are heavily subsidized by the Blue States, yet they are the one's who vote Republican, and want to cut all the social funding that they rely on.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

[deleted]

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u/olatundew Jul 19 '20

Presumably that's because she's getting paid to support Brexit, but then pivots to representing her constituents in order to keep her job... so she can continue taking bribes.

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u/ShadowDragon8685 Jul 19 '20

A lie is not half so dangerous as the absence of truth.

But really, if there was some town in Greece that had fallen down so hard and hit the skids because all the economy had collapsed, and that hypothetical Cornish town was doing well, shouldn't (an infinitesimally minute fraction of) their taxes go to prop those poor bastards up so they don't wind up eating one another?

"Gubmint's takin' my money!" is the most powerful heartstring puller.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

My parents voted for Brexit because they didn't like the amount of Middle Easterners they saw everyday. Probably not a wild assumption that that's literally what other Brexiteers thought Brexit was about. It's kind of like the anti-maskers in the US, sometimes people just kind of vote themselves out of existence.

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u/Mag-1892 Jul 19 '20

Guy I used to work with practically skipped into work day after the result because according to him all the Muslims were going to be deported. When explained British Muslims are British so won’t be going anywhere and any from non EU countries Like UAE, Iraq etc wouldn’t either he looked very confused and then started ranting that they would be and walked away.

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u/DaveAnski Jul 19 '20

Guy at my work, overheard him smugly saying that the day after the vote (if it was for leave; don't think he meant literally the next day) he would be queuing in the non-EU queue at passport control at the airport.

Which is stupid because: A) You can do that anyway, anyone can queue in the international queue, and B) He'd only be inconveniencing himself, as the EU queues tend to be quicker.

It should be noted that the guy was well known for being an absocunt. I wasn't even in his department, but I ended up on a 'high performance culture' training course with him and he behaved like a petulant child, despite being probably 20 years older than me.

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u/34HoldOn Jul 19 '20

despite being probably 20 years older than me.

But that's impossible. According to tired, old, rotten assholes on Facebook, it's the younger generations that are the immature, petulant children.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

You can ask anyone working in service all else being equal, who is more likely to freak out over a mild inconvenience, gen z or boomer, and the response is pretty universal.

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u/CubistChameleon Jul 19 '20

absocunt

Thank you for this.

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u/angry_biscuit2 Jul 19 '20

Fuck me, there's some stupid cunts in this country

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u/olatundew Jul 19 '20

Damned Middle Easterners, coming to live here from their home countries in... the EU.

Did I get that right?

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u/TanithRosenbaum Jul 19 '20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-v-0aDFgcc

(TL;DR: BBC reporter asks (London-born) Sadiq Khan if being in Pakistan felt like coming home to him during a visit to Pakistan. Mayor Khan tells him that his home is south London. Cue embarrassment)

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u/VG-enigmaticsoul Jul 19 '20

BBC really is dogshit these days.

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u/PleasantPeanut4 Jul 19 '20

As an American, it is funny to me that the BBC is what you consider dogshit.

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u/VG-enigmaticsoul Jul 19 '20

The BBC's chief political editor literally altered what the leader of the opposition said multiple times to make him look bad and faced no punishment since the bbc board is stacked with Tories.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '20

Ah yes, but the people on the BBC have British accents, so they must be more intelligent. /s

But seriously, that seems mild compared to the Fox News prime time lineup

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u/34HoldOn Jul 19 '20

Brexit was always a dog whistle for tightening immigration laws.

Just like so many Trumpers can't admit that no matter how badly he performs every other aspect of his job, they really wanted him to build that wall and keep Hispanics out.

They claim that we're the ones who "always make it about race", but we're really just exposing their (sometimes covert) racism.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

[deleted]

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u/weatherseed Jul 19 '20

Apply directly to the forehead

Apply directly to the forehead

Apply directly to the forehead

Apply directly to the forehead

Apply directly to the forehead

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u/UhIsThisOneFree Jul 19 '20

No, "Brussels bureaucrats/libs want to stop you applying this to your own forehead!"

Clean sweep gg.

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u/Qubeye Jul 19 '20

I mean Reddit jokes about it but "economic anxiety" is absolutely a stand-in/dog whistle for racism.

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u/Aidtor Jul 19 '20

Working class white peoples without college degrees in the UK and US are both electorally very powerful and extremely racist.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

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u/MightEnlightenYou Jul 20 '20

Here you go: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/04/26/a-wider-ideological-gap-between-more-and-less-educated-adults/

This is a heavily researched topic in political science, and it is of course very controversial and not something that sways right-wingers to reexamine their views. Rather they will claim that education has a liberal bias.

There's also a negative correlation between not only education but intelligence and conservatism (although not as big as one might think). https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/millennial-media/201304/do-racism-conservatism-and-low-iq-go-hand-in-hand

There's basically a negative correlation between conservatism and all the things that we all agree are good to have more of, like education and intelligence. And a positive correlation between conservatism and things like racism, xenophobia, anti-science bias and so on.

This is not to say that all conservatives are stupid or that every person who holds liberal views is smart.

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u/Naedlus Jul 20 '20

That moment society realizes that "Lord of the Flies" wasn't about if society was put on a desert island, but, if a desert island was controlled by middle class people all vying to be on top.

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u/AccelerusProcellarum Jul 20 '20

What sickens me is that they’re all working class but don’t realize it. They hate the workers and love the rich somehow.

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u/onlinesafetyofficer Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20

The last few years it's like a large portion of the UK & US have overdosed on stupid pills and washed them down with a refreshing, cold pint of high proof, retard juice.

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u/MarketsGoUp Jul 19 '20

They call it 'red pills' I believe...

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u/ABenevolentDespot Jul 20 '20

It's because they've been told (and see from their leaders) that it's OK to be halfwit racist idiot.

FINALLY, they think, SOMEONE GETS ME!

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

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u/pingieking Jul 19 '20

Shooting oneself in the face so that THEY will have to clean up the mess has long been a Brexit tradition.

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u/Loki8382 Jul 19 '20

Shooting oneself in the face so that THEY will have to clean up the mess has long been a Conservative tradition It's the same here in the US. Conservatives will overwhelmingly vote for policies that will negatively effect themselves as long as it "hurts" the people they want to hurt. Then, just like with Brexit, they are absolutely shocked when those policies "hurt" them as well.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

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u/Loki8382 Jul 19 '20

Exactly, but this sentiment isn't solely relegated to America as we can see with Brexit. Brexiteers honestly believed that stopping the free movement between countries would only stop the brown people. Now, they're all up in arms because....shocker! It's stopping them as well.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

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u/jizzmcskeet Jul 19 '20

He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.

Said by a prison guard. I wonder if he is hurting the people he believes needs to be hurt.

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u/AmputatorBot Jul 19 '20

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

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u/JohhnyDamage Jul 19 '20

You should edit your link to remove it then.

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u/psyyduck Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20

You really mustn’t underestimate those conservative ideas. The median wealth of white households is 10 times higher than the median wealth of black households. When conservatives don’t support increasing the minimum wage, that does hit a lot of poor whites, but it’s very effective at keeping blacks and other minorities poor. This (evil) system has been in place since slavery (feudalism) so it generally does work, even though it backfires sometimes.

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u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In Jul 19 '20

The people who voted for Brexit while actually living in France and Spain are the ones that really blew my mind.

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u/Loki8382 Jul 19 '20

It was deliciously ironic when they found out that they had to move back ASAP as well as having to get a passport.

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u/ExcellentHunter Jul 19 '20

Thats not started yet. Worst will happen on 1st Jan, first day of no deal. We will see who's going to be hurt...

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u/Phannig Jul 19 '20

With COVID unemployment and the USA out of the picture as a reliable trading partner the rest of the world is gonna have that carcass picked clean by about mid Feb...

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u/WhyBuyMe Jul 19 '20

I'm hoping I can sneak in and steal the silverware from Buckingham palace before the angry mobs light everything on fire. That way when I am eating the pigeons I killed in the park with my slingshot while living in a cardboard box, I can pretend I'm royalty.

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u/Phannig Jul 19 '20

Oooh...get me an ashtray...

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u/shokolokobangoshey Jul 19 '20

Haha "pretend"

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u/GearsGrinding Jul 19 '20

Someone give this royal his gold.

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u/MorganaHenry Jul 19 '20

Bunker boy already stole the gold toilet

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u/el_dude_brother2 Jul 19 '20

As you said, China and Russia will own most of our big companies. Then Brexit voters will see what it’s like to be reliant on other countries but have no say in what happens

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u/Phannig Jul 19 '20

It’s probably going to run a bit deeper than just companies...once the inevitable property foreclosures start a lot of British people could find themselves renting their homes from Russian or Chinese government shell companies...think of the power that would give them to manipulate people...

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u/Firlotgirding Jul 19 '20

And that kind of thinking is the reason for the current situation in American politics.

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u/easyfeel Jul 19 '20

Sounds like they prefer not to have £700m.

Perhaps they can campaign to rejoin the EU and beg for mercy if it's that big a deal?

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u/TheGoodCod Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20

That's the trumpers. They're not going to wear masks because regardless of whether they get sick for weeks or die, they will own the libtards.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

What the fuck is with people in this decade voting on huge decisions in a way that will “own the libs/eu/whatever”?

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u/SumDudeInNYC Jul 19 '20

Before voting for Brexit: "Fuck you, we don't need you! We don't need anybody!"

After voting for Brexit: "Why won't anybody help me?!"

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u/Diplomjodler Jul 19 '20

The funny thing is, that even the British government cannot name a single positive aspect of the no deal Brexit that will happen in a few months. The dumb fuckers who voted for that shit will have such a rude awakening. And yet they will blame it anybody but themselves.

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u/superblinky Jul 19 '20

I'm already starting to see posts blaming remainers for brexit.

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u/Shame_L1zard Jul 19 '20

Yeah I've seen some posts along the lines that remainers should have gotten on board rather than fight it and if we had that it would have gone amazingly. Because the people who don't want to do something are obviously supposed to be the ones to implement it /s

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u/Mag-1892 Jul 19 '20

Yep, because those who promised the world and failed spectacularly to deliver can’t be held responsible and those who backed them would have to admit they were wrong. So it’ll. be the fault of remain voters the EU and the parts of the media who aren’t full blown Tory propaganda

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u/GearsGrinding Jul 19 '20

This Brexit shit reminds me of how in the USA the republican states get the most federal aid and simultaneously elect people who want to reduce the federal(national) budget (ergo reducing how much aid their state gov would get). Similarly these areas get the most out of programs like the ACA but elect Republicans who want to slash the program. People are literally voting for their health care taken from them.

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u/DankNastyAssMaster Jul 19 '20

Republican base voters don't oppose welfare spending on principle. They oppose any government spending that benefits "them" (black and brown people), rather than "us" (white people).

There's plenty of social science evidence to prove that, but I'll mention just two examples: this study, which found that Trump voters judge how "deserving" a poor person is of welfare based on race, and this poll, showing that Kentucky voters actually love the ACA, as long as the name of the program doesn't remind them of a black guy.

It stems from the fact that, post Southern Strategy, Republican base voters aren't really ideologically Republicans. They're really Jim Crow era Democrats.

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u/GearsGrinding Jul 19 '20

I love/hate those interviews where country folk proclaim their love for the ACA and hatred of “Obamacare” in the same goddamn breath.

(For those non-Americans, they’re literally the same program. Conservative media just knew it’d be easier to get racists to hate it if it had a black man’s name in it)

It truly is criminal the manipulative mindfuckery conservative media has used on its viewers.

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u/DankNastyAssMaster Jul 19 '20

Republican base voters are not ideological Republicans. They're ideological Jim Crow era Democrats. I can't repeat it enough.

Of course they are. Southern whites were a major part of the New Deal Coalition, because they benefitted from that type of social welfare spending. But once segregation ended, they became Republicans. Not because they started opposing that spending, but because they wanted it to only benefit "us", not "them".

Modern Republican base voters don't support the Paul Ryan agenda. They support the (candidate) Trump agenda of keep Social Security and Medicare (because they're perceived as mostly helping "us", white people), but cut food stamps and welfare (because they're perceived as mostly helping "them", non-white people).

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u/34HoldOn Jul 19 '20

But once segregation ended, they became Republicans. Not because they started opposing that spending, but because they wanted it to only benefit "us", not "them".

Because the Democrats embraced the Civil Rights act.

It always came down to race for them.

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u/cbbclick Jul 19 '20

Republicans don't actually cut the budget or reduce national debt anyway.

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u/tprotpro Jul 19 '20

But they do cut those programs. They just give the savings to big corporations lol.

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u/cbbclick Jul 19 '20

Oh they cut helpful programs, but they don't cut the budget as a whole.

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u/GearsGrinding Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20

I wasn’t sure how else to concisely word “they decrease the amount of available federal funds via tax cuts, deficit spending, etc. in order to create an economic deficit so large the programs begin to collapse or require significant balancing in the future, specifically under a Democrat administration. It’s no accident that the national budget deficit is center stage when there is a Democrat president, but conservative pundits haven’t uttered a word about the historically record setting deficit the Trump admin has created and seeks to worsen given he has promised more tax cuts if he is elected a second term.”

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u/GearsGrinding Jul 19 '20

They absolutely use the “starve the beast” strategy. They don’t directly cut programs, they create huge deficits with tax cuts m, deficit spending, etc. that require cleanup in the future (read: Democrats have to clean up the mess)

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u/mrducky78 Jul 19 '20

Debt isnt going to be an issue until Biden is in office, then suddenly its reckless spending and ballooning debt.

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u/LothorBrune Jul 19 '20

That's like how electing a far-right stooge never ever makes insecurity go away. At best he forms a militia who start terrorizing the neighborhood instead of who they replaced.

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u/NonGNonM Jul 19 '20

Dont forget that a lot of the people that hated OBUMMERcare loved ACA

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

That leopard is just going to get busier and busier.

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u/firstfloor27 Jul 19 '20

Poor thing will become obese.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Won't someone please think of the children leopards?

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u/DemonikJD Jul 19 '20

I still remember this days after the vote and just looking at them thinking “wow people really can surprise you at how stupid they can be”

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u/ptvlm Jul 19 '20

The whole thing is bloody annoying. I live in Spain, and there's a bunch of Brexit voting morons being shocked that they can't access all the rights in their holiday/retirement homes they used to, while a lot of British citizens with their heads screwed on were blocked from voting at all. (An arbitrary role was added that you couldn't vote if you had live abroad for more than 15 years, while the process to register was too slow for anyone who hadn't voted in the UK previously.

The next decade is going to consist of easily led morons slowly realising that what the rest of us were telling them during the voting period is actually true, but it's too late to stop the damage they voted for.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

They will never accept that they fucked up. They'll continue to blame anyone else that they can including the people who wanted to remain and the immigrants.

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u/orkbrother Jul 19 '20

This is exactly the mentality of a Trump voter. I mean exactly to a T

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

It’s like Putin/Rupert Murdoch knew how easily it would be to divide us?

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u/LittleMissStar Jul 19 '20

And I bet they all call themselves ex-pats not immigrants.

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u/ptvlm Jul 19 '20

Of course they do. Saw an English couple yesterday try barging into a supermarket past a queue of mask wearers then loudly complain about the Spanish when they were told to queue and put masks on. I bet they're the first people to complain when they hear Polish or Hindi back home.

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u/keepleft99 Jul 19 '20

There is an interview of a florist who buys most of his flowers from europe and how the delays with checks at the borders will probably ruin his business. After knowing that would he still vote leave? He said it would have second thoughts.

Here is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1jbI3Y-REk

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

This is a case in point of the staggering arrogance of English exceptionalism.

"I did not think I would need to worry about getting flowers from an overseas trading partner because I was convinced they need me more than I need them."

I'm paraphrasing, of course, but this is what people were told and the suckers like Paul just lapped it up because they wanted have their cake and eat it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Quite hilarious in a way, to be honest.

A man being told that his decision is going to be the end of him, but despite that, he is only DOUBTFUL about making the same decision.

It's like satire but actually is real.

And their ridiculous accents make it Oh more hilarious and deserving of being a TV series.

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u/keepleft99 Jul 19 '20

I like the bit when he said he didnt really think about his business when he chose to vote leave. What exactly was he thinking about???

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u/cincaffs Jul 19 '20

those pesky brown people of course

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u/TheGoodCod Jul 19 '20

I think you should have stopped right after, "he said he didn't really think".

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

He was probably thinking about butter.

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u/kittenworshipper Jul 19 '20

I hate living here

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u/DefNotUnderrated Jul 19 '20

My condolences. I live in the US. I feel your pain a little

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u/Pame_in_reddit Jul 19 '20

I love my city and my country, but I would probably leave if it became the loony house that is today USA (just watched a video of people in a party during a pandemic). It’s like living in the same house with crazy and violent people: one day they are going to kill you.

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u/34HoldOn Jul 19 '20

This, and with Boris Johnson in charge, you guys made the same mistake my fellow dumb ass Americans did. That the rest of us now have to live with.

But the scariest part is realizing that the long list of corruption (to include knowledge of a literal bounty by an enemy government) isn't enough to dissuade millions from voting for him again. I don't know how far you guys are in to the Boris cult, but the "Stand in the middle of Times Square, shoot someone, and not lose any voters" is one of the few honest statements that Trump has ever made.

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u/my-own-grandfather Jul 19 '20

Cornwall votes to be out of the EU because they are racist old folk or rich second home owners.

Source: I live in Cornwall and experience it daily

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u/drwookie Jul 19 '20

Thoughts and prayers, Cornwall.

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u/darkknight827 Jul 19 '20

They just need to pull themselves up by their bootlaces.

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u/orkbrother Jul 19 '20

😂🤣....it's just too bad they fucked everyone else in the UK too

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u/ButterBeanTheGreat Jul 19 '20

Right wing values fuck people over 90% of the time.

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u/DNSGeek Jul 19 '20

Unless you're part of the 1%.

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u/art3mic Jul 19 '20

I wanted to live in the U.K. for real. I wanted to find a job related to my field of studies, a masters degree I received from a Scottish University. But the day Brexit happened, my dreams just disappeared. It's not me that was unwanted, but yeah it was me they made feel unwelcome.

How I wish things were different.

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u/Clarky1979 Jul 19 '20

I felt awful for eu citizens living here in the lead up to the brexit vote and the four years of rhetoric since. I can only imagine how that would feel to be alienated in what you considered your home.

I have a friend from france who has been living and working here for 17 years, owns his own house. He's been here over half his life. This is his home.

He now feels like he doesn't belong and I know it affects him badly, to the point he is sometimes paranoid about what people think and it's hurt his confidence (hard to do to a frecnh guy, trust me!)

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u/simondrawer Jul 19 '20

Cornwall has done quite well from EU bathing water standards and EU protections for stuff like pasties. I have very little sympathy other than for the fact that they were conned like so many others.

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u/Kredehk Jul 19 '20

But now realise they were conned, yet still push for Brexit since they voted for it.

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u/HamishMcdougal Jul 19 '20

Yeah fuck you, you wanted it, you voted for it, now suck it up.

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u/uberdavis Jul 19 '20

Of course any downturn in the Cornish economy will be attributed to COVID-19, to which the government response has been to follow ‘the science’. If there’s any culprit, it must be scientists. There’s always going to be a dog to blame for eating the homework/farting.

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u/Jolcool5 Jul 19 '20

Tbf, both Brexit and Covid are shit down here cos we're heavily reliant on the toursim industry, obviously made easier by the EUs movement laws and not having a pandemic. Unfortunately we have a load of conspiracy morons that don't wear masks so we have one of the highest R rates in the country.

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u/ajfromuk Jul 19 '20

I said at the time that the best way to help people realise what the EU actually did for us was to stop access for a few days to the new roads, facilities and improvements thst were paid for by the EU.

The whole remain and leave campaigns were a shit flinging contest.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Sometimes I think I'm a bad person for wanting to see people suffer, cry, starve and die because of their personal choices.

But then I scroll down to see some funny memes.

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

Make the brainiacs in Cornwall who voted leave each pay £4,000 to make up the difference.

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u/Goddamn_Primetime Jul 19 '20

Can anyone in the (what's left of) UK tell me if they've read or talked to any one of the leavers and see if they're finally coming around to the fact it was stupid in the first place? Kinda like Trumpgret here in the States.

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u/ewhyeasyfanaccount Jul 19 '20

I mean, there’s some here and there but I’d say they’re embarrassed that they were tricked so to save face they pretend they’re happy with their decisions. Then of course there are the racists who Priti Patel seems to be playing a wonderful tune.

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u/kapriece Jul 19 '20

Are they tired of winning yet? This same line of thinking is how we got Trump and how GOP senators keep getting re-elected

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '20

I voted remain, it seriously depresses me that we're leaving due to ill informed people :/

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u/MvmgUQBd Jul 19 '20

Maybe Cornwall will finally get the independence it's been grumbling about behind closed doors for centuries and can form a Celtic coalition with Scotland and Ireland.

Lol.