That's it then. The battle-lines are drawn; the die is cast. 'Heil Trump', and 'Heil Brexit'.
I like many held out hope that our MPs would prioritise the good of our nation over their desire to pander to populists in parliament yesterday. They let all of us down in spectacular fashion. Essentially, they just gave in to fear for their own jobs and positions: because we all know the majority of parliament were opposed to this inane, geopolitical 'scorched-earth' act of self-sabotage.
What amazes me is that so many misinterpret what this 'Brexit' from Europe is all really about. My heart is so, so heavy that vast and increasing swathes are seemingly blind to the rise of fascism taking place all around us, or actively want it to be the case.
The number of people who kid themselves it's only 'coincidence' they now share goals and values with white supremacists and Christian extremists, is quite simply staggering.
Same too of those Brexiteers who now seem so repulsed by Trump. He's a different side of the same coin.
Lack of respect for the lessons of history might well be our undoing in years to come. Britain lit a fuse. It encouraged, if not directly led to the coronation of 'King' Trump. Our new alliances in this brave new world now say it all. Our best buds are dictator Trump, and equally unscrupulous dictators in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. But damn those horrible Europeans, eh?
We allowed a political coup to take place. An already right-wing Tory government was replaced with something far worse: UKIP in disguise. Whereas a couple of years ago, UKIP were widely condemned as fringe hate-peddlers that only those openly racist supported. Farage was rightly derided as a bigot, and a dangerous man - now he's everyone's pal, with a show on LBC, just "saying it how it is". The change was sudden, very deliberate, and very much manipulated by forces in big business and the media. Forces who wanted this to happen. And many in Britain, poor naive Lemmings that they are, thought a vote for Brexit was a vote against the Tories and David Cameron: a vote AGAINST elitism and corporate oppression. Nope. They let a far more dangerous and insidious wing of the Tory party into power, who are now running amok. Their misguided backlash was against the wrong bloody 'elites'.
Instead of multi-billionaires and corporate swindlers, the people who pillage our world and run our very lives, the 'elites' who've been condemned by all this madness are now simply those who are educated. Those who've grown up with liberal attitudes. Or those who've dedicated their lives to humanitarian causes, scientific discovery, the pursuit of knowledge etc. In short, to knowing what they're talking about.
We have quite literally made the pursuit of wisdom a crime. And we've simultaneously volunteered to load ourselves onto our own slave ships.
Britain was (is) in an unprecedented and unique position within the EU, without any of the same rules the other mainland countries have to adhere to. Like the Schengen free-movement clause, for example. We already control our own borders, and our own laws, it's complete bluster. The laws the EU hold up concern pesky things like workers rights, air quality, consumer rights... all those terrible things that Tory 'Little England' will hack to pieces with an enormous machete. The common currency? We don't even share the common currency?!? We very specifically held onto GBP through thick and thin for decades due to those reservations, and we're already virtually independent on that front.
It's all just a smokescreen to distract from the fact we don't like foreigners, particularly Muslims, and we don't like all those pesky refugees that horrible sorts like Angela Merkel keep allowing in.
That's what the 'men and women with pitchforks' voted for any way. Politicians and businesses, perhaps not so much. They have their own motives. But this is certainly not all just about what's effectively little more than bits of paper with pictures printed on. Britain was a net recipient of EU funds: what we mostly provided Europe was military security. Our supremacy in this area was why we were afforded such privilege, why we were allowed to pick and choose, to a certain degree. But it wasn't enough for those clinging to the coattails of the once 'Great British Empire'.
What the EU really stood for was unity and friendship within Europe, cooperation, acceptance that peoples of Eurasia should look to themselves as 'one people'. It is the most successful peace project the world has ever known, and has prevented hostilities between the main powers of Europe for THE LONGEST PERIOD IN HISTORY. Europe has quite literally been a melting pot of warring and competing cultures for centuries, and these tribal squabbles, one way or another, have caused (or at least traced back to) virtually every international war that's ever occurred in documented world history too. Fact. The EU even made friends/allies of people we were only years before, bombing the hell out of. Today, German businesses and technologies thrive as part of our own economy, like BMW, Volkswagen etc. All of us in the UK have grown up with the security and opportunities that ties and openness with Europe provided. Not to mention a far far better quality of produce on our supermarket shelves! (Trust me, the majority of widely sold American food is absolutely not good.)
But it's all been flushed away.
Gods, I felt strongly about all this BEFORE the rise of Trump. Now, it's beyond critical. Instead we've thrown our lot in with unapologetic monsters like Trump and Erdogan, dictators who persecute teachers, scientists and journalists whose reports contradict their agenda. We've turned our back on friends and neighbours we've enjoyed a shared culture with for decades. It is heart-breaking. Yes, of course the EU has problems, and of course it has endemic corruption. Can anyone claim Westminster doesn't?? Does anyone even care that our own political system is clogged with financial autocracy?? However many problems, you just don't work out differences with someone by walking out of the room, trashing the joint on the way out.
The EU promoted security, inclusion. Finding diplomatic answers. It made war unthinkable because member states were tied so closely economically. That was the exact f**king point. You're less likely to set fire to someone else's tent if yours will definitely catch fire too.
Quite simply, nothing else had worked in Europe since the time of the Roman Empire. 'Superstates' are only inherently bad if they are oppressive and violent, and being part of a larger union strengthens all within it: a principle I will cling to til my dying day. If economic ties and common markets kept my daughter from ever knowing the barbarity of war on the doorstep of her own continent, then I, and many others, felt it was a small price to pay.
One day, we may all be very sorry that those who clamoured against this colonial sabre-rattling were belittled and ignored.
That we didn't listen to the 'snowflakes'.
#Brexit #Snowflakes #Trump #Fascism
#EU #Europe
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