Things that personally annoy me about Brexit.
No. 145: the lack of people's willingness to respect or listen to the other side
I'm in a couple of WhatsApp groups where people talk politics. One of them is made up of friends I knew in London and its ultra hard remain. The other one is full of people who are ultra pro hard Brexit. On the remain group I'm seen as a 'Brexit apologist' and on the Brexit group I'm seen as a 'Remoaner'. I'm the same person in each group but each of them seem to occupy different universes and different realities.
I am a leftist and a remain voter but I'm a relative moderate on the Brexit issue. The Brexit issue somewhat cuts across the political spectrum anyway and its not always a strict left/right divide. For example, there are some socialists who want a hard Brexit and the most strident remain supporters are usually centrist liberals.
My position is that I would like Brexit cancelled but I respect the referendum result so I'm prepared to accept a soft Brexit. Of politically engaged people in my country, that is now a besieged minority view which gets attacked from both sides.
My problem with many hard remainers is that they refuse to accept the legitimacy of a referendum result in which our side lost. They think that there is a massive shift in public opinion to their side instead of a tiny one and that all Brexit supporters are stupid. They don't investigate the reasons why Brexit happened and they see it as a freak occurance against the natural order of things. Though leftists such as myself have long been criticised by those in the centre for such things as living in echoe chambers and not having a viable strategy, they have have ideas which could only be held by those who never engage outside their middle class London circle. In addition (and this is a particular issue of mine) they won't vote for a Labour government because they think Jeremy Corbyn is not pro remain enough. The probable result of this puritan centrism will be Boris Johnson as Prime Minister for five years and a hard Brexit.
Where hard remainers have no argument on the democratic mandate, hard leavers have no arguments on economics or logistics. They demand that what they voted for is carried out but they leave the details for how to do that to other people. Attempts to debate details with them are dismissed as 'project fear' - I.e. Political bias against their position which requires no other thought or consideration. They think the referendum result of 2015 gives them a mandate for a hard no deal Brexit when no such thing was actually debated then. If anyone won't let them have their cake and eat it then they are the enemy of the people.
I appreciate that I'm talking about the extreme forms of each position here and that plenty of people in each camp are not like this. I would one day like to merge these two WhatsApp groups so each could at least get an education as to what people in other parts of the country actually think.
I'm in a couple of WhatsApp groups where people talk politics. One of them is made up of friends I knew in London and its ultra hard remain. The other one is full of people who are ultra pro hard Brexit. On the remain group I'm seen as a 'Brexit apologist' and on the Brexit group I'm seen as a 'Remoaner'. I'm the same person in each group but each of them seem to occupy different universes and different realities.
I am a leftist and a remain voter but I'm a relative moderate on the Brexit issue. The Brexit issue somewhat cuts across the political spectrum anyway and its not always a strict left/right divide. For example, there are some socialists who want a hard Brexit and the most strident remain supporters are usually centrist liberals.
My position is that I would like Brexit cancelled but I respect the referendum result so I'm prepared to accept a soft Brexit. Of politically engaged people in my country, that is now a besieged minority view which gets attacked from both sides.
My problem with many hard remainers is that they refuse to accept the legitimacy of a referendum result in which our side lost. They think that there is a massive shift in public opinion to their side instead of a tiny one and that all Brexit supporters are stupid. They don't investigate the reasons why Brexit happened and they see it as a freak occurance against the natural order of things. Though leftists such as myself have long been criticised by those in the centre for such things as living in echoe chambers and not having a viable strategy, they have have ideas which could only be held by those who never engage outside their middle class London circle. In addition (and this is a particular issue of mine) they won't vote for a Labour government because they think Jeremy Corbyn is not pro remain enough. The probable result of this puritan centrism will be Boris Johnson as Prime Minister for five years and a hard Brexit.
Where hard remainers have no argument on the democratic mandate, hard leavers have no arguments on economics or logistics. They demand that what they voted for is carried out but they leave the details for how to do that to other people. Attempts to debate details with them are dismissed as 'project fear' - I.e. Political bias against their position which requires no other thought or consideration. They think the referendum result of 2015 gives them a mandate for a hard no deal Brexit when no such thing was actually debated then. If anyone won't let them have their cake and eat it then they are the enemy of the people.
I appreciate that I'm talking about the extreme forms of each position here and that plenty of people in each camp are not like this. I would one day like to merge these two WhatsApp groups so each could at least get an education as to what people in other parts of the country actually think.
41-45, M
