Slouching Toward Understanding

Brexit that is. On top of the sober news columns, read yesterday, I consulted a few other word wizards.

From the Rude Pundit who went on to list 11 hilarious rat-fuck “upsides” to the disastrous vote.

While the vote yesterday in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union is a giant roach fuckball of awful consequences, many still to come, and while it represents a triumph of xenophobia and outright racism over the forces of reason and sanity, a sign of the apocalypse, and a demonstration that the Great Stupiding of the world is fully upon us (more on that next week), hey, we're human, so let's go into the weekend with a teacup half-full attitude.

Go read the 11 upsides – fabulous! My fave this morning is number three: Two words: Bargain corgis.

And Andy Borowitz reports that:

Across the United Kingdom on Friday, Britons mourned their long-cherished right to claim that Americans were significantly dumber than they are.

 A friend in Germany writes:

We are all horrified. Maybe less because of the tangled trade and tax issues — which eludes the average person living here or there anyway — and more because of the symbolical nationalism the vote represents. I think it’s obvious to everyone that the simplest minds in this game have been manipulated by divisive power hungry politics (i.e., UKIP party) who’ve played the migrant card to its most base effect.  Sad. The UK stands to lose much more now than it had before. If they dispel EU immigrants there will likely be a backlash over the enormous number of British citizens currently residing in mainland Europe.

Further, I don’t know if you’d had a look at the UK map on this vote. All of Scotland voted to remain. This only adds fuel to the fire of their feelings of historical disenfranchisement.

J.K. Rowling has a MUST read post up. A few BRIEF snippets here:

I'm not an expert on much, but I do know how to create a monster.
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The 'Leave' campaign is benefiting from our widespread cynicism and, unsurprisingly, fanning it. 'People in this country have had enough of experts,' Michael Gove declared recently on television. So what if the Financial Times, the markets and the heads of the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund agree that Brexit will do severe damage to the economy? They're just scaremongering, says Gove. Leaders of both campaigns want us frightened only by monsters of their choosing.

For some on the Leave side, the EU is not merely imperfect, or in need of improvement: it is villainous.
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Immigrants, of course, have been at the centre of some of the nastiest arguments of this campaign. Reasoned discussion has proven nigh on impossible.
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It is dishonourable to suggest, as many have, that Leavers are all racists and bigots: they aren't and it is shameful to suggest that they are. Nevertheless, it is equally nonsensical to pretend that racists and bigots aren't flocking to the 'Leave' cause, or that they aren't, in some instances, directing it. For some of us, that fact alone is enough to give us pause. The picture of Nigel Farage standing in front of a poster showing a winding line of Syrian refugees captioned 'Breaking Point' is, as countless people have already pointed out, an almost exact duplicate of propaganda used by the Nazis.

Go read the whole thing, it’s way worth it.
OK, one last bit from her post –

Your country is the greatest in the world, the nationalist cries, and anyone who isn't chanting that is a traitor! Drape yourself in the flag: doesn't that make you feel bigger and more powerful? Finding the present scary? We've got a golden past to sell you, a mythical age that will dawn again once we've got rid of the Mexicans/left the EU/annexed Ukraine! Now place your trust in our simplistic slogans and enjoy your rage against the Other!

Look towards the Republican Party in America and shudder. 'Make America Great Again!' cries a man who is fascist in all but name.

She goes on to brilliantly nail Trump’s temperament – that of an an unstable nightclub bouncer. Exactly – a steroidal, tweaking meth head.

Yes, I am worried, saddened, angry and scared over the Leave vote – not just for Britain either. Will this horrible choice bolster Trump and the Republican/Tea Party? Will more Americans jump on the ratfuckery train because, “HEY, the Brits did it and they’re smaht!”

Laurence Lewis at the Daily Kos had this to say:

You’re going to be reading a lot of stories about the Brexit vote being a warning that Donald Trump can win. Those stories will be wrong.

He goes on to tie the Leave vote to the brutal austerity measures imposed by Cameron and Osborne. We’re not in the same leaky boat even though Obama has had to battle mightily for every millimeter of forward progress won (and he's not won anywhere near as much as he (WE) should’ve).

OK, I sure as fuck hope Lewis is right. A Trump presidency would most def be the end of us all.

Oh and BuzzFeed notes that Brexit Happened On The Anniversary Of Voldemort’s Return just FYI and all.