auntpurl
auntpurl's JournalONE LAST TIME: Brexit, for the VAST MAJORITY of Leave voters, was about xenophobia
For all of you who don't LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY, have no idea what it's like, and think most Leave voters are deep progressive thinkers who are making a statement about EU interference, trade, economic policy, or even their own jobs and futures, I cannot argue anymore, so I will let these examples speak for me:
Newcastle town center, today. Not in 1980. TODAY.
Many many many many many many many examples of pure racism and xenophobia from social media. These are just a few.
And for sheer stupidity, these comments on a Daily Mail article about how Brexit will affect your holiday money, mortgages, passports, health cover, etc:
MAYBE STOP GETTING ALL YOUR NEWS FROM THE DAILY FUCKING MAIL.
Actual Nazi propaganda film image on left, Nigel Farage today on right:
Racism on rise in UK after Brexit campaign, Labor warns:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-25/racism-on-rise-in-u-k-after-brexit-campaign-labour-warns
Schoolchildren were racially abused in a west London district this week and many in her constituency feel “vulnerable” after the Brexit referendum, Seema Malhotra, one of the main opposition party’s team of Treasury spokespeople said at an event in the capital on Saturday.
“Someone shouted: ‘Why are there only 10 white faces in this class? Why aren’t we educating the English?’” she said, citing a letter from a teacher in her electoral district about an incident on Wednesday. “Another went close up to the children and said: ‘You lot are taking all our jobs. You’re the problem. You’re taking our jobs, you’re taking our land.”’
Malhotra represents the district of Feltham and Heston in the London borough of Hounslow, which voted by 51.1% to remain in the EU. She said the teacher hadn’t heard a comment like it “in three years.” Children age six were “crying and saying they would have to leave this country,” she said.
Vote Leave, the official group that backed Brexit, explicitly targeted concerns over immigration in the referendum campaign that saw Britain vote to quit the 28-nation bloc. Boris Johnson, their leading spokesman and the favorite to succeed David Cameron as prime minister, began backing away from that message the morning after the vote.
Reports of "No more Polish vermin" signs left outside primary schools in Huntingdon:
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/reports-of-no-more-polish-vermin-signs-distributed-in-huntingdon/story-29443411-detail/story.html
Leave voter admits he voted to "stop Muslims coming into the UK" (video at link):
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/eu-referendum-muslims_uk_576e558ce4b08d2c563937ff
Hope that helps clarify things.
OH MY GOD let's get several things straight about Brexit
1. This vote was NOT called because of dissatisfaction with the EU. This vote was called because Cameron thought he could shut up the internal squabbles in the Tory party by shoving a strong Remain result down the RW's throat. He failed. He will be forever remembered as the PM who presided over both the breakdown of the EU and the breakdown of the UK. You wouldn't think his political career could have had a lower moment than fucking a pig, but here we are.
2. This result was NOT caused by dissatisfaction with "neoliberalism" whatever the hell THAT is supposed to mean in this context. All the austerity measures have come under the conservative government, and the complete decimation of UK manufacturing and blue collar jobs happened under Thatcherism (another Conservative). They very successfully blamed the EU for it with the help of the media.
3. This result was NOT supported by the Left or anyone else interested in economic justice. This result was supported by xenophobes who were worked into a hysterical frenzy by the media constantly blaming the EU for every single thing that went wrong in the UK, and that has been going on since the EU's inception.
4. This result was STRONGLY OPPOSED by the young, (as most people have noticed) AND by the educated (as fewer people are talking about).
5. If you are a progressive, there is no conscionable way to support this result. If you are concerned about the environment, human rights, and diversity, there is no conscionable way to support this result.
6. The poor and uneducated, who overwhelmingly voted to Leave, will suffer the most under this result. The educated with means (who overwhelmingly voted to Remain) will, ironically, be the ones who can get away from what is going to be years of shit. There will be massive brain drain and investment drain.
7. All you who in some bizarro reality think that the UK is going to be better off are crazy. Sources at Morgan Stanley are already telling the BBC they're moving 2000 London-based investment banking staff to Dublin or Frankfort. Oh, that's a good thing because "banksters" are EVIL? These are people's JOBS. Financial services is one of the largest employers in Britain.
8. If you are in favour of this result, you side with Trump, Putin, Le Pen, and Nigel Fucking Farage.
9. The Leave campaign has ALREADY admitted they lied about their promises. No more money is going to the NHS. There will be no significant decrease in immigration. Johnson has admitted he has no plan for EU exit.
If all of the above is ok with you, well, then, we have very little in common.
Can I just say something about mental health?
Whenever these kinds of horrific events happen, there's always a lot of talk thrown around about the perpetrator being mentally ill. The media exploits this talk and uses terms like "psycho killer" to describe them.
It's really important to remember that the vast, vast majority of mentally ill people are NOT violent, and that most acts of violence are NOT committed by the mentally ill. You don't have to be mentally ill to murder someone. Not in the sense of a diagnosable mental illness.
Automatically assuming everyone who has committed an act of violence is mentally ill conflates the two in the public's mind. This leads to many bad outcomes, including:
- The mentally ill are discriminated against in myriad ways, including employment, benefits, and access to healthcare and education
- The mentally ill know that they face this discrimination, and are therefore less likely to seek help, and also less likely to adhere to medication schedules
- The mentally ill are more likely to receive harsher sentences in criminal trials
- The mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violent crimes
The problem of media stigma of the mentally ill is so widespread that an international measuring instrument has been produced: the PICMIN - Picture of Mental Illness In Newspapers (Rukvina et al, 2012). This standardised measure was developed in order to allow for comparison of stigmatising mental health media stories across countries and across time.
We have no knowledge yet (as far as I know, and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the shooter was diagnosed with a mental illness. It would be good to be careful with language - using phrases like "insane person", etc to describe him.
Here I confess something. I am a psychologist, and today, as I watched this horror in Orlando unfold, I actually used the above phrase "insane person" to describe the shooter in a post here. I was horrified by the images I saw coming out of Florida, crying, and just didn't think before I typed. Another DUer called me on it (nicely) and I immediately edited. But I am someone who WORKS in mental health, and I did that. This is how pervasive this is. I apologise for the few minutes that post of mine was up.
Thank you for reading.
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Pennsylvania
Current location: London
Member since: Mon May 23, 2011, 08:46 AM
Number of posts: 4,311
