Please, please stop spreading the lie that Brexit was to fight against neoliberalism

[Saviolo]

67. Anyone claiming that BREXIT was driven by one thing is disingenuous

This has got to be one of the most complex situations we've seen in modern political times, and everyone's trying to point to one or two things that caused everything to happen.

I personally think that Brexit was a huge mistake for the UK, and there are plenty of Brexit voters who are feeling a deep feeling of buyers' remorse on the day after. They were angry and they were frustrated and now they realize that their anger and frustration was causing them to think without total clarity.

Are there problems with the EU? Certainly. One of the big frustrations is that policy is not transparent. It was originally pitched as a trade organization, but has definitely become a political body. Trouble is that if it has become a political body, and it's trying to establish a polity that affects all of Europe, then that process needs to be transparent, and it isn't. Public policy must be set by a public means.

Additionally, the economic aspects of the EU are far too influenced by the IMF, which is a major consultant to the EU economic policy. Some of the more powerful member states are just far too in love with austerity, a common IMF tactic.

Now, at a high level, this is definitely what UK business interests and corporatists were concerned about going into the Brexit campaign. But that's not how it was framed to the average person, let's be honest. There are huge business and corporate concerns on both sides of Brexit, but it's the people that have to vote. So, the campaign came down to the people with carrots and sticks and little dribbles of information, and posters that intimated that immigrants were coming for their jobs, and that if they left the EU, they could just plop that money into NHS (which they've admitted since the vote was a complete fabrication). The average person doesn't care and probably can't really grasp the major corporate concerns involved.

So, were there valid reasons to vote Brexit? Yes.

Does it look like those were the reasons people actually voted Brexit? No.

There are neoliberals on both side of Brexit, but I'm willing to bet there is a statistically negligible number of voters that cast a Brexit vote on that point.

But I still think it was massively foolish for the UK to vote to leave. If there are problems in the organization they can better address those concerns from within. As I saw someone tweet, "You don't apply your face to a belt sander to treat a case of acne." The UK is an economic powerhouse within Europe, so they should really apply pressure from within the EU to change the things that they feel need fixing.

As an aside note:
I'm fascinated now by what Scotland may do. They hold a great deal of power now. The UK can't leave the EU if Scotland doesn't ratify, so they can force the UK to stay in the EU. The other choice is that they can leave the UK, let the UK leave the EU and join the EU as an independent entity! Interesting times!