Well, this is a bit of a shock. The UK has voted to leave the EU — a victory for the forces of racism and unreason that could mean disaster for the UK economy and the EU as a whole. The pound is crashing; markets are poised to plunge.
So naturally the internet’s worst people are thrilled. Let’s start with a literal Anime Nazi before moving on to some more familiar names.
https://twitter.com/iloveluluco/status/746193892484120576
https://twitter.com/iloveluluco/status/746197447664230400
https://twitter.com/MatthewHeimbach/status/746192464789151745
https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/746183657606418433
https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/746197245817565187
Trump's going to win too, you know. #Brexit pic.twitter.com/HCHHW7tAqo
— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) June 24, 2016
Fuck the global economy. We have to save our civilisation.
— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) June 24, 2016
Sorry about it, (((Soros))) pic.twitter.com/6IOuvreNVT
— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) June 24, 2016
https://twitter.com/MikeMa_/status/746188180756500480
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/746201340309704704
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/746189310915796997
https://twitter.com/GamerGate4Life/status/746198340866441217
https://twitter.com/villainial/status/746195435987963905
https://twitter.com/Q1776/status/746192575954984960
https://twitter.com/Q1776/status/746193500983590914
https://twitter.com/JoKaiGonZo/status/746187559563206657
https://twitter.com/prowhitesunite/status/746204706691702784
https://twitter.com/Ricky_Vaughn99/status/746191933979009024
https://twitter.com/EnochProle/status/746200584601010176
Meme magic is real lads. Praise Kek and Rule Britannia .
— VDARE (@vdare) June 24, 2016
And there will be many more even worse than these in the days to come.
The weirdest hot take of the night so far?
Ann Coulter cheering the plunge everyone expects when European markets open:
The good news keeps rolling in! https://t.co/ty4NS6sdVA
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) June 24, 2016
EDITED TO ADD: Hail to the Gynocracy has also been watching the reactions of white nationalists to the #Brexit win.
Here are a couple of the creepiest tweets I missed:
Lovely.
That article brings up my biggest problem with leaving. Personal opinion, the biggest currency a country can have right now is goodwill with its neighbours. We just blew a LOT of that on this referendum, that I don’t think will actually accomplish anything.
@Reimalebario
Yeah, there’s definite talks with Scotland leaving the UK and in the article above, Ireland might just be thinking about leaving the UK too since a majority wanted to stay in the EU.
Man, who could have saw this coming. How shocking.
As a Remain voter needless to say I am angry, not least because it means Farage gets to be smug. I’ve been saying to people that leaving the EU does not mean that immigration will stop, and just puts us at a disadvantage.
And also I’m surprised this has been the biggest electoral turnout in many years, this kind of turnout could have been bloody useful in the last few general elections. But nope, the British like to shoot themselves in the foot.
Oooh, yeah, that’s right. All the British peeps living outside of the UK are gonnahealthcarer healthcare, plane ticket prices are gonna rise and crap. My British Skype buddy told me about that a couple of weeks ago. That sucks.
Handsome Jack: The US Dollar rising may actually not be such a good thing for the US. Europe and the UK are major markets for US exports; if the Dollar rises, it makes US exports less competitive there. In fact, according to at least some talking heads, US economists worried about the Brexit being a blow to the US economy specifically because it would probably raise the Dollar.
And on a more general note, I just read someone pointing out that the economic effects of this may be particularly damaging because the world is still only barely crawling out of the last economic crisis, and most countries still have minimal or nonexistent interest rates as a part of the last attempt at a stimulus. I.e., they no longer have the interest rate tool available to try and counteract the negative ripple effects of this.
@Ohlmann:
I’ve heard people say that Britain’s inclusion was in retrospect a mistake for the EU, since it handed an effective veto to a country with very little enthusiasm for greater integration.
It’s always difficult to weigh historical counterfactuals. Certainly, there is a mindset in Britain that says that Arthur Harris* was the most effective ambassador to Europe that there has ever been. We will never know what Europa would have been like had Britain not joined. Perhaps we’d be living in a technocratic utopia; perhaps not.
Let’s hope that this empowers Europa to move forwards, without Britain holding it back.
—–
* Note to Americans: Harris was the head of RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War. He was an outspoken advocate of the destruction of cities and maximisation of civilian casualties.
Sorry, I am VERY politically illiterate when it comes to the politics in the UK, and my questions are more likely to set the discussion behind than forward, and are quite selfish. Still, I am worried about myself, so feel free to ignore me. None of them are very relevant.
Answer these questions like I was a 10 yo:
I am in the process of getting a Spanish citizenship, but it’s taking a long time and is costing me a fortune. I am doing this so I can live and study and work just like an european citizen. And I may marry a German. That said;what is going to happen? Is the EU going to end? What would this mean for me? Would I be limited to Spain? Would I no longer be able to circulate freely around the EU? Will the concept of “European Citizen” no longer exist? What about that German? How will this affect him, for example?
I heard in the news of my country that this may mean the end of the EU, that it happened due to rivalries and xenophobia, and means a strong victory for far right groups. Yet, I don’t trust them much, and want to hear from you.
If the EU ends, I will be just so sad… I never heard the word “globalist”, but I guess that’s what I am, because, every since I first learned about EU at school, I thought “my god… THAT’S how I want the world to be. THAT sounds awesome. If Europe, with all the very different cultures and ancient rivalries can open borders and welcome each other as fellow citizens, everyone can”. And when I was in germany, I entered the car or airplane an suddenly was in another country, without ever having to show my passport, prove where i’m going, where i’m staying, proving I have money, etc, etc. It was beautiful, I never felt so free. I hope it stays at it is, i’d like the world a lot less if it ended.
I retroactivity change that “thank you” into sarcasm then.
According to the article above, which is predominately about British people living in Spain, Spain’s economy is probably gonna tank as well, so I’d say it does not bode well. You might want to read it.
Thank you, Britain.
@Chiomara:
In the opinion of most experts that I have read, the EU will not end.
Whether or not you are able to get Spanish citizenship will depend on the Spanish government, not the British government, so it will be unaffected.
It is extremely unlikely that the core European countries will prevent the free movement of people between themselves. As such, it is likely that you will not be affected.
You and your German young man may find it more difficult to move to the UK, but it is unlikely that you will be affected otherwise.
EDIT: It is extremely unlikely that anyone is going to become wealthier as a result of this, sadly. Some countries will suffer worse than others.
The Asian markets are taking a hit due to Britain leaving the EU.
@Pandapool
Oh my god, Spanish economy will tank MORE? Wonderful. Spain will probably be kicked out of the EU before it even ends, the way it goes.
And my boyfriend is saying this is good, because something something, unelected bureaucrats, something something Schengen. It’s bs, right?! I know what Schengen is, but I think that if the EU goes it goes too, even if it’s unrelated, right? Somehow, as our political views are usually opposite, even when I have no idea what he is talking about, I take the fact he is cheering as a sign that I should worry. A lot.
And thank you, Britain. Screwing Brazil over since times immemorial.
@Chiomara
According to The Guardian.
I haven’t heard of Spain being kicked out of the EU but Greece is likely going to be kicked the hell out, like I think I mentioned before maybe? IDK. I’m not scrolling back up with an editing window.
Hopefully Spain will stay strong.
Other notable sections are:
David Cameron has offically resigned as Prime Minister.
That’s the big dilemma now for the EU. Do they woo Britain to ensure the world carries on as before or do they use Britain as an example pour encourage les autres
The latter option may backfire. A lot of the disquiet about the EU is that’s it’s seen as a bully, especially after the way it treated Greece. A vindictive approach will just reinforce that view. As Reece-Mogg put it “A club that kneecaps you if you try to leave isn’t necessarily a club you want to be in”.
It’s in everyone’s best interests to try to keep as normal a relationship as possible (and that’s actually built into Art.50) so I suspect that there’ll be some superficial changes in the way things are run but ultimately we’ll end up with a settlement that very much resembles what we have now. We’ll be part of TAFTA and we need free movement so we’ll set up reciprocal deals with the EU states. There might be some tweaking around the edges (the right to deport serious sexual and violent offenders and limitations on claiming benefits etc) but again that can be a mutual arrangement.
We have over 2 million EU workers in the UK. We need them and they want to be here. If you’re unemployed then you might resent immigration, but unfortunately if someone has out-competed you then they didn’t ‘steal your job’ it was never yours in the first place. We can probably deal with that resentment though. Immigrants bring massive financial benefits but that doesn’t reach the poorest people, so we need to create an obvious link. If we can say to people, this boost in public services was paid for by all those Polish people paying taxes then maybe that might take the edge off.
@EJ : I don’t buy the arguments that the inclusion of the UK specifically was an error ; I think it’s more that the inclusion of too many countries at once was the problem.
I have full confidence for the UE management to do something truly stupid, like making the UK pay a lot *and* make it clear that other will get away scot-free.
Thank you, David, for wading through all those shitty twitter posts so we don’t have to. I don’t know how you do it for so long while staying sane.
Fluffy kittens in your mind’s eye.
Plus
In a race to save a man on the tracks, a reminder of what’s good in the world
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/nyregion/in-a-race-to-save-a-man-on-the-tracks-a-reminder-of-whats-good-in-the-world.html?_r=0
http://botherer.org/2016/06/24/rum-doings-episode-217-hell-low-emergency-misery-episode/
smarter British voices than mine
I apologise in advance to everyone in the UK for what I will say now.
I think there should be serious repercussions for leaving the EU.
You shouldn’t be able to reap the rewards without sharing the burden, a point most of us can agree on, I hope.
While I think that the situation with Greece was handled pretty badly, a lot of that was Greece’s insistence on everyone else paying the bill and Greece carrying on as usual.
I mean they got a loan from us (Germany) to invest in a sustainable economy, and what do they do with the money? Order submarines. And I’m not joking here, they squandered the money on their already bloated military. Which in this case is bad, because while military spending can benefit the industry that builds the weapons you buy, buying weapons abroad -which they did- does fuck all for your economy.
They didn’t even want to maybe pay their taxes to avert disaster.
Because while the state is broke, the greeks are among the more wealthy people in terms of personal wealth.
And let’s not even get into that whole reparations clusterfuck they tried to pull.
But he UK’s situation is very different. Their economy isn’t great, but it’s nowhere near Greece levels of fucked.
You also have to remember that the UK got some very special discounts just so they would be a member, with all the benefits.
Now they want to be a member for free, fuck that!
The good thing coming from this might be that the fascist fuckos in eastern Europe will follow Britains example, so we can get back to building a decent society for those who understand the concept of solidarity.
Sorry for raging, it is just so depressing to see this nationalism shit we thought overcome 70ish years ago rise it’s ugly head again.
Basically half of us (just under, obviously) who voted didn’t want this. I hope people remember that while they rightly laugh at us. I’m disgusted. Bloody Farage and Johnson, smug lying public-school twits.
Hello.
well, in my opinion, the problem with UE is that it misses some spots. Just remember that before being called UE, it was EEC. It takes too much the “economic” aspect and leaves aside too much of the cultural and human aspect (human not in term of “economical person”).
You can argue that the open borders are a good cultural progress, but it had been primarily done for economic purpose. Are there many programs made by the UE to learn more about our neigbhors ? There might be some, but too few, and i can not even name one. I am going to exagerate a bit here, but, as an example, here in France, when you ask someone what s/he thinks about Spain, aside from the usual cliches of sun, hot flamenco women and corrida, s/he answers you about how oil, tobacco and other stuff are less expensive than here. When the only thing you care about a foreign country is the price of their goods, you should not call that a “Union”.
And this full economic direction and the lack of knowledge about other members is a fertile ground for the nationalists of all sides. Maybe other French people here remember about the “Polish plumber threat” ? Of course, the real threat is not her/him being Polish, but her/him asking so few wages that the open borders make it more profitable to make someone coming from far away to work here than to pay a local. Does the european parliament and commission nationalist members (who despise the insitutions but gladly take their high salary from it) had made propositions to force the countries where wages are lows to raise them up ? Fucking no, they just yelled their usual rant, and so the full liberal economic minded members had to create and enforce more libeco laws just by saying “See, the nationalists say it is bad, so we must be right !” in a binarian way of thinking which, alas, seems to work. Vicious circle.
If i am not wrong, in another topic, Alan said something about maybe another referendum in Britain ? That remind me of the 2005 referendum about the EU Constitution, in France, which had been a No. Why, in 2008, the government just had ratified the Lisbon Treaty, which is, as many pointed out, almost a copy-paste of the refused EU Constituion. So much for the democracy. I hope you will not fall for the same political trap. And let us not talk about the Greexit. There were so many economic threats (on a country which economy was already a disaster) that it was like asking something at the point of gun. And here too, i hope you will be ok, in Britain. As the cultural Union is a fail (well, not really, it had never existed first), i fear waves of resentment preparing a tsunami.
Sorry for the rant, the spelling and the grammar.
@ ohlmann
It’s ironic that the UK was one of the main proponents of the accession states. One of the saddest things in last night’s coverage was the Polish ambassador saying how much he liked us and feeling hurt now by our perceived rejection of Poland.
One of our greatest achievements in the EU has been sticking up for the little guys (if we’re being cynical we can say it’s to build up allies against Germany and France). We were the only voice speaking in favour of Turkey. One of my quibbles with the EU is that it was very much a club for White Christian nations (which makes it’s unpopularity with fascists all the more bewildering) and Turkey’s admission would have gone some way to redressing that.
If all does go belly up with Europe then I’d like to see us set up a similar entity but with the commonwealth countries (I’d actually like that anyway)
Yeah Alan, cutting off your nose to spite your face is such a sensible move. I don’t even know how to reach someone who can’t see that when every fucking expert in every affected field says something is a bad idea, then it most likely is a bad idea.
And saying that this was about sticking two fingers up to political elites, or any reasonable issues with the EU is dishonest as hell. Who is on the Leave side? Gove, Boris, Farage, plus support from the likes of Katie Hopkins, Louise Mensch, et al. Leave is one long roll call of the racist, xenophobic, and generally hateful.
As an EU citizen (thank fucking dog), I have seen firsthand how the people of the UK have descended into Trumpian levels of bigotry. This was never about *anything* other than hatred of the Other, so I really wish you’d stop trying to rationalise it into something admirable.
Hate and intolerance have won. There’s really nothing more to say.
And to make a shitty day even more shitty:
CBS and Paramount just clarified their stance on Star Trek fanproductions.
http://www.geek.com/news/cbs-and-paramount-release-official-star-trek-fan-film-guidelines-1659271/
Fuck it all, I’m getting drunk tonight!
And wow, reading some of the other comments here, I just can’t today. We Hunted the Mammoth was my little island of reason & compassion in the midst of the hatefulness in this world, now all I’m seeing is the legitimising of that hate and a naked display of Northern European triumphalism.
And then you come here to gloat over how you’re morally superior to the likes of Milo, Roosh, Elam, Trump etc? The word is “hypocrisy,” and I suggest you look it up.
Eta: actually, it’s only a couple of commenters. The rest of you are good as ever. I better sign off today, though, because the shit side of things is too damn much.