mechmouse: We've had nothing but piss-poor reporting and misinformation from the beginning of this debacle so why stop now.
The most disturbing thing out of all of this, is vast manipulation of the public by groups that have a vested personal interest in pushing the vote one way or another, rather than the greater good of the UK.
jamyskis: From a propagandist's point of view, the pro-Brexit propaganda was actually a stroke of genius. It was the real elite basically railing against the fictitious "elite", exploiting the misconception among the unwashed masses that there is some kind of all-encompassing conspiracy among everyone with a seven-digit annual income to islamise the world and bring them all under the yoke of some notional anti-British authority.
In reality, the pro-Brexit campaign was spearheaded by a political and economic elite whose power base and chief sphere of influence is centred around Britain: Peter Cruddas, Stuart Wheeler, James Dyson, Rupert Murdoch, Richard Desmond, basically the sorts of people whose political influence and power will now only grow because the only legislative power will be concentrated solely in London, whose ear these elites have. These are the people who don't really have much political or financial capital outside of the UK.
And because these Britain-centric elites basically control the media in the UK, it enabled them to unleash the relentless barrage of propaganda that won them the referendum.
(Oddly enough, the left-wing media in the UK - the Guardian and Observer in particular- is largely controlled by journalism trusts as opposed to "rich elites". The only politically influential owner of a left-wing news outlet in the UK is that of the anti-Putin Lebedev family, which owns the Independent.)
The only genuinely neutral news outlet in the UK - the BBC - has had its reputation successfully dragged through the mud by the far right, who have conducted a rather successful campaign to paint it as some kind of left-wing stooge, such that people have been indoctrinated not to trust it. We've had the same problem with a far-right smear campaign against the ARD public broadcaster here in Germany.
Ultimately though, the ones to blame are the British public, who have time and again demonstrated to spectacular effect that for the most part, they are completely fucking incapable of any independent thought or research. Most Brits that I've spoken to about Brexit don't even have the slightest clue how politics or the wider world actually works. Whenever I'm in the UK visiting family, I avoid talking about politics, lest I feel the urge to smash my head through a door, and as soon as a political discussion unfolds, I just leave the room. I can't be doing with the ignorance and the conspiracy theory screaming.
At the end of the day, the information was out there for people to find. It's not like there were Chinese-style net filters or the country was reliant on a North Korean-styled intranet. But most people chose to rely on The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, Twitter and Facebook for their "news".
And that, good sir, is why I have absolutely nothing but fucking contempt for the British. Not because of the way they voted, because of the way they chose to be lazy and ignorant out of fear that they might discover that they are not quite so inherently superior as they thought..
Yeah you can trust none of the Daily Express (The worst one, have you seen their front page yesterday? It is one of the most sensationallist pieces of rubbish I've ever had the displeasure of reading, and I've read some of the things Donald Trump has said. They truly think that the EU is going to entrap Britain into a federalist european state, which is impossible because of something called patriotism which still exists in all EU countries and is partly fuelled by media like the Daily Express ), Daily Mail (Almost as bad as the Express.) or The Sun (The least worst one actually.) for your 'news' ( For all 3 or these, think Breitbart or InfoWars levels of bias except mainstream.) and you're right they have demonized the BBC as some socialist, leftist organization when they try to be impartial and succeed for the most part.
And also, not everyone over here is as contemptible as you claim everyone here is. Public opinion seems to be turning towards remain and has been since the referendum. There is a new (Albeit weekly or bi-weekly.) pro-european paper called the New European which apparently already has a 250,000 circulation and I've seen many Leave voters saying they have buyer's remorse. I am convinced if the country voted again, it would vote remain. I suspect ciruclation and website visits of the papers I mentioned above have declined since the referendum. I think the majority of people want a 'soft' brexit (ie the sane option which keeps us in the single market.) even if we leave at all. This court ruling has bought out the true idiots who voted leave (Probably mostly UKIP voters and 'hard' brexiteers who love that idiotic liar Farage who has spent most of the life he got back campaigning for the only politician who is even more of an idiotic liar.) as a vote for leave was partly a vote for democracy and soverignty of Parliament and when they get that they throw their toys out the pram. Avoid rhetoric that deals in absolutes, you are in danger of stooping as low as brexiteers and deplorables and, from the previous posts from you I have seen, you are better than that.
