Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 602 posts

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#231

Post by lawpoop »

notatoad wrote: post #46
mc32 wrote: post #9

Isn't that expected? People who voted for the establishment status quo want to know what might happen in the years to come now that the vote has gone against them. Voting to stay meant no change, therefore they knew more or less the outcome, but now that the outcome is opposite their votes, they want to look into the repercussions --this informs that it's likely they stay vote didn't investigate the alternative befor…

I think you're drawing conclusions based on your biases just as much as wapo is. You don't know who is googling the EU right now, or what their motivations are. Just as much as some remain votes were blind votes for the status quo, some leave votes were blind votes for change.

My personal inclination is those googling it didn't vote at all, and are now trying to figure out exactly what will happen in the next few years.

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#232

Post by dougmany »

dharma1 wrote: post #204
Inthenameofmine wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We haven't figured this shit out yet. Kings anyone? How about the best wrestler gets to be in charge? ideas? As a Swiss citizen, I think the swiss system is very close to perfect in this regard. Sure, emotional and stupid arguments sometimes prevail, but most of the time the people make the perfect decision. Public discourse is most often also very rational, more so than most world parliaments. Irrational arguments…

The UK is a much more divided society than Switzerland, in terms of the base level of income and education. The median income in Switzerland is double that of the UK. Education is harder to compare, but you can't really expect the same level of discourse

I remember listening to a Ted talk where the speaker basically said, Get income inequality in check by whatever means and most of your problems go away.

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#233

Post by k__ »

zghst wrote: post #174
netcan wrote: post #82

I'm strangely moved by this whole thing. It's a pretty decent status check on where we are with democracy ATM. I'm not against democracy, but I do think we need to pay attention to what it can & can't do. On one hand, this has been a model of democracy. A primary election agenda and referendum. The phrasing of the question was simple, clear and unbiased. The "will of the people" won over the will of the ruling struct…

You're against democracy because people had the right to decide what was in their interest and not the government or big business??

That's fallacy.

The big business that decides is the media.

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#234

Post by kosmic_k »

emsy wrote: post #167

What I're read so far about pro-leavers: -They are stupid. -They are xenophobic racists (over 50% of the population!). -Trump welcomes the Brexit, so being pro-leave is stupid. -Old people vote "leave" since they don't have to face the consequences as long as the young people, and old people have no clue. -"Leave" votes come mainly from E.U. subsidized areas, thus they bite the hand that feeds them. -Pro-leave doesn'…

I haven't read too much into the topic until a week or two ago but I've seen those exact arguments coming up time and time again. Given how close it was I think remain shot themselves in the foot by not articulating their points.

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#235

Post by madaxe_again »

mc32 wrote: post #9

Isn't that expected? People who voted for the establishment status quo want to know what might happen in the years to come now that the vote has gone against them. Voting to stay meant no change, therefore they knew more or less the outcome, but now that the outcome is opposite their votes, they want to look into the repercussions --this informs that it's likely they stay vote didn't investigate the alternative befor…

I don't think they're implying it - they are quite correctly stating it.

If you voted for brexit and you still think it was a good thing - then you have a serious issue with parsing the reality in front of you and understanding it. Honestly. The empirical fact is here, today, the reality is gruesome.

If you still think that this is all great, then you must just enjoy chaos and uncertainty, which makes you a queer duck indeed.

No, brexiteers were duped, even Farage said so himself this morning - and moving from an entrenched emotional position isn't easy, which is where the reality parsing defect comes from.

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#236

Post by rohit89 »

alexcason wrote: post #13

"Even though I voted to leave, this morning I woke up and I just — the reality did actually hit me," one woman told the news channel ITV News. "If I'd had the opportunity to vote again, it would be to stay."

Could just be fear of change.

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#237

Post by thesimpsons1022 »

advertising wrote: post #142

My first impression of the result was shouldn't there be a requirement for a larger difference than 1 - 2% for something like this to pass? A majority of at least 65% for example? I don't know what I'm talking about really but that seems logical, what do you all think?

The number is arbitrary though. Why not 60 or 63 etc..? I don't think it should even have been voted on. Direct democracy makes no sense when 99 pct of those voting don't understand the issue. We are dealing with extremely complex economic and political webs. When experts are ignored everyone fails.

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#238

Post by ohitsdom »

TearsInTheRain wrote: post #131
Maydowf wrote: post #30

If this is for real... It is really sad. I understood that xenophobia was the main reason Great Britain wanted to get out of EU, which is also sad.

It's absolutely dishonest and dismissive to say that xenophobia is the main reason they want to leave, and that attitude is what pushed people to vote leave

> that attitude is what pushed people to vote leave

People thinking that the Leave camp was xenophobic pushed Britains to vote Leave?

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#239

Post by lawpoop »

capote wrote: post #87
sergiotapia wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Washingtonpost is extremely biased so I kind of scoffed at the headline. It's all in the "implication" with them.

Do you disagree there's a big implication here? Normally I'd agree with you.

I do; my suspicion is that it's people who didn't vote, trying to figure out what will happen in the near future.

Re: The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it

#240

Post by googletazer »

Zpalmtree wrote: post #182
Maydowf wrote: post #30

If this is for real... It is really sad. I understood that xenophobia was the main reason Great Britain wanted to get out of EU, which is also sad.

Wanting a sensible immigration policy or control over your laws is not xenophobia. The idea that half the country is racist is absurd, and downright insulting. There's a reason people voted leave, and part of it is due to both labour and conservatives constantly ignoring the working class's issues over immigration, dismissing them as racist. You reap what you sow.

Pretty much - Brexit is a push to (slightly) tilt the British labor market to the advantage of the common British man - lower and middle class people who work for wages. Less workers from Spain/Eastern Europe will re-balance the market towards higher wages for Brits.

For the elites that will mean less profits so naturally they are opposed. If they were smart and played their game well, they would have slightly hiked the wages previously, thus opened some steam valves. I read the guardian (as liberal as it gets), and vast majority of leave comments pointed to stagnating or decreasing standards of living as the cause. Either way, democracy worked as intended.

Post reply on HN