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

washingtonpost.com

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

#31

Post by lettergram »

twoquestions wrote: post #12

"People of $MY_IDENTITY believe a thing, so I'll vote for it no matter what $OTHERS say!" I thought before reading that story that the above was a bad caricature, but holy shit. How can you not know what the EU is if you're in a member country and can read? It's like an American not knowing what Congress is!

My guess is that both sides are equally curious of the outcome. A large number of voters for leaving the EU were older, so I anticipate many of them aren't using Google to figure it out (as they both lived prior to the EU and are naturally less inclined to search on Google).

Likely its the younger crowd trying to figure out "what now?"

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

#32

Post by api »

Pundits need to stop it with this "mock the unsophisticated yokels" click-baiting and trolling. Of course people are Googling about the EU after a major upset referendum about the EU.

One reason "insane" anti-establishment positions like this are winning (even when they are insane) is because pundits stubbornly refuse to actually listen to peoples' reasons for supporting them. Instead they mock them as backwater idiots and insult their intelligence.

I don't know UK politics well enough to say for certain, but I know in the USA Trump is largely a FU vote against an establishment that's allowing vast swaths of the country to collapse into permanent depression while ignoring the problem and horribly distorting the economy to keep Wall St. pumped up at the expense of things like housing affordability. I can't stand him myself but I know where the support is coming from, and if nobody listens to these issues we're going to have President Trump in November.

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

#33

Post by mikeash »

LanceH wrote: post #8
mikeash wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of certain American voters saying they support Trump just because they want to tear the system down. I don't think they realize what tearing the system down would actually mean.

Yea, only the other side has idiots voting for them.

Never said it was only that side. I consider myself an independent and while I view the Democrats more favorably, I'm not positively inclined towards either party nor either voter base. Don't read things that aren't there.

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

#34

Post by rando18423 »

mevile wrote: post #25
_9MOTHER9HORSE wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, the fact the EU had enormous power over British people, yet barely anyone knew what it was, what it did, or why it was important, was a compelling reason for the UK to leave.

Is this also an argument for states to pull out of the USA? Because I doubt your average voter understands much about the US or state government or federalism.

Anecdotal, but in public elementary school in the US they actually did do a good job of explaining this. I mean I know it's very complex in some ways, but it's also not that complex?

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

#35

Post by rayiner »

mevile wrote: post #25
_9MOTHER9HORSE wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, the fact the EU had enormous power over British people, yet barely anyone knew what it was, what it did, or why it was important, was a compelling reason for the UK to leave.

Is this also an argument for states to pull out of the USA? Because I doubt your average voter understands much about the US or state government or federalism.

To the contrary: Americans are usually more invested in federal politics than state politics. E.g. turnout is usually higher in federal elections, and more people know who their federal senators are than their state senators.

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

#36

Post by wzdd »

_9MOTHER9HORSE wrote: post #4
Analemma_ wrote: post #2

Here's a Leave fellow who says he just did it as a protest vote thinking it wouldn't actually pass. https://twitter.com/AdamWSweeney/status/746269140915208193 I don't know whether to laugh or cry. The most important international agreement in the UK's history torn up because people thought this was a Buzzfeed poll.

On the contrary, the fact the EU had enormous power over British people, yet barely anyone knew what it was, what it did, or why it was important, was a compelling reason for the UK to leave.

What? That doesn't follow at all.

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

#37

Post by tamana »

As usual, WaPo is shitposting. Why are they not banned here?

Yes, people are deeply curious about the full effect of this huge proposed change, especially the half of the entire population who voted for Stay because they weren't too worried about the UK/EU boundary when they were happy enough with the status quo total package.

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

#38

Post by fomojola »

avs733 wrote: post #5
mikeash wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of certain American voters saying they support Trump just because they want to tear the system down. I don't think they realize what tearing the system down would actually mean.

I can say with confidence that it might mean the government stays out of their medicare /s

Not sure if you're being facetious, but Medicare IS the government, you do realize this? Medicare isn't some magical, mythical creature that existed from the dawn of time and has always been there: it is explicitly a creation of the government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States))

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

#39

Post by Amezarak »

mevile wrote: post #25
_9MOTHER9HORSE wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, the fact the EU had enormous power over British people, yet barely anyone knew what it was, what it did, or why it was important, was a compelling reason for the UK to leave.

Is this also an argument for states to pull out of the USA? Because I doubt your average voter understands much about the US or state government or federalism.

I would actually wager the average American understands the federal government much better than their state government, due to the hyperfocus in schools and in the media on the federal government. State and local governments get away with incredible amounts of nonsense because people don't know or care anything about them.

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

#40

Post by burkaman »

LanceH wrote: post #8
mikeash wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of certain American voters saying they support Trump just because they want to tear the system down. I don't think they realize what tearing the system down would actually mean.

Yea, only the other side has idiots voting for them.

"Certain american voters", not the whole "other side". I'm sure most Trump voters actually want him to be president, but I've heard a few people say "oh I'm sure he'll get impeached within a year or two, I just want to shake up the establishment".
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