UK votes to leave EU • Hacker News Board

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#831

Post by patrickaljord » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:52 PM UTC

Am I the only one who kind of feel positive about this regardless of the negative consequences in the short term economically. I mean, democratically this is a landmark, the people have just decided to reject one of the biggest and most powerful government institution on Earth in a peaceful way, by voting. I don't think this has ever happened in the history of humanity that a people decided to say fuck you to a huge powerful government body and be done with it peacefully, just voting them out of their life. This in a way should be celebrated. I mean, the very goal of a democracy is the power for the people to do exactly that, remove and change their government institutions whenever they feel like it. It could also all turn out ok if the UK becomes a EEA member.

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*TD7RywMw4YnWGpfjR...

https://medium.com/@WhiteWednesday/poll-reveals-eea-option-h...

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#832

Post by kordless » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:52 PM UTC

redthrowaway wrote: post #487

_ph_ wrote: post #468

A very sad day for everyone in Europe. The EU is not only about trade regulations, but about a continent who had a not very peaceful history finally growing together. The freedom of movement for European citizens was not only "convenient" but in fact an important civil right. When you live or have a business in one state of the US, you are bound to local regulations of course, but being part of the US granted you a l…

The US did not magic itself into existence as a united state. It began in common purpose with a shared, very strong, external enemy. It then assigned itself a shared dream of settling the content. And, crucially, it already had a shared cultural identity, shared language, and shared religion when it began. The EU does not have a common enemy to force it together. It does not have a shared language, or culture, or ide…

> The US does not have a common enemy to force it together. It does not have a shared language, or culture, or identity. Its dream, while noble, does not speak to ordinary people. And it is pretty damned incompetent at what duties it has assigned itself. The prospect of a United States was extremely remote even before today. It's dead, now.

FTFY. In all seriousness, this whole UK thing sounds like a good excuse for California and The Bay Area to attempt to secede from the union. I'm about sick of our broken consensus mechanisms here.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#833

Post by cojant » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:53 PM UTC

Life expectancy in the UK is 71. As we need to be over 18 to vote, I suggest putting a cap on the higher end to... something like over 53 should not be allowed to vote!

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#834

Post by gwbas1c » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:53 PM UTC

redthrowaway wrote: post #487

_ph_ wrote: post #468

A very sad day for everyone in Europe. The EU is not only about trade regulations, but about a continent who had a not very peaceful history finally growing together. The freedom of movement for European citizens was not only "convenient" but in fact an important civil right. When you live or have a business in one state of the US, you are bound to local regulations of course, but being part of the US granted you a l…

The US did not magic itself into existence as a united state. It began in common purpose with a shared, very strong, external enemy. It then assigned itself a shared dream of settling the content. And, crucially, it already had a shared cultural identity, shared language, and shared religion when it began. The EU does not have a common enemy to force it together. It does not have a shared language, or culture, or ide…

"It does not have a shared language, or culture, or identity. Its dream, while noble, does not speak to ordinary people."

I think you speak of real challenges that the EU has; but to put it in context, other countries have similar challenges. Spend some time in the US, and you will see cultural and language differences among the states. You can also find the same differences in India and China.

Assuming you are American, like me, it's very easy to see the differences in European culture because each state is still a sovereign nation. Chinese and Indian states don't bring their separate flags to the Olympics, so we just assume it's one culture. We go out for "Indian" or "Chinese" food in restaurants that gloss over their internal differences.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#835

Post by ionised » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:55 PM UTC

bromuro wrote: post #347

As someone who doesn't want this neo-liberist, anti-democratic EU I see this as a very good news. Let's hope Denmark and France to follow.

British politicians and the City of London are all unhinged neo-liberals too, so this does nothing to change your indentured servitude to the oligarchs.

If that's why you voted out, you've been made a fool of.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#836

Post by gloves » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:56 PM UTC

Sad day. Shocked.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#837

Post by known » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:58 PM UTC

Will Scotland break away from UK? http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21701332-brexit-has-sp...

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#838

Post by ionised » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:58 PM UTC

wildmusings wrote: post #143

Take the US federal government, take away 2/3 of Congress's powers, give all of those powers to the civil service, and then replace the President with a committee appointed by state governments on a staggered basis. That's the EU. Congratulations Britain, today you took back control of your own destiny.

> Congratulations Britain, today you took back control of your own destiny.

Congratulations Britain, today you handed your destinies over to oligarchs in the City of London instead of oligarchs in Brussels.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#839

Post by tonyedgecombe » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:59 PM UTC

leot wrote: post #58

What's stopping Britons from having another referendum?

If there was a concession from the EU on free movement, I'm somewhat doubtful about that though.

Re: UK votes to leave EU

#840

Post by hueving » Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 3:01 PM UTC

notacoward wrote: post #766

That's a very strange, and in some cases inaccurate, portrayal of history. * The British were not an external enemy. That would have been the French. For the most part, even the people leading the revolution were proud of being British subjects and would have liked to remain so, but could no longer tolerate the conditions being attached to that status. Our enemy was recognized to be our own cousins, not some external…

>The British were not an external enemy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

>The shared dream of settling the continent was real but - given that said continent was already occupied

I doubt you understand how large the US is if you think that. Most of it was empty. The union was already strongly formed before the genocide of the west got under way.

>Shared culture, language, religion? Language, mostly.

I think you might underestimate how much a single shared language helps mobility, doing business, spreading culture, etc. The fact that the EU embraces individual country identities will mean it will never be as cohesive as the US. If every state in the US spoke a different language, the US probably wouldn't have even made it past the size of the original colonies.