I’ve debated with people and shared a lot of posts about brexit but I figured I should actually explain my views.
I believe very strongly that we are better off in the EU than not.
I honestly think the best course of action would be to ask the EU for
an extension of a long enough time to carry out a Peoples Vote that
would hopefully come out with remain as the dominant choice.
The position we are in now is precarious to say the least. We are on the cliff edge of dropping out of the EU without a deal. Some may say that’s not a bad thing. I disagree. So let’s go through this point by point:
Trade
Pretty much any expert who’s looked at it says leaving the EU already
has and will cause economic damage. Leaving without a deal would be far
worse. Just by leaving we are weakening our position in the world. We will no longer be part of a 600 million strong trading block.
For those who don’t understand why this is bad think about Unions.
Before they existed labour conditions and pay were much worse than now. Unions prove that banding together in collective bargaining is much more effective that trying to strike deals on your own. The EU together is able to strike much more beneficial deals than individual countries on their own. Following that logic any deal we strike post brexit will not be as good as we had in the EU.
Going into negotiations with larger economies like China and the US we
will be at a BIG disadvantage and will get far less favourable terms than we currently enjoy.
May’s current deal has us leaving the customs union and the single
market. Currently we enjoy frictionless, tariff free trade with EU
countries. And an exit that takes us out of those adds expensive
barriers to trading with our largest import/export partner. Fees that
businesses themselves will have to pay. (Hence why a lot of small & Medium businesses are worried about this)
Movement Given there are millions of british people living abroad in the EU. Free movement is something that has benefited UK citizens. Post brexit their future is uncertain.
Ever wanted to retire to Spain or France? We leave the EU and it gets much harder. Seen a job in the EU or been offered one? Prepare to have to go through visa processes that we don’t have to at the minute. Want to visit non-EU countries? All our travel agreements are as an EU country so those will have to be redone.
But it works both ways. The UK relies on EU citizens coming over here to work. The NHS? All those jobs you don’t want to do or think beneath you? Seasonal workers? propped up by EU citizens.
It will be harder and there will be less incentive for them to come
over post brexit even ignoring the seemingly rising xenophobia.
Laws People say we don’t have control of our laws. We do for the vast majority of things.
Parliament forcing amendments through so May had to get approval for
the deal rather than negotiating in secret and forcing through something
no one agreed with? Our government did that with their sovereignty.
Some stuff does come from the EU. For example the EU working hours
directive that stops companies making us work over 48 hours a week
without our explicit consent. Tell me with a straight face a tory government would have implemented that without being forced to.
And even the stuff that comes from the EU we have a say in. We are an
EU member. That means we get a seat at the table and we get to vote on
and if necessary veto EU legislation Those MEPs we send over. That’s
their job. If they’re not doing it (*cough* Farage) it’s not the EUs
responsibility. It’s ours. we vote those people out and replace them with people who will do their job just like with the UK parliament.
Leaving the EU means we’d still have to follow their regulations when trading with them. If we leave but stay in the single market or customs union we still have to follow their regulations. There’s just one difference: We’d no longer have a say in making those laws!
What’s the phrase? Oh yh: You’ve got to be in it to win it.
When Washington D.C. is asking for statehood and complaining about
taxation without representation, why are we actively trying to put ourselves in that position?
People seem convinced we’ll leave and be able to strike the best possible deal with the EU. The best possible deal? We’ve already got it. Norway model? Switzerland? Turkey? Canada? WTO? All worse than what we currently enjoy.
Am I saying the EU is this perfect utopia? No Do I think the best option is to stay in the EU, have a say, and change it for the better from within? Hell yes.
More and more people are realising that leaving is not the right thing
to do. So why are we still on a course to crash out with no deal?
The referendum
There are many reasons Leave took the referendum: Some people have
legitimate concerns, some people are racist, others voted not for brexit
but as a protest, others because of all the fearmongering and lies.
The argument that the country voted for our current situation is
patently false. The referendum asked leave or remain (a stupidly simple
question for such a complex issue)
It did not ask do you want to leave without a deal? It did not ask do you want to leave regardless of what the deal is?
Some people have legitimate concerns about the EU, fair enough but is
it not better to stay and try to fix those issues than leave and cause
uncertainty and major economic harm.
Some people, by their own
admission on camera, voted leave not because they wanted to leave the
EU, but as a protest against the government. They did not vote for Mays
deal. They did not vote for no deal.
Some people voted leave
because they believed the lies peddled by the leave campaign and the
media. Many, when the falsehoods were exposed, said they would have
voted differently. They do not want Mays deal. They do not want no deal.
David Cameron did not promise the referendum because he wanted people
to have a choice about EU membership. He promised it because he feared
losing seats to UKIP. The Tories played party politics with huge generational changes, thinking Leave wouldn’t possibly win, and they lost.
The media splashed the lies all over their pages not because they
thought them true but because the wanted to sell papers and rich people
didn’t want to be subject to upcoming EU legislation attacking tax
havens.
All the big names and CEOs that told you Leaving was the
best choice? The vast majority of them are moving overseas to avoid the
harm. Funny that.
Let’s take a look at the lies: £350 million a week for the nhs? Lie
we can put the money we currently pay into the EU to our own people? So
far what’s being promised is less than now. e.g. stronger towns fund.
Lie No one’s talking about leaving the single market or the customs union? Lie Brexit will be a breeze with no downsides? Lie We’ll be better off on our own? So far it looks to be a lie
Britain will still be open for business? Even before we leave we are
already losing jobs as companies and organisations move to other EU
countries so they can maintain access to that market rather than stay
here.
The leave campaigns were fined for their lies A court declared that if the referendum hadn’t been advisory it would have been struck down because of the lies So why are we still ploughing ahead?
Demographics
If you look at the distribution of votes in the referendum it was
overwhelmingly the case that older voters voted to leave while younger
people voted to remain. The people that would have to live the
longest with the result wanted to stay. While the people who wouldn’t
have to deal with it for long wanted to leave. If you look at
eligible voters a fair amount of the older people have died since the
referendum, meanwhile there are a lot of people who were too young to vote then that are now eligible. These are people who are having brexit thrust upon them without having had a say. The demographics have shifted; The vast majority of polls now show that remain would win if the people were asked again. You can understand why younger people think the older generation fucked us over.
ReMOANers
There’s a common brexiteer argument that remainers are to blame for the
current situation. ‘They didn’t accept the result and get behind it’,
'They’re sabotaging brexit’
To them I say: Shut Up
In any
other situation if you see someone putting themselves on a course that
will harm people you try to stop it. Even if they don’t see it as harm.
It would be antithetical of me to just let someone walk off a cliff,
and people would judge me if I did. So why is this any different?
Ireland
The Good Friday Agreement is the treaty that has kept peace in Ireland
and stopped 'The Troubles’. The UK government is legally required to
uphold it. No-one wants to see it fail. But that’s what brexit will
cause. Part of the agreement states that there must be regulatory
alignment and no hard border. It is literally impossible to leave the EU fully and honour that.
Leave the EU completely, including the customs union and single market? Hard border, regulatory differences. Agreement broken
Have a border in the Irish sea? Divides Great Britain and Northern
Ireland potentially causing a breakup of the UK which no one wants and
causes a whole heap of issues (after all Scotland voted remain in their
independence referendum after being promised by David Cameron that we’d
stay in the EU)
Stay in the single market and Customs Unions?
People will complain we didn’t leave fully, we still have to follow laws
& regs but have no say in them
Stay in the EU? Agreement intact, best possible deal.
There’s a reason why Ireland and the backstop have been and continue to be such a difficult topic. Because it is next to impossible to reconcile leaving the EU and keeping the Good Friday Agreement intact.
Membership fees People cite the fees we pay, as reason for leaving. They think we pay in more than they pay back. And yet those same people don’t say the same about spotify, netflix, internet, TV,… Because people recognise that there are more benefits to a membership than how much investment you get.
The access to trade partners, the say in law-making. The economic and
political benefits we get from being in the EU are massive and if
anything are more than worth the fees we pay.
Theresa May Right now Theresa May is being a gigantic hypocrite.
The (non-binding advisory) referendum? once in a lifetime, the people
have spoken, brexit is the will of the people and must be carried out no
matter what
Her defeated deal? Brought back to parliament as
many times as she can get away with until MPs vote her way. Holding the
country hostage against the cliff edge of no deal. Spewing hate that is getting MPs who don’t agree with her assaulted in the streets
It is not undemocratic to ask people if they’ve changed their mind,
especially when circumstances have changed. If anything it is supremely
democratic.
The people voted to leave? They voted based on lies.
They did not vote for Mays deal, they did not vote for no deal so how is
it wrong to go back to the country and ask if they’re ok with what has
been negotiated or if they want to do something else?
In fact given people had so many different views of what brexit would be, none of the options for leaving commanded a majority.
The people want you to get on with brexit? Data says they don’t.
If nothing else revoking Article 50 gives us time to work things out
without the cloud of uncertainty and damage hanging over us. In a
situation such as this is it not better to stay in a position of safety
and keep the status quo, rather than jumping off a cliff and hoping
there’s a land of mattresses at the bottom?
Brexit was never
going to be a good thing, the people telling you it would be lied to
you. It’s not a bad thing to admit you were wrong or that you fell for
their fantasy. What is bad is refusing to admit when you’re wrong to the detriment of yourself and everyone else .
The deal that we have at the moment ceases to exist if we leave. If we
get out and then decide we made a mistake and want back in, then that
deal no longer exists. We go back in as a normal member. No rebate, no opt-outs, none of the extras that we have now.
Hopefully these arguments will have helped you realise that we’re better off in the EU and we should revoke Article 50
If not, then I don’t know what to say and I doubt anything will change your mind.
Sometimes when something goes wrong in a plane, a fighter pilot refuses
to eject thinking they can fix the issue. Right until they hit the
ground. Don’t be that pilot.
For those of you that have, I’ll
link to the petition again. Given Theresa May’s stubborn refusal to
even entertain the idea of a People’s Vote, this may be our only chance
at saving the country we all love.
For those who don’t want to
leave but don’t think signing will do anything, even if it doesn’t work
at least you can look yourself in the eye and say you didn’t stand idly
by while the country went to shit.
The plan for the 17th, when the adult content ban comes in, is to protest.
To do that, we are making as much noise either side of the 17th as possible, and using the site as normal.
On the 17th, dead silence.
People are saying log off but what they really mean is don’t open the site or the app.
But, on the 17th make as much noise as possible on every other platform. Tweet about it and post on facebook and instagram and everywhere else.
What this does is causes a massive dip in ad revenue for one single day. That does not make staff think ‘oh everyone’s gone let’s shut down.’ What it actually makes them think is ‘oh shit people aren’t happy and if people don’t keep using our site we’re out of money and out of jobs.’
A boycott reminds a company that the users (consumers) have the power to make their site (business) worthless with one single coordinated decision.
If you want to join in, here’s what to do:
Do:
Close all open instances of the app and site on all your devices before the 17th
Make posts before and after the 17th on tumblr and other platforms, talking about why this ban is bad
Make posts on other sites during the 17th. Flood the official tumblr staff twitter and facebook with your anger and your opinion
Come back on the 18th and check in
Don’t:
Delete the app from your phone (this doesn’t affect their revenue and since it’s off the store at the moment it’ll be hard to get back)
Delete your account. I mean you can if you want to, but if you keep your account and don’t use it you’re saying to staff that there’s still time to save it. If you delete it’s hard work to come back.
Open the app or website (including specific blogs)
Make any posts (turn down/off your queue and make sure nothing is scheduled)
Go quiet elsewhere. Make it clear that this is just about tumblr, not a mass move away from all social media.
Remember: the execs don’t care about anything but money. Shutting down the site means there’s $0 further income from it. That’s their last possible course of action. If we make it clear we’re not happy, they’ll have to do something or we can do more and more until it becomes too expensive.
Protests take commitment. They’re a defiant action against a business that is doing something wrong. They will try to scare you into not participating, because they’re scared. We hold all the power here, sometimes the execs just need to be reminded of that.
Peaceful protest pointed at ad revenue, spiking activity elsewhere. Genius.
at the very least, do this
Just a reminder for tomorrow, I’ll be joining in with this
So the essence of grimdark is that everyone’s inherently sort of a bad person and does bad things, and that’s awful and disheartening and cynical. It’s looking at human nature and going, “The glass is half empty.”
Hopepunk says, “No, I don’t accept that. Go fuck yourself: The glass is half-full.” YEAH, we’re all a messy mix of good and bad, flaws and virtues. We’ve all been mean and petty and cruel, but (and here’s the important part) we’ve also been soft and forgiving and KIND. Hopepunk says that kindness and softness doesn’t equal weakness, and that in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act. An act of rebellion.
Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. Hopepunk isn’t ever about submission or acceptance: It’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about standing up for other people. It’s about DEMANDING a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can, with every drop of power in our little hearts.
Going to political protests is hopepunk. Calling your senators is hopepunk. But crying is also hopepunk, because crying means you still have feelings, and feelings are how you know you’re alive. The 1% doesn’t want you to have feelings, they just want you to feel resigned. Feeling resigned is not hopepunk.
Examples! THE HANDMAID’S TALE is arguably hopepunk. It’s scary and dark, and at first glance it looks like grimdark because it’s a dystopia… but goddammit she keeps fighting. That’s the key, right there. She fights every single day, because she won’t let them take away meaning from her life. She survives stubbornly in the hope that one day she can live again. “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” is one of the core tenets of hopepunk, along with, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Jesus and Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Robin Hood and John Lennon were hopepunk. (Remember: Hopepunk isn’t about moral perfection. It’s not about being as pure and innocent as the new-fallen snow. You get grubby when you fight. You make mistakes. You’re sometimes a little bit of an asshole. Maybe you’re as much as 50% an asshole. But the glass is half full, not half empty. You get up, and you keep fighting, and caring, and trying to make the world a little better for the people around you. You get to make mistakes. It’s a process. You get to ask for and earn forgiveness. And you love, and love, and love.)
And THIS, this is hopepunk:
Here I am with more addendums to this post: Seems like a lot of people are saying the word “noblebright” at me, and I just want to be really clear about this: Noblebright is not hopepunk. Noblebright does not espouse the same ideals that hopepunk does. They are two distinct, separate, coexisting things.
Noblebright is Arthurian legends. The world is a good place, people are essentially good. The codes of chivalry are in full effect. People in positions of authority are there because they are wise, prudent, caring leaders. They rule because they deserve to rule. They protect the weak, they uphold their ideals, there’s people practicing chaste courtly love in every bower and garden. Things are fine, and people have adventures in which they triumph because (see: all of the above).
Hopepunk is (as many wonderful people in the comments have pointed out) Discworld: The world is the world. It’s really good sometimes and it’s really bad sometimes, and it’s sort of humdrum a lot of the time. People are petty and mean and, y’know, PEOPLE. There are things that need to be fixed, and battles to be fought, and people to be protected, and we’ve gotta do all those things ourselves because we can’t sit around waiting for some knight in shining armor to ride past and deal with it for us. We’re just ordinary people trying to do our best because we give a shit about the world. Why? Because we’re some of the assholes that live there.
Examples of hopepunk media include:
Guardians of the Galaxy: “Why do I want to save the galaxy? Because I’m one of the idiots who lives there?”
Thor Ragnarok: “Asgard is not a place… It is a people.”
Leverage: “Right now, you’re suffering under an enormous weight. We provide… leverage.”
The Librarians: (“I have seen you all die so many times when it didn’t matter, I can’t let it happen now that it does.” “What do you need us to do?”)
Scorpion.: (”If you try to tell me about the greater good one more time, I will hit you.”)
Star Wars: (”There is good in him still.”)
Star Trek (the original universe): (honestly, there’s no one single quote, but like, the entire damn thing is solid hopepunk.)
Wonder Woman: (”It is not about deserve, it is about what you believe.” also “Who will sing for us, Charlie?”)
Also, Mad Max: Fury Road. Angharad is a hopepunk queen, and Furiosa and Max get pushed and pulled on to that path by the end of the movie through their connection to each other and the people they fight with.
More HopePunk quotes, cause I think we all need them:
It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes
rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I
haven’t abandoned my ideals; they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.— The Diary of Anne Frank
If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search.
If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. If an earthquake
levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies.
This is so fundamentally human that it’s found in every culture without
exception. Yes, there are assholes who just don’t care, but they’re
massively outnumbered by the people who do. And because of that, I had
billions of people on my side. Pretty cool, eh?— Andy Weir, The Martian
No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin,
or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if
they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.— Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother
would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who
are helping.”— Fred Rogers
I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime
yet for every criminal there are ten thousand honest, decent, kindly
men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could
not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the
obituaries, but it is a force stronger than crime. I believe in the
patient gallantry of nurses and the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I
believe in the unseen and unending fight against desperate odds that
goes on quietly in almost every home in the land.— Robert A. Heinlein
Sure, humans kill each other. We kill for passion, madness, rage, love,
war, and lord knows other things. And yet, we’ve got six billion people
running around the planet. Almost as if people who kill other people are
the exception rather than the rule.— Linkara, Atop the Fourth Wall Marville #4 review
“But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses.” - Robert Ardrey
Today might be a rather tense and nerve-wracking day for many, so here, an absurdly soothing video in which nothing happens other than Jun from Jun’s Kitchen taking his two beautiful fluffy cats for a slow meandering walk through breathtaking scenery.
