By what I've read, the rest of the UK is eager to go back.

It's weird imagining the end of Britain for just England again.

Hardly a United Kingdom since Scotland voted to stay.
England is pretty fucked right now.
8chan is celebrating Farage's victory.

If Scotland and N. Ireland decided to break away, would the EU be interested in having them rejoin them? I don't know, I have a less than elementary knowledge about these things.

Anarchy in UK!

yep, just like Switzerland. . .

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ks6ohol

Umm... Switzerland is in a very, very different situation from the UK. Its current status isn't really relevant.


Superfluous comparisons aside, it'll be very interesting to see the effects of this. The mainstream media is hyperventilating, but that's largely because of how much is uncertain. I would love to read some essays/articles by people who might actually have insight.

Indyref2. This is exactly the 'material change' required to trigger it.

The Economist has (surprisingly) very nuanced and apolitical coverage of brexit. it's pretty clear that the UK has seriously just fucked itself.

http://www.economist.com/Brexit

It's not surprising that the Economist would lament the decision; they're usually the mouthpiece of financiers & the traditional political class.

Doesn't mean they're wrong, though.

Thanks for the link.. it was very interesting.

Yeah they're a mantle of classical liberalism, but they do entertain other ideas. I've read non-biased analyses of Marxism and Krugman and the complete opposite in there. It's still a good magazine and has weathered the age of punditry pretty well.

There is no place to run, all the fuses in the exit signs have burnt out.

When I lived in California, I was *always* for a Califexit.

Now that I live in Not-California, however, my opinion has changed. Please don't leave us! We need help propping up our shitty economic & political systems!

Cascadia is a real thing and I long for it.

Oh, you mean the Pacific North-Wexit.

"We need help propping up our shitty economic & political systems!"

But since the 80s California has been right up there with New York and Massachusetts in terms of fucking the economy every chance they get.

Thanks, all you new age Randians leading the tech sector!

I thought Jerry Brown had more-or-less tamed the budget & got California's fiscal house in order. Was my semi-informed impression wrong?

Ecotopia lol

It would just get invaded by Mexico and the US would laugh.

Oh wait that already happened.

All Californians are interlopers in the Spanish Empire, and wouldn't survive 8 seconds without the American military rigging its economy to be sixth largest in the world.

"Anaxagoras
I thought Jerry Brown had more-or-less tamed the budget & got California's fiscal house in order. Was my semi-informed impression "

I just mean that over the last 40 years or so the bay area in particular and CA in general has been ground zero for some of the worst ideas about how government and economies should work and deserves a whole lot of blame for everything from trade deregulation in the 90s to the 2008 crash.

I suppose it's probably a good thing your feelings aren't tied into global economic health, then.

I admit to not having a very nuanced view of the situation since I'm not much of a news hound. I didn't even know this was happening until this morning. What I do know is that the battle lines have been drawn: on one side is global capitalism (globalism), on the other is national sovereignty (nationalism). Since I don't want the western world to become one giant borderless Wal-Mart, I always come down on the side of nationalism.

You know, if you're not going to put a lot of effort into looking things up, it's not super-necessary that you have an opinion on anything, Void. You can just have feelings. That's fine, too. There are lots of things I don't know enough about to have real opinions about. I'm man enough to admit it, though.

With the reasoning you displayed there, you're whatever fleas you wake up with.

Yeah but you can just make things easy by putting a complex sociopolitical phenomenon into a simplistic binary.

Fuck all those little non-whites toiling away in far off lands with no security or wealth to speak of who built our civilization... as long as we already got ours. If they wanted a good life, they should have prevented us from exploiting them in the first place, amirite?

It's the globalists who facilitate trade policies that allow corporations to ruthlessly exploit foreign labor. If you're pro-foreign worker, you should be anti-globalism.

Well, there's a long history of the various groups on the mainland not getting along as well.

An an American Global Overseer, I don't know what to do with the English. Do we now have to care about Normans and Saxons? Is Wessex going to secede? I miss Britain already, English people are confusing.

That seems to be the biggest political fallout for the US, less influence in Europe because we were going through England. But if this causes a domino effect that brings down the EU, then it's moot.

I say we extend statehood to England for the historical irony, and then pick up Australia and South Africa, all, "colonial empire, bitches! WOOO!" Then when you watch a timelapse of geographic boundaries throughout history, right around 1700 it can stay static for brevity.

There's a lot of truth to this.
Right now, I'm happy that the Britons decided to make Great Britain great again.

The old "economic anxiety" defense

Absolutely. The EU has been a nightmare to deal with and it's high time someone told them to jog on.

What bullshit exactly?
I mean, I don't like the austerity measures that the EU inflicted on Italy, Greece and Spain, but overall it's been a pretty great 40 years.

The EU isn't just a bank and some currency. Aside from it's enormous symbolic value, it represents decades of treaties, regulations, and a progressive view of government's role in society, from immigration to gay rights and climate change. Nothing good is going to happen, except now immigrants can feel more terrified and alienated. It's a win for everybody.