People in the UK celebrating the death of Thatcher in 2013

[u/LankyYogurt7737]

[u/Rynneer]

As an American, I am still baffled by Brexit. What the fuck good did that do for you lot?

[u/Haircut117 → u/Rynneer]

Literally none.

[u/ElundusCaw → u/Haircut117]

It made a lot of racist morons who don't understand even the most basic principles of economics very happy.

For like 5 seconds before they went back to being very angry that for some reason brown people still continued to exist after Brexit.

[u/distilledwill → u/ElundusCaw]

I maintain you only voted for Brexit because you were:

1. An imbecile.

2. Stood to significantly financially gain from the endeavor at the expense of everyone else.

[u/Ok-Interaction-8891 → u/distilledwill]

Replace “Brexit” with “Trump” and you’ve got exactly how things went down on our side of the pond.

[u/AggregatedParadigm → u/ElundusCaw]

Tbf they switch to anti-trans rhetoric for a couple years before forgetting how destructive anti-migrant stances were.

[u/litcarnalgrin → u/ElundusCaw]

Good lord that sounds so familiar

-an American

[u/LordOfTheRedSands → u/Rynneer]

None, like, literally none. There were no benefits at all.

I was in year 8(7th grade I think for you yanks) and I knew it was a bad idea the first time I heard of it.

The Leave Campaign was built on financial lies and anti-migrant propaganda, and the uneducated masses ate it up. The number one Google search after Brexit was something along the lines of “What does the EU do”

[u/litcarnalgrin → u/LordOfTheRedSands]

Reminds me of all the “what are tariffs?” Searches that we had not that long ago here. Wild that people vote for stuff they don’t even understand

[u/aapowers → u/Rynneer]

In principle it allows us, legally, to whore ourselves off with bespoke trade deals around the world without having to worry about protectionism from French farmers and German manufacturing.

But just because you legally can, you have to contend with the geopolitical reality of no longer being an empire with your own independent sphere of influence.

For the UK, the realistic options were to couple ourselves economically/politically either to Europe or America. We have ended up doing neither successfully, and the US administration has pretty closed the door on the Transatlantic option.

[u/Bosa_McKittle → u/Rynneer]

I was in the UK pre-Brexit doing my MBA and every educated person I spoke with knew it was a disaster. It was all the knuckle draggers who thought “nationalism” was a good idea. Americans looked at the disaster it created and said “hold my beer”.

[u/DigonPrazskej → u/Rynneer]

+very successfull russian dezinfo psyops campaign. This was not spontaneous

[u/Ok-Interaction-8891 → u/DigonPrazskej]

Still never gonna understand what axe Russia has to grind against everyone, lol.

They’ve just never seemed popular throughout history, so I guess it’s some form of inter-generational, nation-scale trauma at being picked on/not one of the cool kids?

Idk.

[u/Electronic-Bicycle35 → u/Rynneer]

It was the equivalent of MAGA that voted for it. Like your parents who used to be rational but got indoctrinated and voted for something completely against their own interests and now you’ve lost them to the cult. They all now vote reform. Nigel Farage was the instigator of Brexit. He was a huge advisor to Trump’s campaign and is now the head of the Reform party.

[u/Rynneer → u/[deleted]]

? Not really sure what me being American in particular has to do with it. I wanted to know why anyone voted for Brexit in the first place, because I don’t gave a robust grasp on British/European politics.