Brexit, fear, and ignorance

The Brexit vote - The UK leaving the EU - has got me thinking. I think it’s pretty clear that what pushed the ‘leave’ party over the edge and got them their 4% majority of the vote was fear mongering of strangers. Immigrants. Satiating the compulsive need to have something to blame for what is scary in the world. Terrorism and collapsing economy, both being blamed on humans simply born elsewhere. If half the UK population wouldn’t have allowed themselves to surrender to racism, Brexit wouldn’t have happened, bottom line. So, my thoughts are on fear and ignorance.

If you’re racist, you’re obviously ignorant. However, some qualms with immigrants could actually be legitimate. To me, I’d still say get the fuck over it - these people looking for jobs are trying to survive and do well in life, same as you. We’re all citizens of the world - but I could see how some people might possibly not be racist while still being against immigration.

I’ve said this before, but I’ve read a few different articles pointing to the fact that people with low intelligence tend to like rules and structure. They like things that paint in black and white, give simple solutions, prevent the need for as much critical thinking as they can get away with. This is the theorized reason as to why there are so so many currently practiced religions in the world. Even if you believe in a religion you still must concede that far more than 99% of established religions are nothing but fantasy, not to mention the likely thousands of dead religions that have been lost to time. Religion offers structure. They tell you what to do and what not to do - no thinking required. No question of ethics required. No guilt required. Some people feel better sitting through the guided tour of life, like a monorail through the forest, rather than walking the forest floor themselves.

I can’t say that all people who are against immigration are ignorant, desperately seeking only black and white in a chromatic Van Gogh painting of a rainbow on gay pride day while high on LSD, but I’d find it hard to believe that most aren’t. It’s been the go-to scapegoat for a large majority of diversified nation’s demagogues in the past, and it feels like that trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

I wish people would just think. Get to know their own minds. Why do you believe what you do? Are your beliefs justified? What evidence do you have to support those opinions, and what evidence of validity have you for that evidence? I haven’t lied to myself since I was about 13 or 14 because I realized it was embarrassingly futile. I can’t help but feel most of these people, in the UK and here at home, must know deep (deep) down what their reasons for their misguided hatred is: Simple human fear - nothing to be embarrassed of. They just seem to have brick and mortared over that underground tunnel where they crammed it all within their minds too well. It’s like how Smeagol convinced himself over the course of 500 years that Deagol actually gifted him the ring as a birthday present, and most of the time he can even “believe” that. Yet, he can’t hide the truth from Gollum.

Humans are Smeagol/Gollum avoiding the buried fear tunnel of responsibility, thought, and empathy, attempting to see only black and white within the most vibrant of colors from Van Gogh's drug coma.

It doesn’t roll off the tongue very well but I think I hit the nail on the head with that there picture I just painted for you.

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1/14/17 (As I am posting this to the site)

As you can see from the date, I wrote this well before Trump got elected. The writing is especially relevant now. His entire campaign was focused on making everything black and white - blaming immigrants and Muslims and then simply claiming he'll deport them all, build a wall, and block Muslims from entering the U.S.. Since many of his followers have only the mental capacity to understand black and white, they ate that shit up. England was the embarrassment of the world and only a few short months later, America has already outdone them.

#brexit #trump #immigration #racism #blackandwhite