a moment of clarity.

words.

"...The monster is up and walking, and it’s showing no desire at all to lay back down on the table for further tinkering. It’s up to Johnson and Nigel Farage to deal with the mess they’ve created, and their ability to do so is questionable, to say the very least — history has shown that when demagogues do manage to take power, they generally have no fucking idea what they are doing.

Of course, the Tories know this as well as anyone, which makes David Cameron’s decision to stake the future of his country for short-term political gain even more cynical and ill-conceived. And, indeed, ill-conceived is the word here, because the result of the referendum also demonstrates another depressing modern trend, one that’s manifested over the last 50 years everywhere from the hills of Afghanistan to the halls of Washington: a monster that the right has created has come back to bite it in the ass.

...It’ll be interesting to see what happens now that that particular strawman has been so comprehensively immolated. Perhaps the people of Britain will come to realize that their problem isn’t one of sovereignty and racial purity; it’s one of economics. The Brexit campaign has played on the fears of the disenfranchised working class, fears that are driven by declining employment, stagnant wages, and all the other first-world hallmarks of post-industrial, post-globalization decline. These problems are very real, but they’re not the fault of immigrants; they’re the creation of capitalism.

...Sadly, Britain just voted to be the example that the rest of the world needs: an example of why listening to the populist, anti-immigrant sentiment of the far right is a terrible idea, both morally AND pragmatically. Hopefully it’s an example that the USA will heed, because the fears that drove the Brexit are the same that are driving the supporters of Donald Trump in the USA; on both sides of the Atlantic, bad-haired buffoons who’ve enjoyed huge personal benefits from their membership of the 1% are exploiting the fears of the 99% for personal political capital. In the UK, the results have already been disastrous. Here in the USA, we still have a chance to pull back from the brink."

FLAVORWIRE: The Bitter Lesson of Brexit: Don’t Listen to Demagogues With Silly Hair