Brexit is falling to pieces by the day. Whether it’s queues at the border (increased red tape), sewage in the harbour (de-regulation vs chemical production), a weaker pound meaning oil/food/products are more expensive *OR* Britain having secured the second-slowest growth in the G7 after Russia. The output is clear - those sunlit uplands are more than a couple of cancelled BA flights from here. Where does this leave those who nailed their colours to its mast so fervently? Checking in on them now would sit somewhere between shame and schadenfreude. The flags, the hostilities outside Parliament, the tattoos. The schadenfreude comes in for obvious reasons. It’s hard to feel sympathy sometimes. People that called you “a stupid fucking traitor!!!11!!1” and diverted every Brexit-appraising tweet down the “Why Do You Hate BrItAiN!?!” cul-de-sac don't often feel like they're worth trading empathy with. Perhaps you reasoned with me back in those days... “We need to understand these people, Aid” *glances back at Twitter* “YOU FUCKING TRAITOR BIG-EARED GOOFY CUNT LIBTARD!” *looks back at you* “'Understand' them? Well, we’d better get started cuz there’s a lot of depth to get through” So, schadenfreude-wise, consider it very much "priced-in" #teamPetty. And then there's the shame because… well, it’s more proxy-shame, isn’t it? Shame on their behalf of going all-in on something so obviously flawed, against all recommendations or reason. It's shame, but... a kind of outsourced embarrassment for people who seldom self-reflect. For them, for those guys, there’s a need to step in. Like, Jesus, just be a friend, yeh? Help 'em out. If THEY can’t feel embarrassed that they told half of Facebook they were a “Brexiteer ‘til I die, REMOANERS SHOULD GET JAILED FOR TREASON” only to see the shit collapse before realising ANY benefits - well we can step up: *cringes so hard, shatters molars* Glad I could help. As a species, we collectively cringe when someone puts all their stock in something clearly so undeserving, be it Bitcoin, Michael Jackson, Donald Trump, a pyramid scheme or some new chancer they hooked up with at bingo night; “Tina, are you SURE you want to sell the house and start a joint account with this guy? You’ve only known him nine days and he seems to spend all of his time (and your internet bandwidth) looking up Life Insurances policies for you” Then, after days and weeks of “you’re just jealous!” and “are you calling me stupid?”, finally it unravels and we're stood there, like “this is so awkward, I feel embarrassed *FOR YOU*” Proxy shame. Not all shit investments collapse, of course. Not all cults fail. It's really a testament to the power of Sunk Cost Bias how far people will go to continue supporting things rather than admit their reality. Put simply, it's easier to keep supporting Brexit, no matter how many knots you tie yourself in, no matter how far down you scrape in the morality barrel - than admit its myriad failures. Because conceding you were wrong about something requires a hit to the ego many are unwilling to take, whether that's due to their own character limitations ("I can never be wrong about anything") or the 1,000s of re-tweets they get from questionable accounts reassuring them "Brexit's amazing, it's just Remoaners! They think you're stupid!". Mark Twain put it more succinctly: "it is easier to fool people than convince them that they have been fooled". In the Netflix documentary Bad Vegan, Sarma Melngailis - who was coerced, nay brainwashed, into giving her then-partner hundreds of thousands of dollars (of other peoples money) in exchange for immortality - describes similar mechanisms at play. In one episode, she says it just became easier to keep writing the cheques, doubling down, again and again, than to admit the obvious truth: that the whole thing was a sham. Because... then what? Then you're admitting it's all bullshit and you're just the victim of a con artist. It's simply easierto perpetuate the denial and the fantasy. Clearly some Brexiters and some Vegans have more in common than they'd imagine. And these are no isolated, random examples. The Republican Party in the U.S. are another culty entity who are very much thriving. It is now almost indistinguishable from a fucking Donald Trump fan club. Moderates are ostracised. Scrutiny of Trump, whether it's of his personal business affairs, the attempted coup or the (unproven) idea he is/was always a Russian asset, is akin to some sort of surrender to communism. "Dear Sir, here are my concerns with the practicalities of a border wall." "WHY DON'T YOU FUCK OFF TO CHINA THEN" The NRA have convinced millions of Americans that anyone should be able to own a gun. Anyone. You've got bi-polar? Your drink four bottles of vodka a day and you're having a gloomy Monday? *FINE*. The American comedian Tim Dillon put it best when he said the U.S. is so radicalised that you could literally bring dead school children back to life and they'd still be pro gun. But back to Brexit. How do you sunset Brexit radicalisation? How do we gently manoeuvre these people out of their cult, so it can begin to die a death? And then we can look back on this whole ugly period as a mere unfortunate decade of national insanity, like Prohibition in the U.S. or Britpop here. Different people exit cults in different ways. I remember in Louis Theroux's documentary (among others) that at one point a couple of Scientologists had started suggesting, internally, that the stories of L. Ron Hubbard should be considered more as parables to live by - rather than as any gospel of sacred truth. And those people were excommunicated from the church. You have to wonder if Tories like Tobias Ellwood will suffer a similar fate for deigning to suggest we re-enter the Single Market. Others ride the cult right up to the top of the hill and - when there - are forced to ask themselves if they truly believe that the Kool-Aid is about to take them to paradise. Some will NOT believe it, but drink it anyway because by that point they're in too deep and the prospect of life outside of this fantasy is too much to bear. Others absolutely believe, despite all evidence to the contrary - and chug chug chug... For others the cult was always little more than an addiction. Stepping back from it requires filling the gap, the time, the circle of friends with something else. That's why ex-crack addicts can sometimes be found guzzling coffee and obsessing over a new hobby, perhaps rock-climbing or open mic comedy. Alcoholics may find their life filled, instead, by a young family which, ironically, will drive others to drink. On that basis, what do we switch out Brexit for? Running? Smoothies? Surfing? No. The answer to that question is, shamelessly, my Patreon / Cult. First 10 members will get invited to a piss-up in London. I may even give a sermon.
