Here's why Brexiters and Tory party members overwhelmingly back no deal: it's the last refuge, the last wilderness of the unicorn.
It's the only place where Brexit hasn't yet been exposed to the oxygen of reality. It's the Brexiter safe space where their claims remain untested.
It's the only place where Brexit hasn't yet been exposed to the oxygen of reality. It's the Brexiter safe space where their claims remain untested.
Karl Popper argued that a claim was not scientific if it could not be falsified. Since no deal refers to the future, brexists cling on to the notion that since the future is unknowable, their unicorns graze there in bounteous "sunlit uplands".
In order to maintain this delusion, they must deny all expert testimony, all warnings, 99% of economists and 100% of credible economists. No dealers both believe that no deal is benign but also that suffering is "good"....
Suffering is noble. Suffering is British. Suffering is what won us the war. That the true British: the natives, are brave masochists. Not like those yellow bellied foreigners.
This from a country which called emergency services when KFC ran out of chicken, which called the police when a snowman was knocked over.
How can people believe so many contradictory and invalid things at once?
One theory is cognitive dissonance:
One theory is cognitive dissonance:
"The creation and establishment of psychological consistency allows the person afflicted with cognitive dissonance to lessen his or her mental stress by actions that reduce the magnitude of the dissonance, realised either by changing with or by justifying against,...
"..or by being indifferent to the existential contradiction that is inducing the mental stress."
No deal is the only option left for leavers in order to minimise mental stress and the magnitude of the dissonance.
No deal is the only option left for leavers in order to minimise mental stress and the magnitude of the dissonance.
It is the final place left where Brexit might turn out to be a good idea. Even though it's clear to the rest of us that it's obviously the most disastrous outcome.
Checkers, the negotiation, the meaningful vote, the consistent position of the EU are all effectively Interventions aimed at deprogramming leave cultists. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprogram…
There are 5 stages to deprogramming:
1. Discredit the figure of authority: the cult leader
2. Present contradictions (ideology versus reality): "How can he preach love when he exploits people?" is an example.
1. Discredit the figure of authority: the cult leader
2. Present contradictions (ideology versus reality): "How can he preach love when he exploits people?" is an example.
"...3. The breaking point: When a subject begins to listen to the deprogrammer; when reality begins to take precedence over ideology.
4. Self-expression: When the subject begins to open up and voice gripes against the cult...."
4. Self-expression: When the subject begins to open up and voice gripes against the cult...."
"5. Identification and transference: when the subject begins to identify with the deprogrammers, starts to think as an opponent of the cult rather than as a member."
Some leavers have made progress: the remainer now movement is full of people who have often deprogrammed themselves. But the hard core of leavers as exemplified in Tory membership poll reflects the power of cognitive dissonance:
it is cognitively far easier to believe the fantasy than confront the idea that a huge mistake has been made.
Remainers have (I think) successfully discredited leave leaders(Farage, Mogg, Davis, Gove,Johnson, Hannan etc.), and they have successfully "presented contradictions between claims vs reality", and yougov polls at 35:45 in favour of remain suggest some progress on the next stages
but the government is now freestyling. It doesn't have to worry about polling, or whether Brexit is no longer the will of the people, or whether it's more unpopular than the poll tax, or whether it will destroy the Tory party forever (it won't)
the country is now at the mercy of an administration completely divorced from reality, relying on the support of delusional extremists, whilst simultaneously expecting these fantasists to be frightened of an outcome they welcome.
Happy New Year. (ends)
P.s. Nick Cohen picks up the sado masochism theme here. I'm not sure if the majority of Tory voters can avoid adverse economic impacts from Brexit though. How many have the skills and luck to dodge the currency and asset price impacts? theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
