Thread by @PascalLTH

From the bottom of the barrel on social media to the office of Prime Minister, there is a demand for us to 'believe in Britain' - but what does this even mean? /1

europeantomorrow.blogspot.com/2019/08/believ…

In its simplest form it is an instruction to disregard any inconvenient truth that could suggest Brexiteers are wrong. Because this is really where we are being asked to place our faith, not in the country but in a political ideology /2

This desire for unbounded faith is deeply flawed. The country does exist in the real world and does face constraints. To pretend otherwise is simple delusion /3

However, this should not be a controversial assessment and agreeing that a limit on belief should exist in order to avoid delusion, a constructive self-doubt, should be possible /4

Even if Britain is strong, it is only through this kind of rational, critical analysis that we can assess why this is so. It certainly is not, and has never been, a question of self-belief. To think it is risks throwing away the very things that make our strength /5

So we can draw three main points:
- there is a limit to healthy self-belief
- people can legitimately argue it is lower without being less patriotic
- where we set that threshold actually matters
/6

The government however is disregarding all of that and is instead declaring that those without sufficient belief are anti-British. It is a tool to delegitimise political opponents /7

But internationally, will this excess of confidence win us more respect? Hardly. If our confidence matches our power then we would be seen as arrogant. If our confidence exceeds our power then we would be seen as embarrassing ourselves /8

Ultimately the fact Brexiteers are relying on this divisive and empty rhetorical device only highlights how weak their arguments are and their inability to muster actual evidence in support of their ideas. Their demand that others believe in them is a statement of weakness /end