Thread by @sturdyAlex

THREAD: Repeating “remainist” 95 times does not a cogent argument for “radicalism” make. Reason @DanielHCohen struggles to explain why support for stopping Brexit has grown, is that he isolates it from the increasing overreach of Brexiters towards a Disorderly No-Deal Brexit.

If you want to explain the increasing polarisation of the Brexit debate, it’s quite an oversight to ignore how hard-core Leavers shifted goalposts despite all evidence in 2016 showing most voters, including Leave voters, expected a 52-48 split would lead to a Norway-type outcome.

It’s that gross overreach, the rounding up 17m to 100% and rounding down 16m to 0%, the silencing of any dissent as unpatriotic or treasonous, as we stumble to a no-deal outcome that was unthinkable in 2016, that fuels “remainism”. That’s what made Brexit an existential battle.

It’s also indicative how the piece simply ignores the 5m EU27 people in the UK and Brits living in the EU27, like me, for whom this battle was always existential, in a real sense. The idea that objecting to all our citizenship rights being annihilated overnight is “radicalism”.

Instead, @DanielHCohen glosses over all that and writes a 2,000-word “thinkpiece” about how “remainists” have basically gone totally nuts with, apparently, no provocation whatsoever.

You can dress it as journalism, but it’s basically gaslighting at a national level. END THREAD