
“Tomorrow belongs to me” - bostik
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/06/tomorrow-belongs-to-me.html
======
poof131
_“Okay, so the idiots did it; they broke the UK.”_

When this is your attitude toward your fellow countrymen and women of course
it’s broken. A majority voted for something and they are “idiots”. Democracy
is ugly, especially when the majority votes against what you think is best.

Dismissing the rise of populism as “idiots” is about as smug and idiotic as it
gets. Populism isn’t rising because people don’t know what’s good for them,
but because people don’t think the current structure of the system is good for
them. If you’re doing well in the current system, of course it seems stupid to
vote against it. If you aren’t doing well, then any brick to throw at the
glass house looks good.

Populism and extreme nationalism is best kept at bay by a system that works
for the majority of people, creating a strong “middle class”. That way fewer
brick throwers exist. But lecturing people about “what’s best” for them or
trotting out abstract economic figures and theories won’t do it, only forward
economic progress will, where people believe the system works and they can
move forward and not slide backwards. Most governments have tried to paste
over issues with rhetoric, theories, and easy, central-bank money, all of
which are only exacerbating the problems, not fixing them.

~~~
MrZongle2
Charlie must have some like-minded friends on HN, judging by your downvotes.

I wonder if they even bothered to read your entire post and think about its
content, or if they simply read the beginning, considered you an "idiot", and
downvoted.

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
Idiots Goose stepping, hate filled morons Racist Demented Odious crypto-
fascist

These are just some the words used to describe people the author disagrees
with. In addition, I find that the implication of the author that the people
over 60 voted for Brexit due to dementia very offensive. Silicon Valley and
the tech sector in general already have a poor track record on ageism and this
type of stereotyping would not be tolerated for any other disenfranchised
group.

~~~
sangnoir
> Silicon Valley and the tech sector in general already have a poor track
> record on ageism and this type of stereotyping would not be tolerated for
> any other disenfranchised group

The author (Charlie Stross[1]) is not in the valley, and his tenuous link with
the tech sector is as a Sci Fi author and ex-programmer (90's web payments).
He is also Scottish _in Scotland_ ; I'll take his word about the UK/Brexit
over yours.

1\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=cstross](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=cstross)

------
EwanG
In case there's anyone out there who doesn't get the context that Charlie is
alluding to:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co)

------
T-A
JK Rowling beat him to it:
[https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/746203541929234433](https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/746203541929234433)

------
ovt
I like how he touches concisely on what brought this all about, what caused it
to go as it did, and assorted effects it will have.

I mean, as opposed to when we get links to articles from the atlantic or the
new yorker where we fairly consistently have to wade through endless verbiage
to get anything.

------
MrZongle2
I love how this starts: "Okay, so the idiots did it; they broke the UK."

Because that's how you promote understanding: by calling people with opposing
views "idiots". And it goes downhill from there.

What hysterical tripe.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Would you like to take the high road and address the points he makes, instead
of answering like with like?

~~~
MrZongle2
I'll address the only point that needs to be addressed, which was his absurd
claim from the start.

 _Not everyone who voted for Brexit is an idiot._ Full stop. Any argument
built upon the opposite assumption is flawed, emotional garbage.

~~~
MrZongle2
...and two days later, I still stand by my statement.

