
To Understand 'Brexit,' Look to Britain’s Tabloids - open-source-ux
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/world/europe/london-tabloids-brexit.html
======
NTDF9
There is a major design flaw in democracy.

Democracy works on majority votes which is a form of consensus.

\- If the majority believe that money is important, then they'll vote to
reflect that

\- If the majority believe that God exists and rules on us, then they'll vote
to reflect that

\- If the majority believe that paparazzi are smart, then they'll vote to
reflect that

\- If the majority believe that the leaders have their best interests at
heart, then they'll vote to reflect that

\- If the majority believe that Trump is smarter than Obama, then they'll vote
to reflect that

\- If the majority believe that science and climate change are phony, then
they'll vote to reflect that

The only and only way to mitigate the effect of this bug is to have a well-
educated set of majority voters. Unfortunately, for far too many years,
school-districting and "choice" of education to young kids has under-educated
the masses...resulting in voters genuinely believing crap to be true.

The result is Brexit and Trump.

When the critical mass of our populace prefers news from tabloids and facebook
and are unable to think for themselves, there's really not much democracy can
do.

~~~
candiodari
And if the left actually pushes the idea that free trade, global free movement
of labor, financialization and asset inflation are good ?

Brexit is the first real anti-globalization decision made in decades. You'd
think the left would be beside themselves with joy that finally, after all the
shouting, demonstrations, activism, ... finally ONE correct decision was made.
Finally.

If large amounts of the left are convinced this decision is wrong. Does that
count as stupid as well ? The result of fake news ?

Newsflash: globalization, and the very existence of the EU, works against
everyone but capital owners. It works against the working class, it works
against the middle class, even against most of the upper class.

~~~
flukus
When did the left become pro-globalization? I didn't realize it happened until
brexit/trump, was it a reaction to this or did it happen earlier?

All those young people protesting Trump and other similar issues, if they were
born 15 years earlier they would have been at the battle of Seattle and Trump
would be seen as the messiah.

~~~
mercer
I think in part the word 'globalization' has become too vague.

As far as I know, but correct me if I'm wrong, the left has always been pro-
globalization, just in a different way ('workers of the world, unite!'?). When
it comes to the EU, most (reasonable) left-wing people I know are 'pro', but
with very mixed feelings.

But then I feel that a deeper issue is that the words 'left' and 'right' leave
out so much information (these days) that they actively harm productive
conversation. At the very least we disentangle the 'social' and 'economic'
dimensions.

If we'd do that I think at least some of the confusion over the seemingly
inconsistent attitudes towards globalization will make more sense.

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tetraodonpuffer
even if you don't buy the tabloids, wouldn't seeing the headlines over and
over in all newsstands while you are walking around still influence you more
or less subliminally? And obviously since the point of a headline is to get
you to buy the paper, the incentive is to make it as purchase-baity and truth-
stretching as possible

Seems that for the press there can be influence even without an actual sale.

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lomnakkus
I wonder what demographic buys the most tabloids, because AFAIUI the Brexit
support was skewed hugely towards rural (and non-Scottish/NI) areas.

(I might have missed it in my _extremely_ quick skim, but I don't think the
article actually touched on this... which is suprising. I mean, it did mention
something about "outside London", but...?)

~~~
cstross
Note that the tabloids have different Scottish editions with radically
different editorial policies; the Scottish Sun and the Scottish Daily Mail,
while visibly close siblings of their English sister-papers, often cover
headline topics (and editorialize) in diametrically opposite directions on key
issues (such as Europe, England/Scotland relations, etc).

I can quite understand this distinction eluding a NYTimes reporter, though —
it's not widely recognized even in England.

~~~
rmc
The same thing happens in Ireland with those newspapers.

For example, when Martin McGuinness died a few weeks ago, the newspapers had
radically different front pages: [http://www.thepoke.co.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2017/03/C7gsyt4X...](http://www.thepoke.co.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2017/03/C7gsyt4XQAA-efu.jpg)

[https://1k95i3bqziq3bboq03r87f8x-wpengine.netdna-
ssl.com/wp-...](https://1k95i3bqziq3bboq03r87f8x-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/03/sunmail-960x718.jpg)

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chmaynard
Wonderful article, entertaining and well-written. I wish the NYT would publish
more stories like this.

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xmj
To understand Trump, look at the NYT.

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Safety1stClyde
> Mr. Johnson, wild-haired and witty

Boris has never struck me as witty.

