Brexit fallout makes me want to escape

kentonline editor

Freedom of speech is clearly a wonderful thing. But over the last few days I’ve rather fancied a holiday in North Korea to escape the bitter fallout from the surprise Brexit vote in the EU referendum. As is so often the case, if it’s ill-informed debate, crass generalisations, epic selfrighteousness and general poison you’re after, then head straight over to social media.

In the words of the tabloids, people are ‘taking to Twitter’ and ‘posting Facebook rants’ in their droves. Those who didn’t have a strong opinion on Britain’s EU membership one way or the other before the vote are suddenly transformed into rabid digital incarnations of either Jean-Claude Juncker or Nigel Farage, depending which side of the argument they’ve decided to take retrospectively.

Of course, people love to have something to be upset and angry about and to turn such events into their own personal dramas. And so a previous antipathy towards the EU suddenly manifests itself in a series of incoherent, rambling messages that others can cosily ‘like’, safe in the knowledge their world view has been confirmed in the morally pure echo chamber of social media.

The people who changed their Facebook profile pictures every time there was a celebrity death this year (the Ace of Spades for Lemmy, a symbol for Prince, etc) will no doubt keep the mournful EU flag image until something else comes along to make them sad or irate. It must be draining to be so consistently distraught.

The crowing Brexiteers are no better, many having seemingly mistaken a vote to leave the EU as a suspension of race relations laws and common decency in general.

Strange, then, that most people you meet faceto-face seem to be perfectly level-headed, still having no more idea of the full implications of Brexit than they did before the referendum.

For the forseeable future, the next flight to Pyongyang looks very tempting.