Unfortunately the world often does the fucking around part for you, and you're stuck finding out with them.
Sincerely a Remainer being forced to find out on Brexit.
Boy, what a reversal we have now. Around when Brexit finally happened, the US kicked Trump out of office. It felt like we were going in the right direction and the UK wasn't. Now the UK has put Labour back in power while we're going all-in on fascism. Fuck. We should have just stuck with the monarchy.
Don't worry - I'm sure in a few years time when our next election comes up, our population will have forgotten about the previous decade of getting fucked by the Tories, and immediately put them, Reform-UK, or some other alt-right party into power for round 2 just like you guys
My only British friend is apolitical (and a bit of a dumbass, if I'm being honest). What's brexit like for your average Brit? I can't imagine having the right to just move (almost) anywhere in Europe and getting that ripped away from me, but I'll admit, I don't really know any of the other repercussions of leaving the EU.
It totally ruined a lot of people's lives. They had plans to go work somewhere in Europe maybe even live there. Now they can't do that.
The whole point of the European Union was it was supposed to be a bit like the United States without having to actually form a single nation. All of the countries would effectively act like States in one nation - they even setup Interpol to act like state troopers. Imagine if you suddenly couldn't move between states. Utterly stupid outcome, and 100% predicted.
Just like any government the EU council did do some brain dead things, but that wasn't a good reason to leave.
To borrow @goatbeard@lemm.ee words, an economic disaster.
The price of basically everything skyrocketed overnight, even basic essentials, which pushed swathes of people below the poverty line, and even today is putting increasing pressure in foodbanks.
The effects of the Tories' complete mismanagement of Brexit, the Covid19 pandemic, and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine only served to compound the damage.
This cumulative Brexit damage and mismanagement is what finally got the Tories kicked out (which they should've been years ago if you ask me) - and while the economic effects have slowed down somewhat recently, prices are still going up substantially, and I think we're gonna be feeling it a while longer.
It annoys me to no end that we knew this would happen, economists literally predicted this economic shitshow during the referendum and +50% of our population decided to just put their fingers in the ears and shout racist rhetoric instead.
I learned early on as a child that you might as well participate in the fucking around because you're just gonna get lumped in with the rest of them when the finding out happens.
If Nato fails and Russia attacks, I'm not going to fight. All those xenophobic extremists nationalists in my country that fell for the Russian propaganda can clean up their own mess they caused.
That already happened back in 2022 (arguably all the way back to '08). NATO didn't do shit because it's just the US military wearing a dozen different European baseball caps. And after the US finished scrubbing out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, it didn't have the logistics to launch another Asiatic land war (while keeping China at gunpoint in the Pacific and Iran in check in the Middle East).
American slippage is already apparent across Latin America, Africa, and the South Pacific. Things are only going to get worse for DC going forward.
You would have to be suicidal to stick your neck into that mess, at this stage of the game.
Opt out of as much of their levers of power as you can. Deny them your eyes and your money. Use your eyes to look around you and see where you can push counter propaganda in your local community. Use your money to help the people you are in community with. The christo-fascists use money to "help" the homeless with soup kitchens that force people to renounce what they know to be true before being served. Mutual aid is not just about harm reduction, it's about freeing minds. Serving someone food is an act of liberation. It's an act of a true and powerful love that's been written about by theorists and philosophers for millennia. It's even at the core of who Jesus was at his core, it's just the christo-fascists misinterpret which group of people in revelations they are
So I like where you're going with this, and it's the kind of thing that's been bubbling in my brain for a bit now, but question: I've been to a few soup kitchens in different areas of my own country. Never once have I witnessed or heard of anyone having to renounce anything to get served. You show up, you get fed - there's Jesus freaks in the wings who may use the opportunity to try and convert you, sure, but if you walk away from them it doesn't mean they take your plate.
Do you have any specific examples you can point to where this isn't the case? If nothing else, helps name and shame.
look for elca run soup kitchens, as well as anything run by a local community action center. avoid the salvation army and anything run by any church you already know to be trouble. if you do go, spread counter propaganda to their misinterpretations of the bible: come prepared
Your collective choice as a country is to currently fuck around for four years. You are committed to that. It's not like there's an option like insurrection or