Once again, I find myself interrupting my (admittedly) sketchy attempt at autobiography to write about tragedy and stupidity. Britain has voted to leave the European Union.
This is perhaps the stupidest thing Britain has done since Neville Chamberlain came home with that infamous non-aggression "piece of paper" from Herr Hitler.
It leaves me depressed for the future of my own country. If Britain, a nation I have always admired for a variety of reasons ranging from pop culture to high art, can behave with such ignorance, then anything is possible, even the stringing together of the words "President" and "Trump." This is the same kind of isolationist idiocy that has some people in my country clamoring for a giant wall to keep immigrants out, to close borders to an entire faith, and to turn our backs on those poor bastards who are simply fleeing horror and turmoil in search of a better life for their children.
It is a knee-jerk reaction to troubled times and it will bring nothing but trouble. My understanding is that weather (of all things) may have been a factor: the weather across Britain was bad and so only the more passionate, those who wanted to leave, bothered to show up at the polls. And with what result? The British pound is already at a 31-year low as of this writing, and the results were only finalized a few hours ago. It is all part of this same idiotic movement to "take our country back" when in fact there was nothing wrong with the country in the first place. It is, in short, STUPID. As stupid as electing a racist, misogynist, jingoist blowhard with bad hair will be if America follows suit in November. I hope that, if nothing else, we take the British vote as an object lesson in the importance of showing up to vote.
We shall see.
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