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One of the failings of cosmopolitanism is the 'bleeding-heart liberal' assumption that everyone who voted Brexit did so out of some deep economic suffering and dislocation.
Can someone explain to me how the English thugs who took it upon themselves to smash up Marseille whilst chanting 'Fuck of Europe, we're all voting out' paid for their flights, match tickets, accommodation, skinful of lager and Stone Island clobber?
I'm just putting it out there that maybe most of the people who voted Brexit don't really have it that tough - they did it for reasons of cultural nationalism. We 'liberal metropolitan elite' are all desperate to avoid that conclusion though.
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I don't think we're that desperate. However, the economic suffering and dislocation is a far easier and more palatable to deal with than cultural nationalism. If we go out and lift people up to a better standard of living then we get to play out an internal version of the white saviour trope. If we go out and try to tackle ignorance, ingrained racism and bigotry then we're just getting into a knife fight in a phone box.
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Can someone explain to me how the English thugs who took it upon themselves to smash up Marseille whilst chanting 'Fuck of Europe, we're all voting out' paid for their flights, match tickets, accommodation, skinful of lager and Stone Island clobber?
This is bad thinking.
The poor waste their money on useless things, be it Stone Island clothing, or Timberland boots, or 50" flat screen TVs.
They waste their money (and opportunities) because they live without hope of ever experiencing a different set of circumstances. They earn enough to get through a month and have a little pocket money, but not enough to think of the future, a pension, a house, the large ticket items. As their small disposable income barely sustains a decent present they seek consolation in what it can buy... and through widely available consumer credit a lot appears affordable when it is not, they can get the flat screen, the trip to a foreign football match, the booze... and pay it off over a long period of time.
It is precisely because they have no future, no hope, no decent income, that they can piss away what little they have on ostentatious but ultimately pointless things.
The_Seldom_Killer
Velocio
It's not really my field, but the philosophy of cosmopolitanism is worth reflecting on in this discussion.
(although I consider myself a philosophical cosmopolitan).