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Couldn't agree more on the bullying aspect. That's what I love about Trump / Brexit, it's nice to see the little guy throw a punch or two. It's also once of the

by fleitz 10y ago

Couldn't agree more on the bullying aspect. That's what I love about Trump / Brexit, it's nice to see the little guy throw a punch or two. It's also once of the best BATNAs to enter any negotiation with. Destroying the EU was such a better play than 'free college' or '$15/hr min wage', screw the table scraps go for the jugular, show them you aren't fucking around.

kiba 10y ago
Cutting off the nose to spite the face comes to mind.
- fleitz 10y ago
  For sure, it's the tenacity that I love about it. If you're willing to reset to zero it's a lot more daunting for those with something to lose.
VLM 10y ago
> it's nice to see the little guy throw a punch or two. Its the only punch thrown in at least two generations, maybe three. That's a large part of the shock. When the bullied strike back against the bully, the bully is utterly staggered not at the force of the blow but that they dared to fight for themselves at all. The crying I've seen was appropriate for a successful conclusion of operation sealion, not independence from an unelected foreign dictatorship and some international mega corporations.
- fleitz 10y ago
  Yeah if you think about it a country or supernation breaking up without bloodshed is amazing.
  - VLM 10y ago
    Its undercovered because when it happens its uninteresting. The breakup of the Austrian and Ottoman empires in the early 1900s gets a lot of ink spilled. Or look at the dissolution of the concept of Iraq as a nation, currently. Most people forget the Soviet Union broke up in the 90s without a world war. Or the British Empire dissolved with relatively low levels of bloodshed (not zero, but not "that much" compared to WWI and its continuation as WWII). Also in binary world there are only extreme conditions and UK not being in the EU somehow magically requires a border wall and shoot to kill armed guards and extensive use of landmines and retarget all the UK nuclear arms to point at Brussels. Back to reality, the relationship will likely be as confrontational as USA-EU or maybe Switzerland-EU. Worst case maybe Turkey-EU. Or instead of comparing to EU, could compare to UK, and it'll be like Canadian-UK relations. As much as the pouters insist on being very loud incredibly sore anti-democratic losers, I'm not thinking anyone is going to send infantry brigades over anyone's border anytime soon in either direction.
    - fleitz 10y ago
      Exactly, even after the American Revolution after 30 years they were playing reasonably nice again.
- tremon 10y ago
  The bullied did not strike back at the bully though. They struck back at a nobel-prize winning strategist that has been working for 50 years to prevent military escalation.

by fleitz 10y ago

kiba 10y ago

Cutting off the nose to spite the face comes to mind.

fleitz 10y ago
For sure, it's the tenacity that I love about it. If you're willing to reset to zero it's a lot more daunting for those with something to lose.

VLM 10y ago

> it's nice to see the little guy throw a punch or two. Its the only punch thrown in at least two generations, maybe three. That's a large part of the shock. When the bullied strike back against the bully, the bully is utterly staggered not at the force of the blow but that they dared to fight for themselves at all. The crying I've seen was appropriate for a successful conclusion of operation sealion, not independence from an unelected foreign dictatorship and some international mega corporations.

fleitz 10y ago
Yeah if you think about it a country or supernation breaking up without bloodshed is amazing.
- VLM 10y ago
  Its undercovered because when it happens its uninteresting. The breakup of the Austrian and Ottoman empires in the early 1900s gets a lot of ink spilled. Or look at the dissolution of the concept of Iraq as a nation, currently. Most people forget the Soviet Union broke up in the 90s without a world war. Or the British Empire dissolved with relatively low levels of bloodshed (not zero, but not "that much" compared to WWI and its continuation as WWII). Also in binary world there are only extreme conditions and UK not being in the EU somehow magically requires a border wall and shoot to kill armed guards and extensive use of landmines and retarget all the UK nuclear arms to point at Brussels. Back to reality, the relationship will likely be as confrontational as USA-EU or maybe Switzerland-EU. Worst case maybe Turkey-EU. Or instead of comparing to EU, could compare to UK, and it'll be like Canadian-UK relations. As much as the pouters insist on being very loud incredibly sore anti-democratic losers, I'm not thinking anyone is going to send infantry brigades over anyone's border anytime soon in either direction.
  - fleitz 10y ago
    Exactly, even after the American Revolution after 30 years they were playing reasonably nice again.
tremon 10y ago
The bullied did not strike back at the bully though. They struck back at a nobel-prize winning strategist that has been working for 50 years to prevent military escalation.