both the leave and remain group seemed to leave voters mostly thinking, “the other choice sounds bad,”
Absolutely, this. The remain campaign was actually labelled "Project Fear" [0], I mean if that doesn't say it all I don't know what does ..
There was never, any actual discussion of what brexit means. How it would look. What consitutional adjustments would be made. Simply a binary "Stay" or "Leave" on the Ballot, which strikes me as particularly absurd and should in some way undermine the constitutionality of it.
Brexit to me, is the outcome of an absolute failure in governance by all concerned, whatever the outcome, and whatever outcome was envisaged by those that voted for it. ..
As a Remainer who voted Yes in the Scottish Indyref, I strongly agree. What it seems to me happened is that Cameron drew exactly the wrong lesson from the Indyref. He thought Project Fear worked there, despite the vote moving from strong No to close No over the course of the campaign. So he replicated the strategy. What he hadn't realised was how corrosive a demoralisation-based strategy that relied on the collusion of the three main supposedly opposed parties was.
Ongoing, Brexit is being run entirely in essay-crisis mode. Nothing will happen until the last minute. The process will run on the EU timetable with the EU's preferred outcomes unless and until the UK government collapses and is unable to send anyone. Nobody from the UK side is proposing serious, workable options.
I did not know this was called Project Fear. That is fascinating.
Fear has always been in the toolbox for politicians, but it seems to be being used more and more. Xenophobic fear is probably the most loudly-proclaimed one, but there are other types of fear, like the fear for one's safety... which, in the USA, is typically related to xenophobia these days, even if statistically it should not be [0].
I don't know the most effective way to fight fear-based messages besides very inspiring, positive-oriented messaging.
There is a rather important point though: Project Fear was a label applied by professional politicians to dismiss the genuine opinions of people who actually knew what they were talking about.
As it is, the UK has gone in two years from the best economic performer in the EU to the worst, and every prediction of how badly the divorce proceedings would go seem to come true. There’s quite a few people who use the phrase Project Fact now.
Ironically, the Vote Leave campaign was characterised by stoking fact-free fear about immigration.
Absolutely, this. The remain campaign was actually labelled "Project Fear" [0], I mean if that doesn't say it all I don't know what does ..
There was never, any actual discussion of what brexit means. How it would look. What consitutional adjustments would be made. Simply a binary "Stay" or "Leave" on the Ballot, which strikes me as particularly absurd and should in some way undermine the constitutionality of it.
Brexit to me, is the outcome of an absolute failure in governance by all concerned, whatever the outcome, and whatever outcome was envisaged by those that voted for it. ..
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Fear_(British_politics...