DH explanation of referendum result to 12 year old?

[margewiththebluehair]

DS was completely distraught this morning watching the news of the result. Mortified and inconsolable. He just kept saying why? over and over. He has been keenly following the referendum and insisting to DH and I that we vote remain for a myriad reasons.

DH tried to reassure him that UK is still a global power and that while things will be difficult, it is nothing to worry too much about (of course both DH and I were equally mortified - and we ARE worried - but didn't want DS to know that).

But DS went on and on about why would people be so dumb - So DH just explained that a lot of uneducated people voted and since the uneducated outnumber the educated - they won. DS accepted this as a reasonable explanation. I am not convinced it is true.

Age looks to be the biggest factor in the way people voted.

*thing

Correlation of reading the Sun/ DM would be a better indication of thickness than a degree

But surely the type of paper you read generally reflects your education level too?

Doesn't the sun have a reading age of 9 and the guardian 14? and isn't the average reading age in the UK 9 which is shockingly poor imo but that's another thread

Someone who struggles with reading is more likely to read the sun and also more likely to not have higher education.

I didn't correct DH because, I think there is still some truth to it. I just wasn't completely convinced it is the whole story. DH and I have 5 degrees between us - so I think it is fair to say we are highly educated.

Funnily enough I have oodles of qualifications - forget how many, take new ones every year... yet I am intelligent enough to understand that this is one of the most arrogant statements I have seen on here to date...

Perhaps the real correlation is:

• qualifications increase = personal wealth increase / power increase
• wealth and power at stake with a leave vote
• therefore those with more qualifications are more likely to vote remain
• equally = those with more qualifications are more likely to be self-interested

It takes a lot of courage to change the status quo, it takes very little to remain as we were - even when that might not be the right thing to do... so perhaps you should explain to your DS that there are lots of people with courage, prepared to potentially put self-interest to one side and look for the best future for our nation, and courageous enough to do this while suffering vitriolic and irrational attacks from those who are selfish and have something they might lose so vote in their self interest not the interest of the country...

This has never been a vote about immigration, or even particularly about Europe - it has been a vote about power and wealth - and we woke up this morning to the realisation that a majority of our country thank goodness are not big corporates or politicians who want to stay where the money is - but decent people who believe that we can build a better future with slightly less corruption and control from outsiders

It is a sad reality of life that those with the most qualifications are often the least aware of a) their own attitudes and how they come across and b) the reality of life for the majority of people in the country the term ivory tower has a considerable basis in truth... qualification does not equal common sense or intelligence!

My thirteen year old would have been told In no uncertain terms to snap out of it if he'd become hysterical, and he's followed the campaigns and has been a massive remain supporter.

However, the reality is that by the time they leave school/go to university (if they do) we will be in a position to know where the country is going iyswim, and while certainly in the short term there will be massive implications to the economy/potential jobs/house prices etc, in the long term we simply don't know.

I voted remain and I am gutted at the result. But it is what it is and we need to get on with it. And more importantly we need to not allow our children to become hysterical over it, because it is our children who are the future of this country.

Oh and I don't have a degree but I believe that Nigel Farage does? So your assertion that only the uneducated voted out is grossly offensive.

What a totally ridiculous thing for you dh to say.

He sounds extremely thick and if your 12 year old is inconsolable that he lives in a country that allows its citizens a free vote I suggest you all piss off to North Korea and see how that goes for you.

If the majority of people in this country are "dumb" what does that say about our education?!?! I know it was a slim majority, but your DH's description it is still more of the population are dumb than intelligent.

How rude and over dramatic.

My sample show
degree earned - leave.
Masters - remain.
No degree - leave.
Masters - remain.

My 15 year is not happy. My 12 year old is happy. Both very clever but both are allowed it have their own opinions without being called uneducated .

DH and I have 5 degrees between us

5 degrees and still as thick as frozen peanut butter.

I am so clever I dont have thick friends therefore everyone who voted differently to me is cerebrally challenged.

5 degrees between you (in what I'm wondering) and yet trying to persuade your son to be an elitist, superior snob?
Because you're 'highly educated', you're right?
FWIW I've got a degree and voted out. I also have a DD11, and if she was having a panic attack about today's results, whichever way it had gone, I'd be worried.

Wow aren't you delightful. He will grow up so accepting and broad minded at this rate. Education and intelligence are not markers for voting remain. People have the right to vote how they wish. It is called democracy. If you don't like the result argue you case with intelligence, not insults!

If true you are on dangerous ground here, essentially encouraging your child to disrespect his fellow citizens and the concept of my democracy.

Can't you talk through the concept of thinking yourself into someone else's shoes and go through some examples?

And while you are about it please teach your son resilience or he's going to have a miserably teenage years.

Wow. Your and your DH parenting skills are shocking. Your DS is going to grow up under your influence, poor child.

Of democracy. Don't know where that my appeared from..

So far this morning I've seen two leave voters moaning about the changes already and not admit that they made a mistake by x'ing leave. One moaned that she was now £3,400 on his monetary exchange, the other moaned that he wasn't at fault and that he voted what she thought was 'for the best' at the time.

Of course they other friends are all in agreement that this imminent recession will be just a 'blip' and that things have to get worse before they get better. Yeah so hopefully by the time my kids are leaving school there will be jobs for them to go to.

MEant he was £3,400 down on his money exchange, stupid phone

The poblem with MN is that most posters dont know the difference between being intellingent and being educated. I know a lot of very intelligent people who left school at 16 ( or even 12 like my dad) and going on MN there are a lot of overeducated posters with degrees who are a lot thicker than the DM readers i know.

The only Brexit voters I know are my niece and her husband and for them it was all about immigration. She is the daughter of immigrants and he was an illegal immigrant - go figure. Both have degrees!

It is a lot to do with education, I think. People have been taken in - by the manipulative headlines in the biased red-tops, for instance. I think that many Brexit voters thought that being in the EU meant that lots of middle eastern and African immigrants would be pouring in. They were also sticking one finger up to authority - not realising that in many cases they are the ones who will suffer most from Brexit.

OP for you.

Education seems to be the most reliable predictor of voting, with those with graduate or postgraduate education more likely to vote remain. (I am very proud of the fact I predicted this yesterday).

However, this is not the same thing as intelligence. Intelligence is like the raw power, education is like the training. There are many working class people who are intelligent but uneducated. This helps to explain why they reject evidence that seems utterly compelling to those with graduate degrees. They are not working in the same epistemological landscape - they have different ideas of soundness, validity and proof. Much of the frustration of the Remain camp has been because they assume their epistemology to be universal and rational, when it isn't.

On both sides, a striking feature of the debate has been how ideological it has been. Remain are very intensely aware of this with regard to Leave, claiming (claiming with some reason that they have misunderstood the theory of economics), and Leave are intensely aware of this with regard to Remain (claiming with some reason that they are out of touch with the empirical realities of poverty under this economic system). Neither campaign has really managed to penetrate the ideological armour of the other, which is why we've seen two polar opposite sites yelling at each other.

The more critical position, to my mind, is Lexit. (I voted Remain). Because it moves up a level to encompass ideology in its overall view of the case. This is not to say it's more objective, just that it's working more on that plane of critical theory that has some purchase on capitalism.

A lot of older people voted leave because they remember what it was like before we joined the EU and know that we can function perfectly well and still retain our sovereignty and have a sensible immigration policy.

Really stop panicking. All will be well.

Volatility in the markets is bread and butter to the financial types. That's how they make their money.