To point out that not ALL people who voted leave are racist

[EsmeraldaEllaBella]

I'd describe myself as extreme left. I voted leave because the EU's undemocratic. Today I wake up to ALL of my Facebook posting statuses about how they feel sick etc. all my friends are liberal, some of them would hate me if they knew. But if I was asked outright I'd probably be honest. I've made new friends recently who would definitely never speak to me again if they knew though. I feel like everyone who voted leave has been branded a racist. I feel uncomfortable that probably lots of them are sad I feel very uneasy being lumped in with them and might come to regret my decision

Posted this elsewhere but in need of some hand holding I think! Or maybe someone who feels the same way? Anyone?

And this is the legacy we hand on, hailed by the fascists, the racists, the hate-mongerers, the neo-nazis, the far right. Brilliant. Well done Britain, you had one job and you spectacularly fucked it up.

You regret voting Leave? It's a bit flipping late for that crap now. Grow up. You wanted this, you voted for this, you got us this. Man up and face it.

You may not be racist but you held the racist hand and you followed the racist agenda.

Hear, here, CrimsonKing.

Democracy only exists on the extreme left and do you notice they are the ones prone to violent outrage and abuse?
I rather think Brendan Cox may disagree with you.

but we do see and experience a loss of public services especially over the last 15 years and common sense would link this to the seismic shift in immigration, without a controlled immigration policy.
Erm, no, that's due to government policies.

the fact that you want to disclaim the undoubted truth that, actually, you certainly did vote with Johnson and Farage is fascinating. Why don't you want to be associated with them? And what is your view on the fact that your vote has put them in positions of massive power?

This wasn't a general election. There are people who have odious views on both sides of this narrow question of EU membership. I am more generally aligned with Dennis Skinner as I said. Leave voters voted alongside people like Tony Blair who I regard as a war criminal. There is no easy virtue signalling option. Voting the same way as a racist doesn't make me a racist.

You may not be racist but you held the racist hand and you followed the racist agenda

Remind me agajn who are supposed to be the bigots and who are the inclusive?

You say you vote as Europe is full of unelected people. Yet you allow an unelected fool (Farage) to dictate to our country.

You may not be racist but you held the racist hand and you followed the racist agenda.

What does 'held the racist hand' mean?

A Brexiter voting out for reasons that aren't racist or xenophobic most certainly isn't 'following a racist agenda, and it is reckless and manipulative to say that they are.

so i'm racist for having an opinion.. good to know that.

Trump thinks it's a great idea - says it all doesn't it?

I think many people are not aware of
the left of the Labour Party long standing view on the EU

It's more complex than the easy to understand UKIP agenda and has less media interest

I at times was sure I would vote out but felt in the end I wanted to leave the EU under different circumstances -!: decided to remain.

Others want to call me racist well it's such a easy word to throw around and people are getting caught up in the social media frenzy

It's the rise of the right wing movement across Europe. You voted leave because that's where you believe in the future. No team work. Alone. Not working with others. Xenophobia/ racism are the "Active" end of the passive ideology. It's a shock to wake up after a night of drunken revelling and realise just who you jumped into bed with.

I'm in Scotland and I only know of one person who voted to leave. She is not racist but I think she is very naive. She seems to think this was the way to get independence for Scotland and a way to show her dissatisfaction with Westminster. She doesn't see that this was not about that.
I feel both campaigns were not great. Leave built up fear and distrust. Remain just sat on the laurels and assumed everyone was with them.
I am very annoyed that the remain campaign didn't make their arguments clearer to help people make a more informed choice.
Obviously half the country is not racist but I fear we are becoming a very insular country just wanting to look after ourselves.
This vote will probably lead to recession and job losses, affecting the very people who voted for it. Did they realise that would happen?

The far right in Europe will exploit the Ref vote for their own purposes.

But they will find out that Britain will not become a right wing, racist country.

It will simply implement a sensible immigration policy that it can manage in the long term.

Which will, in fact, mean that fear about immigrants will dissipate.

The people saying people shouldn't have voted leave because that's the same way x, y and z are voting suddenly explains why celebrity endorsements is so important, I always wondered "why would you vote a certain way because that's the way that celeb is voting? Why would someone else's vote sway yours?" Now I understand why

IKR!?

I was when the Beckhams (of all people) issued a statement in support of Ine side last week, but clearly some people do see it as a matter of 'teams'. Bizarre.

I am from an EU country (and fuming). DH is from a non -EU immigrant background spanning several countries. 99% of their own ethnic or neighbourhood geographical area background (similar cultures) which we know of voted LEAVE and THEIR excuse was a fervent and overly zealous desire to get rid of EASTERN EUROPEANS. When DH produced loads of arguments against them, they always came back with the stupidest most daft arguments about Eastern Europeans being immoral thieves, crooks, driving crime up or driving house prices up etc . He called them downright racists and they didn't care. Their outrageous thinking that all Europeans or the Western world are morally corrupt finally gave way.

I have NEVER seen a clever, solid standing argument from the Leavers. Even if the polls had been 50/50, the Leavers were serious about their desires and made sure to go out and vote. Our tiler left early last evening (similar background as DH's family but different country but was born abroad) to go and vote to make sure that EE leave the country and he gets to do more business along with some racist lines spouted out. See, they are a drain in the system while HE who demands cash in hand, never pays any taxes or NHS is not

So, just being from an immigrant background doesn't mean that you are not racist.

P.S. Today DH friends who voted out are making plans about buying houses because apparently houses prices will suddenly get very cheap If some of them had some TAXED income saved up instead of UN-taxed cash in hand, limited their brand new cars purchases or foreign holidays MAYBE the banks would be more willing to give them a mortgage ....just saying

You say you vote as Europe is full of unelected people. Yet you allow an unelected fool (Farage) to dictate to our country.

Not sure I follow your logic. Farage is one of our MEPs. I didn't (and wouldn't) vote for him, but some people did.

........But not a single racist voted REMAIN

Anecdotally, I can tell you that's not true. As much as the Remain camp wants it to be.

The only time I experienced racism was from eastern Europeans who told Europe is for Europeans and I am non white brit shouldn't be in Britain.

So bore off with all the racism talk.

We are all racist! We all feel intrinsically more comfortable around the familiar than the unfamiliar. We all feel subtly more jealous when its people from different backgrounds that are better off than us than when it is people from our background doing well. It is human nature and deeply ingrained.

There is no point being mad at people for thinking this way.

The world got very big very quickly over the last few decades and it seems very sudden that problems in places we hadn't really heard of 20 years ago are suddenly in our back yard. Wanting to pull back and become small and isolated is a natural response. The UK won't be the only ones doing this in the near future. The US is already on that road and Brexit will take other EU countries with it.

We just weren't quite ready for so much globalization so quickly.

None of this makes Brexit the right choice for future generations to live with, but it should be understandable to everyone that it could happen.

You know, all this racism talk is probably what lost Remain the referendum.

People have been completely unable to have any kind of valid debate about immigration, or even mention that they're thinking of voting Leave, without having 'RACIST!!' screamed at them.

I'm not racist. I'm half Serbian. My grandparents were refugees. And I voted Leave. Because, although I do believe that the current 'come one come all' system was unsustainable, THERE WAS MORE TO IT THAN IMMIGRATION.

Rask - can't quite see why your daughter is changing to sciences on the strength of this. Or was she aiming to be an EU interpreter? There will still be great openings worldwide to people who can offer fluency in three or more languages, including business, arts, international conventions, UN, World Bank etc. She seems to be multi talented to be confident of her sciences as well as languages.

You know, all this racism talk is probably what lost Remain the referendum.

You're not wrong.

"But, Humphrey, democracy has nothing to do with it. No one can explain how being outside the EU is somehow more democratic than being inside it."

There is a massive democratic deficit. It you do not understand that then I really question your understanding of the issues in general

and they can't account for the money, but fiscal ineptitude and/or corruption doesn't matter either. As long as no one can brand me a racist