Have your frienships and family relationships suffered as a result of Brexit?

[Wormzy]

Just that, really. If friends and/ or family members have clearly voted differently to you, has it changed the way you see them or interact with them? Have friendships broken down?

I haven't been able to vote, but the outcome of the vote affects me disproportionately. Family members have voted Leave. There have been arguments, also between friends, some ended in loss of contact.

I wonder how the Brexit vote has affected others on here?

Just looked at Sky news headlines about Venezuela. In the 'report' a woman is contemplating walking 2,600Km with 3 (or is it 4) small children just to get food.
Between 1952 and 1958 the GDP of Venezuela was close to that of Germany.

OK it's 4 small children 6 and a baby among them. She has walked to Columbia so far.

I think this is where I can’t marry my left wing principles to brexit.

If you started a thread anywhere else on MN about how people claiming JSA were unemployable or didn’t actually want to work it would be deemed goady fuckery (I don’t think you are being a GF - hear me out! )

Yet it is acceptable to infer it in the context of hard working Eastern Europeans vs lazy work shy brits.

I have lost a lot of respect for her over the last few years. She has shown her intolerant and bigoted side. There are other issues at play too, but this really hasn't helped.

Well Brexit has certainly proved the old adage about light and sound ... (light travels faster than sound, so some people can appear bright until they open their mouth).

If nothing else - maybe it's the silver lining - the Brexit event has demonstrated how poor the level of critical thinking is in vast swathes of society, and highlighted how people that should be considered "bright" are thick as pigshit. Whether this will have any material effect, is too soon to tell. But there's a few fewer people I'd trust with scissors than before.

It's kind of confirmed to me that there is zero point in trying to talk to my parents about it-because doing so was actually making me slightly lose respect for them. So it's had a small effect on that relationship.
If we did try to discuss it further it would definitely end up in an argument though.

jeremiah that's the most incoherent political narrative I have ever come across, your mother certainly is extraordinary if nothing else

BuffyBee
It hasn't caused a family rift, but I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge my view of them has changed a bit.
I'd always thought it was a case of them being old school conservatives and I'm centre left (Probably more aligned with the Blair/Brown/Milliband years than Corbyn). People have different views. It seems quite closed minded to me to take the approach 'you have a different view so I'll cut you off or distance myself'.

But I do think that when the campaign was ongoing there was a lot to conflation of issues so what you found is that views that were previously very marginal & more aligned with thuggish EDL types started getting more airtime and then in order to further the brexit cause, politicians who aren't EDL Farrage types started courting those views.
(For example), people who were pro brexit who may have previously held views about immigration or wanted an Australian style tariff system etc start hearing people thry respect in politics telling tales that are more down the EDL type route, but with the spin of I'm not being racist but we've got to have tough conversations that the experts don't want us to have...' and before you know there's this almost acceptable level of not full racism, but a level of intolerance which is seemingly acceptable to voice. The more those views are normalised and heard, the easier it is to start buying into parts of it until you get really incongruent views (like my relative who will tell you about the new mosque in a local more diverse town and how amazing it is and it's all funded by community donations, the taxpayer haven't paid a thing and the great thing is they're running a foodbank, have had open mosque days to build bridges and promote cohesion and there's been interfaith work and all sorts...but then when discussing the news will say 'the problem is that we're at a point where nobody is allowed to say any criticism of Muslims at all'. It's like there's people Muslims who are lovely and amazing, and then there's 'the Muslims' in the news as a group. The Muslims in the community, fine. But Muslims people tall about as a group, not fine. It confuses the hell out of me.)

What makes it even better Hazardswan is that she used to be a Unison shop steward and a die hard labour supporter who loved Europe. And she and my dad have a holiday home in France.

I have not been able to figure out what she is thinking. It's baffling. Incoherent is right. I have wept over this.

She Also, pre referendum, stated she was going to vote leave because of the immigrants (meaning from outside Europe but took a swipe at EU migrants too) taking our jobs. But claimed that my Irish husband was one of the OK EU immigrants.

I despair.

My mum voted leave to get rid of Cameron and Osbourne because they, along with Angela Merkel, are lizards in human form. And because she saw an article (in the Mail) about how some areas of London are majority non-white.

How the fuck can I reason with that? Your daughter and grandchildren live in the EU and you'll throw their lives into turmoil because you don't like lizard people or the number of brown people in a city you've never been to.

That's the problem. As soon as you go outside your house you encounter 'furriners'. Heaven forbid if you get outside the UK they are everywhere!
(shakes head in exasperation)

To blame leave voters is like blaming our armed forces for the Iraq war

I don’t get that at all- can you explain?

Tumbleweed.

No because we are adults. Adults who respect that we may have different opinions about some subjects but may agree on other subjects.
Thats what adults do.

To blame leave voters is like blaming our armed forces for the Iraq war
What?
Blaming leave voters for brexit is like blaming MPs who voted for the Iraq war.

Blaming the armed forces for the Iraq war would be more like blaming the legal secretaries in the civil service who are tasked with carrying out brexit as both are acting on votes taken by others (And obviously nobody would do such a stupid thing).

Its interesting this idea of 'adulthood' and being sensible.

If you explained to a family member that voting a certain way would mean you will lose your job and that person said to you, 'yeah but take back control' or 'oh but the muslims' - you're still the immature one if you are pissed off with them?

Its a strange new world.

Family relationships definitely affected. Most of my friends are Remainers and those who aren't haven't told me and probably steer me away from the topic as I'm very vocal about it.

My ex pat parents are in denial if you ask me. Deluded and in denial about the reality. DM wants no deal

Of course the real anger - from both sides, really - should be directed at that wanker cunt pisspot areshole numpty pigfucker Cameron.

(and while we're at it, lets remind Leavers that the referendum was advisory, anyway).

It should have had a required majority built in, as the resultant split - to all intents and purposes 50/50, meant that civil political life in the UK - indeed the continued existence of the UK itself - would be dangerously compromised.

To blame leave voters is like blaming our armed forces for the Iraq war

"I don’t get that at all- can you explain?"

Well it may not be a perfect analogy but the Iraq war was a total disaster but the blame lies with Parliament, not with the Soldiers who prosecuted it.

Same with the referendum, its the politicians who have landed the UK in this mess, caused division. made us a laughing stock and cost us billions.
The issues involved in leaving the EU are way above the avg voter and no voter should be held accountable for their vote, that is just letting Parliament of the hook.

All my family voted the same way and all my colleagues at work voted the same way. Everyone I respect and like generally seem to have voted the same way so no problems here at all.

Oh - and we all voted leave btw and I believe that it is groups of people like us that have voted leave all over the country that really pushed it over the halfway line so to speak. For the record, we are all COMPLETELY THE OPPOSITE to the ‘type’ of person depicted in the remainers’ eyes ie ignorant racists with flags hanging out our windows.

No. Zero. Many people voted for brevity, many voted against. I can accept both, if the person has reasonable reasons.

Plantpotpot the 'type' of person who voted Brexit are poster's family members. They are not 'depicting' they are explaining family discussions. People are posting about their own family and in many case how heartbroken they are that people have expressed unpleasant often racist views.

I am glad that all the people you know who voted leave are not racist in any way and have not expressed those views to you. It is good to know there are pockets of leave in the U.K. that not fuelled by racism.

Well it may not be a perfect analogy but the Iraq war was a total disaster but the blame lies with Parliament, not with the Soldiers who prosecuted it.

Same with the referendum,

Not really. No one was forced to vote Leave or face court martial, were they ?

Let’s not focus on outlying issues. Let’s focus on pulling together and getting ourselves out of this awful awful mess. Does anyone know of any major petitions going around that I can sign? It all feels so desperate. Even my parents who were leavers have decided to start stick piling food. Says it all really.

I don’t know anyone stockpiling food.

Are these the same people that but 12 litres of milk when there is a flurry of snow?

Not really. No one was forced to vote Leave or face court martial, were they?

what?

The point is lay blame and responsibility where it lies, no point wittering on and on about leavers, even if every single one regrets their vote, it would make no difference to the 2016 outcome, it is done and there is no reason May would reverse brexit even if the opinion polls swung significantly to remain.

Focus instead on Parliament, because they can change the outcome.