Pretty much BCF.
I thought there was a political black hole. I posted that much on MN saying that political vacuums are never good things. Whenever one forms, you historically get all sorts of bad things happening as lots of people rush to grab control as no one is really in charge. I struggle to think of political black holes where its gone smoothly. You could potentially argue that the collapse of the Berlin Wall and Eastern Europe was one, but really there was very much momentum and a goal rather than a complete vacuum. Even then it also gave birth to the Yugoslav wars too.
I said my fears to my parents the day after the ref. I vividly remember the conversation with them as I was sat on the stairs when I did. I was (and still am) very worried about the direction this is going, and just how far it will go. It's black. If Farage (or Johnson for that matter tbh) was to come to power certain groups such as educators or journalists might really be exposed to this idea of bringing down 'the Liberal elite'. It won't just be immigrants and people who are the wrong colour. A real anti middle class sentiment which could get nasty.
There is a certain amount of push back, but it still is a possibility. Look at the language being used and who is in the cross hairs of that. We are definitely not at rock bottom yet, and I fear what rock bottom is going to look like. A lot will depend on how Brexit pans out. There is definitely a desire from the likes of the Etonian hard right / Fascist hard right to stop the middle classes 'getting above themselves' or 'deserve to be taught a lesson' which is shared by parts of the 'left behind' working class.
It's very much based on class, and the idea that the middle class have dominated and have got too powerful. Which I think has a certain degree of merit, as there is a section of middle class society which is completely blind to the problems in society and has become really rather arrogant and self serving. But that's certainly not the case across the board. And it ignores the role the upper class has had in it all (which in the US has been attributed to the average blue collar worker having little contact with the upper classes - eg Trump - and grievences being more with their immediate bosses etc who are white collar and tell the blue collars what to do, in a fashion which is rather condescending. I note here that the tone of many remain FBPE types hasn't exactly helped break this model and this is despite there being this awareness of the dynamic in the US since Trump)
I don't know.
I don't know how far down the rabbit warren we are headed. But that's the pattern that plays out when authoritarians take over because the biggest threat to them are the educated middle classes. The question is always how do you neutralise them / appease them. And if you have no money (which would be the case with no deal), your options are more limited. Especially since the middle classes who are Remain, are the least likely to go for the whole 'blame the scapegoat' shit. That just leaves create a climate of fear, in which examples much be made of those who speak out and disagree with the regime.
At best I think we can look forward to protests being a lot more common and getting more militant as we go forward. Extinction Rebellion protests of the last week or so, are probably the fore runner to much more. And there will be a crackdown that won't be pretty at some point.
As I say, it depends on what Theresa pulls out the bag (if she does) or when she goes (and who replaces her).
I've always noted, that it's not the first leader in a regime change to a more authoritarian system that you have to worry about. It the ones that follows them, who has more to prove and resorts to more draconian measures to keep that power and control.
Not the cheeriest of thoughts but it's not playing out particularly far of the mark atm. As usual, I hope I'm wrong, and I hope there's enough push back to block the really bad shit.