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June 26, 2016 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
22:21
This Week in Stupid (26⧸06⧸2016)
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Hello everyone, welcome to This Week in Stupid for the 26th of June 2016.
This week we will be talking about the Brexit.
One would expect an understandable amount of disappointment from the Remain camp, but the things we've been seeing have been ridiculous.
But furthermore they demonstrate a distinct lack of understanding by certain sections of the Remain camp that I think it's really worth addressing.
After the results were in, David Cameron announced his resignation in a surprisingly heartfelt speech outside of Downing Street.
I don't really like Cameron, but he's handled himself with a surprising amount of class on this issue.
He lost the argument.
He wanted to remain.
The answer was no.
And now it has cost him his job.
He hasn't pitched a fit, he hasn't done anything silly, he's acted with a surprising amount of restraint and dignity and done the job he was supposed to do.
He didn't want to have to handle the leave.
Okay, I understand that.
I wouldn't want to either.
If this was going directly against my interests, I wouldn't want to be the one who has to now do it.
There'll be a new election for the Conservative Party leadership, and that person will be expected to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
The party elections are in three months' time, and it seems to be generally agreed upon that there is no need for haste, as Boris Johnson put it, in negotiating Britain's exit.
And it makes sense.
You don't want to rush into anything you want to do anything.
Smoothly, calmly, and by the numbers, get as good a job done as possible, and that means not rushing it.
That is what will be good for Britain, and understandably, that's what British politicians are trying to do.
It should also come as no surprise that EU governments are piling on the pressure on the UK to leave as soon as possible.
There were apparently emergency talks in Berlin, which makes me just think that they didn't think this was going to happen.
They were confident that they wouldn't have to do anything.
There are two reasons why it's imperative for the European Union to get Britain out as soon as possible.
One, there may well be a cascade effect.
There are strong Eurosceptic parties in almost all European countries these days, and now they are starting to gain legitimacy, especially if Britain leaves.
The faster they can get Britain out, the more difficult it's going to be for Britain.
And if they can demonstrate to the remaining member states that it's more difficult outside than in, it will act as a political buffer against the nationalist parties who are already crying for their own referendums.
They are worried about the EU fragmenting apart in the wake of Britain leaving.
Just listen to this.
The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schultz, told The Guardian that EU lawyers were studying whether it was possible to speed up the triggering of Article 50.
He said it was difficult to accept that a whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal fight in the Tory Party.
This is how the European political classes view it.
The people with the power think that the whole continent has been taken hostage by Britain.
Which is why the President of the Commission, the man who potentially I suppose stands to lose the most power in this arrangement if the EU unravels, says there will not be an amicable divorce.
There is a definite implication here of potentially punitive measures to ensure that the European Union doesn't fall apart.
Juncker presented this statement as the President of the European Commission.
He says, in a free and democratic process, the British people have expressed their wish to leave the European Union.
We regret this decision but respect it.
And they have to respect it because there's simply nothing they can do about it.
He then says, this is an unprecedented position, but we are united in our response.
We will stand strong and uphold the EU's core values of promoting peace and the well-being of its peoples.
The union of 27 member states will continue.
The narrative has changed and then he reinforces that with quite a lengthy statement to the effect.
He then says this.
We now expect the United Kingdom government to give effect to this decision of the British people as soon as possible, however painful that process may be.
What a strange and passive-aggressive way of suggesting that this might not have been the easiest course of action to take.
And of course this is done because any delay would unnecessarily prolong uncertainty.
Alternatively, a three-month grace period would actually give the uncertainty time to die down and allow people to accept the new normal.
And as agreed, the new settlements in the United Kingdom within the European Union reached at the European Council at the 18th-19th of February 2016 will now not take effect and ceases to exist.
There will be no renegotiation.
This is not only a message to Britain, but also the member states who are listening.
If things go bad for Britain and they want to come back, they're going to be bargaining from a position of weakness, because we already said, no, we're going to go hard on you if you come back.
So don't even think about leaving.
The bigwigs of the European Union are acting this way because they are afraid of losing all of their power.
If the European Union goes down, they lose everything.
They don't have anything else, they've put their lives into this project.
So now they are going to do everything in their power to make it difficult for Britain when she leaves.
Thankfully, their power isn't actually that great yet.
But as we all knew, Britain was going to take an economic hit for this, and is apparently on the brink of recession.
This of course led to thousands of liberal arts students taking to Twitter to tell people about the state of the financial markets.
Saying things like, the pound is down, the markets are down, the FTSE's down, everything's down, this has been terrible, as if they have any fucking idea what they're talking about.
Now, don't get me wrong, when it comes to stock markets, I have no idea either.
So correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't even look like on the face of things, the things that they are saying are true.
These are the FTSE markets for the last year, and the date that I've got it up to is right now as I record this video.
I'm just going to draw a line under the points where we've stopped, so one can easily see the claim that this is the lowest they've ever been since the 30s or whenever they were claiming isn't true.
In the last year, the markets have already been worse.
And unsurprisingly, liberal arts students weren't complaining about it then.
So I'm guessing they don't really know what they talk about now.
And like I said, I don't know anything about this.
I can't tell you what this means.
I can't tell you what's going to happen from this.
I simply do not know how to interpret this data.
But their reading of the data appears to be inaccurate.
This is a statement from the Governor of the Bank of England.
The people of the United Kingdom have voted to leave the European Union.
Inevitably, there will be a period of uncertainty and adjustment following this result.
There will be no initial change in the way our people can travel, in the way our goods can move, or in the way services can be sold.
It will take some time for the United Kingdom to establish new relationships with Europe and the rest of the world.
Some market and economic volatility can be expected as this process unfolds, but we are well prepared for this.
The Treasury and the Bank of England have engaged in extensive contingency planning and the Chancellor and I have been in close contact, including through the night in this morning.
A few months ago, the bank judged that the risks around the referendum were the most significant and near-term domestic risks to financial stability.
To mitigate them, the Bank of England has put in place extensive contingency plans.
These begin with ensuring that the core of our financial system is well capitalised, liquid and strong.
The resilience is backed up by the Bank of England's liquidity facilities in Sterling and foreign currencies.
All these resources will support orderly market functioning in the face of any short-term volatility.
We have taken all the necessary steps to prepare for today's events.
because they knew this was a possibility, because I am sure they are not stupid, but it is also in their best interests for this to go as smoothly as possible.
It's probably also important to note that world stocks tumble as Britain votes to leave, not just British stocks.
And as I said, it's all Chinese to me, but when they say that European stocks fell between 7-8% and 12% and 24%, while the London FTSE dropped 3.2%, it sounds like it could have been a lot worse.
And of course, we started seeing headlines like this.
Germany, USA and Canada all say they want special trade deals with post-Brexit Britain.
Apparently, we're not at the back of the line anymore.
In fact, apparently, we seem to have gone right to the fucking front of it.
Obama said the United Kingdom and European Union will remain indispensable partners of the United States, even as they begin negotiating their ongoing relationship to ensure continued stability, security and prosperity for Europe, Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the world.
So everyone just wants to pull together and make sure this goes as smoothly as possible, except for the Eurocrats, the people who are being directly threatened by this political change.
And unsurprisingly, they are being vindictive about it.
Everyone else is being pretty fucking mature.
Wait, did I say everyone else?
What I meant to say was everyone who wasn't a whiny regressive on the Remain side.
You know, the sorts of people who took to Twitter to furiously complain that they lost this referendum, with hashtag not my vote.
It's like these people are pathologically incapable of not virtue signaling.
For some reason, they had to just go out and say, no, no, I didn't vote for this.
I didn't vote for this.
Give me attention.
And then you've got the Liberal Democrats trying to capitalise on this in what's probably going to be a total windfall for them, but we are the 48%.
Stand with the 16 million other people who voted for cooperation over isolation.
Despite the fact that we- oh, we're just signing a bunch of new trade deals, but yeah, isolation, not cooperation.
Stand with us for a diverse, welcoming, and open-hearted Britain.
Sign up now to keep fighting for the kind of Britain you believe in.
The kind of Britain we can propagandise you into.
What a ridiculous way of framing anything.
Nobody is fighting for isolation.
To not cooperate, you fucking idiots.
And of course, one of the core strategies of the Liberal Democrats Party in the next general election will be to return Britain to the EU.
There are also other smaller issues worth addressing.
For example, the Nigel Farage 350 million pledge to fund the NHS was a mistake.
This is actually not something Farage proposed as far as I'm aware, but was instead proposed by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove on the side of the leave bus that they campaigned around the country on.
And I agree this was a mistake because this was at best advisory.
This is something that could potentially be done with this money.
Of course, not all 350 million will go into the NHS.
I do hope that a percentage of it will do, though.
I'd like to see more funding for the NHS.
But people on the Remain side who are using this as a stick to beat people must remember that this is A, something you didn't agree to anyway.
And B, something that could potentially be done with the money.
It's not a manifesto pledge.
But either way, you don't want to leave the EU.
You don't want that money going to the NHS.
You want that money going to Brussels.
Another thing that was going around is this poor guy.
Look at his face.
I voted to leave and now I'm not sure.
I regret what I did because I wasn't informed.
And I did it anyway because I didn't think my vote would count.
And the thing is, the Remain side is furious about this one guy.
How dare you not know how you wanted to vote?
You could have done nothing because we were a million votes up.
And you may well see many articles like this where people going, oh, I didn't know my vote was going to count.
Oh, and now I'm regretting it.
I'm uncertain for the future.
You don't see any articles from any other perspective.
No, I don't know.
Remain voters who are like, you know what?
I've been looking at this and actually I'm kind of glad we're leaving or anything like that.
Oh, none of them think that.
They're all just, oh god, the fear, the uncertainty.
In fact, it's so bad.
Let's go after other people's democratic rights.
Maybe there should be an intelligence test to be able to vote.
This is why we should never have been given the referendum.
We're too stupid to live at times.
I know someone who voted out because he is from Newcastle and people in Sunderland are likely to use the jobs because of Nissan.
Not even joking.
He's done it because of football rivalry.
Today I have a love-hate relationship with democracy.
Well, goddamn, I think that we should just definitely restrict the people's right to vote based on your say-so.
I mean, who do you think we should restrict first?
What, we should ban old people from voting?
Well, if you say so, GQ magazine, but that sounds like an awfully totalitarian thing to do from people who have never really paid into the system.
They've gone to school, they've become university students, and now they've just arrived in Starbucks and realized that their liberal arts degree is fucking worthless.
But we'll get to that in a minute.
Let's have a look at the fact that you want to restrict the rights of your grandparents effectively, because you don't like their opinions.
So, how much of a generational gap was there in the Brexit vote?
And the answer is quite a lot.
As you can see, the millennial generation between 18 and 34 were very much pro-Remain, whereas the older generation were slightly more leave, but not by such a large margin.
So how exactly did Leave clinch it?
Oh, turnout was low in areas with more young people, but turnout was higher in areas with more old people.
So they just got off their fucking old asses, marched down to the polling station, and voted, unlike most millennials.
So I think that we can learn two things from this.
One, old people actually gave a shit about this, but two, the younger people weren't so bothered.
The ones who are are very loud and noisy, but the ones who weren't didn't even think to go and vote.
I'm going to assume they are also not the people whinging like babies all over social media.
Remain supporter Elizabeth Mayfield19 looked on in despair as the referendum results came in.
She knew who she blamed.
An older generation that she sees as having secure jobs and gold-plated generous pensions.
People who had caused house prices to soar and plunge the country into debt.
I'm annoyed that baby boomers have messed things up for us again, she said.
A student at Staffords University, messed things up.
In what way do you think things, they have messed these things up?
They are getting us out of Europe, you fucking idiot.
The continent is plagued with unemployment for people of your age.
Choosing a different path is a good idea.
But oh no, you damn idiots, you old people will die in 10 or so years and we young people will have to live with your bigoted decision.
I saw this all over social media.
What was effectively some kind of death clock for the baby boomers and the silent generation.
I'm really having trouble articulating just how much I've how disgusting I find the people who have spread this around.
And it's just so hard for me to talk about without getting angry.
The idea of creating some sort of death clock and saying their vote is not as valid because they might not have to live with the decision for as long as I will infuriates me beyond all belief.
I'm really having trouble keeping my fucking cool.
To all of the people who spread this, whining that they wouldn't have to live with the results as long as you would.
They know that.
This is going to be really hard for you to understand.
But imagine for a moment, if you can, just really, really try hard.
Really try to imagine that maybe the most important thing in the world wasn't you.
Just imagine that.
Imagine what it must be like for you to think you are not the most important thing in the world.
I know you're having trouble with this, and I know you're thinking, yeah, but they're voting for their own interests, but their own interests are your well-being.
That's what they care about.
They have lived through this.
They have direct experience of what it's like to live before and in the EU.
They voted to join the EC.
And many of them have voted to leave because of the way it has changed.
Not only without their consent, but also for the worse.
And you are there going, yeah, but they're ruining everything.
No, the EU is dying, you idiots.
The EU is an idealistic idea that has been implemented badly.
For the benefit of the people at the top.
Anyone who signed the petition for a second referendum does not believe in democracy.
And if you are one of those people calling for people not to vote because they didn't vote as you voted, you're just an outright fascist.
Oh, also, your petition was being investigated for fraud.
Because, you know, I mean, there were like 50,000 votes from Vatican City, where there's a population of 800 people.
But I mean, I'm not saying that the sort of people who would restrict other people's voting rights are the sorts of people who might also engage in some kind of voter fraud.
But let's be fair, you're probably not miles apart from those people, are you?
There is an old Greek proverb that goes, society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
The old people are voting for you because you are their grandchildren and they care about you.
You selfish sons of bitches.
I am just amazed at the awfulness of some of the people I've just, I've been seeing.
It's just, oh God, you are just so, such bad people.
You're just bad fucking people.
You are selfish and narcissistic and insolent and you don't even understand anything.
Let's talk about millennials for a minute.
And this is going to be hashtag not all millennials.
But it's definitely a large number.
A large enough number for it to be palpable and damaging to society.
And you guys, basically, I think that, I honestly think they probably, a lot of them voted for you to grow the fuck up.
Millennials are on track to be the most educated generation to date.
But apparently they're looking to be the least wise as well.
Ones who would vote against their own democratic interests, against the sovereignty of their own nations, on a fucking, on some bullshit propaganda of just one, united Europe, like Roman Empire style propaganda.
Honestly, I find it incredible how you'll say like, oh, well, I don't like Monsanto or big corporations, and then you will vote for a supranational governmental entity.
You should be looking for devolved government at all points.
You should be getting your government down to the most lowest and local level.
But you don't because you're fucking stupid.
I don't care how many degrees you have.
You're fucking stupid.
If you're a millennial and you're not in these brackets that I'm laying out here, then good for you.
You escaped a fate worse than death.
To be a terrible person and not even have any idea of how bad you are.
To the rest, though, let's have a look at just your student loan debts.
I mean, what are you planning on doing?
I don't want to sound like your dad, but have you ever considered that maybe he has something to tell you that you should be listening to?
Apparently, according to a new survey, millennials are adopting a disturbing, out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude.
Apparently, 59% didn't know how long it would take them to be debt-free.
They just didn't care.
57% report now that they regret how much they borrowed and over a third say they wouldn't have gone to college if they'd realized in advance the true price tag of their education.
These surveys were done in America, but to be honest with you, I really think they're probably very applicable to the UK as well.
Because apparently these liberal arts students just earn less money.
For half of liberal arts colleges, the reported salary after 10 years was below $50,000, which is about £35,000.
For a massive student debt and a fucking degree, you end up with a middling job.
Because your degree is fucking worthless.
I'm serious.
There is a real question as to whether having no degree is actually better than having a liberal arts degree.
In a survey of 3,000 job seekers and HR professionals, they found that 64% of hiring managers said they would consider a candidate who hadn't done a day of college.
But at the same time, fewer than 2% said they were actively recruiting liberal arts graduates.
And this is, of course, not considering the number of people who see someone who has, oh, I don't know, gender studies written on their fucking CV and goes, nope, into the trash it goes.
I mean, I don't know how many people do that, but I know I would certainly be one of them.
I would never hire someone with one of these worthless degrees.
They don't teach you any skills.
They don't teach you to be able to do anything.
So we're not going to talk about homeownership.
We're going to talk about, for the first time ever, living with your parents edges out any other living arrangements.
So 32.1% of 18 to 34 year olds are living with their parents, with another 22% living with flatmates, like students.
Most millennials are not in charge of their own household.
This makes you the neckbeard basement dwellers you're always accusing other people of being.
It would in fact make you losers.
Do you understand?
You're fucking losers.
And you're pontificating from this position of unearned privilege.
Saying, no, I know better because I have a degree in English literature.
I don't own a house.
I don't have a job that's worth anything.
I've never, well, I've barely worked a day in my fucking life, except at Starbucks.
But no, I know better than the old people.
We should stop the old people voting because the EU's fucking brilliant and they're crazy for making us leave.
But if you're not one of these people, you're a millennial with some sense and you've chosen a STEM degree and you're going to move into a field where after 10 years your earnings will have increased in value from when you started your career, good for you.
You made the right choice.
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