GlobalTrumpism

Quora Answer : What has the rise of Boris Johnson taught you about Britain?

Sep 3, 2019

The main thing it's taught me is that there is no "British exceptionalism".

The rise of Boris Johnson (which is itself just part of the wider Brexit story) teaches me that Britain is just like everywhere else in the world; like America that voted for Trump, like Brazil that voted for Bolsonaro; it's just like Italy and Turkey and India and Rakhine State.

Neither the British character, - previously lauded as "pragmatic", but that stereotype is utterly busted - nor its constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system - previously lauded as "subtle", "clever", "empirical", "resistant to extremists" etc. but that stereotype etc. - are proof against the ill effects of social media. Of InternetTrolls, and YouTube demagogues and big data analysis and targeted adverts etc.

Ultimately, the internet has removed all the gatekeepers. And now lies and disinformation proliferate. And consensus has collapsed.

It's hard to know how to reconstruct it again.

The striking, and disturbing thing, when looking at online arguments even here on Quora is not that people disagree on Brexit (or anything else), but just how deep the difference in world-view that underpins the positions are. It's not just a disagreement about whether Brexit is good or not. But completely different models of how the world works, how the world economy works, how international treaties work, how the institutions of English governance work, how the EU works, what the motivations of all the players both on the Leave and Remain side in the UK, and on the EU side.

Each side has confabulated a completely different ontology with very few points of agreement left that can be appealed to.

This is nothing specifically to do with Brexit. Nothing specifically to do with Britain. This is global. This is humanity in the age of social media.