It’s hard to know what to feel as we wait for the American inauguration, especially for Brits. With all of us still mired in Brexit bull, it’s hard to muster the disbelief such a result should produce. We can only sit in stunned silence once again, watching someone else muck up for a change.
The parallels, like the consequences, are hard to ignore. Impossible promises, biased media, fake news, unpleasant politicians, drama and dare we say it, overreactions have plagued them both. And much like Brexit, the future of the US under Trump is confused at best.
So what’s to be done, if anything? When even the experts are unsure, how is Joe Public supposed to forge through the filth and unpleasant politicians to find a solution? There’s no easy answer, but there are certainly some starting steps we desperately need to take to survive the Trumps and Farages of this new and rather scary world.
Word has already started to spread about fake news: kind of ironic really, but it’s a big issue. All of us have to open our eyes and ears to the media we thoughtlessly consume. Studies from Reuters show that 33% of UK residents surveyed get their news from unregulated social media. The US were higher at 48%, but it’s a concerning state of affairs. When you barely believe Janine from secondary school’s claims about an upcoming promotion, why on earth would you credit unchecked news that has life-changing potential?
And changing it is – whilst Zuckerberg desperately tries to downplay Facebook’s influence, Trump has claimed the site helped him win. With further figures showing that those accessing social media news spend far less time than others actually reading the stories, we’re suddenly left with a new age of headline hacks. We demand a worldview in one sentence and wonder how we get things so incredibly wrong.
Which brings the fight to our turf and one of Britain’s time-honoured traits – apathy. We enjoy our curmudgeonly, don’t-care attitude: we’ve made indifference into an art form. When things don’t go our way, we storm and shout but quickly lapse back into grumbling about the immediate issues of train delays, weather and price of flat whites. It may be far easier for Londoners to mouth off about tourists than deal with Boris’s still-stinging betrayal, but it gets us nowhere.
Engaging with important news and political change is a bit like doing taxes: unpleasant but absolutely vital. And like those tax returns, the longer we avoid the Brexit bandwagon, the more likely it’ll leave us financially fucked. Unfortunately, the Brexit drip-feed has become like Chinese water torture, with most of us simply switching off – don’t. Don’t let it wash away the determined fire we felt back in July. The issues are still just as real and consequential now as they were then, and both sides of a 50:50 need to be heard. Remainers need to stop crossing fingers and put them back on the pulse instead.
This is where we come in. Londoners are known across the country as grumpy gits. If I had a pound for every time that accusation was levelled at me, I might actually afford to live here. But while I resent it, it’s pretty true. Londoners love being angry – it gives us energy. But it’s high-time we channeled our irritations and got involved again. No more talk of secession and emigration, however satirically they may be suggested. If all the anti-Trump, pro-EU figures buggered off, we’d be leaving world power in terrifying (and in Trumps case, tiny) hands.
We may be an island in a sea of Brexiteers, but London has long been a leader. Where we go, others follow: from fashion and arts to philanthropy and technology. London’s always at the forefront and I don’t believe it’s any different in politics. In light of July, it’s time the capital city takes back that leadership mantle and represent the 48%. Say goodbye to May, Farage, Clinton and Trump – it’s our turn to step up and lead others into a future we all fear to tread.
The post Trump, Brexit and the British Mentality: Where do we go from here? appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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