Althouse: "BRITISH LOSE RIGHT TO CLAIM THAT AMERICANS ARE DUMBER."

June 24, 2016

"BRITISH LOSE RIGHT TO CLAIM THAT AMERICANS ARE DUMBER."

Humor in The New Yorker... which also came up with this "silly walks" new cover by Barry Blitt:

81 comments:

Anonymous said...: Well I'll be gobsmacked!; 6/24/16, 4:58 PM
Tim Wright said...: And which is why I don't read the New Yorker anymore. Tim; 6/24/16, 5:08 PM
MadisonMan said...: I'm not sure how funny the line is. Humor that smacks of I'm-so-much-better-than-you is more tedious than funny.; 6/24/16, 5:11 PM
Michael said...: The arrogance and snobbery of the global Progressive elite are obscene. How have they been thinking regular people would react?; 6/24/16, 5:11 PM
Thuglawlibrarian said...: "Andy Borowitz is a New York Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998."

Is he really a comedian? I guess it is like art - there is bad art and there is good art. Borowitz is an unfunny comedian because he is so politically one-sided and just not very funny.; 6/24/16, 5:16 PM
Michael K said...: None of them have read "Bonfire of the Vanities." Instead they are characters in it.; 6/24/16, 5:18 PM
tam said...: There is a huge difference between "smarter" and "wiser". And those running the world aren't showing much evidence of wisdom, are they?; 6/24/16, 5:19 PM
CWJ said...: MadisonMan,

Agreed.; 6/24/16, 5:21 PM
CWJ said...: It has the what's the matter with Kansas vibe.; 6/24/16, 5:22 PM
Anonymous said...: OK. That is funny. Lighten up America, isn't it nice to see the Brits trip over their dicks?; 6/24/16, 5:22 PM
WVFarmLife said...: It mystifies me how progressives think. I've been trying to figure it out forever, and yet I fail.

But let's take this as an example. Somehow I'm pretty sure, without actually knowing anything about the author of this New Yorker piece, that the author hasn't really thought through or dealt with the issues of Brexit and in particular that he's more or less unfamiliar with the reasoning of those that wanted to leave. And if by some miracle he actually has heard some of the arguments made, he's mostly failed to personally think through and address them.

And yet he's totally confident in the justice of his judgement and condemnation.

I say this because in so many cases where I know more about the progressive I'm arguing with, this proves to be the situation.

I'll repeat below an argument I made earlier today, and most of it will be stuff that progressives in America are unfamiliar with. And even if they do hear it, I will predict that they will substantially fail to address it in any logical and rational way.

---

I struggle to understand the logic of those British voters who voted to remain. Or of outside observers that think Britain should have stayed part of the EU.

Remaining would mean rejecting the belief that people should have any say in what their government does, since EU representatives, the only part of the EU government that is elected, have only marginal power.

Remaining would mean rejecting the idea that people should be able to say what they believe, since the EU wants to make it a criminal offense to criticize the EU or certain particular beliefs that are EU approved.

Remaining would mean rejecting the idea that one is not a criminal unless the government has made it's case that you are (to a jury) because the EU has adopted Napoleonic law and under the Napoleonic law if you are accused by the government you are considered guilty unless and until you can persuade the government you are not.

Remaining would mean accepting bureaucratic authority over every tiny detail of your life and the products you buy and almost every thing you do, because the EU bureaucracy in the relatively short time it has been in existence has been creating intrusive regulations at an extraordinary pace.

Remaining would mean accepting that within twenty-five years that the majority of the people in Britain would be Muslim because the EU is a proponent of Muslim immigration into Europe and there are countless millions of Muslims in the Middle East and Africa who are eager to move to Europe and escape the economic wasteland that most Muslims live in.

Remaining would mean accepting sharia law because virtually all Muslims believe in it, including those who have already lived in Britain for a generation. (I suggest looking up what it means because it's too long to list, but for many people it would be a living nightmare.)

Remaining would mean staying in an alleged free trade zone that penalizes trade in the very areas that Britain is strongest in and in a zone where economically year after year Britain gets the short end of the stick. In fact at an accelerating pace so that last year Britain's trade gap with the rest of Europe was the largest that it has ever been. (Although Britain is one of the stronger economies of the world, it's growth has been both within itself and with non-EU trade partners. Joining the EU hasn't meant an expansion of British goods sold to Europe, it has meant a shrinkage.)

I cannot understand the thinking of those who voted to Remain. They have almost entirely failed to present a positive case for remaining a part of the EU. I don't know if they think these thoughts above and then reject them or perhaps are more likely to censor the thoughts in the pre-conscience so they don't have to be dealt with at all.

The thinking behind Remain to the extent that it has been voiced at all seems largely to be insults directed at those that favor leaving.; 6/24/16, 5:31 PM
n.n said...: The anti-native faction adds insult to injury. And they wonder why the People are handing them their pink slips.; 6/24/16, 5:33 PM
Wince said...: When it comes to the Brexit...

"My nipples explode with delight!"; 6/24/16, 5:33 PM
Etienne said...: “This is a dark day,” he said. “But I hold out hope that, come November, Americans could become dumber than us once more.”

Wow, that was a brutal attack on Mrs. Clinton.; 6/24/16, 5:54 PM
Fernandinande said...: The wit and wisdom of Alistair Dorrinson, a pub owner in North London.; 6/24/16, 5:57 PM
robother said...: "Is he really a comedian?" The 21st Century is providing rich veins of unintentional humor from the non-self aware hipsters of the late 20th. Kind of like watching Shecky Greene on Ed Sullivan when I was waiting to see the Stones.; 6/24/16, 6:01 PM
mockturtle said...: My husband and I subscribed to the New Yorker for years, until about 1990, I think. It changed from a sophisticated, clever publication to a smutty and second-rate one. I saved many of the old cartoons and 'Block that Metaphor' features so I could chuckle over them later. Nostalgia.; 6/24/16, 6:05 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Apt cover actually. It shows the British ministries walking blindly off the Brexit cliff, all the while denying it was there and that they were headed for it. If the UK government had any gumption (can they have that, in the UK, or is it banned under some EU trade reg?) they'd have been able to steer away from the cliff by positive action directed at the welfare of their current citizens (oops.) instead of bowing to Merkel et alia.; 6/24/16, 6:13 PM
Kevin said...: You know who's really stupid? Anyone who "knows" today what the eventual outcome of Brexit will be.

No one knows all the good things and bad things which will happen. No one can say today whether the pros will outweigh the cons, and for which groups, and over what time period.

The fools are not the people who voted for Brexit. They recognized uncertainty and took a courageous risk. No, the fools are the people who wrote this article, made this cover, and approved it for publication.

THEY are the fools. They are the ones at which we should be laughing.; 6/24/16, 6:15 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Remember, it was the Ministry of Silly Walks, not the Pub Owners of Silly Walks, or the Yorkshire Farmers of Silly walks.; 6/24/16, 6:16 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: I spent some time in the UK in '73, before all this EU stuff. It seemed an OK place then, even without Brussels or Strasbourg being mentioned in the Times every day. Guy I was visiting, though ( research pilot for the UK equivalent of NASA) was already concerned, and not too long thereafter bailed out to France, where his awkward gangly son (just like me) met and married a bee-u-tee-ful french maid and produced a bevy of lovlies (not just like me). Sorry, did I get sidetracked?; 6/24/16, 6:20 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Fred Drinkwater said...
"...met and married a bee-u-tee-ful french maid and produced a bevy of lovlies (not just like me). Sorry, did I get sidetracked?"

Don't worry: I'll finish that story.

I am Laslo.; 6/24/16, 6:27 PM
MadisonMan said...: Remember, it was the Ministry of Silly Walks, not the Pub Owners of Silly Walks, or the Yorkshire Farmers of Silly walks.

Excellent Point. If bureaucrats want to walk off a cliff, who am I to stop them?

So in retrospect, the cover is brilliant, just not the way the New Yorker meant it to be, I'm guessing.; 6/24/16, 6:27 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: LonelyWebcamGirl15:

So I got an email from someone who I think is in England! I always have wanted to go to England, and just -- you know -- be there in England where it's all England-y...

Anyway, he says:

"LonelyWebcamGirl15, my American Rose! From the land of Uncle Ben and the Thames and English tea cookies I send you the Splendorous Colour of My Heart!"

See?! He spelled 'color' with a 'u'! How England! Should I take off my pajama top?

I LOOOOOOVE a British accent: it is SOOOOO Romantic. It's even better than the French, because I can understand what the English guys are saying.

Don't get me wrong, my American fans: I love you, too! I know American boys are BAD-ASS!!!!

I don't play favorites among my viewers: EVERYONE is my favorite, as long as you're not overly Muslim or Mexican. Do you like my bra? I love the little pink hearts on it, it makes me think of when I was a little girl: should I bend over?

And meanwhile, did anyone read the poem I wrote? Anyone?

Anyone?

I am Laslo.; 6/24/16, 6:48 PM
Michael said...: The New Yorker employs the strategy that seems to be winning the world over: call your voters stupid! Ignore their complaints!
Funny all the way down; 6/24/16, 6:53 PM
David Begley said...: Just another ad hominem attack by the Left. If one doesn't agree with the Left you are either an idiot or a hater.

That's all they've got.; 6/24/16, 6:59 PM
readering said...: Imagine the New Yorker cover was inspired by the Guardian Headlines:

Brexit panic wipes $2 trillion off world markets - as it happened
World markets have slumped in Europe, America and Asia, as economists predict that Brexit vote will push UK into recession
Moody’s puts UK on negative outlook
Wall Street suffers biggest fall in 10 months
European markets battered after Brexit vote
Bank of England pledges £250bn liquidity
Pound hit 31-year low this morning; 6/24/16, 7:04 PM
Clyde said...: Our "betters" have spoken, bless their hearts. They just know that some unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat is better able to make decisions for people than they are for themselves. What will those poor Brits do without Eurocrats in Brussels to regulate their behavior? How will they live without more and more diversity being crammed down their throats? I suppose we shall find out.; 6/24/16, 7:05 PM
Big Mike said...: @Michael, that's the mysterious thing isn't it? Once upon a time losing a big election was cause for the politicians on the losing side to do some soul searching and figure what went wrong -- and how to do better next time. But in 2016 the idea seems to be to tell the voters how bloody stupid they are. This won't end well.; 6/24/16, 7:08 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: I was only mildly interested in Brexit and then I saw the photos of Bob Geldof and his band of luvvies giving the finger to poor fisherman who want to leave the EU because the over-regulation is killing their livelihood. Like Mrs. Jelleby, Sir "We Are the World" had a great deal of compassion for poor Ethiopians in the '80's but not so much for struggling people closer to home. (LiveAid actually did very little for the people it was supposed to help, but hey, to Leftists, it's the intention that matters, not the results. Not that the results were bad where Sir Bob was concerned. It made the former lead singer of a fairly obscure Irish punk band far more famous than the band ever did, so by Geldof's standards, it was a great success.)

The photo of a pack of rich, privileged rock stars and hangers-on jeering and mocking people who make 50 pounds a week doing a dangerous and physically demanding job perfectly sums up what the modern left is, what they have become. They're a very long way from Walker Evans and "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," aren't they? Why, it's almost like they don't really care about the poor at all and see them solely as political pawns.

After that, I was very happy to see "Leave" win.; 6/24/16, 7:10 PM
Tari said...: Brits voted for self-governance and a measure of autonomy. Last time I checked US history, those are supposed to be concepts we're familiar with. I'd like to know how all the outraged American progs (including the ones on my Facebook page) explain the Revolutionary War to their children.; 6/24/16, 7:11 PM
Gahrie said...: I'd like to know how all the outraged American progs (including the ones on my Facebook page) explain the Revolutionary War to their children.

The bad guys won.

They've been trying to "fix" things for 200 years.; 6/24/16, 7:21 PM
David said...: Looks like a goose step to me. Brits are like Hitler.; 6/24/16, 7:43 PM
Anonymous said...: EU fans seem to have undergone a battlefield conversion to the idea that anything which reduces GDP by a few percent (assuming that to be the case here) is automatically a bad idea. This interests me because real per-capita income in the UK is, and has been for a long time, about 30% less than in the US, with the other EU nations generally not much better or even worse. If the US alone were to have another Great Depression and see its economy shrink by a quarter, it would still be richer than the UK-- yet I've been hearing all my life that the difference is no big deal.; 6/24/16, 7:45 PM
rcocean said...: "Looks like a goose step to me. Brits are like Hitler."

Well, yeah. To liberals everything is like Hitler.; 6/24/16, 7:52 PM
rcocean said...: Dull insult humor. Just what I would expect.

Like almost all of our "culture", the New Yorker has really gone downhill.

One day, its full of people like William Shawn, Kael, Drew, and Herbert Warren Wind, and next thing you know its full of a bunch of guys called Gopnik.; 6/24/16, 7:55 PM
khesanh0802 said...: Insufferable assholes at the New Yorker prove once again that they understand neither ordinary people or their interests.; 6/24/16, 8:04 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: Gahrie:

"I'd like to know how all the outraged American progs (including the ones on my Facebook page) explain the Revolutionary War to their children."

The bad guys won.

They've been trying to "fix" things for 200 years.

There's actually a good, if unintentional, parallel here. Back in the 1770's, if our economists were modelling the short-term economic impact of independence, they'd probably have come out exactly where we are with British independence -- short-term economic pain, recession, devaluation of the currency. And that's exactly what happened.

Economically, the Revolution was a disaster, albeit one that opened up huge economic opportunities a generation or so later. But I doubt that would have deterred the secessionist movement in the US. Independence wasn't about getting rich. The hated Tea Act actually reduced the price of tea to the US consumer. The Americans rebelled on the principle that they ought to be the ones deciding what the taxes were, even if remaining in the Empire meant they got cheaper goods and better access to markets.

I'll be honest -- I probably would not have supported the rebels in the war of independence. But it's a bit rich for Americans to chastise the British (well, mostly the English and the Welsh) for being so stupid as to choose independence because they might lose some money. Americans, of all people, should appreciate that money is not always a fair trade for self-determination.

("Freedom", I would say -- the "freedom" sought by every national liberation movement -- only that would only confuse the issue, since we tend to conflate "freedom" with classical liberal/libertarian notions of freedom, and are then surprised when newly free peoples then pass repressive laws.); 6/24/16, 8:09 PM
khesanh0802 said...: @WVFarmlife. Excellent analysis!; 6/24/16, 8:12 PM
Darrell said...: The New Yorker--How dare the Brits choose freedom over Leftist rule!; 6/24/16, 8:12 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: "Blogger Kevin said...
You know who's really stupid? Anyone who "knows" today what the eventual outcome of Brexit will be."
Some people believe that economics are like the laws of physics -- always invariable, producing the same results from the same inputs, again and again, forever. Economics is about human values. That is why it is a branch of the humanities. Somewhere in the US, there is a man who lost his $25/hr job to outsourcing or to an H1B, and is now trying to make a living with two part-time minimum wage jobs. Repeating "Smoot Hawley" to them over and over ain't going to get his vote.; 6/24/16, 8:21 PM
Joe said...: Do these people think that Europe didn't start until 1993? Are they also aware that Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are not members of the EU?; 6/24/16, 8:25 PM
Static Ping said...: Political comedians tend to be lazy. "The other side is stupid" school of comedy can work and it can work really well if you do your homework, but a lot of the comics don't want to go to that effort so they just throw out insults. If you are lucky, they at least try to be clever about it. When it comes to politics half the audience is going to be suspicious at the start, so it is just easier to throw raw meat to your favored side and then collect the praises. It is especially easy when the "elite" class is supporting you. Frankly, its embarrassing.

Yeah, talk about zero research. Useless government ministers are walking off the cliff like idiots, and that impeaches the voters how exactly?; 6/24/16, 8:35 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Fred Drinkwater,
Agreed - that skit was mocking the excessive bureaucracy of the British system.; 6/24/16, 8:35 PM
Lyle said...: Trump is going to be the next President. Ah... establishment types have no wisdom.; 6/24/16, 8:49 PM
Achilles said...: The revolution continues. Let us all hope it remains peaceful as it is so far.; 6/24/16, 8:50 PM
virgil xenophon said...: khesanh0802@8:12pm/

VERY much agree. Who is this guy named WVFarmLife and where has he been? Is he some kind of ringer? :); 6/24/16, 8:55 PM
Michael K said...: "I say this because in so many cases where I know more about the progressive I'm arguing with, this proves to be the situation."

They don;t know what they don;t know. Those who have been in other countries tend to be ignorant of economics.

Most have little contact with other cultures and rely on biased accounts by fellow leftists.

Michael Crichton described this a few years ago,

The Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect:

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

— Michael Crichton; 6/24/16, 9:00 PM
David said...: Balfegor makes an interesting and accurate point about the economic risks involved in the American Revolution and the parallel to Brexit. One difference, however, is that the American Revolution was lead by the American elites, not a reaction against them.; 6/24/16, 9:14 PM
mockturtle said...: Michael K: Excellent excerpt from Crichton. Spot on!; 6/24/16, 9:15 PM
Tari said...: Gahrie said "The bad guys won." That has to be one of the last things I want to believe that someone would think, even a complete left-wing progressive, but I know it's true. In fact, my older son found himself defending the Revolution in 8th grade history class several years ago, when the teacher had the children vote and "revolt" almost lost. I was used to public education at that point, but that still gob-smacked me. We've since moved him and his brother to parochial schools; things like that do get to you eventually.

Balfegor, interesting! The worst commenter I saw on Facebook today was not just whining that the Brits cost themselves some money, but that her portfolio was losing value as well. I guess the Brits should stay and keeping taking it from Brussels, just so some wealthy American leftist can buy a new summer home. SMDH.; 6/24/16, 9:25 PM
Known Unknown said...: (just like me) met and married a bee-u-tee-ful french maid

Pics or it didn't happen.; 6/24/16, 10:07 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Laslo: I actually groaned aloud at your threat :-)
(My kindle Autocorrected your name to "Padlock". Food for thought.)
EMD: Nick included a family photo when he sent me word of his dad's death, but sadly for you all it has not resurfaced after my house move. I will admit to a short bout of drooling, however, as part compensation.; 6/24/16, 10:31 PM
J. Farmer said...: Don't you just love the progressive liberal mindset? It prides itself on its openness, inclusion, and tolerance. Unless you disagree with established dogma. Then you're just an uneducated hick. A conservative, in other words. That might seem like a maddening simplification of the progressive mindset, but the sad thing is it isn't.; 6/24/16, 10:38 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Michael K:

"None of them have read "Bonfire of the Vanities." Instead they are characters in it."

Sooooo true. You cannot really appreciate modern racial politics without digesting that book. Ignore the godawful Brian De Palma film adaptation and go right to the source material. It's Wolfe's second greatest work after The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.; 6/24/16, 10:42 PM
mockturtle said...: It's Wolfe's second greatest work after The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

I would put Bonfire first and The Right Stuff second.; 6/24/16, 11:11 PM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: For the past couple of years, democrat party members of my family have been buying me subscriptions to the New Yorker. For the first year or so I gave it a read, but I got sick of the relentless and ubiquitous insults, jabs and thumbs-in-the-eye aimed at republicans, conservatives, Christians, et al. I don't even look at the cover these days, I just give it to my octogenarian democrat neighbor who's still shaking her fist at Nixon.; 6/24/16, 11:18 PM
David Begley said...: Bonfires, Back to Blood, A Man in Full and I am Charlotte Simmons.; 6/24/16, 11:31 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Mockturtle:

The Right Stuff second.

Saw the movie but never read the book [I guess that makes me a little presumptuous for rating Wolfe's work, but there you have it]. I've simply never been that interested in the space program or astronauts.

I am probably to partial to Electric Kool-Aid because as a young teen I was particularly obsessed with the period of the late 1960s (I was born in the early 1980s). Rethinking my position and judgment of that time period was a major step in moving me to the right during my late teen years.; 6/24/16, 11:33 PM
buwaya said...: I have hunted down everything Tom Wolfe ever wrote.
He does have some turkeys, especially the last, Back to Blood.
Charlotte Simmons wasnt that bad, and afaik quite accurate about its milieu, with a couple of misses.
Im afraid though that Wolfes time is past, the audience is no longer there for him.; 6/24/16, 11:59 PM
eddie willers said...: Believe it or not, but Marvel comics scribe Roy Thomas once wrote a Hulk story based on Wolfe's Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.

In the story (drawn by Herb Trimpe and John Severin), he placed Wolfe himself in the story as a guest/reporter at a benefit thrown at Leonard Bernstein's NY apartment for The Hulk instead of the Black Panthers. Pretty funny watching The Hulk scratching his head as the snobby rich liberals tried to hobnob with him. The kicker at the end of the story is that they are puffed up and full of themselves as they hand Hulk gobs of money. Of course, Hulk says, "Paper...what does Hulk do with paper?", throws down the cash and storms out leaving a Hulk shaped hole where to door used to be.

Anyway, Wolfe was book signing The Right Stuff at Rich's Department store at Lenox Square and when it became my turn, I asked him to sign my copy of The Hulk as well as his book. He didn't even know they had done the story and it tickled him pink (or Green, if we are staying with the motif); 6/25/16, 12:00 AM
virgil xenophon said...: For all those SUPER INTELLIGENT, SUPER GENIUS highly sophisticated "progs" that lament that the knuckle-dragging "leave" side "stupidly" cost themselves money I would ask if they've ever heard of that old saying: "Man does not live by bread alone." Alas a sentiment probably lost on those who think that those who volunteer for military service in their nations armed forces are naught but deluded semi-literate cannon-fodder.; 6/25/16, 12:02 AM
J. Farmer said...: @virgil xenophon:

"...I would ask if they've ever heard of that old saying: "Man does not live by bread alone."

It's interesting how certain issues have jumped the partisan barrier. It used to be people like Al Gore, John Kerry, and Barrack Obama who derided our "unfair" trade deals that "shipped jobs overseas." They each made bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US a plank in their campaign. Their primary ideological opponents were the libertarian wing of the Republican party that loved free trade deals. Bill Clinton coopted in the issue in his (in)famous triangulation strategy.

If it were possible to place Trump into any of the ideological camps of the Republican constituency, it is obvious that he would most comfortably fit with the paleoconservative wing. The Republican party during the second half of the 20th century came to be dominated by libertarian economics and social conservatism: a very uneasy alliance. Trump represents a departure from both of those positions.

One only need to look at the Brexit campaign on the other side of the Atlantic to see the same dynamic in play. David Cameron, the leader of the so called Conservative Part, is one of the most europhile politicians in Britain. Even Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was pretty lukewarm in his support for the EU. Meanwhile, a huge chunk of Labour MP's and Labour supporters in London became economic determinists overnight: primarily concerned with the value of the GBP and what big plutocratic institutions like the IMF and Goldman-Sachs thank about Brexit.

Just remember, Rubio ran on pretty much dismantling Medicare and starting about 3 wars, and the establishment media was tripping over themselves to anoint him the "moderate" alternative to Donald Trump, who was advocating saving SS and Medicare and being more reticent about foreign military adventurism. The Cold War-era coalition that defined the Republican party in the post-Goldwater era has crumbled, and Trump is in the process of building a new coalition.; 6/25/16, 1:24 AM
tim in vermont said...: It's minstrel show type comedy, the kind that makes bigots roar with laughter. There has always been a market for it. Unknown is just the latest of the cohort.; 6/25/16, 4:23 AM
tim in vermont said...: It is refreshing to see the Clinton drone trolls openly defending their masters at Wall Street and Goldman Sachs.

I wonder if they think that if we made Bernie unfettered dictator, if stocks would go up and banks would be happy?; 6/25/16, 4:30 AM
tim in vermont said...: This is what real change looks like. It may affect your stock portfolio!; 6/25/16, 4:31 AM
tim in vermont said...: I cannot understand the thinking of those who voted to Remain. They have almost entirely failed to present a positive case for remaining a part of the EU.

Almost like so many Hillary campaigners!; 6/25/16, 4:34 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Tom Wolfe.

I have never gotten over Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers. Those two articles shaped the way I have viewed the Left ever since. The analysis of which sort of domestic help is appropriate for right-on Upper East Siders is timeless. If The New Yorker were one-fifth as witty as New York magazine was in those days, it would be worth reading--but it isn't.; 6/25/16, 4:47 AM
tim in vermont said...: "Speaking truth to power" - So passé as to be déclassé.
"Speaking comfort to power" - The entire point of art and culture now.; 6/25/16, 5:02 AM
tim maguire said...: The smartest and most sophisticated analyses I've seen have come from people supporting Leave.

All I hear from the Remains is, "racist yob!"; 6/25/16, 5:16 AM
Karen of Texas said...: My daughter spent 2 years in England for school. She made a great many friends among the "young, pursuing Masters/PhD education set". She lived and "schooled" in a very multicultural area. Through Facebook she has maintained many of the relationships - and will be returning in July to attend the wedding of her son's godmother. Young. Cosmopolitan. College educated.

To a person this young set voted to remain. Every single one of them voted. And voted to remain. They reside in the London and surrounding areas - think the Oxford crowd.

My daughter was dismayed at the "leave" victory (even though I saved her a chunk of money for her travels. Buy pounds today, dear. ;) as well. Their main reason? And the large fear it is creating? The uncertainty of the breakup and the potential for it ... to lead to war. That's right. The EU has kept war at bay in Europe since WWII is their thinking. Following close on that was being able to travel, find jobs, and pursue education in basically a borderless "world". They are afraid of the potential for war and the shrinking of the job and education pool - and the increased difficulty in pursuing said jobs and education outside of the "bordered country". Apparently they thoroughly embrace no borders among that set.

I informed my daughter Europe was already at war. As are we.; 6/25/16, 7:06 AM
damikesc said...: I missed the quotes around "humor" in the headline there.

I love that Progs think the world is split up into people who agree with them and utter idiots.

My side doesn't have Congresspeople fearing a capsizing of an island due to too many troops being on it. My side doesn't have Reps who seem unable to park their cars.; 6/25/16, 7:11 AM
tim in vermont said...: The EU has kept war at bay in Europe since WWII is their thinking

Massive presence of US troops has kept war at bay on the blood drenched soil of that continent.; 6/25/16, 7:56 AM
RichardJohnson said...: I have another take on the cartoon- perhaps not the take the cartoonist intended. The British establishment voted to Remain. The British establishment has been sticking it to the ordinary Brit for years. Consider the legal problems one incurs in the UK in trying to defend oneself against a home invader. Consider the flood of immigrants.

This time the ordinary Brit stuck it to the British establishment, in voting to Leave. Muckety Mucks in the Labour Party have admitted that they have supported increased immigration with the intention of importing a new constituency. Yet ordinary native Brit areas that have been Labour constituencies voted to Leave. The cartoon is of the British establishment losing touch with its country, walking itself off a cliff.; 6/25/16, 9:03 AM
Largo said...: If these are the cliffs of Dover, the artist has them walking in the wrong direction.; 6/25/16, 9:03 AM
mikee said...: One must recall that Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks was a government agency, paying for grant recipients to improve the silliness of their perambulations.

The whole skit was a condemnation of government interference, at great expense, into every aspect of everyday life.

That the New Yorker does not understand that their cover shows a Cleese-like government bureaucrat performing a contortionist, impractical, government-funded stupidity of massive proportions as that taxpayer funded idiot high steps off a cliff is a perfect example of the elite not getting what the revolt against them is all about.

I, for one, WANT bureaucrats who perform useless wastes of taxpayer money to stop doing so, and if it takes them walking off a cliff, lemming like, then I say, on with the parade of twits!; 6/25/16, 12:51 PM
mockturtle said...: I, for one, WANT bureaucrats who perform useless wastes of taxpayer money to stop doing so, and if it takes them walking off a cliff, lemming like, then I say, on with the parade of twits!

Me, too, mikee! Maybe they could all be programmed to do something useful, like cleaning public toilets.; 6/25/16, 1:11 PM
ken in tx said...: New Yorker covers and cartoons are good reasons to visit a public library. They are not good reasons to subsidize the rest of their nonsense.; 6/25/16, 2:23 PM
PaoloP said...: They prefer the success of Venezuela.; 6/25/16, 3:49 PM
Joe said...: "The EU has kept war at bay in Europe since WWII is their thinking."

Funny how 1993 suddenly became 1945. (And never mind that the EEC was formed in 1957.); 6/25/16, 5:35 PM
tim in vermont said...: I will start actually reading the New Yorker when they start paying me $100 bucks an hour, or whatever therapist get, to read the poetry.; 6/25/16, 6:15 PM