SNIP
Thanks, good read that and I enjoyed it.
Last week I tackled my working class scouser Tory Dad again, following the "People's Vote" march and showed him the Heseltine speech on my phone, hoping that it would strike a chord with him. He was aware that Churchill always wanted a united Europe and the other historical references, he isn't stupid. I then pointed out some home truths to him, mostly from spending a couple of hours reading articles but also from information gained in this forum - thanks this is an amazing forum full of well informed, intelligent posters (Apart from BIG DICK NICK).
Some of the facts that I pointed out, which completely shocked him:-
The referendum was advisory.
Theresa May's government has been found guilty of Contempt of Parliament (First in history).
You don't get free trade with the EU without freedom of movement.
ANY trade deal with the EU comes at a cost.
etc., the list continued.
He said that I sounded like a lawyer, when in reality, I've only spent a few hours reading things and that's the problem, people are just too lazy to find things out and rely on being spoon fed by bias media. I pointed out that he is being led by the far right and asked him for one single advantage of leaving the EU. He didn't want to be ruled by France/Germany and his language soon degenerated into racist terms, I told him to stop using that language and called him a racist, which he said he wasn't? I also pointed out to him, how shall I put this, that some of the terminology he used wasn't actually referring to a European race - get that!
I haven't shown it, but I've been pretty upset about it since, mainly because I'm embarrassed by somebody I've always respected. In reflection, I've been thinking about the reasons for the outburst, I don't think he is actually a racist and it was a kickback to me being such a smart arse, you know actually doing a bit of research. However the thing that really scares me is the fact that suddenly normal working class people are coming out with such extreme language AND its becoming acceptable. The current UK climate and parallels with Nazi Germany mentioned in this thread are striking, this is how it starts by making racism mainstream and acceptable.
I think it may be time for me to start exploring opportunities abroad if this is a taste of things to come.