The whole Brexit fiasco from beginning to end has proven a few things.
1 You don't need a dictatorship to oppress people if you can fool them in to democratically voting against their own best interests by appealing to their worst instincts and proclivities, so that they will oppress themselves by common consent.
2 The "big lie" still works, people will accept the most outrageous untruths if you convince them no one would ever go to so much trouble to posit and defend something so blatantly and obviously false.
3 People will not only accept the consequences of their own stupidity they will even deny it, if the only alternative is to admit your own mistakes and look like the fool you have been.
4 A determined politician can pass off false brinkmanship and stubbornness as bravery and strength if you can be sure people are to lazy to check up on the facts.