@Kbdank71 LOL! Frustrating, isn't it? I hate when they continue to insist that I'm still "spiritual" and religious. (Gag me with a spoon)

@KateZilla Ugh indeed. And they always sound do smug when they say it.

no one I know talks about religion at all and I know a lot of people.

I echo everything Nicole says here. To be honest, despite a few hiccups in the middle ages, religion never really universally took in UK. I think we are a set of dye in the wool heathens.

Brexit voters are also being demonised in the same way trans people and atheists are in the Bible belt.

@Ellatynemouth You can't claim 52% of the vote and to be like an abused minority at the same time. Come back when someone's been murdered for voting leave. Plenty of people have been murdered for being transgender.

@NicoleCadmium

Do you live in the United Kingdom? Yes or no?

I know some good, decent people who voted Brexit for various reasons. I voted to leave the EU because of 'Article 106'. (Do you know what that is?)

I have fought against racism and bigotry my whole life and never have I been so wrongfully demonised by the mainstream media.

If you live in the UK you will know what it feels like be be demonised for voting Brexit.

You have lazily tarred all Brexit voters with the same brush in the same way a transphobe pigeonholes trans people.

That would be this article: [independent.co.uk]

@girlwithsmiles

Thank you.

@Ellatynemouth "You have tarred all Brexit voters with the same brush." I have done nothing of the sort. How do you get that from "Brexit fueled xenophobia?" No mention of the people who voted for it, just the fact that it's happening and one of the obvious consequences.

I don't directly blame people who voted Leave for this issue. Over fishing rights; over Poles coming over here stealing their jobs (even though crops are now rotting in fields because Brits won't work for the kind of money the Poles were being paid); over fears of where the EU is taking us in the future (though I feel a little sorry for those who were suckered by some of the Leave campaign's lies.) However, the result has given the racists and homophobes validation for their views, and this was very clear in the escalation of hate crime immediately after the result.

What seems to have changed since the result (perhaps coincidentally, but I doubt it) is that these people feel that they've got their voice back. It was their turn to go into their closets, because their extremist views were no longer welcome. Now they (falsely) believe that just over half of the country agrees with them.

I assume from your stance that you voted Leave. I'm sure you didn't vote for any of this, but you need to accept that it's happening as a consequence of the way you voted.

@NicoleCadmium

I get that from "Brexit fueled xenophobia".

You cannot conflate the Brexit vote with racism and xenophobia without offending some people.

I seem to recall the Conservative government sending out their 'immigrants go home' lorries to drive around the country. The same government who sent households booklets urging us to vote Remain.

I did not vote for racism and xenophobia.

@Ellatynemouth If you choose to be offended, then that's up to you. No derision was intended towards the typical Leave voter. Most xenophobes voted Leave. It doesn't follow that most people who voted Leave are xenophobes. Unfortunately, that's the bit that the xenophobic Leave voters don't get - they now think over half of the country is on their side.

To paraphrase an old cliché: Some of my best friends are Leave voters. I'm not one of those who cut all ties with anyone I knew who voted differently to me.

I don't know why you're now conflating something about illegal immigrants with something about legal ones. Most countries' governments expect you to enter the country via legitimate immigration means and to either leave before your travel documents expire, or to obtain new ones if you wish to stay.

@NicoleCadmium

I think anyone who is labelled a racist and xenophobe by association would be offended, including yourself.

I'm sorry, but I have to block you.

I don't want to "Like" Nicole's post...because I agree with her Brexit has brought out something I had hoped was becoming a non-factor in the British public sphere. Of course, we are dealing with the same thing over here. I don't like it. But I agree with everything she said about it. While not all Trump voters voted for him out of racism/xenophobia, pretty much all racists and xenophobes voted for Trump and these racist people have felt much more empowered to be public with their racism. I have family and friends who are Trump supporters. I recognize that all are not the same or were motivated by racism (politics here is so tribal that Rs and Ds will usually support a pot of paste if it has the right party listed on the ballot), but the impact on public displays of overt racism and xenophobia of the Trump movement has been undeniable, and of course, Trump and Nigel Farage are great admirers of each other, and I definitely find Nigel Farage to be pretty damn racist, too.

Not sure what's happened here. All of @Ellatynemouth's posts have disappeared. At least for me. Has she flounced? Or has she blocked me, and that's what happens on here when someone does?

@Palacinky I think you need to hold me to blame for that. I mentioned the article, and @girlwithsmiles simply found the link.

I think the article is fairly transparent. It is tracking the percentage of people who feel same sex relationships are wrong, in surveys over a number of years. So not strictly LGBT as a whole, but the figure is indicative of overall sentiment towards those who deviate from cishetero. The article appears to conclude that we've reached the limits of what
achieved through education, and hit what's likely a brick wall of religious and cultural values. So basically good old turn of the 20th Century homophobia that Britain seeded in the colonies is now coming back to bite its LGBT+ citizens now.

Meanwhile, we have the current trans panic in the newspapers, and the shift in politics to the right (Brexit and Trump) that has people believing it's okay to air and act upon bigoted views, rather than keeping them to themselves. So even those who wouldn't have dared speak out until recently are finding their voices now.

So 'peak acceptance' makes perfect sense to me. And yes, I'm concerned that we might have passed it.

@Palacinky Good point. Perhaps we've hit (and passed) a peak, but not the ultimate peak. Who can predict where things will go next?

The biggest problem with the Brexit referendum was that most people didn't have a clue what they were voting for. That's why we should have a second one, now that people have a better grasp of the consequences.

@Palacinky I only added it because it related to the comment above, so no skin off my nose if you don't like it!

In Britain we say "couldn't care less" which is technically more correct.

@Gareth It's only more correct if your version is what they meant in the first place ?

@daddy2two ..which it invariably is.

@Gareth thank you so very much for correcting my English. I know what sticklers you Brita are when it comes to the Queens english. keep working hard to support her...

@springlover It's not a correction so much as a cultural variant - like saying "math" when it's clearly "maths".