Rebutting Remain: the 7 biggest attacks on democracy (and why they're wrong)

The political earthquake that was Brexit has since turned into Biblical Apocalypse in the minds of the losers. The same people who backed David Cameron and his warning that the outcome must be respected have had a distinct change of heart since it transpired the bookies, exit polls and general consensus were wrong yet again.

The reasons for the shocking outcome have been scrutinised in several sources, with Peter Hitchens perhaps proving the most insightful. But as Britain tries to move forward and let the outcome sink in, the disgruntled minority have returned to form by spreading several myths, half-truths, emotional blackmail and - in at least some cases - downright lies in a desperate bid to find any excuse any excuse to ignore democracy and get what they want. Let's review the propaganda:

• 1) "Many" , "Some", "Reports suggest" (choose which weasel words you prefer) have admitted they did not know what Brexit was and now regret voting for it. 
  
  
• (Sometimes this nonsense is accompanied by a google analysis showing that searches for "What is the EU?" hit a high after the outcome.)

This is the biased sample fallacy. Seventeen million people voted for Brexit. The media has managed to pull up a single-digit number of confused voters on the Brexit side, without checking the opposition vote.  The sources have used this 1/17,000,000 fraction to represent the entire Brexit vote. These are probably the same sources who would be first to rightly scream "racist" at anyone who suggested one Muslim terrorist represented all Muslims. The google searches show us nothing except that a lot of people - we have no idea of their age, gender, nationality, political preference or favourite underwear colour - searched for information about the EU after the poll.

• 2)  Old people voted for something younger people have to live with ( circumstantial ad hominem )

This is probably the most unintentionally revealing complaint, as it exposes contempt for older voters. The professed shock at the revelation that pensioners and millenials have different views is either phony or born of ignorance. Did anyone expect seventysomethings and twentysomethings to see the world similarly? Did the same outcry occur when the Conservatives - the traditional party of old folk - won the last election, breaking the hearts of the Labour youth?

Yes, younger voters will have to live with the decision because more elders voted Leave than youngsters voted Remain, it's called "Democracy". What's the objection? Are younger voters wiser? More knowledgeable? Do they deserve to have more say in world affairs than people who have experienced real life for longer than they have? When considered carefully, this complaint is nothing but an ad-hominem attack against a demographic of society. Again the same sources would be screaming from the rooftops if the same type of argument focused on a religious or non-white ethnic group.

• 3) We should have a second referendum because the result was so close (special pleading)

And if Remain won the second referendum, would there be a third?
The online petition reached three million signatures, which is less than a quarter of the Leave vote, and was also found to have at least 17,000 fake signatures which renders it highly dubious.

And by the way, the vote wasn't close, there was a majority of one million.

• 4) This is a victory for racism , Fascism, hate, isolation (choose any other slur that fits) (ad-hominem)

Sometimes accompanied by a set of apocryphal reports on Twitter of someone saying "I heard someone says Romanians go home" etc. ( guilt by association )

The reason the viral reports of people saying unpleasant, discriminatory things is so popular is because it makes the losers feel vindicated - they are the superior intellect and better human being. What's interesting from these rumours is that none of them I've seen has anyone actually confirmed a police report has been made, and making racially-hostile comments is a criminal offence in the UK. Of course, making a false police report is a criminal offence in itself. Have a few people made nasty comments? Probably. In any large city in the world you're likely to find at least a tiny number of xenophobic people. When Leave campaigner Boris Johnson arrived at his office after the result was announced, he was booed, abused and a tiny number of people threw things at him. Pretty sure that we could compile a Twitter wall of these things, too.

• 5) "What about the foreign people working here or Brits living abroad"

Leave said before, during and after the poll that any changes in laws would not be retroactive. End of.

• 6) "Vote Leave lied/spread fear" (ad hominem again )

The 5 million slogan was a little risqué, it didn't account for the rebate. It's true.
Meanwhile, Remain discussed World War 3, economic Armageddon, used the American President to deliver a possibly scripted threat, shamelessly and deliberately exploited the brutal murder of a good person and a colleague, exploited celebrities, sent out based leaflets, and allowed stereotypes of Brexiters as skinhead thugs.

• 7) This has caused the economic crash (appeal to belief )

The economic crash that wasn't and was never reported as such by any media source that had any knowledge of economics. It was rightly reported as a very sharp drop. The kind of sharp drop that occurs in any nation when there's a serious, unexpected event. Speculators cash in, they always have done and always will, it's the founding principle of stock markets.

The richest few were the biggest losers, the pound was not. The FTSE is recovering. Will there be some blips? Probably.

Then again, perhaps our market will drop and never pick up. Perhaps we'll suddenly become a nation of Fascists, pick up guns and attack every nation in Europe, while signing songs about Hitler and expressing hatred of all the foreigners that we see. On the other hand, perhaps things will carry on very much as normal, with the only difference being that we have a stronger level of soveignty, a court that has legal supremacy, greater freedom to spend our own income, more leverage with FTAs and the chance to employ skilled and qualified workers from across the commonwealth and knowledge that we know who are leaders are and, if necessary, how to get rid of them.

If you're so sure it's the former, go to the bookies and place your bets. Maybe they'll call it right this time.