Yank's View: Exposing Lies of Fear Campaign Reason "No Deal" Brexit Is Resisted

We've seen these scare tactics before. They are used to manipulate public opinion and must be exposed!

Y2K, another in a long line of baseless fears!

In 1999 I was assigned to write a cover story on the looming Y2K apocalypse.  Remember that?  Computer chips would go berserk when at the dawn of the new millennium the two digit code for the year flipped from "99" for 1999 to "00" for 2000.  Everything with a chip in it might cease to function. Planes could fall from the sky, safety controls in nuclear power plants might cease to function. Your bank account would be zeroed out.

Of course none of that happened.  The fearmongers claimed it was because they warned you in time so you could update your computer chips.  But we all know that is totally bogus. Even with older hardware life went on.

At least the Y2K scare was not used to promote a political agenda. Unfortunately, those kinds of scares are more common.  Over the last 30 years how many times have we been told we have just ten years to get serious about global warming or we are all doomed? And every year we're told is the hottest on record.  We should all be fried by now.  The sky is falling crowd uses fear of a climate apocalypse to promote their radical vision of a green utopia. Dystopia more like it!

In party politics recall how the left insisted Reagan's strong stand against the Soviets would result in nuclear war. Remember the movie about nuclear winter?  But when Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot and the nuclear threat vanished those same folks refused to give him creditor admit they were wrong.

Before the 2016 presidential election in the United States Dems predicted that a Trump win would mean an immediate crash of the stock market and the economy.  Even with the recent correction the market is still well above what it was when Obama was President.

You get the point. Fearmongering is a common tactic used to manipulate the public.  Despite the number of times these fears have been proved groundless the tactic continues.

No Deal Brexit Best Deal?

Here I have to admit I was wrong. When the fear campaign to convince British voters to remain in the European Union failed I thought that was the end of it.  The Brits would just get on with it and everything would work be tickety-boo.  But just as in the U.S. where anti-Trump hysteria increased after he was elected, a political movement showed that there were people who would say anything to overturn the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box.

So now here we are two and a half years since the vote and the fear campaign not only continues but intensifies as the deadline for Brexit approaches in a few weeks. Imagine if the people who have spent all this time "remoaning" about their loss in the referendum had instead directed that energy towards working out the logistical challenges. But no, fearmongering is a hard habit to break.

Instead of acting on the instructions of the British people expressed through the referendum vote Prime Minister Theresa May sought to appease the remoaners and bureaucrats in Brussels with an exit plan that was rejected initially by many of her own cabinet colleagues and ultimately in a historic humiliating parliamentary defeat.  After witnessing that slow train wreck I have little faith in her to come up with a "plan B."

It is entirely possible that the only way forward will be a hard Brexit.  Would that be so bad?  Certainly there would be some challenges but does anyone really believe that calamity will ensue?  Scaremongers warn there will be no food or drugs. The Channel Tunnel will close and contact with the continent will grind to a halt.  Would remaining members of the E.U. really want to cut off sales to one of their largest markets?  Hardly.

Common sense is usually the first victim of a fear campaign. But as Abraham Lincoln once said "you can't fool all of the people all the time."  Common sense appears to be alive and well at least in some British circles.  Watch this:

No doubt the fearmongers will fight tooth and nail to avoid a hard Brexit. Not because it's a terrible idea but more because it exposes the lies they have told to manipulate the people and undermine democracy. It's the same sad story in the U.S. with Trump. Once you sell your soul to hate and fear you can't stop!