The Tories have abandoned thought in favour of believing their own lies

[Soph0571]

Supporters of Brexit must believe that the impoverishment of the economy and the weakening of national security (which the right once fretted about) would be worth it because Brexit would bring national independence. Remainers say sovereignty would be at the expense of power. Every time the EU made a regulatory decision, Britain would have no choice but to go along with it or risk further damage to its economy. But whether Remainers believe we’ll be crawling back for a deal is irrelevant. Honest rightists must think that sovereignty or cuts in immigration make the belittlement of Britain worth while. Not one says so. Not one accepts trade-offs or admits they exist. It’s as if they don’t think at all.

We’ve reached the point where you cannot be honest and be on the right. Tory MPs who know the dangers the country faces keep quiet for fear of their constituency associations. In what the Conservative historian Tim Bale calls the “Tory party in the media”, you cannot find one commentator arguing against Brexit in the Express, Mail, Sun or Telegraph. As soon as you make your opposition clear, you are expelled. Tribalism is all, and to call the modern right anti-intellectual is to understate the case. It is anti-thought.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/25/the-tories-have-abandoned-thought-in-favour-of-believing-their-own-lies

We are in perilous times, indeed.