>>540642It's only comedic if there's a punchline, but as it stands Boris is proving that the punchline only works if people fall for it, but either he's underestimated exactly how far gone the populace is or he is the best judge of character in the world. Actually I think it might just be that he's a good con artist, he did start his career by writing completely false EU tabloid articles for the Telegraph and started the whole "The EU regulates your cereal" trend. But either way it all relies on there coming a point where it slams home, there's a payoff and everyone realizes that moment. But as it stands that's just not how it's working, it's just going further and further and further and I don't think it's ever gonna stop. You could get to literaly dystopia levels(implying it's not already, why do you think stuff like 1984 and V for Vandetta are set here?) and people would still nod their heads or be just generally upset at the way things are.
And funnily I don't think that's Boris's fault, it's the population and the overarching culture that's been developed since I think about WW2. See in most politics it always comes down to one issue for 90% of voters. In the US it's taxes, NI it's unionist/seperatist sentiments etc. But the England is unique in that they vote for the status quo. That sounds normal though right, modern neo-liberalism is basically that improving things is radicalism? But the English as a whole take it to a new level, it's an almost religious obsession with the status quo. It cannot be changed, it is entrenched, the leaders know what they're doing, have to preserve the history etc. It's kind of an analogue to the US's obsession with that every word their founding fathers spoke was straight from the mouth of god and should never be changed, but if it had matured for another 500 or so years. I can actually probably name exactly what caused it and who; Churchill and the keep calm and carry on campaign. At that time it imbedded that the populace should just carry on and trust that everything is going to be alright, and Churchill is the personification of that mentality. If Churchill was such a good leader why did he lose the general election immediately after the war ended? Shush don't talk about that he won the war or something.
But at every level I see this obsession with the status quo. What was Brexit about? It was about keeping english traditions, the british empire, anti-continent sentiments and a pervasive sense that the EU is going to change things like how fish and chips are wrapped. What has COVID been about in English politics? Saving people? The economy? The duty of care owed by the politicians? No, it was about how will this inconvenience you when you try to go to the pub. Generally speaking most populations today don't want things to change, they want the small comforts they're afforded and to keep it, it's basically the definition of lumpen. But with the English it's zealous how they will throw themselves on a fire to preserve weirdly minute cultural details and small comforts they've been afforded. And the definition of status quo in England is weird too, as it cannot be changed… unless it's by a Tory, then that becomes the new status quo and THAT must be protected. It's hypocritical and again, almost every country does the same thing to a lesser degree, but here it's been honed to a fucking art. It might just be because the UK is ahead of the curve in terms of its decline and now has weapons-grade nostalgia that has been utilized for politics. I dunno, an American saying they want the good old days back or rebuild america or whatever doesn't have the same… energy in it as an Englishman that thinks preserving minute cultural traditions will bring back the British Empire. And all that's just to have some mental gymnastics to justify Boris as a conservative, AKA he's a CONSERVEative, he will CONSERVE the status quo and he will change it for the worse, which is good since the status quo is the opposite of progress, so regression is good and still in line with the status quo. Which is why there will never be a gotcha moment with Boris.