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If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the recent EU referendum in the United Kingdom it is that modern politics have nothing whatever to do with lofty principles, such as truth, integrity or freedom, and everything to do with fear-mongering of the most pernicious kind. One hardly knows where to begin when offering examples of the sort of low-brow, knee-jerk scaring of the electorate which characterized the referendum campaign. One example will have to suffice, which, though typical, is by no means the most egregious. In this case, the headlines says it all: “Central bank titans warn of Brexit tremors as global recession fears surface.” Below the headline is a lurid photograph of the City of London with an ominous and threatening tornado cloud forming over it. The caption to the photograph tells us that “experts have warned that a Brexit vote could suppress global growth.” Significantly, the essay appeared just two days before the vote, designed, no doubt, to frighten voters into toeing the EU line. Tremors and tornadoes. Fear and trembling. Doomsday! The message is clear: Remain shackled to the tyranny of the European Union or risk losing your job and your home if you vote recklessly to leave its protective grip.*In our attention deficit disordered society, it is really only the headline, the photograph and the caption that matter. Nobody actually reads the essay. Most people will have got the visual message as they scan down to the sports report. “If I don’t vote to remain in the European Union, even though I loathe it, the world is going to come to an end.”Unlike most of my countrymen, I decided to take the road less travelled and actually read the essay. It was a great anti-climax......I had fully expected shameful capitulation in the face of the bullying. I had fully expected the British people to whimper their way into compliance with the will of their tyrannical masters, going to the polls with their tails between their legs. I have never been so pleased to be proved wrong!http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/06/lies-modern-journalism-how-media-reported-brexit.html
