Why do people find it so hard to look at things objectively? (politics)

The problem wasn't that it was untrue, it was the unashamed vitriol for old people and the working class that we saw. I spoke to various working class people, and working class old people, and their views were perfectly reasonable. No mention of Farage's silly claim about us spending 350m (or whatever the figure was) on the EU.

Nigel Farage was possibly the rudest about the whole referendum though. He said that everybody who chose to leave chose correctly. Does he mean that there was a correct answer and a wrong answer?

Hmmmm although the remain campaigners said some nasty things to old people and leave voters, some members of the leave side committed arson attacks to immigrants and one even killed an MP...

Equally, remain voters would say why couldn't the fishermen look past their own interests and see how the referendum affects others in the country. You could argue that the common fisheries policy is designed to protect the environment, which is a much more worthy argument than allowing a few fishermen to fish further afield. For the record, I agree that the policy is a bit ridiculous and should be different for countries that have a large coastline, as opposed to those who have little. But I can also see why it was in place and the other arguments (economic, political etc) are much more important than something as small as fishing. At the end of the day, the rational, selfish mind will vote for what favours themselves the best, so celebrities will vote for less travel restrictions and fishermen will vote for less fishing restrictions - even if this means overlooking the bigger picture. Sad, yes, but it's a fact of life.

I believe it's either just ignorance, or that they have so much arrogance that they think their opinion is the only one that matters.

Case in point is the EU referendum. A whole army of wealthy celebrities telling everyone that they think it's best if we stay in the EU. Well, so what? Of course they'd say that. They live in exclusive super-rich villages and take 4 holidays a year to Crete or Sardinia.

They say that it's 'shocking and unbelievable' that we have left the EU. Well, it's not really is it? Are you really that shocked that workers seeing their wages being undercut, or fishers with tight EU restrictions want to leave?

Even as a brexiteer, I can totally see why someone living in London would want to remain. More jobs, investment, science, whatever. But those people seem unable to comprehend that there are people living in the UK who aren't in the same position as them.

There wasn't a consensus.

It makes no sense to ignore the experts advice, they overwhelmingly told us of the consequences of Brexit - and so far they're even worse, given the current political situation.

OP if you are so objective explain this...

areas with low immigration voted mainly for Brexit

https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-how-areas-with-low-immigration-voted-mainly-for-brexit-62138

If immigration is such a killer why did London vote remain? What with all those immigrants taking up jobs.

An expert is nothing but a dog trained by the establishment to spread their message.

Because a huge amount of people in London are immigrants who can vote or children of immigrants, /thread.

And there was never any abject misery when New Labour was in charge?

Human nature. Everyones political beliefs reflect their own cultural ideologies. Very, very few of us seek and assimilate information without a hint of bias. We all seek what we want to see, interpret from it what we want, and remember what we want. It's a very well known idea in Psychology. See biased assimilation, and attitude polarisation.

It explains why you'll have leftists (such as myself) arguing to a right-winger until they are blue in their face and vice versa. How often do you ever see someone actually listen to the other side of the argument, and say "you know what, you are right". Barely ever!

Yes, it makes me hate humans a little. But it's a fact of human nature, I do it myself.

An interesting theory is Cultural Cognition theory by Kahan. If you're interested look into it. I won't go into it now because no ones probably even reading this. But I reckon that those high in individualism/ hierarchism were more likely to vote leave, whereas egalitarians/ communitarians were more likely to vote stay.

I'd be willing to bet on it, and I wouldn't be in the slightest surprised if some research is published regarding this in the near future.

Oh wait, I take that back, of course universities will have lost a significant amount of their research funding.

Fwiw there was a paper lead authored by Kahan that got some media attention a while ago... Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government (non paywall)

Or for those who dislike reading...

wrt brexit : for the referendum campaigns both sides appeared to be making up numbers on the spot anyway... but even if there had been good, unbiassed numbers available most people would just have continued to believe what they believed in the first place anyway

Err nope.

People who complain most about immigration in places where there is least immigration. This also includes none whites in these areas.

London, Manchester etc have lots of immigration and are the most multicultural metropolitan places in the UK and they don't have the same problem with UKIP. The least multicultural and multi ethnic places vote UKIP.

Also the places that vote UKIP and leave received a lot of funding form the EU.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/25/view-wales-town-showered-eu-cash-votes-leave-ebbw-vale

Farmers received lots of funding.

As soon as we voted to Leave Cornwall demanded the UK replace EU funding.

Also if you are so objective and rational you would know that having such strong conviction in your correctness when dealing with such complex systems such as economies and the agents within that economy is a mugs game.