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> I know from the way they make up stories about why people voted out and then insult them - its quite unpleasant

You dismiss the possibility that they are right. Many people do support Brexit for wholly racist reasons (e.g. my father who wants to 'get the poles out').

That's not racism. Xenophobia, maybe, but obviously not racism.

Why is it obviously not racism?

Suppose you're of the view that a mass influx of people into your country that are willing to work for less than the locals are will do harm to the economy. If one country's economy is weaker than yours and is a source of immigration from people seeking greater opportunity (and who'll do anything to get it, including undercutting locals), is it racist to want to stop immigration from that country?

It's definitely protectionist and perhaps xenophobic but I don't think it's racist. (There is a clear distinction between xenophobia and racism - xenophobia is purely about an unjustified dislike for those from other countries while racism is an unjustified dislike for those who look different to you)

Because Polish and British people are of the same race (white/Caucasian).

There are no racial requirements on being British.

You do know that historically (and like recently as well) white people -- specifically British and British-descended white people -- have been all sorts of racist towards other people we now consider white (but didn't always), including but not limited to, people of Italian, Irish, Jewish, and, yes, Polish heritage?

I find that quite hard to believe, as I don't see any visual distinction between Brits, Ashkenazi Jews, Irish (unless ginger), northern Italians and Poles. Southern nations could be distinguished (e.g. southern Italians, Spaniards, Greeks), in that case it could have been racism (e.g. in the US they still consider "Hispanics" a different race, although I don't).

What's your definition of racism? Under the Equalities Act 2010 'Race includes "colour", "nationality" and "ethnic or national origins"'[1]. I feel like this will only lead to a boring semantic discussion, though.

[1] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/9

You might want to think about the fact that you're contradicting someone about their own father. Do you really think you know better?

I'm not saying there aren't people that think the ways they are suggesting. What I am saying is that the anecdotes they are giving are fabricated (and admit to being so).

An example of what I mean:

'well you can imagine poor Joe Racist living across the river is now worrying about whether his boss can afford the harvest. That's what happens when you're stupid'

They will invent false characters with flaws that support their argument. They never claim they are real, they aren't basing it off some real observance or any real account.

It's not a useful discussion point and serves to further isolate that community.

There does seem to be a core of disappointed Remain voters actively trying to paint all Leave voters in the same negative light. My personal experience has been similar to yours, in that it's been surprisingly common to see this among the young, well-educated, normally reasonable people in university cities.

As with so many things about the referendum, the problem could just be that a very vocal but actually quite small minority is getting all the attention. I know for a fact which way quite a lot of my friends and family voted, and in private with calm discussion I'd say the majority on either side are willing to debate the issues and often do find a fair bit of common ground if they do. However, many of the Leavers won't say anything about it publicly now, for fear of sustained attacks or even losing friends over it. That does mean that if, say, you look at the Facebook news feeds, they are heavily slanted towards strident Remain advocacy and topics like ignoring the result in Parliament and staying in or throwing Boris in prison, but that is certainly not representative of the overall sentiment among people I know, just the ones who are willing to state their position and live with the consequences.

This is both what worries me and reassures me about the future of our country.

If this is as bad as it needs to get for large swathes of people to realise the behaviour of parliament needs to change then it spells a bright future.

If it gets any worse though, or this isn't enough, then I guess we are pretty much doomed.

> However, many of the Leavers won't say anything about it publicly now, for fear of sustained attacks or even losing friends over it

Unfortunately, it has become dangerous to hold conservative opinions publicly in certain places. There have been too many highly public witch-hunts, and not toeing the line on the established orthodoxy will result in being painted with the brush of racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, idiocy, bigotry, or whatever the latest outrage of the week is.

>>> It seems we have a shit ton of echo chambers in this country.

Good to see your comprehensive survey supported your view :-D

Hey! Don't criticise my methods! It's statistical I tell you, statistical!

In a similar vein I had a friend try to tell me that a 4% difference represented a landslide.

> their foreign affairs are relatively easy to keep in order and they have just gained leverage on the local stage.

Just about this part: nothing has actually changed relatively significantly at all, yet. Article 50 has not even been triggered. The UK first has to notify the EU of intent to leave, then they have to actually leave, then the effects will slowly start trickling in (whatever they are), and in the mean time so many confounding factors will be mixed in that we will probably never find out what came whence.

> It seems we have a shit ton of echo chambers in this country.

Is that anything new? Humans everywhere always. And?

I answered this point in another comment but to be more direct - they are happy that the negative effects will be minimal and have made moves to negate them via open conversations to their partners. These aren't huge businesses, they have <100 employees each and they know all their foreign partners personally.

> Post brexit they are generally quite happy

They're not post-Brexit.

Currently the will be reaping the benefits of the low pound for exports, plus still have access to the European market, plus still be able to employ nice cheap Eastern European labour if they so wish.

Let's wait until they are actually post-Brexit, shall we?

No, we are all aware of that. What I intended to convey was that they are not worried. They have talked to their partners made a bunch of pre arrangements, and essentially decided that all is, and will be, well.

I found this online: https://royalsociety.org/~/media/policy/projects/eu-uk-fundi... Seemingly this is a pretty unbiased source (but who knows nowadays).

In that document it states that most of EU's research funding for the UK ends up going to higher education, and it accounts for 9.7% of their total budget. This doesn't sound like much but it's a considerable amount of money and it isn't spread equally over all areas of research.

Of course there is also pan-European research in/from the UK which will be hit by far the hardest (and one could argue is among some of the more important research).

So depending on their area of research your PhD student/professor connections might have a good reason to be upset.

Of course it is bad for anyone to take out their feelings on other people by making up stories/insulting them. But then again I question what your own motives are in posting this comment online. Especially considering that there are plenty of people who seem to have the opposite experience.

With your last sentence i wholeheartedly agree (as sad as it makes me). These days it seems that most people aren't even aware that they place themselves in a position where no one disagrees with them (see Facebook).

My motivations are mainly a frustration over the lack of useful discussion and the propensity of people to lock themselves into certain discussional tropes. I'm also massively conflicted over the kinds of people I want to br working amongst; whilst Academics tend towards the childish the business class tends towards the immoral.

I'm actually surprised that its as low as 9.7%, though of course that is direct funding and won't account for losses from businesses and who move (large banks bankroll the local Uni) or reduce spending.

What is notable in the funding is a decidedly different attitude to dealing with the problem, though this may simply be that researchers can't do much to affect funding wheras business iwners can.

As for echo chambers specifically - it can be heart-wrenching to be amongst several groups. The previous Scottish referendum caused significant damage to my family relationships, and the brexit is doing the same to my friends. There are few people willing to consider they don't and can't know all the facts.