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Comment by HumanDrivenDev | Hacker News Reader

It's really interesting coming to HN and watching the indignant 'stabbed in the back' theories about why the establishment lost the Brexit referendum and 2016 US presidential election. 2 years on and it still stings that the people didn't vote the way they were supposed to. There is definitely a classist, privileged undertone to the discourse as well - ironic but not surprising coming from many self-described socialists.

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With the hindsight of these 2 years, do you believe that this was a good thing? (Genuine question. I’m European so from my perspective those were two terrible election results, and events since then have amply confirmed this fact, but I’m wondering if this is so clear-cut for other sensibilities)

I don't know. It's really hard to imagine what a Hilary Clinton presidency would have been like. She might have been impeached at this point. Likewise, it's really hard to tell what the long term effects of Brexit will be. I think history will be in a better position to judge it 10 years down the line.

But I really think people need to get over both results. It's been two years now. The remoaners are much worse than their american equivalents. But on the other hand - how many variations on the same joke are Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah going to do? And - more to the point - how many post mortems is Hacker News going to have? No to mention the constant "I'm so woke gaiz" quips about it. Imagine if between 2008-2016 HN had been full of one liners about how Obama had no birth certificate. It would get so tiresome.

> She might have been impeached at this point

Why?

> need to get over both results

The results deliver real harm to real people. The separated immigrant children are probably never going to get over it, for example. And I'm not going to get over a result while I'm still worrying about stockpiling food. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/no-deal-brexi...

> Imagine if between 2008-2016 HN had been full of one liners about how Obama had no birth certificate

Those were obviously false and therefore often flagged to oblivion or deleted by the mods, but they did turn up when he was mentioned.

She might have been impeached at this point

Because she was incredibly corrupt. Seems likely that foreign intelligence agencies had even more information they could leak.

The separated immigrant children are probably never going to get over it, for example.

It's unfortunate their parents decided to break the laws of the United States and enter the country illegally. Maybe their plight will discourage others from doing the same.

And I'm not going to get over a result while I'm still worrying about stockpiling food.

That seems like more of an issue with paranoia, then anything happening in reality.

> incredibly corrupt

Compared to the Trump administration?

> > She might have been impeached at this point

> Why?

Well, Republicans, including some in prominent roles, in the House just started trying to impeach the Trump-appointed, Republican Deputy Attorney General for not compromising a series of criminal investigations, so with a small shift in votes giving the same Congress but a Democratic President, just about anything.

But conviction in the Senate would be less likely, because that takes more than a bare majority.

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