Warning: Story includes explicit content.
The UK’s surprising decision to exit the European Union brought out typical sneering from journalists, as well as warnings that the decision would bring gloom and doom to the country.
Business Insider Finance Editor Lianna Brinded warned Britain was “beyond repair,” and the worst was “yet to come.”
Fellow Business Insider editor Julie Bort tweeted out Brinded’s article, with an apocalyptic picture:
Britain is broken beyond repair and the ignorant are officially running the world. https://t.co/xOGO2hPbOH via @clusterstock
— Julie Bort (@Julie188) June 24, 2016
Business Insider wasn’t the only outlet predicting calamity as a result of Brexit. New York Times writer Roger Cohen said Brexit was a "colossal leap in the dark," while columnist Paul Krugman told readers to "grieve for Europe."
Fusion’s Senior Editor Felix Salmon similarly wrote that he was “grieving” because “the world of hope, the world of ever-closer union among countries which for centuries would kill each other by the million” ended with Brexit.
Salmon's headline declared, “With a single vote, England just screwed us all.” Several journalists retweeted that article.
I’m not going in to the Fusion offices today, I’m calling in sad cc @nickrizzo
— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) June 24, 2016
Plenty of others in the media hyped the “risk” of Brexit, too:
.@Austan_Goolsbee: I think Europe will have a recession. They never got out of the recession they were in before. pic.twitter.com/qGAjzieoXd
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) June 24, 2016
Brexit is the most significant political risk the world has experienced since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) June 24, 2016
The fear with Brexit isn't the UK economy. It's that the world is about to rearrange in ways that are different and worse.
— Nicholas Thompson (@nxthompson) June 24, 2016
Reckless Brexit should now give renewed momentum to Scottish independence movement, threatening unity of UK itself.
— Michael Kimmelman (@kimmelman) June 24, 2016
I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue. #Brexit
— Peter Spiegel (@SpiegelPeter) June 24, 2016
Outside of fear, there was loathing from journalists. A New York Times editorial from June 24, described Britain as “vulnerable nationalist, antiglobalization and anti-immigrant sentiments.”
“Will the British precedent embolden other xenophobic movements, weakening the remaining union?” editors asked.
Besides Bort claiming the "ignorant are officially running the world" and Salmon saying the Brexit referendum was "idiotic," several journalists tweeted insults, with some blaming Brexit on ignorant or prejudiced voters.
#Brexit takeaway: warnings of financial risk and catastrophe are an insufficient campaign against nativism & xenophobia cc @HillaryClinton
— Andrea Bernstein (@AndreaWNYC) June 24, 2016
Brexit a clear signal, albeit not surprisingly, for increased skepticism when it comes to all polling that involves xenophobia and racism.
— Michael Kimmelman (@kimmelman) June 24, 2016
Here's a secret most brown/black folks knew all along: always bet on racism/xenophobia. #Brexit
— DigitalBridget (@BridgetMarie) June 24, 2016
Scotland wins again. This woman gets it. #Brexit pic.twitter.com/yCgwRfaZUW
— Christopher Harress (@Charress) June 24, 2016
The #Brexit vote is the dumbest political move of 2016. Eat it, England! Oh wait, the GOP still has Trump as their candidate? ...carry on.
— Vincent Balestriere (@vbalestriere) June 24, 2016
