Groupthink and split personalities: how & why #FBPE only pollutes the Brexit debate
Time was when the Brexit debate was comfortingly simple. Leavers were idiots, Remainers were smart. Leavers were all about the knee-jerk emotional response. Remainers were all about listening to experts and weighing the evidence.
And then #FBPE happened.
#FBPE is the new #Remain. It stands for ‘Follow Back Pro-Europe’. A signal to unite behind a common banner across the social web — principally Twitter.
Sounds good so far. While pro-Europeans have been building their digital social networks for the best part of two years, the idea of supercharging that process is attractive.
People pulling together generally make stuff happen more often than randomly distributed people — who happen to think similarly — coalescing to cooperate on a common aim.
So people began identifying as #FBPE and following each other. Countless new social accounts were launched, identifying as #FBPE. A large-ish network began to form.
The idea for a broad apolitical or cross-party movement of pro-Europeans in the digital social space seemed like a good idea. We’d already seen how hash tag Brexit and hash tag Take Control had overwhelmed anything the old Remain movements had ever deployed. Continuity Remain needed to re-group and feel they were amassing a force to be reckoned with.
But then the in-fighting started. The totally inevitable in-fighting. The in-fighting that makes #FBPE almost comical in its hopelessly divided efforts to create a movement that could impact even slightly on the direction of Britain.
And so #FBPE is now a gift for the ultra-Brexiters to draw comfort from as they peer into a conveniently searchable window to enjoy watching soft Tories, Liberal Democrats, Corbyn-friendly Labourites and SNP supporters tearing strips off each other
Some unpalatable truths about #FBPE
1. Not all pro-Europeans are welcome.
2. It offers no call to action in the real world.
3. The tribalism of a few infects and colours the whole.
4. It encourages social disinhibition borne of a sense of ‘strength in numbers’.
5. It’s a petri dish for groupthink.
6. It reinvents the wheel when there are existing grassroots organisations already out there.
7. It is vulnerable to manipulation.
8. It creates false sense of British electoral sentiment changing.
9. It shows signs of becoming a hotbed of paranoia
10. It’s a ready-made window through which Brexit ultras can see opportunities to divide pro-Europeans.
Perhaps — no, actually, definitely — the aspect of #FBPE that disturbs me most is how it reveals the similarities rather than the differences in the cognitive processes of Leavers and ‘Remainers’.
Just as we once challenged Leavers to explain how Brexit will make their lives better — and they just kept reiterating their tired old unproven mantras — so now do #FBPEers continue to assert that #FBPE is the right thing to do. Presumably because it feels right and not because there is any evidence that it will achieve anything.
Just as Leavers frequently called my commitment to Britain into question for valuing the UK’s partnership with Europe, now #FBPE zealots call into question my commitment to Europe. I’m guessing some of these are people whose future is less directly exposed to the iniquities of Brexit than my own. But hey ho.
We used to call out the motivated reasoning of Leavers. But get this for motivated reasoning: Leavers had their view of the EU skewed by the media — but my view of the Corbyn Labour Party isn’t influenced by the media.
For the first time since the shitstorm of Brexit began, I am experiencing ‘Remainers’ online as Leavers must have experienced them. It’s not a good look.
#FBPE is a terrible idea, but it’s easy to snipe without offering an alternative. So here’s an alternative.
I’ve no idea whether Brexit can be stopped or not. I’ve no idea what would happen if Brexit were somehow stopped. The only thing I do have an idea about in respect of stopping Brexit is that it would have to be by popular mandate.
In other words, giving the electorate a #FinalSay on proceeding under the terms of whatever the Maybot (or her successor) manages to cobble together by March 2019.
#FinalSay is a movement with a common aim. It doesn’t matter which party — or party leader — you support or hate with all your heart.
It has exactly the same utility in terms of helping like-minded souls find — and follow — each other as #FBPE.
It is a call to action that can be taken down the pub, or round to the in-laws to discuss. #FBPE isn’t.
It lends itself to campaigning in the real world.
Imagine memetics like this transformed into real life billboards and newspaper advertisements, Facebook posts, banners at rallies…
#FinalSay is better than #StopBrexit too because implicit in stopping Brexit is a call to ignore the people who voted for it. #FinalSay is harder to argue with on grounds of democracy, but plays perfectly to the constantly emerging insanity of Brexit.
Given the now quite febrile defending of #FBPE (part of which appears to involve implying that I’m some kind of 5th columnist bent on subverting the pro-European movement — no, really) I won’t hold my breath on this.
Doubtless (because it’s hard to admit you’re wrong — as ‘Remainers’ are fond of saying to Leavers) some will say ‘we can use both’.
But really?
Until I see something in the real world changing that can be attributed to #FBPE I will continue to oppose it — on the grounds that I am a fervent pro-European and I won’t stand idly by while my fellow progressives make even well-intentioned mistakes.
[Edit] Postscript. Thanks to the #FBPE supporter who immediately suggested on Twitter that Lord Ashcroft has been encouraged by use of the hash tag to commission a poll to gauge support for a second referendum. This is claimed as evidence of ‘something in the real world changing’. To clarify; something in the real world changing means a change in Brexit policy that is directly linked to the use of the #FBPE hash tag.
