Everybody …

… Who’s the Xenophobe Now? - WSJ.

A question: How does this view of the majority of the British people—as a form of alien life with disgusting beliefs unfit for polite society—differ in substance from the view a bigoted British bricklayer might have toward the immigrants living in his midst?

Another question: How different is this portrait of the British as xenophobes from the picture of working-class Pennsylvanians presented by Barack Obama back when he was first running for president?

Speaking to his wealthy California patrons at a fundraiser in uber-chic Marin County, the president in 2008 characterized them as folks who “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” What could be more xenophobic?

Phobia: a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it. The operative word is irrational. Accusing huge swaths of your fellow citizens of being clinically irrational is either irrational itself or rhetorical bullshit.

More here: Elitist Rage With the Pro-Brexit Masses Echoes Longstanding British Suspicion of Democracy.

This is as ugly an anti-masses sentiment as I can remember. And the consequences of it are likely to be dire. Ordinary people are effectively being told they're too dumb for politics. And democracy is being treated as a negotiable commodity that can be cast aside if we the stupid people make the wrong decision. This is a species of tyranny. The mask has slipped. Our normally conscientious elite, feeling bruised and aloof after the referendum, has dispensed with its usual platitudes about "respecting all views," and shown that beneath the polite veneer there lurks an ancient fury with the least and the dumbest; with the masses; with the people.