If the underlying guiding philosophy & ideology of Brexitism is exceptionalism then the underlying guiding philosophy of Remainerism is declinism.

This is why you see some Remainers, whose minds have been melted by Brexit, suddenly become enthusiastic supporters of secessionism & a united & this is why you see some Remainers suddenly embrace soft-anti-Vaxx bilge.

Remember Isiah Berlin writing/talking about the fox & the hedgehog?

‘Foxes’ draw on a wide variety of experiences & resist the temptation to try to boil an understanding of the world down to a single idea.

Hedgehogs, on the other hand, view the world through the lens of a single defining idea.

The type of Remainer Im talking about is a ‘hedgehog,’ as Berlin described, & the prism through which they view the world & which colours everything else they look at is British declinism.

British declinism is their conclusion & everything else becomes supporting evidence to support this conclusion.

The UK is in a state of irreversible decline. Thats their core belief. From which: everything else follows.

A certain type of Brexiteer is the mirror-image of this i.e the Daniel Hannan-style Whiggish liberal-leaver who labours under the illusion of English/British exceptionalism. They are ‘hedgehogs’ too.

British Declinism is the core belief of deranged Remainers who wont be happy until the Scots & the Welsh secede & until there is a united Ireland & until they have sown seeds of distrust about vaccinations.

British declinism & British exceptionalism are two sides of the same mound of bull-sh!t.

In fact British declinism *is* British exceptionalism but flipped upside down.

Both represent the idea that the UK has a certain destiny which is fixed.

i.e for those who have read their John Gray (Black Mass in particular) both British declinism & British exceptionalism can be recognised as ideas that are drawn from the same Christian stable. Namely, the idea that history has a certain ‘telos,’ or as MLK put it, a certain arc.

English/British exceptionalism is an idea that derives ultimately from the English reformation. Its the idea of a ‘chosen people,’ which was originally took by Christianity from Judaism & applied to the members of a certain church, brought down to earth, secularised & localised.

See this book for more details about the history of that

The English Nation: The Great Myth https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/075091744X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_18UdGbBY3X3AH

& see this piece of research for an indication of how that resounds even in the present day https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-4446.12793

Whilst British declinism, as Ive already said, represents all these ideas flipped upside-down. Whereas Britain is destined for greatness according to the exceptionalists, its destined for sh!tness in the declinist version, but both sides believe that Britain *is* destined.

Because there are people on both sides who hold these core political beliefs they both spend all their time looking for evidence that accords with their view & ignoring all the evidence that doesn't fit with it.

& the consequence if this is that both sides remain locked in place, unable to engage in a constructive dialogue with one another & thus continue to fight an endless war with one another via an endless procession of differing proxies.

The latest proxy battles in the never-ending Brexit war primarily relate to C-19 in some way but, as Ive already indicated, proxy battles in this ongoing Brexit war are also taking place on the Scottish, Welsh & Northern Irish fronts too.

British declinism isnt ‘doomerism.’

The type of Remainer that Im talking about, the ones whose minds have been melted by Brexit, they dont necessarily believe that the *whole world* is going to hell in a hand-cart, no, just the UK. https://twitter.com/danlburrows/status/1353738866776289280?s=20

We have a special destiny bc we are uniquely terrible ya see.

They are a liability. They are happy to sow seeds of distrust & doubt about vaccines in order to validate their core political beliefs & they are happy to encourage secessionism for the same reason. Why? Bc in their mind it proves them right & thats what they care about most.

Given that we are in the middle of a pandemic lets summarise this thread this way: British exceptionalism is a mind-virus & British declinism is a mutant strain of the same virus.

‘Declinism has always been a form of insularity, obsessed with Britain’s failings, but ignorant of those elsewhere.’ https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/down-with-declinism/

Adonis is giddy with glee here. No one is more enthusiastic for Scottish & Welsh secessionism or for the prospect of a united Ireland than an English declinist, not even Scottish, Welsh & Irish nationalists themselves.