General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Brexit Rejection of Neoliberal Tyranny [View all]auntpurl
(4,311 posts)with someone who may choose to ascribe their motives dishonestly in order to paint themselves in a better light. In other words, you don't ask someone direct questions about their own racism, because most people understand it makes them look bad and try to cover it up. What you do instead is an indirect form of qualitative research, like observation.
So. There are 3 answers to your question.
1. There are thousands of examples of flat-out anti-Muslim sentiment and people stating it proudly from the Brexit vote. However, even in the thousands, these numbers are still statistically insignificant.
2. There IS a statistically significant number of people who said "immigration concerns" were their number one reason to Leave. But it is hard to separate the two potential narratives for that as in my previous post. Presumably there are a number of those "immigration concerns" voters who are picturing the fictional Muslim swarm but thought "immigration concerns" sounded better.
3. Judging by observation alone (in terms of the tone of the campaign and the dogwhistling involved) my GUESS would be anti-Muslim sentiment is statistically significant.
So yes, I think it had an effect on the outcome. However, I disagree with the economic arguments you are making in the rest of your post.