Probably going to regret wading into this thread, but was really pleasantly surprised by the amount of people admitting to not understanding the question. This, I think, is the crux of the issue. The general populace are just not well versed enough in international economics, politics and the complex interplay of many varied nationalities and cultures on the global stage. It's likely not even possible to acquire a sufficient understanding of the required areas to be qualified to make a judgement either way, unless you have devoted your life to this task - ie, you are a politician, an elected official, someone actually intimately involved with the myriad of interconnecting factors in this opaque can of worms. This whole situation is absurd, and an unforgivable drain on the time and resources of the political system in the UK. The referendum, everything, the idea, the campaigns, the vote, from start to finish, was the most transparent example of the populace of an entire nation being reduced to nothing but a single pawn in a game of political chess that I can honestly remember... unfortunately the game is being played with the future of entire nations.
I don't & have never lived in the UK. But I'm honestly shocked by the majority sentiment expressed here. I think the EU has always been a terrible idea. And I absolutely do not believe in multiculturalism. I am very pessimistic about the future of the West overall due to the rapidly changing demographics (though we've all been on a very bad path since WW2 here in Europe, to varying degrees).
I value true diversity aka segregation of ethnic groups so that we retain our unique evolutionary heritages & culture. Instead, we are paying to be genocided - by we I mean White Europeans - due to our traitor leaders. Germany has changed SO radically since I moved here in 2012 & I live in a rural area in a village & almost never go out, but it's just SO obvious.
I disagree with almost everything you've said - without wanting to get too deep into an argument I have little interest in, I will just say that to oppose multiculturalism is to oppose a truly free world for all of humankind. Do you think if we are all still here in 1000 years time anyone is going to care what part of rock sticking out of the ocean your great-great-ad-infinitum grandparents were born? The sooner we can stop squabbling amongst ourselves on this tenuous, highly vulnerable ecosystem which is our planet, the sooner we can commit to fixing REAL PROBLEMS, like the amount of human beings who still suffer, worldwide. Despite the fact that we are the most capable species we know of within the known universe, too many of our number are still suffering.
Let me be the first to say also that I
do think that some cultures are just better than others - personally I think that
modern European culture, specifically Northern European culture, is probably one of the most progressive, future-proof models for a human civilization that may be viable in the truly long term that has ever existed. Compared to, say, the oil rich Arab states, to pick an easy target but stating something I just believe is probably just objectively true - absolute monarchy, gender segregation and oppression of women, religious fanaticism, I just don't and cannot see that there is any argument that could be made for these being properties of a
truly sustainable and stable civilisation. Honestly I think if Saudi Arabia didn't have the good fortune to find themselves sitting on billions of tons of oil there is not a chance in hell that such a medieval system of government would have survived until the present day.
THAT SAID, to look at these factors and conclude that multiculturalism is just inherently a flawed idea is an insane conclusion. You want to segregate billions of your fellow humans into cultures that ultimately promote suffering, whether by accident or design? If you believe that one or another culture is in some ways (not all ways!) just better than another, then you have a moral imperative to allow other
humans to experience that culture, to grow up in that culture, so that we might all be able to take the best parts of every culture in the world and improve together. White Europeans are not being genocided, that's just absurd. But what you indirectly advocate is some kind of passive, slow genocide of everyone else in the world who didn't have the good fortune to be born in a developed nation.
The less barriers there are to learning and to people living the life they want to live rather than the life that society tells them they should live, the more smart, passionate people we will get working in important fields like science, medicine, human psychology, sociology... and the more we can turn the harsh spotlight of critical rational analysis upon every aspect of our human society, the more we will find ways to build a better world FOR EVERYONE. Culture and race are irrelevant distractions in the face of what I believe should be the higher goal for every human alive. Divisive ideas that promote, separation, isolation, preservation of cherry picked vague notions of "cultural heritage" over working towards a bright future where the best parts of EVERY CULTURE are accessible to EVERY HUMAN ALIVE, are a yielding to our basic animal instincts to fear the other, and to compete, endlessly, even with our own kind, for personal, ultimately selfish gain. These animal tendencies lead to short sighted and small minded objectives based on fear of change. If we cannot collectively overcome these parts of ourselves then we are ultimately doomed, but whatever will be will be.