For me, the issue was not (bluntly) whether the gay marriage is good or not.

The issue is whether stupidity and ignorance will prevail.

Well, now we see how damaging can changing referendum rules be. You see, some time before Croatia entered EU, constitution was amended to permit referendum to be valid without 50% voter turnout.

Croatia voted to enter EU with 43% turnout.

Today, with 37% turnout, Croatian voters demonstrated inability to separate their anxiety from good judgement.

And it’s simultaneously funny and sad; I’d love to see the reaction of people who said: “If 57% of voters can’t be bothered to turn out at the voting booths, then it’s okay to ignore their votes.” The same people have probably voted ‘against’, and are now widely disappointed.

I’m saddened by the fact that 24% of Croatian population has successfully demonstrated that a well-orchestrated brainwashing campaign of fear, uncertainty and doubt can succeed perfectly in Croatia. I’m saddened because this type of population is right for getting an oppressive but populist regime in place. 24% activists + 62% passives. Think of those numbers.

Reading articles on Croatian news portals from the distant Ireland, I see that there’s already talks about a referendum on “cyrillic”, a script whose presence in Vukovar, a city heavily damaged in the war during attacks by a cyrillic-using nation, offends a lot of people. So now not only are we taking away rights that didn’t exist in the first place, but we’ll have a referendum on a script, and waste 5 million more euros.

It’s sad that this thing managed to pass even with a disgusting brainwashing campaign run by certain large newspapers opposing the referendum question.

It’s sad that this thing managed to pass even among the international voters.

I’m happy that Croats in my new home, Ireland, voted ‘against’.

When leaving, I simply *knew* I’d be coming back some day. Now, I’m saddened that 24% of people manage to be misinformed and misled. I’m saddened that 62% find their vote to be irrelevant. And I’m questioning whether I can count on finding the 12% that has been both active and reasonable.

Oh scratch that; considering the campaigns against the referendum, the “reasonable” part is actually much smaller.

To the world: I’m sorry.

To my homeland: I hope you will heal some day.

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via blog.vucica.net