No, they don't. We had Brexit. It was a smörgåsbord of stupid like that.
"We want freedom of movement cancelled so EU folks can't come in here, "followed by "What do you mean we don't have freedom of movement and can't just live in Spain?"
"All immigrants gone!" followed by "why are there no cheap immigrants anymore for working in the field and drive trucks?"
"Close the borders!" and "Why is there suddenly this long line and why do we need custom checks and passports?"
"After we made it more difficult for foreigners to come here, we have less tourists. Somebody do something!"
"When we said you can't fish here, we meant we can still fish over there."
"Yeah, I know we cancelled all cooperation but we really would like the subsidies to continue."
You can keep going. There were enough predictions that this was exactly what would happen, it was ignored in emotional flurry, ideologies and name calling. Of course there is a lot of "why didn't anyone warn us?" afterwards. I conclude they're not really thinking, just mostly reacting emotionally and going along with the peer group who has a very high "F U I got mine" content.
The most comical thing about "reasons" for Brexit was to get rid of those "pesky brown people". Then Brexit uninvited Europeans, and the UK got more "brown people" out of the commonwealth to fill up the gaps.
They are stuck in ideology and emotional reactions. There is a concentrated effort to keep it that way with propaganda masquerading as news, usually owned by Murdoch.
Yet they think others should take responsibility for their own actions.
Don't get me wrong, I'm with you to a certain degree. They have been deceived and those people need to be stopped. But some of the shame should be granted to the deceived as well, as they fall over and over for the same shit.
See, this is how people end up being in favour of eugenics.
It's not that stupid people exist, it's that they keep being stupid, and bafflingly self-destructive, even after their stupidity is demonstrably demonstrated to them.
I'm in favour of education. There was a time when people lacking education strived to close the gap and become a better version of themselves. I'm not sure how we lost that, but I want it back. I'm not only talking about school. People went to classes after work, read about new stuff and invested into themselves.
It's the lost-cause fallacy. They're incapable of self reflection because it could compromise their entire identity/beliefs.
Talk to anyone who worked in hospitals during the height of COVID. All of them encountered people gasping for air as their lungs filled with covid pneumonia, on their death beds insisting they did not have covid, and it was all a government conspiracy. Even on their deathbeds, these people still cannot accept reality.