I don't think you are stupid. By no means. In fact, I'm quite certain you are very, very intelligent. Which might actually be the issue in some ways.
At the same time, I see no reason to think you are an exception to the rest of us. I think you are going to be capable of the same sort of errors the rest of us are, the same stupidity.
I fully understand that we all place different values or emphasis on things and I can see what aspect of Brexit you placed most emphasis on, what you valued most.
This isn't sufficient to demonstrate you employed the right thought process, it just illustrates some knowledge in these areas. You may even be an expert in these aspects, or well versed enough as an interested layman/amateur to have sufficient understanding. Or you may not, I don't know. Are you?
If you aren't an expert in your own right then I'm interested to know where you went to gain the knowledge and understanding you required.
I'm skeptical you followed a sufficiently robust process throughout, since it has been six and a half years and so far not one Leave voter has been able to show this to me and believe me I have tried to find one. So, the odds aren't with you, but I am open to the possibility. I know your referendum answer was (and still is) different to mine, but I'm asking you to 'show me your workings'. Show me you genuinely followed the right thought process and I'll happily accept that it is in your case simply a difference in values. That will slap the arrogance out of me and a good thing too if that's what it is. I don't think it is. The first thing I did after the referendum result came through was to question myself, my process and values, to try to understand what I had missed, what I had got wrong. That is not arrogance. Having gone into, I think, all the aspects of Brexit ever since to quite some degree, it just became more and more clear and continues to get clearer, to my surprise actually, that I didn't get it wrong. The even bigger surprise is that no one who voted leave has been able to show they had good understanding and had followed what they themselves would normally consider best practice when making an important decision, so that the only variable is we have very different values.
We've been here before Lefty, as you are all too aware.
You realised then that I don't feel the need to prove anything to you, nor clear bars you set to determine whether my opinion is acceptably arrived at , or not.
My "process" was to (as best I could) assign value to remaining within the EU and what that might look like, versus leaving the EU and my best estimate of what leaving might look like (different to what has happened so far).
Did I understand the objectives and the progression of the EU? Yes and I didn't and don't like it.
Did I understand the UK's position and what our options were whilst within the EU? Yes and I never expected the "establishment" to grant a referendum.
I simply wanted an economic partnership without the political union I felt was growing inevitable if we remained. We've discussed economics and politics being separately considered before.
I don't know what the current purely economic impact of leaving is (nor does anybody), nor what it will be. It hasn't been calculated, there is no value. I am confident that it has been a negative financial impact to date, and may be for some time, but have no idea what the longer term looks like - any more than you do. There is no certainty.
There is no quantifiable metric for value that can be placed on a downside to becoming consumed within a superstate that feels alien to you. There is no more certainty about that either. We haven't been consumed, so I feel better for that, but can't quantify that and compare it to an unquantified economic impact of leaving.
So I knew what to theoretically compare, knew how difficult it was to compare apples with apples, but I couldn't have the best of all worlds. I had to choose based on what I knew and what I felt.
I have always respected the opposite views, but I maintain this is not an exercise in logic. It was always about values and what one most values.
If we get a return to the SM and CU, accepting we can't cherry pick, but remain outside the EU (and any evolution) then I will take that, as its what I wanted to happen following the referendum - and expected would prevail. It could have done but for the deranged ERG.
Yes we will not be formally involved in trade rule making (but will influence) and yes we will take rules on trade (but will have such compromise in entering any other Trading relationships with any other bloc or country).
What would I be losing then through not being a full EU member?