I’ve just identified why I have been feeling down over the past few days. Instead of being excited at the prospect of an election that will end the Tory misrule, I find myself just staring down the barrel of five years of Tory lite.
This country could be so much better than it is, if only we had a Government worthy of the populace.
Time and again, I find myself asking whether politicians are deliberately trying to destroy everything that used to make me proud to be British, or whether they are just too dumb to see what they are doing.
More interestingly to explore, perhaps our political system is so desperately in need of reform that it is impossible for MPs to do the right thing, even if they want to?
There is a very simple way to ‘fix’ social media, and that is to make platforms legally responsible for all the content posted on their systems. Yes, it would break the business model of such providers, but isn’t that what’s needed, given that they have consistently shown that they are using their power irresponsibly? #SocialMedia#Meta#Twitter
Edit: it has been suggested that legal responsibility should only apply to content “promoted” by platforms. That seems to be an excellent improvement.
Not voting means one thing, and one thing only. It means you don’t care who wins.
It definitely doesn't mean you don’t approve of something your guy does. It means you don’t care if they lose. So, all you ‘I can’t vote for x’ people, face the reality of what your abstention implies. #politics
Not only are we in late-stage capitalism, we seem to be in late-stage politics too.
Politicians have completely forgotten that they are elected to make good decisions, and are instead obsessed only with getting re-elected.
I have no idea how to fix this. 😢
I think there’s always a cadre of folks who are never satisfied, y’know? They’re damaged by their upbringing or circumstances & are trying to fill some hole with “stuff”.
But most folks I’ve met seem to find a level of satisfaction.
I do think better pay for public servants can reduce a lot of issues. We know low pay makes them vulnerable to corruption, & also means some of our “best & brightest” never consider public service.
I grew up among suburbanites. (It's part of why I'm as much an urbanist as I am now.) My impression was that in that community, inequality was taught to us at a young age. Your parents boasted about their cars, their holidays, their jobs. You were pushed to do well in school and sports so your parents would have something else to boast about. The concept of "enough" was as foreign as light is to the deep sea: deciding you had enough and didn't need to push further was just admitting you had lost the race. Kids from that society are raised to be constantly anxious about status, and ready to fill that anxiety with things that can be bought with money.
Of course, I grew up in South Africa, which was about as far away from an equal society as you could get, but I see the same anxiety in the eyes of people I work with from all sorts of countries. Some people don't have it - socialism is becoming more prevalent in the present day, and both of us work in spheres where such people are less common - but I think it's going to take generations to grow up in an egalitarian society before those anxieties are eliminated.
So that creates a chicken and egg problem: we need a better society to exist for generations before rampant corruption stops dominating it, and such a society isn't possible while corruption dominates it.
Because those people? They love inequality. They're terrified to lose it. They will absolutely murder you and I and all our friends as soon as they think that we really will create a better society. What happened in Austria in 1934 wasn't just a one-off.
How do we change the mind of a Government?
I’ve just looked up the Poll Tax Riot of 1990. Approximately 200,000 people attended. The Poll Tax was abandoned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_riots
Conversely, well over a million people attended marches against Brexit, on several occasions, but Brexit still happened.
Why the different outcome? It’s hard not to conclude that violence made the difference.
It feels like 2024 is going to be the make-or-break year for humanity. By next Christmas, we could be facing run-away global heating, Long Covid rampant, a Russian win in Ukraine and Trump heading for US presidency, or we could be seeing the first sign of a return to stability.
Never has activism been so important. Stay strong, my friends!
I suggest that #CovidIsNotOver is not a particularly strong message. Can I propose #CovidRuinsLives instead? People are not nearly scared enough of contracting the virus.
I’m trying to persuade my brother to take Covid precautions more seriously. He asked the very sensible question “what proportion of long covid sufferers have symptoms that affect their ability to work?”
Can anyone offer links to studies which address this question? #Covid#CovidPrecautions
"In New York, nearly 20% of long COVID patients are still out of work after a year, with high numbers among health care workers, according to a new study of workers compensation claims.”
We don’t need a campaign to #JustStopOil. We need a campaign focused on #JustStopUsingEnergy, or at least ‘just reduce your energy usage as much as you can’.
Do that, and oil companies will naturally fade away. #climate#climateChange
Today’s melt-down over the COP28 president’s near denial of climate science has set me thinking about the forces arraigned against doing what must be done to keep the planet habitable.
So, my question is this: has social change of the level that is needed to fix the environment ever been achieved without violent revolution? #climate#COP28
Tomorrow COP28 starts, and we get to watch a bunch of the world’s stupidest people ignore a bunch of the world’s cleverest people, and thus seal the fate of humanity.
We do indeed live in interesting times.