Then I'm afraid you are ignoring a vast body of evidence, and might have succumbed to myths that have been heavily promoted in billionaire outlets.

Do you not accept that Covid-19 is real and has killed huge numbers, and that vaccines are highly effective tools for limiting the spread and/or effects of infectious disease?

(PS: This doesn't in any way mean that I get things right, or that I quickly spot the critical issues. Sometimes I get it drastically wrong. I rely on the rest of you to correct me and alert me - as do we all. Our hope lies in the genius of crowds.)

Fake Daily mail headline. We blame migrants so you don’t blame billionaires

I didn't mean to turn this into a short thread, but once I started ranting ...
So here it is, on one page: skywriter.blue/@georgemonbi...

I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to speak my mind, to state what I believe even when it's directly at odds with billionaire power. I'm among the minority allowed to do it. But it's not a privilege. It's a right. And everyone should possess it.

On the other hand, no one ever lost money by telling billionaires what they want to hear. The airwaves are full of the oligarchs' minions, reciting their creeds as if these were some kind of arcane truth they've stumbled across. Almost every political conversation is dominated by these elite lies.

We claim to treasure free speech, above almost anything. But on the most critical issue, very few of us are free to speak. The majority are silenced by fear of censure or loss of employment. This conspiracy of silence looks more like what you'd expect in an authoritarian regime than in a democracy.

One problem is that many articulate, confident people are forbidden by the terms of their employment to speak out. To acquiesce in the power that threatens everything is acceptable and uncontroversial. To contest it brings your employer "into disrepute" and could have you sacked.

The ocean is made of many drops

Pushing back against the lies, among friends, family, neighbours is a good start.

also Muslims, Black and Brown people, women, students, greens, pro-Palestine protesters ...

Almost everything we argue about is a substitute for the thing we should be arguing about: the immense wealth & power of an oligarchic class, which captures governments, ruins lives and wrecks the living planet.
This class redirects our rage at scapegoats. To resist its lies is to resist its power.

We’re letting big corporations gamble with our lives. Act now, or the food could run out | George Monbiot The fragility of the global food system fills me with dread – and the war with Iran has exposed just how close to collapse it is, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

"Just as we make ourselves more energy-secure by switching from fossil fuels to renewables, we make ourselves more food-secure by switching from animals to plants." - @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

Rachel Reeves, Chris Mcdonald, Ed Miliband, Keir Starmer. All wearing fluorescent jackets.

Great how your phone gives you memories.

It's two years to the day since Rachel Reeves told me if Labour won the general election they would send the National Audit Office in to investigate the Teesworks saga.

The authority responsible hasn't published audited accounts since then, yet nothing.

It feels like yesterday that online-engineers-of-a-certain-age were saying that heavy freight could never be electrified. To quote William Gibson, "The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet." Fossil fuel interests want to keep it that way.

Big Oil Breaks Everything The planet, our democracy, our courts...

If you read one thing today ...
An essential article by the great @billmckibben.bsky.social
billmckibben.substack.com/p/big-oil-br...

If biocide usage and non-native plants mean that your garden is bereft of colourful Lepidoptera then capitalism has your back @georgemonbiot.bsky.social - seen at a garden centre today
#ExtremeCivilisation

Who’d have thought a fossil-fuel shill like Trump would be the one to spark a green revolution? | George Monbiot The US attack on Iran has made the need for renewable energy inarguable, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

It's the opposite of his intention, but the Idiot Emperor is forcing the world off fossil fuels. This week's column.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet a lifetime is often not enough to rebuild. They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found." -Pope Leo XIV

Battle for the Biosphere Doughnut Economic Circus presents Battle for the Biosphere with Kate Raworth

Devonians: you don't want to miss this. The great @kateraworth.bsky.social is coming our way, with her amazing new show: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/battle-for...

Yes, and your point is?

Events Archive - make hope possible limited

Tickets are still available (scroll down for various price options) for the events in Glasgow, Dundee, Pitlochry and Edinburgh.
A rare chance to listen to and to engage with @georgemonbiot.bsky.social in person, in Scotland.
I'll be there, and you should be, too:

makehopepossible.org/events/

Claims and ideas which happen to favour the ruling class don't dominate public life by accident. They're paid for by oligarchs and corporations then promoted by media outlets other oligarchs and corporations own. Once they've been drummed into our ears enough, they're internalised as "common sense".

Very true.

Unfortunately, it's a real person, standing in the council elections.

Though we can't be sure in any one case, it's such a common pathology among certain types of privileged people that I suspect it might be transferance: the redirection of trauma and self-hatred. What presents as mocking self-confidence could reveal deep insecurity and/or externalisation of fear.

When you aggregate the comments of various Reform UK candidates, you find they:
Hate the NHS
Hate immigrants
Hate Black people
Hate Brown people
Hate Muslims
Hate Jews
Hate women
Hate students
Hate LGTBQ people
Hate the unemployed
Hate disabled people
Hate everyone ...
But claim to love the country.

I know this type. I've seen them often enough. They revel in being obnoxious: but not towards the rich and powerful, to whom they fawn. Always towards the weaker and the poorer: towards people who don't have their privileges, such as access to private medical care. They think it's funny and daring.

James Bembridge on X: Hate is too weak a word for what I feel towards the NHS. I'd tear it down and salt the earth upon which it stood.

Lovely people, these Reform UK candidates for the upcoming election, and great to know they're on our side.