Thread by @GeorgeMonbiot

Because antivaxx sentiment is strong in some of the circles I move in, I’m seeing people go down like flies. Fit, strong, healthy people getting hospitalised, while recklessly endangering the lives of others.

Please friends, get vaccinated.

I’ve had several interesting conditions.
Including cancer and cerebral malaria
I’ve been stung into a coma by hornets
Severely assaulted
Blue-lighted with hypothermia
Almost drowned
Been pronounced clinically dead
But I’ve never taken as long to recover as I did from Covid-19

Let's not be

After all,

I think we should be honest about this: something weird is happening in the counter-culture we know and love. While most people have stayed true to their leftwing, curious and sceptical roots, some have succumbed to a far-right conspiracy ideation, up to and including Q-anon.

There's been an uncritical absorption of far-right beliefs by some "alternative" people, who often seem entirely ignorant of their origins. Antivax seems to be part of a package, often imported from the US. I hear right-on types mouthing the tropes of white supremacists.

The far-right seized and repurposed the language of leftwing revolt: rebel against the elite, take back control etc. Bannon was a master at this. Some people on the left, hearing stuff that sounded familiar, seem to have fallen for it.

The necessary and justifiable revolt against corporate and oligarchic power has morphed in some cases into an extreme individualism, which happens to suit corporate and oligarchic power very well.

It doesn't help that we've suffered decades of betrayal by formerly left-ish political parties, that fell into line with neoliberal capitalism. This left many people both profoundly confused and susceptible to the liberationist claims of the far right.

Left and right political parties have swapped their language.
Now the right talks about liberation and revolt.
And the left talks about security and stability.