Thread by @shaunjlawson

Personally, I find the idea that Priti Patel didn't know the harm she was causing 100% plausible.

And why? Because people without a shred of empathy do not know and do not care about the consequences for others. They live in their own self-aggrandising, self-promoting world.

We live in a world in which narcissists, sociopaths, even psychopaths rise to the top (as such things do). The reason for that is because our culture celebrates and encourages extreme ruthlessness, selfishness and yes, bullying. At all levels.

Until recently, it was still a problem if someone got caught. But now that no longer matters either. Because these bullies, narcissists and liars are surrounded by a culture which actively enables them and punishes not just whistleblowers, but decent people with integrity.

At school, when my teacher asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, 10-year-old me replied:

"I don't know. But it must be a job where I can take June off every 2 years to watch major football tournaments... and it must not be in an office. Because offices are miserable".

Office environments - hierarchical environments - are a disaster. No sunlight, no air, people sat in front of a computer for ever-increasing hours - and told what to do by unaccountable bosses; in many cases, bullies.

That we just accept this is extraordinary.

Our current Prime Minister learnt how to be a bully at Eton. This has served him terrifyingly well.

The President of the United States learnt how to be a bully from his father and in the business world. It's also served him terrifyingly well.

The same applies with Priti Patel, tobacco lobbyist. Priti Patel, she of her own independent foreign policy. Priti Patel, who wants the death penalty but thinks 'burden of proof' somehow guarantees guilt. Priti Patel, who thinks the poor are responsible for being poor.

There have never been any genuine consequences for her behaviour. Or that of Johnson. Or Trump. Or the likes of Tim Martin or Michael O'Leary. They get rich and they're celebrated for absolutely disgusting behaviour - so why would they do anything else?

And by the way: this culture cuts through EVERYWHERE, and most people are guilty of it. Both Jerry Springer and Jeremy Kyle got rich and famous by ridiculing the poor. Reality TV shows are literally based on ridiculing and media bullying of contestants. And the public lap it up.

Like it laps up the bullying of celebrities by the Daily Heil: obsessed each and every day with how X has lost weight or Y has cellulite or who Z is having an affair with.

It is DISGUSTING. And it's enabled, all of it, by the British public.

Yet it goes even deeper. Grifters (scammers) are EVERYWHERE. Meanwhile, our culture is so breathtakingly hollow that thousands of young women now think the way to get rich is by posing with almost no clothes on on Instagram every day. And... it works.

The message this dystopian world sends out is very simple. Someone's talents, intelligence or integrity no longer matter at all. What matters is:

- Being born into wealth
- Who you know
- What you look like

Take a look at the media - even, the alternative left wing media. Which has a number of brilliant commentators: precisely zero of whom aren't highly photogenic and attractive. Almost none of whom don't promote themselves as well as highlight the injustices of the world.

Now y'know, don't get me wrong, It's not their fault that they're good looking or something!

But what if they weren't? Would they be anything like as influential? Would they have broken in at all?

And if the answer is 'no', what kind of mad nonsense is that?

"Sorry ugly person. No voice for you in this world in which everyone has to look like a Hollywood actor".

Anyone in the media with a disability, for example? I can't think of any. Good grief: if FDR was running for office nowadays, he'd have no chance at all.

It is hollow, shallow, vacuous beyond belief - and EVERYONE contributes to it. Sensationalism and click bait: the more extreme someone's position is, the more hits they'll get and the more money they'll make.

Seriousness has completely vanished.

And it's vanished to such an extent that the leader of the Labour Party condemns Priti Patel's bullying while utterly disgusting, outrageous bullying goes on under his watch. And has been going on in the Labour Party for many many years.

The bullying which both Corbyn and Diane Abbott have suffered has been sick. Deranged. The bullying which their supporters have experienced on and off here; just as much.

Now we have Luke Akehurst, arms lobbyist, trying to bully CLPs into submission for the crime of... democracy

Jess Phillips, she of the 'knife in the front' and 'I told her to eff off... so she effed off' is CELEBRATED by the media for her 'honesty'.

Margaret Hodge, apartheid profiteer and tax dodger, who ignored victims of child abuse and aped the BNP? Her bullying is celebrated too.

And so many people - good, gentle people - on here whose lives have been destroyed by bullies and lunatics. Nobody in authority has done anything for them; they've been left to suffer by themselves, alone. While the media parrots power's lies and abuse.

Even the so-called 'liberal' media. Which happens to be full of late middle-aged white men without a clue who are terrified of how much the world is changing; and sharp-elbowed middle class white women who are just as self-aggrandising and full of shit as anyone I've mentioned.

You want integrity? In Britain?

You want decency and compassion? Under neoliberalism?

You want substance? In a culture obsessed with style and gossip?

You want good governance and politics which tries to HELP people?

As I say, we're all guilty of it. My quote tweeting of others - which I'm going to cut right down on - is appalling. And likely results in pile-ons which I've never intended but were absolutely my fault and I take full responsibility for.

I have to do better.

But a polity which is full of lies, corruption, narcissism and bullying is a product of a society and a system which are full of lies, corruption, narcissism and bullying.

"Get out of my way! I don't care what you think! I am fabulous! I am the best!"

We're now so far down the rabbit hole that people like that actually think they know better than scientists, epidemiologists and virologists about a global pandemic.

And why wouldn't they? They're rewarded for this bullshit. Meanwhile, 75000 people die - and who cares?

Clapping the NHS by a public which voted to defund and destroy it for a decade... and counting.

People who only read, listen to and retweet what they want to hear; even if it's 100% false.

Kind, gentle people treated like dirt on the sole of someone's shoe.

That is the world we're in now. Soulless, vacuous, in which scum rises to the top and those of decency and good conscience are forever at the bottom.

Priti Patel is a symptom. Not a cause. The way to be successful in modern Britain is, very simply: be an irredeemable c***.