Thread by @EthicalRenewal

Here’s a truth grenade:

You've been treated like garbage.
The establishment doesn't give a damn about you.
You deserve to be listened to.

1/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Here’s another truth grenade:

You want hope.
You want safety and security for your children.
You want to feel part of something special.

2/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

And a third:

You don't want to be talked down to.
You want to be treated as an equal.
You want a say in the things that effect your life.....

3/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Some people call these ‘stun grenades’ or ‘flash-bang’ munitions.
They shock & disorientate you, leave you gasping for air…
In the right time/place they explode through your consciousness & expose–in a burst of light–something you were already primed to recognise as true.
4/33

They’re epiphany ordnance – an essential weapon in our battle against the 21st Century pandemic of lies.

5/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

There are other equally fundamental truths which more and more of us are at last alert enough to recognise:

Our economy isn’t working for the poor.

Half of us (50% of all humanity!) struggle to meet our basic needs.

6/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Truths like these:

10% of humanity (800 million of us!) live in what the World Bank describes as extreme poverty.

In a world of incredible productivity and wealth most of us aren’t really very happy.

7/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

These are difficult truths to hide from. Deny them and they’ll eventually explode in your face.

8/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

But there’s a problem.
These epiphanies – these munitions of truth – contain such blinding statements of the obvious that it's easy to hide lies and propaganda behind the glare.

9/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

The manipulative take advantage of this – creating the oddity that truth grenades like these are often used by liars.
We see this in modern politics in almost every nation on Earth: truth used as a cover for the 21st Century pandemic of lies.

10/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Populists, authoritarians and the oligarch-owned media lob a few of these grenades into the fray, then, beneath the smoke and noise, they send out their ground offensive of lies.

11/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Donald Trump. Jair Bolsonaro. Benjamin Netanyahu.
Johnson, Putin, Marine Le Pen.
Narendra Modi.
They’re all masters at deploying truths like these while simultaneously attacking the rights and freedoms of the very people to whom the truths apply.

12/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

If we're to have any chance of resisting the lies beneath the veneer of truth, we need to be willing to grab the truth grenades before they explode. We have to be willing to intercept primed and ticking munitions and boomerang them back across enemy lines.

13/33
#TruthGrenade

It's a difficult manoeuvre.
It's particularly tricky for those who’re unwilling to see these profound insights for the truths they are.

14/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Those who benefit from the status quo, those in positions of power, those who’re bedecked with honours & well integrated within the establishment, those who’re living comfortable lives – if that’s you, then you’ll find it hard to embrace the truths the populists exploit.
15/33

You'll find yourself blindsided.

16/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth #sand

We’ve seen this happen with the rise of populist leaders and governments all across the world.

17/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth #Ordnance

As far as ordinary folk go, the blindly privileged, the securely propertied & complacently well-to-do, the ‘centrists’ & ‘moderates’, are part of the problem – because they’re unwilling to accept that a problem really exists, a problem that only radical change can resolve.

18/33

If you don’t grab the populists’ truth grenades the moment they land, if you don’t embrace these truths, if you don’t recognise that the pin’s already been pulled, that there’s no hiding from the reality of what’s been exposed – then the explosion will take you by surprise.
19/33

When the truth grenade hits you, you won’t even understand what’s happened. You’ll find yourself confused and uncertain. If the worst comes to the worst, you’ll try to bury your head even deeper in the sand.

20/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Look at Hilary Clinton after Trump won the US presidency in 2016, blaming the FBI director James Comey… Russian interference… free airtime for Trump… and even the out-going president, Barack Obama…

21/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth #Clinton

Blaming anything other than the truths that Trump had so cleverly hijacked to make millions of ordinary Americans vote for him:

You've been treated like garbage.
The establishment doesn't give a damn about you.
You deserve to be listened to.

22/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Look at privileged politicians, commentators and intellectuals all across the globe when faced with populism…
They appear clueless as the truth grenades explode around them.

23/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

You need to grab those grenades.
You need to acknowledge these insights.
You need to make them your own.

24/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Truths like these:

Everyone deserves fairness – particularly those who’ve been deprived of it until now.

There are 8 billion of us – and we’re all burning in the same fire, drowning in the same flood.

26/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth #fairness

Truths like these:

We’re smart enough to help each other. We don’t have to scrabble and fight to be the last fool left alive.

Kindness and encouragement work; punishment doesn’t.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

27/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth #violence

And truths like these:

If we f*** the environment we’re f***ed too.

There’s no longer any need for poverty.

Your parents should have taught you how to share…

28/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

These statements are like exploding white phosphorous – glaringly obvious and true. In the incandescent light of their explosion they’re impossible to ignore.

29/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

If we share these truths, if we light up people’s minds, the populist propaganda drifts away like spent poison gas, blown from the trenches by the wind.

30/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Truth grenades are cognitive munitions which scatter the enemy’s lines.
They’re an essential part of our weaponry against disinformation and spin.

31/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

Truth grenades like these are ordnance against false narratives which pretend that greed, selfishness and power-hunger are good, that they benefit ordinary people in their struggle to survive.

32/33
#TruthGrenade #Truth

But truth grenades don’t throw themselves.
We need assault troops of honesty, fusiliers of truth.
We need grenade throwers for our truth grenades.

Join us.

We have the armaments – but our weapons are worthless without you at our side.

33/33
#TruthGrenade #EthicalRebellion