Thread by @shaunjlawson

THREAD: @GeorgeMonbiot.

George has been having his difficulties on here lately. I get entirely where he's coming from, because it's reminded me of my own! 😳

I'm @ ing him because I hope he gets the chance to read it at some point.

He's a hero of mine. Always has been.

I want to start by asking his many critics on here: how many of you have ever:

- Been made persona non grata in seven different countries because of your brilliant work exposing what was happening there?

- Been sentenced to life in prison in abstentia (as he was by Indonesia)?

- Been shot at?

- Been beaten up by military police?

- Been rendered comatose by hornets?

- Been attacked by security guards and had a metal spike driven through your foot?

- Tried to carry out a citizen's arrest of John Bolton?

He's not just been writing about enormously compelling issues for decades. He's LIVED them at his own risk.

Authenticity. The very thing Jeremy Corbyn's strongest supporters most admired about him too.

Like Corbyn, George's compassion and empathy has always shone through.

Unbelievably, I've seen people on here denounce George - a seer, a visionary, who's spent his whole life campaigning on the grotesque injustices faced by people, animals and the planet itself every day - as a 'neoliberal'. A 'sellout'.

Folks: what an absolute load of bollocks.

He also endorsed Corbyn's campaign for the leadership in 2015 and voted for him in 2017, announcing as much two months before the election.

What is more important in any of our cases than actually VOTING? Answer: nothing.

He even worked with Corbyn's Labour to produce Land for the Many. If you don't think he backed Corbyn *enough*, you're mostly only proving Monbiot right. Except, that is, on one rather important thing.

Corbyn, outrageously, was denounced as an antisemite.

Despite doing his utmost to help Yemeni Jews as the rest of Westminster - Tory and Labour - did nothing.

Despite helping stop the demolition of a Jewish cemetery which Margaret Hodge wanted to go ahead.

Despite a lifelong record of always standing against injustice and alongside the most vulnerable.

George, sadly, didn't do his reading around the 'English irony' saga. He had that in common with far, far too many others.

But because he didn't, he didn't realise that:

- The two individuals - and it was only two - Corbyn directed his comments at had a long history of angrily disrupting pro-Palestinian meetings aimed at peace

- Unforgivably, monstrously, had actually yelled the German phrase for 'All Hail' at Hajo Meyer, a Holocaust survivor.

Imagine how disgusting, how beyond the pale, someone has to be to do that. To a Holocaust survivor.

Corbyn's comments were gentle and mild given that context - but it didn't stop the entirety of the mainstream media, including The Guardian, ignoring said context altogether.

The very same Guardian was right at the forefront of twisting, manipulating, exaggerating and smearing Corbyn throughout the 2017-19 period. It played a major part in helping Labour get annihilated. Which is why all the handwringing now from its commentators is frankly, pathetic.

There's a hashtag on here called #ItWasAScam. I really encourage George to read through some of the tweets.

And I do so as the grandson of a Holocaust survivor myself - who spent 2 years nauseated and disgusted by the suffering of my people being exploited by absolute bastards.

I also encourage George to read up on just what's happening to Jewish socialists right now. Labour wasn't remotely 'institutionally antisemitic' under Corbyn. It very much is now.

If the EHRC was remotely fit for purpose, it'd be investigating.

middleeasteye.net/news/uk-labour…

George: that's why there's so much anger. Rightly so. Anger compounded by Starmer showing every sign of going back on every one of his pledges made during the leadership campaign - when massive numbers of Corbyn voters, including myself, voted for Keir.

But he lied to us.

And the behaviour of his henchmen since has been grotesque, revolting, and the absolute opposite of what any party interested in making things better and acting in the common good would do.

There was even a massive data leak a few weeks back which nobody took responsibility for.

Corbyn's greatest strength was his capacity to reach out and inspire millions of people previously lost to the political and electoral process.

Many of them have since been demonised, have left the party in disgust, and the truth about it all - the Forde Report - has been buried

Again, that's why there's so much fury. Millions of people watched a profoundly good, decent man be treated like Lucifer for the crime of recognising Britain's horrific state and wanting to do something about it.

Many of them have walked away. I can't blame them for that at all.

Just as Corbyn was traduced beyond reason by many who should be ashamed (including scores of Labour MPs, and Remain campaigners fielding their own downfall who piled in behind the catastrophic narcissist, fracking Jo Swinson), so his supporters naturally double down behind him.

It's Newton's third law of motion. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

ESPECIALLY on here. The entire modus operandi of Twitter is constant conflict. And is probably why Dave Chappelle referred to it rather wonderfully as "not a real place".

All of which means that when anyone writes threads lambasting the left for not uniting, they're gonna get a reaction! An angry one. George has even recognised that himself literally this very morning.

That's not to say I don't see what he sees. I do, regularly.

I certainly see people who make quite bonkers demands. Who themselves trade in factionalism and political sectarianism. Whose hyperbolic takes win them retweets and followers on here by the thousands.

Nuance isn't just drowned out, but actively penalised across social media.

You could probably never have devised something more likely to help the right than (un)social media: which makes gargantuan profits by always encouraging people's worst instincts and playing not to their hopes, but their most base fears.

It's wrecked reasoned discourse and is actively undermining democracy itself.

And in a world where people no longer buy printed newspapers, clicks and advertising revenue are everything - so the corporate, 'mainstream' media is now more based on lies than ever before.

Lies in the mainstream media. Lies on social media.

Which get hits, get shared, make 'newspapers' (sic) money and get lying bastards like Boris Johnson returned, while decent people like Jeremy Corbyn, Ed Miliband or Gordon Brown are laid waste to.

But then, on the question of 'purity': I can't quite recall Russell Brand being denounced for loudly advocating from his multi-million pound mansion for young people not to vote at all in 2015.

Instead, many of those who attack anyone who criticised Corbyn celebrated Brand.

And yes, I know: he changed his mind. TOO DAMN LATE. The registration deadline had already closed when he did. His behaviour was disgraceful.

His argument was essentially "they're all the same. Nothing will change". Well no, not for you Russell: you were completely insulated.

But imagine Britain if Ed had won in 2015. Really, imagine it. Anyone reckon we'd be in anything like such a mess if he had?

And the problem with "they're all the same. Nothing will change" is it's an argument which the Tories are desperate for the public to absorb.

That's probably a very large part of why people aren't on the streets right now demanding Johnson resigns. The public's been worn down; the public thinks they're 'all the same'.

But every single time people say "it can't get any worse", IT DOES.

- Blair betrays the country over Iraq. 'Can't get any worse'.

- Lib Dems betray young people over tuition fees. 'Can't get any worse'.

- Coalition implements austerity. Labour assumed to be better off in opposition given likely public rage. How did that work out for everyone?

- The worst Prime Minister in modern history, David Cameron, leads Britain off a cliff into catastrophe at the referendum.

- He's replaced by the worst Prime Minister in modern history, Theresa May, a national and global laughing stock without a shred of empathy in her body.

- She's replaced by the undisputed worst Prime Minister in modern history, Boris Johnson, a more charming version of Donald Trump. Now look upon his works and despair.

It KEEPS GETTING WORSE. Britain, as George has written, could end up as a failed state.

Arguably, given the BBC, much of the media and even the police are all batting for the same Tory team, it already is. It's certainly not a recognisable democracy by any stretch of the imagination.

All this, at a time the entire planet and our species can least afford it.

All this, when everything I've written above pales into utter insignificance compared with the survival of our species. Of our children and grandchildren having any kind of future at all.

George knows what's coming. He knows what a pathetic, miserable failure COP 26 was.

And he knows that even a Labour Party *this* flawed (but actually, a progressive, anti-Tory, pluralist alliance) remains our only hope against Britain going full-on fascist.

Labour's union leaders blocked the party supporting PR. Shame on them forever. PR is desperately needed.

Because it results, in most places, in leadership by consensus and by grown-ups, and in the consent of the losers.

It's impossible for one party elected by a minority to ride roughshod over everyone else and wreck public policy for generations.

It's not perfect, no. Nothing ever is. But it's about a billion times better than the rotten boroughs - a system straight out of the eighteenth century - Britain still has.

And George isn't perfect either. Nobody ever is. He'll make mistakes, plenty of them. We all do.

But he is and has always been a magnificent advocate for something better. For our better angels to win out.

For that, he has my full support. And that of many, many, many others.

So chin up George. Don't let this place get you down. I know how well-intentioned your message is.

It's just that on Twitter, you can't win. That's a lesson we all have to learn, one way or another.