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Jan 25 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
It's an atrocity on an unimaginable scale, overseen by two of our national heroes, Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes. 3 million deaths in India caused by a deliberate policy to ‘reduce the consumption of the poor’. By @jasonhickel
newint.org/features/2021/…
But most people in the UK have no idea. If we've heard of the Bengal Famine at all, we remember it as an act of God. It wasn't. It was the direct result of elective economic policy. It has been airbrushed from national consciousness as effectively as any Soviet crime.
It's a reminder that there's something very strange about the UK: a remarkable ability to blot out the past. No coercion or terror is required, just the British nod and wink. The same applies to the concentration camps in Kenya and many other atrocities
Drogheda, Wexford, genocide in the Caribbean and America, the ransacking of West Africa, the mass transport of slaves, the Irish famine and the 19thC famines in India, genocide in Tasmania, the Boer war, Malaya, Yemen, Aden, Cyprus, the Chagos Islands, the list goes on and on.
Yet most of the atrocities on this list (and there are *many* more) would earn you a blank stare if you mentioned them to almost anyone in this country. It's a Great National Amnesia. Is there any other nation as good at forgetting?
We flee from knowledge, as if it were a deadly infection.

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More from @GeorgeMonbiot

George Monbiot Profile picture
Jan 24
It's the big reveal ... of the cover of Regenesis, designed by @PenguinUKBooks.
I think it's wonderful.
Watch it unfold.
The book's published on May 26th, but you can pre-order it here: smarturl.it/regenesisbook
It would be great, if you want to order one, if you could do so through independent bookshops. Please ask your local shop. Or here are links to a couple of wonderful ones: Pages of Hackney, and Book-ish in Crickhowell.
pagesofhackney.co.uk/webshop/produc…
book-ish.co.uk/product/978024…
What's it about? Well, it's a revolutionary new vision for addressing the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced: feeding the world while simultaneously preventing climate and ecological breakdown.
Read 5 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Jan 21
I'm not a voice piece for anyone, and you slander me by saying so. I hate trophy hunting and I'm repulsed by the people who do it. But the evidence shows powerfully that, when well-regulated, it creates a powerful incentive for the conservation of both species and habitats.
If you disagree, please read this paper. There's a wealth of evidence showing that regulated trophy hunting, disgusting as I find it, has brought wildlife and habitats back from the brink, while generating enthusiasm and income among local people. iucn.org/sites/dev/file…
The world does not divide up as neatly as we might wish.
Respect people with consistent principles.
But beware of people with consistent facts.
Read 12 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Jan 19
This is a truly shocking story: strong evidence of systematic dumping of used fishing gear by Spanish and French boats in the UK's seas, and its devastating impact on marine life.
This isn't about nationalism though - we should all be horrified by it. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Every time the boats dock they take on miles of new net. When they return to port after 4-6 weeks at sea, they dispose of ... nothing. No used gear, no rubbish. Where does it go?
This is what local trawlers are now dredging up on every trip. Massive bundles of dumped nets.
These "ghost nets" are full of the animals they catch as they drift through the sea. I will spare you the pictures of the dead seals I've been sent: they are extremely distressing. But what follows are snapshots of the indiscriminate slaughter happening around our coasts.
Read 10 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Jan 16
I would dearly love to be able to come out in unequivocal support of the BBC, as it comes under government attack.
But while its dramas and a few of its documentaries are excellent, its news and current affairs are such a disaster zone that I find this very hard.
Thread/
What I see and hear is a massive platform for every far-right blowhard who can generate some noise on social media, while almost everyone to the left of Keir Starmer is persona non grata.
I see environmental and social activists being effectively blacklisted as "extremists".
I see a perennial failure to tell the difference between balance and impartiality, exemplified by the senior executive last week who said that if enough people believe the Earth is flat, he will give them a platform. What this means is that professional liars get a free pass.
Read 7 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Jan 13
Let's remember where all this came from.
The media built Boris Johnson: he is its Frankenstien's monster, sewn together from laughter and lies.
It built Nigel Farage.
It built Jacob Rees-Mogg.
And the other killer clowns tearing this country apart.
Then it gave these clowns a massive platform, the platform it reserves for the most odious, entitled and feckless people to be found in this nation.
Make us laugh, make us cry, but above all make a noise.
Because that's ratings. And ratings is power.
To hell with the consequences
You think I'm talking about the billionaire press?
Yes I am.
But I'm also talking about the BBC, whose role is more insidious and more powerful, because, for some reason, people still trust it.
Impartiality? Balance?
Forget it. Give us outrage. Give us shock. Give us eyeballs.
Read 5 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
Jan 12
What’s unfolding here and now in the UK is almost unbelievable. But it's real. And it includes an attempt to criminalise an entire ethnic group. It's as if the 20th Century never happened. We urgently need to wake up to this.
My column.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
There’s an arrogant, unfounded belief that it couldn’t happen here: after all, we’re British. Tory MPs and Lords chunter about the “British sense of fair play”. OK, so where is it? When do they propose to exercise it?
The thing is, this swift and horrifying shift towards authoritarianism will continue even if Johnson is toppled this week. In fact, it might even accelerate, as the ascendant force in the parliamentary Conservative Party is the ERG/CRG extremists.
Read 6 tweets

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