GET A GRIP Profile picture
Apr 10 9 tweets 7 min read
#THREAD

The truth about #Grenfell is slowly being revealed.

Imho, it's now crystal clear that all the key decisions flowed from free-market fundamentalists' desire to always push for more #deregulation, regardless of the consequences, in order to maximise profit. Image
#Regulation - or "red tape" - exists to keep society safe & civilised, for example by conserving biodiversity, preventing quack remedies, & ensuring air, food, water, products & working & living conditions are safe, thus protecting consumers, workers, the environment & children. Image
The Tories, the libertarian Right & free-market think tanks talk a lot about removing 'red tape', & deregulation 'removing barriers to trade'.

What this means in reality is letting corporations & unethical individuals get away with exploitation, pollution, & sometimes, murder. ImageImageImageImage
A 2011 Govt initiative aimed to cut down the 21,000 statutory rules & regulations. The permanent secretary of the Govt Dept in charge of fire safety, said the strong focus on cutting red tape meant it was “very difficult to get anything changed”.
#Grenfell
theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/a…
Regulation & "red tape" keeps us safe from those who would cut corners: 'cutting red-tape' is a euphemism for getting rid of worker, consumer & environmental protections, so the already wealthy can ruthlessly exploit workers, consumers & the environment.

Sadly, democracy can no longer compete with the unimaginable wealth, power & influence of a global cabal of free-market fundamentalists, who have built a network of influence taking in media & Govts across the world which make even Thatcher look left-wing.
And even now, the grotesque ghouls in the right-wing press, on GB "News", & in parliament - supported by a global network of billionaire-funded libertarian-right think tanks - STILL push for ever more deregulation.

They won't stop until the planet can no longer support life. ImageImageImageImage
The @Conservatives & the US Right want to take the UK & USA back to a time before working people had become organised & demanded improvements in working & living conditions, along with increasing the quality of goods & services - the Right see this as "barriers to trade & profit" Image
It sometimes feels like an impossible task to reign in elite power, but the ONLY reason the Right win elections is because of the support of VERY rich individuals, corporations, press barons, think tanks & investors, who fund & push the "free market" agenda.

Get active. #Resist. ImageImageImageImage

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More from @docrussjackson

Apr 11
Daily Mail #THREAD

Devised in 1896 by Alfred Harmsworth (Viscount Northcliffe) & his brother Harold (Viscount Rothermere), the Mail has campaigned against Unions & the Labour Party, against women & most working-class men being given the vote, & now, against environmentalists. ImageImage
The Daily Mail (like the Telegraph) is a newspaper which has little to do with news - it exists to protect the interests of the billionaire class from democracy.

This #thread is adapted from this excellent article by writer & historian, @johnsimkin. 🙏

spartacus-educational.com/spartacus-blog…
The Mail is owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere. According to the Sunday Times Rich List he is estimated to be worth over £1 billion.

He has non-domicile tax status & owns his media businesses through a complex structure of offshore holdings & trusts.
Read 105 tweets
Apr 10
Around £13 TRILLION was held offshore, untaxed, by the global elite in 2012.

Now it's more than £30 TRILLION, wealth which could within a few years end poverty & transition the world into green energy.

The greed, lies & corruption of a handful of sociopaths endangers humanity. ImageImageImageImage
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Read 5 tweets
Apr 8
#THREAD

You may not have heard of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

His involvement in a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler led to his imprisonment & execution, & his thoughts on the causes & dangers of stupidity are fascinating, & imho, once again extremely relevant.
Bonhoeffer grew up amid the academic circles of the University of Berlin, where his father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was a professor of psychiatry & neurology. His father also was one of the most prominent psychiatrists to oppose the T4 (euthanasia) Program initiated by Hitler in 1939.
From 1923 to 1927 Dietrich Bonhoeffer studied theology at the universities of Tübingen & Berlin. His doctoral thesis combined a sociology & theology & he later traced the influence of Kantian transcendental philosophy & ontology on Protestant & Catholic theologies.
Read 26 tweets
Apr 6
Full-fibre broadband households:

South Korea - 98%
Japan - 97%
UK - 10%

When Corbyn proposed nationalising BT broadband & introducing a tax on big tech corps to cover the £20-30 billion cost of free broadband, the unbiased @BBC helpfully referred to it as "BROADBAND COMMUNISM". ImageImageImageImage
In 2019, Britain's most influential news source, with the biggest reach of any news source across the UK, was (& still is) @BBCNews, which is why the @Conservatives put an ex-Tory Councillor & a man who "gave" the Tories £400,000 in charge of the @BBC.

Image
Read 4 tweets
Apr 5
Reducing masculinity into made-up categories like “alpha”, “beta” & “sigma” males is absurd, but it's exactly how pick-up artists view the world; "about as insightful as a Buzzfeed quiz that categorizes humans into different flavors of Starbucks syrup."

forbes.com/sites/danidipl…
For those who are unfamiliar with 'manhood' mythology, the concept of an alpha male is based on the absurdly illogical belief that groups of humans resemble a wolf pack, destined to be led by an aggressive, domineering leader, AKA, the “alpha.”
Not only is this not how humans operate, it’s not even how wolf packs function; the now-debunked theory was based on observations of wolves living in captivity - wild wolves show that wolf behaviour was far more nuanced than a binary between an alpha & his cowering subordinates.
Read 8 tweets
Apr 5
#THREAD

In 2011, Timothy Mitchell's ground-breaking influential book 'Carbon Democracy' came out. It considers the relationship between fossil fuels & democracy.

A decade later, he was interviewed about it, & his opening response is a belter:

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Interviewer: For readers who may be unfamiliar with the book, how would you describe the argument & approach of Carbon Democracy?

Timothy Mitchell: I can do it in the sentence with which the book begins: 'coal made possible the emergence of mass democracy, & oil set its limits'.
The approach was to get away from an exclusive focus on oil, & on the Middle East, as the place where you'll find answers to the problem of energy & democracy. I wanted to change focus by going back to an earlier period of dependence on a dominant source of carbon energy: coal.
Read 16 tweets

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