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Jun 17 • 16 tweets • 8 min read
The evidence is crystal clear: the happiest countries are the most equal ones. People in countries like Britain, where there are high levels of #inequality, are easily manipulated by political & media elites, who fuel division by identifying & demonising scapegoats.🇬🇧
#RwandaPlan
The "general recipe for creating highly satisfied citizens: ensure that state institutions are of high quality, non-corrupt, able to deliver what they promise, & generous in taking care of citizens in various adversities".

The opposite of Britain then.🇬🇧

The UK's political & media elite conceal from Brexit supporters & "patriots" the truth about their hero Winston Churchill's role in both the European Convention on, & Court of, Human Rights - designed to protect people from Govts like ours. 🇬🇧
#RwandaPlan
Of course, this hasn't happened overnight. In Britain, the influential & manipulative billionaire-owned press has been disseminating divisive hateful #propaganda for over a century, & forty years of neoliberal policies have turbocharged wealth inequality.
An essential step in healing Britain & breaking the stranglehold of the political & media elite is to detoxify the divisive tax-avoiding foreign/non-dom billionaire-owned "news" media, but politicians brave enough to challenge them are destroyed.
#Leveson2
Another essential step is to reconceptualise both patriotism & nationalism - away from their obvious associations with jingoism & xenophobia (which is exploited by both political & media elites) & toward a more compassionate & inclusive pride in Britain. 🇬🇧
Well-functioning democracies havewell- informed active citizens, with media-literate & politically aware electorates, skilled in critical thinking. Understanding the history & ideology of harmful #neoliberalism is an essential step on the path to freedom.

What kind of broad policies emerge from the principles & perspective outlined above?
Here's five compelling & innovative articles focused on the parlous state of liberal democracy, which help progressives understand our own role in polarisation & the culture wars, & offer practical advice about how we might better respond to provocations:

I'm not a supporter of the 'Great Man' perspective on history - I'm more interested in how institutions, language, ideas & material conditions shape people & societies. But I'm always on the look out for patterns & compelling explanatory frameworks:

In considering our failure to learn important lessons from history, something else lacking in a significant proportion of the UK & especially English electorate is a good understanding of the causes & dangers of antidemocratic authoritarianism aka fascism:
Every voter in Britain needs to know exactly what 'wedge issues' are: a key feature of 'divide & rule', 'wedge politics' is a manipulatuve political strategy deployed by every antidemocratic authoritian leader in history.

Here's my attempt to explain it:

For democracy to function properly, countries like ours need media-literate populations, capable of critical thinking, in order to avoid being manipulated by elite political & media discourse/propaganda.

Here's an illustrative case study of HOW IT WORKS:

Linguist Ruth Wodak has been researching & analysing the concerning rise of far-right populist discourse & rhetoric across Europe & beyond for over a decade.

Her insights are helpful in understanding UK Govt & right-wing media rhetoric & the #RwandaPlan.

The 'founding father' of the #propaganda techniques used not just by Goebbels, but by unethical media, corporations & politicians to this day, was Edward Bernays. Voters should be taught, as children in Finland are, to identify attempts to manipulate them.
Everyone should also know about the relationship between sophisticated & near invisible corporate propaganda & the neoliberal policies embraced by successive UK Govts for the last forty years, which have led to the multiple crises in Britain & beyond.

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More from @docrussjackson

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Jun 18
#THREAD

Edward Bernays, using ideas developed by his uncle Sigmund Freud, set in motion powerful #propaganda techniques used to 'manipulate the organized habits & opinions of the masses' & "pull the wires that control the public mind" that are still in use today. Image
Sigmund Freud developed his theory about the the human subconscious mind & the technique of psychoanalysis, by which patients are confronted with their subconscious fears & desires in order to unearth the causes of & resolve their problematic behaviours.
Freud was worried by what he found: the subconscious held deep, dark desires of a sexual & violent nature. He saw his fears about the subconscious mind realized when the Great War started in 1914, writing about his concerns in his 1929 book, 'Civilization & Its Discontents'.
Read 32 tweets
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Jun 17
#THREAD

Master of 'wedge issues', Lynton Crosby, has been attending Boris Johnson’s meetings in No 10.

The political strategist, whose advisory firm has represented tobacco as well as oil & gas interests, is at the heart of Johnson's political strategy.

theguardian.com/politics/2022/…
Like many senior Tories, Crosby is a master of 'Divide & Rule', & an expert in the 'Dark Arts' of voter manipulation, infamous for his 'dead cat' strategy & the promotion of toxic & deliberately divisive 'wedge issues' - evidence of which is everywhere in Britain at the moment. Image
A 'wedge issue' - a key component of the classic 'divide & rule' political strategy - is described as a political or social issue, often of a controversial or divisive nature, which splits apart a demographic or population group.

Read 43 tweets
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Jun 16
#THREAD

IF Jesus came back & tried to get to Britain, he'd be framed the by right-wing media as a symptom of "The Great Replacement" & "a scrounging illegal migrant & potential terrorist rapist", & Govt Ministers would be braying for him to be sent to #Rwanda for "processing".
We now know that the UK has experienced more far-right terror attacks & plots than any state in Europe.

Around a third of all domestic terror threats now come from the far Right - often inspired by far-right #propaganda - according to the head of MI5.

opendemocracy.net/en/far-right-m…
Government politicians adopt far-right tropes if it helps them create wedge issues to win votes.

The UK media platform the far-right - which now describes & brands itself as ‘anti-woke’ rather than ‘fascist’ - to stir controversy & drive hits.

#Rwanda

opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…
Read 6 tweets
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Jun 16
#THREAD

Given the UK Govt's deeply concerning & increasingly antidemocratic & authoritarian tendencies, concerned citizens need to better understand the European Convention on Human Rights - & know that it was driven by Britons in the aftermath of WWII.

eachother.org.uk/wrote-european…
Some talk about the ECHR as if it is a bad thing, imposed on the unwilling British by our European neighbours. This is profoundly misleading & insulting to previous generations fighting in & affected by WWII which was started by the leader of an antidemocratic authoritarian Govt.
In the early 1940s, British PM Winston Churchill raised the idea of a ‘Council of Europe’.

In the wake of WWII & the horrors of the #Holocaust, the idea behind the Council of Europe was to set up an international organisation to promote democracy, the rule of law & human rights.
Read 24 tweets
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Jun 15
Short #THREAD

The population of the #USA is 332,915,073, & it has around 790 (0.00023%) billionaires. 🇺🇸

The #UK population is 68,580,309, & it has around 177 (0.00026%) billionaires. 🇬🇧

#ThePeopleVsTheOnePercent #WealthTaxNow
Estimates suggest that a progressive UK net #WealthTax that only taxes the top 1% wealthiest households - those with net wealth above £3.4 million - would raise roughly £70-130 billion a year.

gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/3381…
Introducing a #WealthTax for UK households with net wealth above £3.4million (the top 1%) taxed at a marginal rate of 1%, above £5.7million (the top 0.5%) at a marginal rate of 5%, & above £18.2million (the top 0.1%) at a marginal rate of 10%, would raise £70-130 billion a year.
Read 5 tweets
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Jun 15
#THREAD

#LifeChangingLibraries’ is Children's Laureate @CressidaCowell’s flagship project. All the research shows that encouraging #readingforpleasure from an early age is one of THE most important ways parents & teachers can help improve social mobility.
booktrust.org.uk/lifechangingli…
Over the course of a year, six primary schools across England are being helped to develop a #readingforpleasure culture, with the support of the @Booktrust & @CressidaCowell.

#LifeChangingLibraries

Cressida Cowell has called on the UK government to fund primary school libraries so that all children across the country don’t miss out on the opportunity to read for pleasure & all the vital benefits this chance brings.

#LifeChangingLibraries
Read 13 tweets

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