Stephen Barlow Profile picture
Oct 9 19 tweets 5 min read
Liz Truss' demonization of what she is calling the #antigrowthcoalition seems to actually be identical to what now disgraced former Conservative MP, and former Environment minister Owen Paterson called, the "green blob".
theguardian.com/environment/20…
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Here is Paterson's description of what he called "the green blob", which seems to be identical to what Truss is calling the #antigrowthcoaltion. This is highly significant, as both Truss and Paterson were former Environment Secretaries.
theguardian.com/politics/2014/…
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When Michael Gove was Education Secretary, he also claimed to be opposed by "the blob".
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It's very difficult to know what's going on here. Specifically, whether these politicians are as confused and deluded as they sound, or if they are knowingly being mendacious, and are knowingly creating imaginary enemies and conspiracies they know to be false i.e. propaganda.
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Liz Truss, seems to be grouping the Labour Party in this supposed #antigrowthcoaltion, which is just absolutely bizarre because the leader of the Labour Party announced his own all out "mission for economic growth" 2 months before Truss.
labour.org.uk/press/keir-sta…
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It really is bizarre, because Liz Truss is grouping together political parties, organizations that range from being growth obsessed and apparently neoliberal, to those actively campaigning for degrowth i.e. polar opposites.
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It's also impossible to know whether Truss is just reading from a script, a pre-worked out strategy emanating from some right wing thinktank or similar, or whether she is genuinely and personally confused.
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One thing I do know a lot about is conservation, sustainability, ecology, thinking about the climate and ecological crisis, and the positions of the various political parties, organizations and individuals, Truss is calling the #antigrowthcoalition.
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One thing I know for absolute certain, is that these organizations and perspectives have never been working together, in any sort of way. Many are fundamentally opposed to each other, and about the only thing they have in common is opposing Conservative Party policy.
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The really deep irony, is that this supposed #antigrowthcoalition never previously existed, but Truss has created a self-fulfilling prophecy by essentially declaring war on the natural world. Creating a potential real coalition that never previously existed.
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Overall, the deep serious problem, is that whilst in practise declaring war on the natural world, and practically engaging in active climate change science denial, that Truss' government, denies both.
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This is the huge problem in dealing with such utterly dishonest people, who say one thing, and are self-evidently doing what they deny i.e. knowing what you are dealing with i.e. someone who is totally confused, or a bare-faced liar.
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You see you need an entirely different strategy to deal with someone who is just confused, and someone/group, which is knowingly dishonest. You can reason with a confused person, but not a bare-faced liar who knows exactly what they are doing.
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This problem of "disingenuity" is I think one of the major dilemmas facing environmentalists, conservationists and NGOs, today. I feel a massive amount of effort has been wasted trying to reason with people who are just utterly dishonest.
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As I imply, it is completely futile trying to reason with an ideologue, who just sees the natural world and natural systems as meaningless, and which are just commodities to be exploited.
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If you try to argue or reason with a politician who is knowingly disingenuous about the natural world and natural systems, they will make hollow and false promises, because their focus groups tell them it is a box that needs to be ticked.
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The UN Secretary General, says action on the climate crisis is a litany of broken promises, and these politicians are actual liars. What is the point of climate talks etc, if these liars just make promises they have no intention of putting into action?

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In some way, it is useful that finally we can see who the real enemy of the natural world is, even if they are still lying about it. Let's give Liz Truss the #antigrowthcoalition coalition that never existed before.
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More from @SteB777

Oct 10
I want to clarify this statement. I do not mean that everything humans do is natural, just that we are part of the natural world and totally reliant on it. I regard the whole pattern of our system at the moment, to be a mass delusion.
1/🧵
It should have been obvious from the very beginning, that "you cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet". For crying out loud, I can remember that exact phrase being repeated in environmentalist texts I read 50 years ago. #antigrowthcoalition
2/
In other words, it is not that no one was aware of the basic suicidal nature of our modern colonialist, extractivist, capitalist system. Because people saw the inherent problems right at the very beginning. The problem is, this was ignored.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extractiv…
3/
Read 14 tweets
Oct 8
Billionaires, and their enablers are, in evolutionary terms, parasitoids. The difference between a parasitoid and a parasite, is a parasitoid always kills its host.

Discus?
1/🧵
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitoid
The analogy is very close.

Typically, a parasitoid devours its host from the inside, leaving only an empty husk and then those parasitoids that emerge, fly off to find another host.
2/
Billionaires, with their growing their wealth obsession, growth, are aiming to devour all the Earth's natural resources to growth their wealth. Then, once they've sucked the Earth dry and killed it, they dream of flying to Mars, and starting all over again.
3/
Read 8 tweets
Oct 7
First of all, @KateRaworth did a great in countering the false arguments put to her by the presenter, in such a short time. However, I want to highlight the key flaw in the arguments put to Kate, in the thread below.
1/🧵
Before going on, I want to make it clear from what perspective my analysis is from. I'm not an economist and I'm a graduate in scientific ecology. My analysis is from that perspective, from a whole systems view using systems thinking, and as a naturalist.
2/
It was put to Kate that economic growth was necessary to fund the health service, medical and scientific research, and to essentially lift people out of poverty. I want to highlight how this whole argument is outright sophistry.
3/
Read 24 tweets
Oct 6
Truss' speech was not only her own political suicide note, but one for the whole Conservative Party. It won't end well for them.

Again, I cannot understand their rationale, at all. Are they just totally delusional?
theguardian.com/politics/2022/…
Lying isn't a very clever strategy, because time always reveals lies and false promises. Nothing Truss is promising is at all realistic. None of what she promises will happen. With hindsight, in only a few years, people will shake their heads in disbelief at her idiocy.
Does anyone look back on Cameron, as some great visionary, who achieved what he claimed. What happened to the big society and the end of Punch and Judy politics? Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Brexit. They all look pretty shabby and shit with hindsight.
Read 6 tweets
Oct 5
@ChrisGPackham Exactly, and I will say now, why the system is rigged only to give these gamekeepers convicted of persistent criminal offences against raptors, only fines. It is full system corruption.

If they were given prison sentences, they'd likely name who put them up to this.
1/🧵
@ChrisGPackham My subsequent comments are not specifically related to this case, but generally why those convicted of illegally persecuting raptors, generally get fines. However, I will make a couple of points about this case.
2/
@ChrisGPackham His defence representative claimed he was under pressure to do this, but it is not made clear from whom and what was the pressure. Secondly he had taken photos with his phone, presumably to prove to someone he had illegally killed these raptors.
3/
Read 18 tweets
Oct 5
I want to illustrate just how stupid the Daily Mail is i.e. the Mail online, and how they publish fake news. Look at this absurd story about a "panther feeding on a sheep". This is a typical Tory view of the natural world.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…
The animal is clearly a cow, licking itself. Before the camera zooms in, you see lots of carefree sheep sitting nearby. With a Leopard eating a sheep nearby. Just how stupid do these propagandists believe the public are.
Here's little bit of natural history for stupid Tory journalists. Black panthers are melanistic Leopards (or occasionally black Jaguars). They are rare colour mutations, not a different species, like this ignorant propaganda rag seems to believe.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pan…
Read 5 tweets

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