As floods & fires rise, oceans boil & ice melts, and "safe" temperatures are breached, something momentous just happened in the heart of the EU. No one has heard about it: journalists were present, but their editors refused to publish 🤯.
🧵, please RT. #BeyondGrowth2023 1/
For 3 full days the EU parliament hosted thousands of scientists, activists and policy-makers charting a future beyond growth. The talks & discussions were recorded and are now available to all. Thousands attended, thousands more followed online. 2/ beyond-growth-2023.eu/programme/
Topics covered planetary boundaries, trade, finance, fiscal policy, global South, decolonisation, gender, justice, well-being, social policies. Every panel included major advances in understanding. Together, the conference represents a monumental coming of age of post-growth. 3/
Being part of this event was a privilege and an honour. I wish I could share with you what being in such a space opens up in terms of determination to collaborate for a liveable world. The sheer electric energy of being in a room with so many young, critical, dedicated humans. 4/
I was a hobbit. Possibly Pippin?
But my main point is please, for the love of god, choose a talk from this amazing list, watch it and share some insights using the #BeyondGrowth2023 hashtag. Because despite its magnitude, NO media covered the event. beyond-growth-2023.eu/programme/
6/
Because here is the thing. Every. Single. Journalist. who was there (and there were many, from major outlets all over Europe and the world) that I spoke to, said "my editor refuses to print any story critical of economic growth."
This is insane verging on criminal and shows the dangerous ideology of economic growth as our secular religion, completely blinding us to the possible economic alternatives that could preserve a liveable planet. But it is the current reality.
So please. I am not good at this.
8/
But some of you are. Some of you are very, very good at making noise and news. Please RT and amplify #BeyondGrowth2023 content, the speakers, the audience, the topics, the debates. Be part of cracking the foundations of our secular religion of growth, our modern Moloch.
🙏🙏
End/
While I was writing this thread, @TheEconomist was writing a straight out disinformation hit piece mocking the event and the desire of younger generations to have a liveable planet. Although better to have some coverage than none, so ... kudos to them? 🤷♀️
The author of @TheEconomist disinformation piece finds degrowth ideas "whacky". Not half as much as your straight out science denial, mate. Beyond parody.
A few on thoughts on Trump II. 1. Trump was ineffective in his first term, because he and his posse knew nothing of govt, and were hampered by their lack of preparation. That's what Project 2025 is about: hitting the ground running with appointees and agenda. It will be worse.
2. People are counting on the courts to reign in illegality in Trump govt operation, but not only does he have the Supreme Court, thanks to some actually organised ppl during his first term, he has filled LOTS of judge positions with his batshit conservative ilk. Don't count ...
on the courts, basically. It's going to be an illegal shitshow with no accountability. 3. For science, it's a clear disaster. Project 2025 spells that out. Fascists like reality-free zones to operate, and that means climate, environmental, health, economic etc data are targets.
Jesus christ. I think I need to turn to alcohol or drugs or therapy or SOMETHING. I had seen the AMOC overturning warnings, but I had not seen this graph. I though somehow mostly the North Atlantic and Europe would be affected, but no, it's global boiling. en.vedur.is/media/ads_in_h…
This is to be ADDED to global warming. I mean, yes, we're talking about Scandinavia, Ireland and the UK freezing. But look at Astralia and South Africa. And India. And West Africa. And Brazil-Argentina. And the US Canada. I mean this is...cataclysmic is a cute word at this point.
I have nothing. The fossil fuel and meat industries are winning, and everyone else is going to lose.
They are jailing climate activists and destroying all chance of stable human life on earth.
Just absolute pits of despair. It's not just the crimes our governments are committing, it's that even "good" media like the @guardian are presenting civilian victims as incidental. No, this is and has been deliberate genocide, with "defence" as a flimsy fig leaf.
It's well past time to start from a baseline of assuming Israel knows and wants to inflict the damage it does, rather than assuming some kind of innocent blundering. This is all deliberate, planned, calculated, done very much on purpose. The murder of children, rape of prisoners,
destruction of all civilian infrastructure, schools, universities, mosques, churches, parcs, ancient sites, agriculture, ecosystems, all of it. It's all deliberate, planned, funded and armed and materially-strategically supported by the US, UK and German governments.
A couple of things. 1. Being able to ratio Ursula Von der Leyen when she commiserates with racist football hooligans, rather than murdered Palestinian children, and expose media misinformation in real time, is a core reason to stay on twitter. This stuff doesn't happen elsewhere.
I am not ready to cede this space to the fascists. 2. regarding the misinformation, there is something deeply disquieting about how and why our media is generally failing us, not just on the events of Amsterdam, but in Palestine/Lebanon generally, and climate & ecological crises.
I am seeing lots of parallels and it's not so easy to explain. Something about the coverage being commentary rather than caring deeply about facts and reasons on the ground. Media coverage viewing everything through the lens of elites and their views, rather than facts & systems
Reading political theory because I must or go even more mad, and this article by Richard Day ... phew.
So much of what we are doing on here is "politics of demand" during an era of accelerating genocide and climate collapse, no less. Unforgivable.
"the politics of demand is by necessity limited in scope: it can change the content of structures of domination and exploitation, but it cannot change their form."
Even worse:
"every demand, in anticipating a response, perpetuates these structures ... This leads to a positive feedback loop, in which the ever-increasing depth and breadth of apparatuses of discipline and control create ever-new sites of antagonism ..."
Been wondering all week how Fox managed to outperform pretty much all liberal media in the US on Israeli crimes (especially against fellow journalists). The most jingoistic racist conspiracy-friendly outlet outperformed liberal ones. What does this mean???
A few thoughts. 1/
This won't be profound or even factual, btw, just I am searching for reasons, because it is a significant development.
1⃣ US news outlets wanted to send their own journalists to Gaza, but were forbidden by Israel. Bias against using reporting by Palestinian journalists led ...
2/
even someone like Christiane @amanpour to say "we don't have reporters on the ground in Gaza" and basically not report or broadcast on it except in Israel's terms, for most of last year. Since the summer more outlets are rebroadcasting Palestinian journalists.
3/