Thread by @SteB777

I cannot state how important it is to understand this, and not just as regards neoliberalism.

Most activists make the mistake of thinking, if they campaign, that they can change something in the system. Not realizing that the system it rigged.
1/🧵

https://twitter.com/SteB777/status/1945418051987365893

In other words, people can have anything they like, but only if it is within what the powerful few who control our society will allow. If it isn't, the controlling clique will block it, regardless of public opinion, and election results.
2/

This controlling clique of powerful and wealthy people, have created the illusion of freedom and democracy, but actually they carefully control, what choices are allowed, and what choices are not allowed by the people.
3/

This isn't your fictional conspiracy theory, where they have some sort of secret committee and cabal. In fact, this is a distraction, to make it seem as if a powerful clique, needs such a mechanism, to control our societies. They do not.
4/

In actuality, it is what I call, a conspiracy of common purpose, in which many layers of power clique have in common. So for instance, oligarchs, the most powerful cliques, have common interests, even if they differ over some things.
5/

So for instance, with oligarchs, they have the common interest of being able to accumulate unlimited wealth, and for this to be treated, as their private property. All of them have that common interest. Therefore, nothing is allowed to change that parameter.
6/

In other words, if that parameter, the right to hold unlimited wealth, to accumulate it, and for it to be considered their private property is challenged, the oligarch clique, with act and cooperate as one, to prevent any change to the status quo.
7/

Blocking changes, rather than implementing changes, is far harder to see. Governments, politicians, can give the illusion of considering changes, even vaguely agreeing to it, but then in fact blocking it, and never allowing it.
8/

For instance, at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, world leaders apparently agreed to address the causes of climate change i.e. fossil fuels, and appeared to agree to creating a sustainable system and stopping further biodiversity loss.

9/un.org/en/conferences…

This was apparently enshrined in various agreements and treaties, like the UNFCCC, apparently set up to phase out fossil fuels driving climate change, and setting up the COP talks to agree on this, whilst eternally procrastinating.

10/unfccc.int/files/essentia…

This is how this illusion of freedom control works. Powerful people, whether they be politicians, or the oligarchs who control them with their purse strings, have the final say so on decisions, and can block decisions, eternally.
11/

The COP talks are a great example of how this control of powerful cliques, works. The diplomats, scientists, the UN, the @IPCC_CH appear to discuss what is necessary to address the climate crisis, then the key people at the top, just refuse to agree to it.
12/

Of course, they don't say, we are going to ensure the burning of fossil fuels without constraint continues, because that is how the wealth accumulation of the oligarchs, is primarily facilitated it. They give specious reasons for not agreeing at that point in time.
13/

There is a sort of informal hierarchy of power cliques, their vested and common interests. The interests of the powerful come first, and these are strongest, when they all agree on them. The interests of power cliques lower in the pecking order are secondary.
14/

The whole corrupt system, is propped up by carrot and stick control method, the carrot being financial, which includes the careers of those in controlling positions.
15/

People at the top of all organizations, are usually paid ridiculously high salaries and bonuses, that are dependent on pleasing the most powerful people in these power cliques. Displease them, and they face the stick, a loss of their privileges.
16/

Of course, it is much more complex than this. There is a careful filtering system, to ensure that those who get into politics, and climb the political ladder, are pliable and deferent to oligarchs and those at the top of power cliques.
17/

People, the public, falsely appear to have agency, to how they vote in elections, whether they will cooperate. But this is illusory, as the oligarchs own and control the media, and therefore effectively what people think, believe and know.
18/

This is not a perfect system of control, like in fiction, or in very authoritarian regimes (which is not actually as perfect as it seems). You see, they don't need complete control, only to succeed most of the time. This creates a one way current.
19/

Some people, some movements, appear to resist the current, and succeed to an extent. But that flow of power, in this rigged system, is always too strong, and they will eventually tire and be swept away by the power those at the top have.
20/

@threadreaderapp unroll