Iceland did something after the 2008–09 crash that the US, UK and EU pretend is impossible as Trump and his vile ilk ride rough shod over our democracies.

It confronted and punished its corrupt bankers and failed politicians.

And rebuilt a fairer society from the rubble. 🧵 In 2008, Iceland’s banks collapsed with debts 10× the size of the economy.

The entire global financial system melted down overnight.

In the UK and US, bailed out the financial bad guys.

Iceland said: “YOU broke it, YOU own it.”

➡️ Charlie Kirk
➡️ “Tommy Robinson”
➡️ The PR machine defending the Israeli government
➡️ The war on climate science

What have they got in common?

Their funders - a small clique of American billionaires. 💰

It sounds like a conspiracy theory - but it’s true. 🧵 Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA was showered with millions from right-wing foundations and billionaire families who also fund climate denial - the Mercers, the Uihleins...

TP spent $81 million last year to spread messages like empathy is bad and abortion is like the Holocaust.

It’s easy to despair when Tommy Robinson and 100,000 far-right marchers fill London + Reform is surging in the polls.

But the UK — and other countries — have stopped the far right in its tracks in the recent past.

Here’s how 🧵 UK: In the 2000s, the far-right BNP gained council seats + an MEP.

But mass anti-fascist organising + community campaigns exposed their racism. By 2014, they were wiped out.

Lesson: grassroots resistance works.

When speaking to Tommy Robinson at the far right demonstration in London today, Elon Musk wore a t-shirt saying "What would Orwell think?"

So let's dive in - what would George Orwell think about Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk? 🧵 George Orwell went to Spain to fight fascism. Literally. Not to take holidays, but to stand against the likes of Robinson and Musk.

Orwell saw in Spain how fascist "leaders" turned resentment into organised cruelty. That is why he bled in the trenches there.

All politicians are corrupt sellouts right?

Well, maybe they are now - because the one man who could prove you wrong just died.

As president of Uruguay 🇺🇾, José Mujica gave away 90% of his salary and lived in a shack. This is his extraordinary story. 🧵 Aged 31, Mujica joined the Tupamaros, a leftist guerrilla group. They once robbed a bank that had been involved in corrupt transactions, took the bank's records and handed them over to authorities and journalists.

But then things turned nasty and the regime cracked down.

"WhAt AbOuT cHiNa?"

Well, what about China?

In the last decade, Beijing has made huge strides in cleaning up its air. Here’s what the world can learn from it. Since 2013, PM2.5 pollution in Beijing dropped by 64%.

Nitrogen dioxide? Down 54%.
Sulphur dioxide? Down 89%.

The number of “good air days” has skyrocketed from just 13 in 2013 to over 300 in 2023.

UK PM Keir Starmer seems keen to make it easier for developers to concrete over Britain’s green and pleasant land. 💸🌳

But the real path to prosperity?

Let nature go WILD.

Around the world, other countries are healing the land AND growing jobs and prosperity.🧵 In 1995 scientists reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the USA.🌲🐺

Elk numbers dropped. Forests regrew. Rivers reshaped. And wildlife exploded.

In a true trophic fairy tale, tourism surged and conservation jobs grew. Once-worried locals are now big wolf fans.

Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting have yet again caved to the interests of multinational corporations.

This time? It’s the ultra-processed food (UPF) industry.

Why can’t they follow countries putting citizens’ health and well-being before corporate profit?🧵 In Chile 🇨🇱, products high in sugar, salt, or fat must carry bold black warning labels and they’re changing people’s eating habits.

The policy has led to a 24% reduction in calories purchased from UPFs, 37% less salt, 27% less saturated fat, and 10% less sugar overall.

“First they came for the communists...”

This is the incredible story of the German pastor who wrote those famous lines, and his journey from Hitler fanboy to his opponent and victim.🧵 Martin Niemöller was an officer on a German U-boat during WWI, setting a record by sinking 55,000 tons of Allied ships in just 115 days at sea.

After the war, he became a paramilitary commander, putting down the Ruhr workers' uprising in 1920 - all while training to be a pastor.

"It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism" - Fredric Jameson.

Now it’s time to choose. So how do we break out of our mental cage and start imagining a better world before it’s too late?

Star Trek.

Yes, Jameson’s answer is Star Trek. 🧵 Since Trump’s re-election, the world’s biggest companies have given up the pretence that they’re going to do the right thing.

They’re just going to maximize profits while civilization collapses around them. And no-one is surprised, because this is the logic of capitalism.

What happens when a hacker and activist occupies parliament then gets hired to be a government minister?

Audrey Tang didn't just demand a better democracy, she built it. 🧵 Tang was born in 1981 - the same year as the internet.

▶️ She was reading classical literature aged 5
▶️ Mastered advanced math at 6
▶️ Programming at 8 - she didn’t own a computer so wrote the code on paper
▶️ “My 1st language is Java Script. My 2nd and 3rd are LOCO and Basic”.

A small, cold country on Russia’s border has been the happiest nation on Earth for eight years in a row.

Let’s find out why. 🧵 Finland was the poorest country in Western Europe after WWII, when they'd fought on both sides AND declared neutrality at different times.

It didn’t industrialise until the 1960s.

But it has topped the World Happiness Report @HappinessRpt for the last eight years!

How DEI could have prevented 9/11 and the War on Terror. 🧵 Osama bin Laden declared war on the USA and Israel from a cave in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, on August 23rd 1996. The bearded Saudi, dressed in simple cloth under combat fatigues, squatted by a campfire as he made his declaration.

What’s the point of dying a billionaire when everyone hates billionaires?

Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, asked himself the same question. So, instead of launching Katy Perry into space, he gave it all away. Here’s why and how. 🧵 Yvon Chouinard isn’t your typical billionaire.
He’s a dirtbag climber, surfer, and self-taught blacksmith who built @patagonia almost by accident. In the 1960s, he was making climbing gear in his backyard for friends. By the 70s, it was a global brand.

They want you to think that protecting nature will make us all poorer, sicker and sadder.

It's a lie - as Costa Rica proves.

The Central American country’s extraordinary push to protect its rainforests and nature made its people happier, healthier and wealthier. Here’s how. 🧵 Nature was in deep trouble in Costa Rica in the 1980s. Most of the country’s forests had been destroyed for cattle farming. Animals were vanishing and ecological collapse loomed.

Guess which country installed more solar power in 2024 than Canada has in its history? More than the UK did in the last 5 years?

All while dealing with floods, landslides, 50°C heat, droughts & militant attacks.

Meanwhile, their former PM is in prison thanks to fossil fuels! 🧵 Former cricketer @ImranKhanPTI became Prime Minister of Pakistan🇵🇰 in 2018, but the price of fossil fuels rose and rose throughout his term, leading to massive price hikes and anger from the public.

Imagine a world without borders, governments, money, wage labour, inequality, hierarchy or patriarchy. 💭

For many people, that was reality - until Western imperialists came along and fucked everything up. 🧵 Market economies are universal right? No. Many economies were run by barter, gifts - or even dreams.🎁

Iroquois people were all about fulfilling their dreams. Anyone who dreamt about a relative or neighbour’s possession, such as an ornament or a mask, could normally demand it.

A man once stood on the brink of suicide, but instead of ending his life, he dedicated it to helping humanity thrive. That man was Buckminster Fuller - and his story is filled with inventions, radical ideas and hope for the future.🧵 He warned of climate change, proposed universal basic income, led @MensaInternatl, and in this clip from 1974 he predicted social media. Fuller was decades ahead of his time!

Fascism may look tough, but we’re tougher when we're united. 💪

Red Hot World’s 17-step plan - rooted in the insights of @TimothyDSnyder - shows how to crush authoritarianism and keep democracy alive. Ready to join the fight? Be Brave.

Authoritarians like Trump and Putin thrive on our feelings of powerlessness. Refuse to surrender to their bullying lies.

"The greatest weapon of authoritarian regimes is fear. By showing fear, you let them win. I refuse to give them that victory" - Alexei Navalny

Everything you’ve been told about net zero is a lie.🚨

6 years ago, Cambridge Uni released the Absolute Zero report - a bombshell that shattered the illusions of "net zero." It got no mainstream media coverage.

Here’s what it says humanity needs to do to give itself a future.🧵 First the good news.

Most of what people love about life can flourish in a zero emissions world.

Favourite activities of Brits include sex, socializing, sleeping, sports, hobbies, reading and volunteering. These have little or no emissions impact. We should do more of them!

Imagine a river that could defend itself in court. 🌊

It’s not science fiction - it’s happening.

Inspired by Indigenous wisdom, some of the most beautiful rivers in the world are gaining legal rights like people. 🧵 New Zealand’s Whanganui River became the first in the world to gain legal personhood in 2017.

Like many Indigenous peoples, the Whanganui iwi see the river as an ancestor, not a resource - an idea that could reshape global law.