1. Consent in our pseudo-democracies is strained at the best of times, but it hangs on the belief that there is some kind of justice: through inquiries, tribunals, sometimes even the law, powerful people who commit crimes against us will one day be held to account. But what if this no longer works?🧵 - ThreadSky

georgemonbiot.bsky.social • 89 days ago

1. Consent in our pseudo-democracies is strained at the best of times, but it hangs on the belief that there is some kind of justice: through inquiries, tribunals, sometimes even the law, powerful people who commit crimes against us will one day be held to account. But what if this no longer works?🧵

Comments

jenantonelli.bsky.social•89 days ago

I hate to burst your bubble, but this has always been true. The exceptions have been when power is held to account.

janbellina.bsky.social•89 days ago

When it happens, it's because the 'powers that be' want rid of a leader who has become a liability. That leader then becomes a scapegoat.

wasgaf.bsky.social•89 days ago

Every thing is Pseudo! Even life itself.

benjaminzac1.bsky.social•89 days ago

The justice system is not fit for purpose, and the judges that sit on the benches are part of the problem when menial sentences or fines are passed on the corrupt elites.

colmobroin.bsky.social•89 days ago

George, the UK government literally murdered countless UK citizens during the 1970s-90s. But because it happened in Northern Ireland people in Britain just ignore it, including most progressives.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/17/pat-finucane-family-hope-finally-learn-truth-murder

scottsantens.com•35 days ago

Democracy was a redistribution of power in the time of kings. Universal basic income is a redistribution of power in the time of billionaires. We have to mobilize support for UBI as a key victory that must be won. It's not the only thing that must be won, but it's key for wide effects and inspiring.

darkdaysusa-uk.bsky.social•81 days ago

My fear is that we have already witnessed too many instances where the law is circumvented by those in power. How can we truly trust a system where equality is not enshrined in the laws?

docpaperback.bsky.social•89 days ago

1/2
Our 'democracy' fails Lincoln's two most famous (attributed) axioms. Firstly: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” He neglected to say that you can fool enough of the people enough of the time...

docpaperback.bsky.social•89 days ago

2/2
Secondly: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” What we have is, in fact, government of the people, by a caste of politico-technocrats, for the large corporations, in which the only public opinion that power regards is summed up by the letter ‘x’ on a piece of paper.

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•89 days ago

Idk if this makes you feel more or less hopeful, but imo, important political leaders and aristocrats have always had impunity and have rarely been punished even for crimes such as murder (Lord Lucan). It's just that nowadays they can't keep it secret as easily.

evn0.bsky.social•89 days ago

Nailed it George.

j0nty.bsky.social•89 days ago

Well put. We need to explore new forms of democracy. This article in the guardian was also excellent: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/06/general-elections-democracy-lottery-representation

dianeray.bsky.social•89 days ago

There are no what ifs. Most politicians and business people don't even pay lip service to 'honorable' now. Once upon a time they'd resign if caught out. Now they're shameless.

victorg14tdc.bsky.social•89 days ago

📌

thelivesaroundus.bsky.social•89 days ago

I have long believed that we are on a road towards democracy. We have not yet arrived. The internet - before it was so thoroughly colonised by wealthy corporations - gave us another tantalising taste of a truly public forum. It is these moments that make change possible in people's minds.

flowerchucker.bsky.social•89 days ago

Virtually every Inquiry in the UK has resulted in zero prosecutions and that has been the way of things for at least 50 years.

bankwell.bsky.social•89 days ago

In decades gone by there was trust in UK institutions such as Parliament/BBC etc cosseted by contentment with post WW2 political consensus i.e. substantial strides by Atlee gov’t on social progress/NHS etc until

it was ripped asunder by Thatcher culminating in our eyes being opened wide post Brexit

oldhuman2.bsky.social•89 days ago

My very thoughts this morning. The post war consensus deliberately shattered, starting in the 70s with Nixon's trade war decoupling of the $, hotly followed by the Arab/Israeli War. Guess which side US and UK backed? We may have hung on a bit longer if Heath had defeated Thatcher.

expected000.bsky.social•89 days ago

citizen-kaned.bsky.social•89 days ago

Has it ever worked like that here? Always seemed like pantomime

hairyloon.bsky.social•89 days ago

What do you mean "What if"?

strotebook.bsky.social•89 days ago

Things can change quickly, especially when they roll out the guillotines… off with the king’s head!

mark-ungrin.bsky.social•89 days ago

The immediate test will be whether we see accountability for the manipulative mismanagement of COVID. Not merely the failure to accept airborne transmission, but its aggressive denial, and the ongoing deadly cover-up of COVID harms driven by the need to bury that mistake.
https://bsky.app/profile/mark-ungrin.bsky.social/post/3lb6tsk5ijs2z

astridbears.bsky.social•89 days ago

📌

pamhardy.bsky.social•89 days ago

I have concerns that without realising it we had peak liberalism and societies under pressure are reverting to authoritarian feudalism with no real accountability.

dave.land•43 days ago

📌

buchanan101.bsky.social•89 days ago

With Trump it’s failed. Hopefully cases can be resurrected in 4 years.

singleaspect.bsky.social•89 days ago

Someone might a**a**inate him b4 then

barrysteeleau.bsky.social•89 days ago

I think those most likely to act with that violence are, in fact, his supporters

My thinking is the #Brotocracy will have the #OrangeIdiot declared unfit and Vance becomes the new #BrosPuppet as POTUS

Odds?

pirko78.bsky.social•89 days ago

My hopes are on a thrombosis.

thelivesaroundus.bsky.social•89 days ago

It would be disastrous, as it would provide the excuse to declare a state of emergency and take away all that the American people have striven for and believe in.

ianinspen.bsky.social•89 days ago

Can you imagine the crackdown that would follow?

boblake.bsky.social•89 days ago

The supreme Court of usa has already given Joe Biden the power to do that with immunity.

witwarrior.bsky.social•89 days ago

They can!

elliskatz.bsky.social•89 days ago

I've felt this especially since the 2008 financial crisis. Too big to fail. No accountability.

raeleemaycarpenter.bsky.social•89 days ago

Did it ever really work?

melhepworth.bsky.social•89 days ago

What if it never really did?

rsbell07.bsky.social•89 days ago

Is this something new or just realisation about how the human world has always worked?..

thevaccinationstation.org•89 days ago

>>
But what if this no longer works?
>>

Then... *gestures vaguely at America*

dr-woke.bsky.social•89 days ago

What will prove interesting is the inevitable fallout between Trump and Musk. How will Musk use his platform during that time? And, how long do we give it before it kicks off?

rajtham.bsky.social•87 days ago

@jysexton.bsky.social

colinf7.bsky.social•89 days ago

A scary thought

cole0007.bsky.social•89 days ago

I agree with everything u wrote. But it’s there for the masses not the elites. The elites make the laws and enforce the laws. If laws aren’t enforced then they are irrelevant. US has used international law to pressure its self interest. With out US int law is unenforceable

heppy111.bsky.social•89 days ago

📌

sirbasil.bsky.social•89 days ago

"How was your state captured?"

"Slowly, and then quickly"

terrygirling.bsky.social•89 days ago

Is it about time for another Magna Carta?

witwarrior.bsky.social•89 days ago

Since America is about to have its King John, certainly another Magna Carta is required.

miketonge.bsky.social•89 days ago

Did she die in vain?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ4mxOluXY4

mmchol.bsky.social•89 days ago

Time for the guillotine. The uber wealthy must be held to account. I'm a pacifist, but I am over it. Rick Scott, with the greatest Medicare fraud in history, harmed Every. Single. American. Not a day in jail. Fuck him, and everyone like him.

blaisepascal25.bsky.social•89 days ago

Re-election effectively exonerates someone. The 'jury' of the people have spoken... and they're fine with it. Same when Dubya, Blair, and Howard were all re-elected after the Iraq War.

edkemplar.bsky.social•89 days ago

Still a million miles from true accountability. Politicians are literally getting away with murder and theft on an industrial scale. Until the judicial service is taken away from the school tie and secret handshake brigade, nothing can change. Radical solutions needed & trust in the system restored

thelivesaroundus.bsky.social•89 days ago

Let's never forget that the land itself was taken away from us through the use of Parliament. Prior to that we had well-functioning commons pretty much everywhere.

triciahow.bsky.social•89 days ago

This is terrifying. The elite not only are learning to game the system as you say, but they are also uniting internationally and copying behaviour that traditionally was not in their culture. People need to understand the danger and fight back with all their might.

thundertick.bsky.social•89 days ago

Most kids leave school without having a solid sense of the first principle of democracy: that it means *rule by the people*. They don't get that in a democracy the government is there to *do a job for us*. That's what we pay them for. Just like we pay for a plumber to do our plumbing.

thelivesaroundus.bsky.social•89 days ago

Yes, how many of us know that we can go to Parliament, fill in a form, and essentially have a right to see our MP in person?

thundertick.bsky.social•89 days ago

I had my students writing letters of complaint - on any matter of their choice - to their MP. They loved it! I told them that their MP was obliged to reply ... and they all duly got replies. They loved it!

thelivesaroundus.bsky.social•89 days ago

Exactly what is needed. Further, people need to know that their MP is the portal through which they can get answers from Govt Departments, none of which are obliged to reply to the public. But if your MP asks for you they have to answer.

thelivesaroundus.bsky.social•89 days ago

And that means you can ask your MP to forward a question even if your MP holds the opposite view. Failure to represent you can land them in trouble with the system that regulates Parliament.

oldguy243.bsky.social•89 days ago

Having witnessed the US election of 2024, I no longer believe a population is capable of putting a qualified candidate on a ballot nor electing a decent person for office. Before this century began, both parties were for democracy.

oldguy243.bsky.social•89 days ago

No longer, if Trump actually takes office, it is the end of what was once a great American dream of equality and opportunity for all.

thundertick.bsky.social•89 days ago

It does seem like some great force of degeneration has taken hold. I have no clear picture of where it's going, but it's not going to be anywhere good.

dberl.bsky.social•89 days ago

Correct
Our government is NOT a business & shld not ever be treated as one.

thundertick.bsky.social•89 days ago

... I say this as something of an 'expert'. I taught GCSE Politics for a while. Those in their *second year* of this optional subject were astonished at the notion of 'our government are our servants'. God knows how much less than that the rest of the kids knew.

seamiracles.bsky.social•89 days ago

Soooo, like 20th-c Latin America?

(Like many of the regimes the US supported there who committed genocide, torture, disappearances, detention, etc against their own citizens)

mmchol.bsky.social•89 days ago

You're not wrong. Many refugees in the US were created by Reagan-era foreign policy.

georgemonbiot.bsky.social•89 days ago

2. What if we have entered a new age of impunity, in which elite interests can get away with murder, through a combination of capturing or bypassing the judicial system, distraction and brute force? This may now be the case in the US and Israel, and could be starting to happen here.

murieston.bsky.social•87 days ago

Wake up George, it started here decades ago!

cheryldb.bsky.social•89 days ago

I believe that it's always been happening. Exploitation of poor countries by powerful corporations leaving destruction behind them. Also, immune to prosecution, eg, the cladding scandal here.

dghaskell.bsky.social•89 days ago

Excellent points here, but I wonder whether calling it “a new age of impunity" elides the seamless continuity with the past, especially in the case of the UK where land enclosure at home, and empire overseas, was founded on impunity of elites. Similarly, land theft in the Americas... etc

patriciabronson07.bsky.social•89 days ago

You're right.

mrkd26.bsky.social•89 days ago

The UK Right have been watching and taking notes ..
and so will almost certainly happen there.

punshhh.bsky.social•89 days ago

It’s been happening here for a thousand years.

pjdenyer.bsky.social•89 days ago

A thousand year reich one might almost say..

mrkd26.bsky.social•89 days ago

German Saxe-Coburg

hairyloon.bsky.social•89 days ago

Did you see this thread in the other place, looking at the official reasons why Boris Johnson hasn't been prosecuted for misconduct?
https://x.com/Hairyloon/status/1712388208892239934

gigafoxxx.bsky.social•89 days ago

Add the UK

witwarrior.bsky.social•89 days ago

Historian here: This impunity of which you speak is so far from being new, (except, admittedly, in America), that it has prevailed all the time, everywhere. Which is why Americans must fight tooth and nail to rescue this democracy.

sitebadger.bsky.social•89 days ago

Part of this new age is the ability to get the people who will benefit least to come out in favour of more control and oppression. This is the 4th world war of cyber gaslighting and manipulation. The US election IMO was the test bed. And no we are not ready for this.

tendrilita.bsky.social•89 days ago

This is what I foresee.

I've seen it since 2015.

This will not end well ... and the unwellness may never end at all.

P.S. Tr*mp may be one of the first to go, at the hands of his own chosen monsters.

bonesii.bsky.social•89 days ago

It’s definitely happening in the western countries. Consecutive corrupt governments have removed the checks and balances. Lobbyists have more influence than populations.Billionaires have more influence than populations.Our politicians no longer work for us.They work for corporates and billionaires.

georgemonbiot.bsky.social•89 days ago

3. Our centralised, hierarchical political systems were never designed for democracy. When the ruling powers had no choice but to grant people the vote, they did so grudgingly, and held onto as many elite forms of governance as they could get away with, even in most post-revolutionary nations.

pwrussell.bsky.social•89 days ago

Nevertheless, they thought it wise to retain the trappings of democracy for presentational purposes at least. More recently it looks as if they have decided that can dispense even with that pretence.

georgemonbiot.bsky.social•89 days ago

4. In the UK, they managed to preserve almost everything: the House of Lords, the Privy Council, first-past-the-post, Henry VIII powers, presumed consent between elections and all the other tricks and ruses that make a mockery of the concept of “rule by the people”.

georgemonbiot.bsky.social•89 days ago

5. They scarcely seek to disguise it. Look at the symbol of Parliament: a crown (unaccountable power) over a portcullis (exclusion) with chains on either side (oppression/slavery). When a system tells you what it is, believe it.

davidwallen.bsky.social•89 days ago

Looks like Sauron's spare helmet tbf

metaphorqu.bsky.social•89 days ago

What bothers me more is a religion that uses a means of execution as its overriding symbol. Less bothered by portcullises tbh.

bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social•89 days ago

Portcullis a legacy of the Tudors, and in particular (post the fire of 1834) the architectural and decorative link to Henry VII's Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey. The old Palace had evolved from a medieval building to a largely neo-classical one, but the new Pugin/Barry building looked back
1/2

bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social•89 days ago

to the earlier medieval era, partly because it symbolised a time of know-your-place feudalism, after the almost revolutionary moments of the early 1830s.
2/2
(More in my new book, The Invention of British Art!)

welcome2absurdia.bsky.social•89 days ago

WOW. That is shockingly blatant.

georgemonbiot.bsky.social•89 days ago

6. To the extent that we consent to this farce, we do so because of accountability. Those in power are supposed to answer to the people, one day, somehow. But this concept, always threadbare, might now be wearing away altogether, as elites learn better how to game the system.

georgemonbiot.bsky.social•89 days ago

7. Trump, like many other demagogues, has shown that if you have no shame you cannot be shamed, and you therefore cannot be held to account. Boris Johnson went a long way down this road in the UK. His frightful punishment? Multi-million pound book deals, lecture tours and newspaper columns.

pmcghee.bsky.social•89 days ago

As we regress, I expect the Lords Lieutenant, their Deputies and Sheriffs (largely hereditary and/or Tory appointees where I live) to regain some of their lost powers.

andykbe.bsky.social•89 days ago

Nope, it'll be the CEOs of corporations that get power, the modern robber barons. They'll rule the "special economic zones"

andrewd1.bsky.social•89 days ago

The first-past-the-post elections in the UK are a joke for a parliamentary democracy. It’s not “representative”.

In the USA, Harris won, but the Swing States counts were fiddled with in a long hatched plan they couldn’t help boasting about. The Democrats timidity has let the evil survive and win.

andrewd1.bsky.social•89 days ago

Worse to come FAFO MAGA.

eparapo.bsky.social•89 days ago

“Lessons will be learned”

barrysteeleau.bsky.social•89 days ago

Lessons are never learnt these days

Now we "take our learnings" and ignore the lessons

janbellina.bsky.social•89 days ago

Lessons are never learned. We keep leaving unteachable people in charge of important stuff.

oldmanteeps.bsky.social•89 days ago

It no longer works. Hasn’t for a while.

hugoagogo69.bsky.social•89 days ago

Indeed, it just seems to serve as a means of temporary faux outrage and then is forgotten. Laws against corporate/governmental wrong doing have to be tougher with outcomes that will put off future wrong doing.

erricthehalfdog.bsky.social•89 days ago

Then you live in the USA.

mrsvsmegma.bsky.social•89 days ago

We are entering a new age of autocracy. The neoliberal wealthy elite are dragging us back to the middle ages so they can do what the fuck they want to us snd milk us till we bleed then milk us more. All whilst they enjoy the benefits from their increasing affluence. Like a boiling frog we accept it

timlagor.bsky.social•89 days ago

IT's acquiescence not consent

artemisbear.bsky.social•89 days ago

The system is irretrievably broken, which I learned working for it 20 years ago in climate change policy. These days I’m seriously working on something that can take its place. I know that sounds mad but I’ve come to believe it’s not only possible but inevitable.

catanonim.me•89 days ago

~ Page by George Monbiot (@http://georgemonbiot.bsky.social) - http://skywriter.blue ~

https://skywriter.blue/pages/georgemonbiot.bsky.social/post/3lbs76pkyzs2s

espacey.bsky.social•89 days ago

What you see is not the future but a spasm created by the ownership of current intrusive and often warped social platforms, their personal agenda’s and MSM appeasement of extremes. This spasm will die out within 10 years.

adrianedwards.me•89 days ago

What makes you so sure that the spasm will die out? It took more than 10 years for the political effect of concentrated ownership of newspapers, radio and television to die. We’re still waiting.

espacey.bsky.social•89 days ago

That concentrated ownership is at its peak now.

adrianedwards.me•88 days ago

Perhaps. Peaks can only be observed in hindsight. Regardless, what makes you think it will die out in 10 years?

espacey.bsky.social•87 days ago

People finally waking up to reality.

adrianedwards.me•87 days ago

(The witness is being evasive)

Ok, but where did you get 10 years from??

ducado.bsky.social•89 days ago

Exactly how I see it, it’s a phase that has to worked through

beatraxa.bsky.social•89 days ago

Let’s hope so. America has gone batshit crazy a few times before.

ducado.bsky.social•89 days ago

It’s a very young country, in time it will mature and lose some of the idealism which I think is part of the problem

rsillsley.bsky.social•89 days ago

Epic thread. Miserable but epic.

lifeonpigrow.bsky.social•89 days ago

Anarchy and barbarism. The rise of a totalitarian state or an autocracy. A fight to the bottom.

clairecopperman.bsky.social•89 days ago

It's terrifying. The right wing talk about two-tier policing, while completely ignoring the lies, fraud and criminality of those in power. Zero accountability gives them the license to do whatever benefits them.

alastairmcgowan.bsky.social•89 days ago

Then there will be push back and we will refuse consent. Propaganda only works for so long then people start to organise and refocus on facts. Denial is only a phase. I went down the rabbit hole for a little while 20 years ago but the answers there were empty and I woke from the spell again

zoehearn.bsky.social•89 days ago

Written to confirm the voices I’m trying to understand 🙏🏼

gatwicksnapper.bsky.social•89 days ago

Perhaps we find ourselves in something more like the Chinese system. No real democracy or justice, but access to entertainment, digital distraction, and consumer goods.
With government that pushes nationalism and consumerism. The NaCo state.

nirwanaboy.bsky.social•89 days ago

When criminals are framing and enacting law enforced, not upheld, by an increasingly militarized police. When violent criminals walk free. When fear stalks our streets and, even, our homes. Civilized people must consider withdrawing their consent. Action not words is logical and right if painful.

chrisn50.bsky.social•89 days ago

📌

pauljsmith.bsky.social•89 days ago

It’s never been any different. All tat social media is showing is that what we believed to be democracy and accountability under law was and is an illusion

If you have the money laws don’t apply to you. The banking crash showed that

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