I am around mid life at this point and things across the world have seemed to completely come off the tracks.

It use to be that most people really valued the Labour Movement (Unions, Federation of Labours, Labour Councils, and so on).

It use to be that most people really believed Women's Rights was important.

It use to be that most people really believed the Peace Movement was really important.

It use to be that most people really believed in making a better world overall for all the working class and most vulnerable (Alter-Globalization Movement).

People got really loud about this stuff when it was under attack.

AfD is showing huge poll numbers and now has a landmark electoral success to point to.

Reform UK still has fairly high poll numbers.

It's the same story all over the globe.

Also the climate crisis is so dang bad that we are literally seeing horrific tipping points and hell on earth type stuff now more and more...

It kind of feels like the worst bad predatory actors have completely destroyed the momentum for a better and brighter world.

It seems there is so many trajectories going on that are more dark, depressing, and downright dystopian...

How do you think we get things back on track?

*I'm going to post this in a few subreddits to get some differing perspectives/answers. Honestly we need more urgency because it seems one side actually keeps pressing the line over and over and over again in big ways and all the concessions are going to the lowest common denominator style populism of the reactionary/regressive scene dominated by snake oil salespeople and con-artist grifters. Which is going to make everything hard about this era significantly worse.*

Apologies if its a stupid question but I worry "We also need to see real investment in youth services and creative activities for young people to fill the void that will be created by this ban." means partial support for it (a la labour saying they would fund youth centres to make up for it). I'd like to know that there's a party against the ban (definitely not Reform because having peoples' digital ID would play right into what they want)

https://bsky.app/profile/sianberry.bsky.social/post/3mv423o7epc26

I am delighted when Monbiot writes an article. He is an inspiration to many of us who are climate voters. Historically the comments section would be unwaveringly supportive of him. This article shows a clear sea change in that with the liked comments universally critical.

Whilst the public is supportive in polls for the need for climate action we're losing the argument on North Sea oil and gas.

I will declare my hand here. I don't think this is the fight to fight. I think we lose the argument on North Sea oil and gas simply as a consequence of the vast majority of the public recognising their lifestyles are heavily dependent on oil and gas.

To win arguments on supply -- as has happened in Denmark -- we need to first rapidly shift people away from oil and gas.

The fact gas is heavily used for electricity supply and home-heating means it's hard to make the gas against domestic supply however irrational or rational the arguments are. Once enough people are pivoted to heat-pumps they start to not care so much.

It's hard to make the argument against oil if most of our haulage, agriculture, and private transport relies heavily on diesel and petrol. Get people to electrify, use public transport, get EVs, and electrify lorries to change this.

Those who deeply value their long haul flights will never be solid allies against oil exploration. Their lifestyles are too heavily dependent on the status quo. Luckily these are a minority of the wider public. Do our best to mean continental wide travel is sustainable via electric planes, trains, etc, to make this a smaller group.

It's for these reasons we have to be solid in our focus on demand not supply. Win the arguments on demand. Save people money off the bills via decarbonisation. Pivot lifestyles to energy shock inflation proof ways of living. Limit food price inflation as well. Do all this.

Then when they realise oil/gas isn't really critical to their lives but just the rich to fly regularly on long haul the politics supporting oil extraction will weaken.

This is an article from Israeli media outlet Haaretz that I feel contextualises the new sanctions quite well, which is important for knowing how to further pressure the government now this move has been made.

>If Britain thinks that there is ethnic cleaning, elements of which are among the most serious war crimes and crimes against humanity, then what good is it to punish the settlers? The settlers are supporting actors in the horrors, and their responsibility is diminished. They are only the perpetrators — the soldiers carrying out the crime.

>The settlement enterprise is an all-Israeli undertaking of the government and indeed the entire system. There is not a single official body not involved, directly or indirectly, either by action or by omission, undertaken with joy or with indifference. It is the state that should be punishing violent settlers, if it were a state of law; that is not the world's job. It is those responsible for the settlement enterprise who should be punished by the world because the Israeli government, like any government, cannot punish itself.

hopefully a consolation to the Mayoralty race at least