I saw some liberal responses to an Instagram video by Chris Packham; where they say basically “I voted for Labour because I thought they would turn it all around, but they turned out to be just as shit as the Tories”.
This shit broke me. It’s the most angry I’ve felt for quite a while. I haven’t been that angry about Trump. I’ve just been like “ah yeah ok” every time I’ve been told about the latest executive action Trump has introduced. I’m just entirely apathetic about it. Obviously I’ve been feeling for those innocent people impacted by these fascist policies. But I knew everything they would do, and I just generally prepared myself mentally for the worst policies I could imagine. So nothing shocked or surprised me in the slightest.
But when it comes to liberal voters and politicians; they really infuriate me. Obviously it’s the same all over the world; but considering I’m British, I’ll talk about the situation here specifically. The way Jeremy Corbyn and the left in general have been treated by so called Labour and the media is just nauseating. And then on top of that, the way we were ignored at every single point, when we were right at EVERY SINGLE POINT is unforgivable. This isn’t them saying “you were right about Jeremy Corbyn. You were right about Starmer. You were right to vote for Rebecca Long-Bailey.” This is “we fucked up by voting for Starmer” and nothing more. It’s like when they say nothing before October 7th is relevant when it comes to Palestine. They ignore history to justify the unjustifiable in their minds. They’ll never accept the left was right and they were wrong about anything (let alone everything).
They would rather play dumb and pretend that Labour under Starmer was always a social democratic proposition; until it suddenly wasn’t. It wasn’t an extreme neoliberal government in waiting from the very beginning in 2020 (5 years ago!) It wasn’t a party that offered nothing to voters because they knew as long as they remained alive, and gave away practically nothing on future policy; that by election day that they’d be in number 10 and 11 Downing Street. We can talk about the Tories making it inevitable that Labour would take over, and the media who ignored the only party that had policies that made actual sense (or any serious policy at all), the Green Party.
But at the end of the day, a special fuck you goes out to the liberal voters. The ignorant, insufferable morons who insisted that they knew better than us. They knew better about the economy. They knew better about the climate. They knew better about nature. They knew better about antisemitism. They knew better about protest. They knew better about politics and political strategy.
Except they didn’t. And they still can’t accept that they don’t. They never will, regardless of what goes wrong.
Fuck these people! I’m never listening to any of them again. Nor the liberal media, who are probably at fault more than any voters. I don’t know. There’s just something about liberal voters realising they fucked up but never taking any responsibility that particularly pisses me off.
Either way, they all need to own everything that happens from here on in. It’s nothing to do with the left. Climate breakdown and collapse. It’s on them. Fascism and the removal of all of our rights in the meantime. It’s on them.
If you’re reading this and you’re a neoliberalism enabler; it’s all on you. We’re always told that we need to go further to the right, even though capitalist ideology has failed time and time again. Ok, you win. The world is going fascist. You got what you wanted. Now let’s see you take responsibility for once. No one is going to believe you this time, when you inevitably try to blame the left for your utter failure; and the destruction of our only home.
I’m not even sure how far fetched it is to imagine a TV newsreader in a destroyed and smouldering newsroom in the future blaming Jeremy Corbyn and the left for our destruction at the hands of the fascists. That’s how insane our world now is.
Recently, I guess because I know how fucked our politics, economics and climate system are, I’ve felt compelled to spend time watching a sport I used to love growing up instead.
The game is great. It’s everything around it that’s broken,
I’ve always liked Football (Soccer), but haven’t watched it much in the last decade or so. It’s the game itself I like. The passing, the tactics, the formations, the goals, the athleticism and skill. The reason I haven’t watched it is everything else that I see as being broken with it. Unsporting behaviour, violent conduct and cheating. The obscene money (in the men’s game so far). The ridiculous inequality of talent and lack of competition league wide in every country I know of.
Now that I’ve gotten back into it, it’s been in a different way. I’m watching a lot of women’s football, and the only men’s football I’m watching (aside from a bit of initial curiosity around Spain and Italy) is Scottish (mainly Celtic because of Palestine and their general left wing appeal), German (St. Pauli for similar reasons), and Japanese (because Japan is pretty respectful even in football). Otherwise it’s all been women’s leagues. The SWPL (Celtic of course, but also most other matches I can watch); WSL and Women’s Chanpionship in England, Serie A, Liga F, WE League. Anything I can find (except maybe NWSL).
I am enjoying these games, but there are still a lot of issues that I want to see addressed, and that I don’t see anyone else talking about in a serious way. People talk about financial differences between teams, but never about a way to solve it. And for the most part, they still hold the minnow teams to the same high standards they expect of title contenders with far more resources. There are elements of cheating and bad sportsmanship creeping into the women’s game, but I think a lot of that could be remedied by the other systemic changes I have in mind. So without further ado, let’s get into what reforms I would implement if given the chance.
A more equal method of player allocation
This is the biggest change of all, and can be done in various ways. Within the current neoliberal system, probably the easiest way would be to implement a confederation (UEFA, AFC etc) wide team salary cap and / or individual player wage limit. The highest cap would apply to all top division leagues under the UEFA umbrella, and there would be lower caps for each division below the top, and be uniform across all countries as much as possible. Obviously depending on how many football league tiers each country has. Presumably it would be 3 or 4 in most cases, although I’m not sure on that.
This would already make a massive difference to the competitiveness of leagues. You wouldn’t just have 3 or 4 title contenders and a bunch of no-hopers in the bottom half, just trying to lose the least games and not get relegated.
However, I’d personally go a lot further. Similar to what the ACO does in Le Mans endurance racing, where they rank drivers gold, silver or bronze; and then stipulate that you can only have certain combinations of those ranks in your 3 driver teams per car, in order to ensure a competitive field. I’d like to see the same principle applied elsewhere.
Every year, we see EA Sports rate every player in the leagues that are present in their game. Obviously, this wouldn’t be adequate for an official FIFA player rating, but you can see that it wouldn’t be that difficult to create such a system. presumably it would be significantly easier to achieve than what the IPC has to do for the Paralympics. Here, you’d only need to categorise players into a handful of ratings. As opposed to the huge variety of disabilities and severity of impairment in Para-sports. There probably would be a few controversies, but nothing serious. A player that falls on the wrong side of a gold or platinum rating would be highly sought after since they wouldn’t count towards a team’s top category allocation. So they would almost certainly end up at one of the most historically successful, most popular teams under the existing system.
You can see that while the existing top teams would still have a competitive advantage as far as being able to get the first picks of top platinum and gold players, the inequality and competitiveness gap in leagues would close dramatically, to the point of relative parity. It would just be like getting picked in high school PE class where you’d have alternating picks. You end up with broadly comparable teams in the end.
Ending in-season transfer windows
One of the worst things about all team sports now is the frequency of player transfers. It really loses so much of the joy in supporting a team when you are constantly losing players. It’s no coincidence that the most popular players among any fan base are the ones who have been with that particular club for a decade.
High player turnover may help your team win, but any victory will always be more hollow when it’s not with “your players” who have worked and improved for years until they win. Maybe you’ll have a couple of new additions each season under a new system, but no big scale revamps every offseason; and no in-season transfers.
There’s nothing worse than in-season trades for player stress, fan disappointment and disillusionment. Of course injuries are a big thing in football, and you need to replace those players. However, teams should be forced to bring up academy players into the senior squad in these instances. It would encourage investment into academies. These players will also be rated though, so if top players are discovered, a team might have to give them up or make room on their rosters to account. Transfers would still have to happen, but they would be far less frequent, and far less traumatic for the players and teammates involved.
Another aspect that I forgot to mention earlier in the equality of player distribution section is regarding large squads. Very often we see top teams filling their benches with quality players who could start for many other teams. This leads to intense frustration and talent being wasted. It also means that the top teams can avoid having to face these players. It’s a kind of power move so emblematic of this practically unregulated capitalist system. A change to a more egalitarian way of doing things will also alleviate this. Top players will always be playing and starting games. And decent players will always get good amounts of playing time off the bench at the very least.
Slashing player salaries and introducing wage brackets
This is a simple one. Male players in general are paid way too much, and I would even argue that the top female players are also paid way too much. I would cap both male and female pay at around £100,000 a year for platinum rated players. From what I’ve seen, there are women now making 8 times that. And Ronaldo in the men’s game something like 250 times that, which is beyond insane.
From there, it would go down progressively for the different ranks, to something like £50k for the average first division player in any league. This is just a rough estimate, but you get the idea. There wouldn’t be a huge wage discrepancy from bottom to top.
Ending corporate pay TV deals to get the money out
The current system where many games are behind expensive paywalls for sports TV and streaming packages simply doesn’t serve the fans. Even if you pay for all of the services, you still are very limited in the number of games you can watch. If you’re a fan of a team, you should be able to watch every game. Either for free, or for a small and reasonable fee. Paying through the nose for a very limited service makes no sense. This is another thing the Americans get somewhat right (aside from rookie player drafts). If you’re a fan of a team, you can watch every game. It’s still far from perfect, but it’s better than what we have in the UK and many other countries.
We need some combination or free-to-air TV, free streaming, affordable club or league specific streaming services or TV channels (with full access to all games if paid).
Fan-owned teams
This is an obvious one really. The fans are so crucial to football clubs. They’re such an integral part. They should collectively own the teams. It’s a model that works in Germany and elsewhere. It can easily be replicated. Get the capitalists out once and for all.
Conclusion
I think if we can achieve all or even just some of these things, the game (and other sports that are infected with capitalism) will be so much better. The focus needs to be back on fun and friendship, while still being competitive. At the moment, the money and high stakes (even in the women’s game now relatively speaking) encourages cheating, unsporting behaviour, and harder tackling which increases injury risk. And just generally it makes the sport much worse. The game as it exists now is far from “the beautiful game”. It’s an ugly, selfish, miserable game when you look beyond the glitz and glamour the slick media facade falsely presents. We need to take it back for the people.
When you think of direct action on the climate crisis, you would probably first think of Extinction Rebellion protestors blocking London bridges; or some other big disruptive protest in which people get dragged off by police, and the mainstream media talk about how terrible it is that people were slightly delayed in getting to work. I’m not against large, peaceful protest, but I don’t think traditional civil disobedience is the most effective way of putting pressure on governments. The tiny benefit isn’t worth getting arrested for.
The most effective method of pressurising governments and businesses in my opinion is the mass refusal to participate in the endless growth based economic system. This can take the form of working less hours or not at all, not buying things we don’t need, as well as more targeted boycotts of certain products or services. And you don’t have to get thrown in a police cell for your troubles either.
One of the easiest and most crucial things we can all do right now is moving our money out of financial institutions that support the fossil fuel status quo. This can be complicated when it comes to pensions. But for bank accounts, it’s easy to switch to a more ethical bank; and there are automated tools which transfer your scheduled payments across as well. You’ll still have to change any accounts that use your debit card manually, but it’s no different than when your card expires and you get a new one. It’s no great hardship, and very much worth the effort.
Another hugely important element of the strategy of deliberately tanking the economy is housing. In many cultures, it is normal to live in multi-generational households for your whole life. I’m not necessarily suggesting that; but certainly in the western world, people are often a bit too keen to move out of home very young, and parents have been told that this is a good idea over many decades. I think it’s unnatural to want to separate ourselves from our families so young, and we should take the opportunity to live together for as long as families enjoy it. Obviously it’s not going to suit everyone for various reasons. But if you get on well, it’s definitely a very effective method of doing the opposite of what the system wants you to do.
This is also one area where boomers can have an outsized influence in the climate fight. They tend to have the money to be able to support their kids and grandkids to be full-time activists. Everyone who is able to not work while also spending as little as possible is hugely important. Imagine if everyone who was able to do it did so. The economy would be in ruins (as far as the elites are concerned anyway), and the government would be forced to change tack (or just get annihilated in the next election).
Interestingly, the effect seems to be happening already thanks to our incompetent and uncaring government. The latest jobs data in the UK shows that there are more job vacancies than people actively looking for work. The suggestion by experts and the media is that this is entirely due to hundreds of thousands of Brits being (possibly) permanently incapacitated by Long Covid, which the government allowed to happen through their intentionally useless handling of the pandemic; from the beginning really, but particularly the last 10 months since “Freedom Day” in July 2021.
Clearly I don’t want to tank the economy by people being unable to work. I want it to be a choice, but it really demonstrates that we will get there by hook or by crook. This government is so cruel and at the same time so stupid that they can’t even do economic growth right. Having said that, I don’t think that it is entirely down to Long Covid. There must be quite a few people like me who refused to go back to work during covid and subsequently checked out of the economy; and those numbers will keep increasing. Especially now with the cost of living crisis that the government of course chooses not to solve. I can imagine young people renting flats giving up on that to return home, and possibly cutting back their work hours too, if not quitting entirely. Why work your arse off in a system when you never get rewarded for it anyway?
To sum up, I fully support all climate protests, but we need to get smart and use the establishment’s precious economy against them. And you can see that it’s going to work. Even just this “worrying” jobs report has the government terrified, and that’s of their own making. It wouldn’t take much concerted action at all for them to feel more pressure than they’ve ever felt from every climate march or protest in history, combined. They don’t care if you go and protest, as long as you still drive a car and go flying off on holiday. If we refuse to work and stop spending money, they will be panicking almost immediately; along with the bankers, investors and economists. We all saw what a house of cards neoliberal capitalism is during the first covid lockdowns. It won’t take much for it to all come crashing down, to be replaced by something that actually works for all of us, and the rest of life on Earth.
I’m pretty convinced that the best way to do something about the climate crisis is to talk about it. Bring it up. Plant a seed. Make people question everything. So I try to bring it up in YouTube comments, or Facebook groups, or Twitter. Even in person back when I used to talk to actual people who aren’t my family. But there are a couple of big drawbacks to this tactic.
The main one being that everyone thinks you’re nuts. I’m pretty sure Chris Packham thinks I’m nuts for posting about how dire the climate situation is on his Facebook page. I’m even more sure that Geoff Marshall is convinced I’m a lunatic since all my comments on his YouTube channel are about our existential crisis. I can’t just enjoy the videos about old trains without making it about human survival on this planet.
I’m always there to crash the party with a comment sure to depress (and sometimes actively piss off) people who just want to have a laugh at a silly video. They’re not interested in the end of the world. Why can’t I leave them alone and keep my doom and gloom to myself?
The other problem is it brings you down to Earth with a thud whenever you talk to regular people about these things. It makes you realise how far away we are from action. In our little climate semi-doomer echo chamber (which is a tiny niche within a niche), we’re talking about big ideas to save life on Earth, and we’re making changes to our lives that make us feel like we’re making a difference, even though we’re not really. And then you realise that everyone else is about 10 steps behind. It’s especially bad face to face. They talk to me about how they do their recycling, so they’re doing their part. They’re driving a hybrid car or something to that effect (just kidding – never had anyone driving a hybrid). Something so outdated that it makes me feel like giving up then and there.
But perhaps the worst thing is online when people completely ignore your comment. I’d honestly prefer someone reply to me and tell me ten reasons why I’m supposedly wrong, how nuclear power is the future, that biofuels can enable us to keep consuming as we are indefinitely, than have them completely ignore me. Sometimes I’ll go back the next day to a comment I wrote that I felt was well written, easy to comprehend and fact-filled; and I’ll find it the only one that hasn’t had a single like or reply. It’s so demoralising. I’m telling the truth, but because everyone has accepted the bullshit idea that we have 30 years to cut emissions to zero, they just give me the digital equivalent of a blank stare. And like with all the other things about society that depress me, it doesn’t seem like this will change any time soon either.
It really is pretty amazing how 40 or so years of neoliberalism has created a scenario where people who speak the truth are treated as if they’re nutcases. When you look back to before Reagan and Thatcher, everything was so truthful. Especially if you go back before World War 2. Science and facts were respected. People cared about what was true and morally right.
I know that in the end I’ll be proven right, but I don’t know if that will be able to make up for years of being treated like a weirdo when I’m just trying to inform people about what’s happening to our world. The scientists are generally pretty awful at getting the message out there, and people like Guy McPherson have effectively been de-platformed. So it makes sense for as many of us as possible to step in and spread the word on their behalf. I don’t even know if I’ve convinced anyone though. If I did plant a seed in someone’s mind and that one person later realised I was right and is now spreading the message further, then it would all be worth it. But I honestly don’t know if I have. I wish there was a way I could find out.
It feels like it’s not just me being ignored and treated as a crazy person though. It feels like anyone under 40 doesn’t matter. Who cares what we say? We’re nuts according to the establishment in this country. You want to have a fully funded healthcare system? Nuts. You want to get rid of the royal family? Preposterous. You want to change the economic system so humans can have a future on this planet? Ok that’s it. Out! Get out! Crazy kids.
When is it all going to flip on it’s head? When are they going to become the crazy ones? I can’t wait. I’m counting down the days.
