George Monbiot
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social1. The difference so far (and for god's sake let's keep it that way) between X and Bluesky is not between right and left but between abuse and respect.
A good society is built on mutual respect. But what does this mean?
A short thread.🧵
2. I often used to hear, from my grandma and others of her generation, “there isn’t the respect there used to be”, and part of me thought “good”. That’s because the respect there used to be was a one-way street. The "lower orders" had to respect their “betters”. But this wasn’t reciprocated.
3. You can see it in the language. “Respectable people” were people of a certain social status. “Respectable society” denoted still higher social strata. A “noble” sentiment or action means one associated with high social rank. “Villain”, on the other hand, derives from villein: peasant or commoner.
4. Those at the "bottom" of English society were pretty close to being untouchables. Association with them was seen, almost universally, as contamination. Even Marx and Engels talked of the “social scum” of the lumpenproletariat, ready to become “the bribed tool of reactionary intrigue”.
5. As for people of colour … well, I hope I don’t need to spell it out. They were utterly reviled, debased, enslaved, abused, treated as exchangeable and disposable.
6. In other words, there was no respect whatsoever for people below a certain social line. But woe betide anyone from the “lower orders” who failed to show respect. In the early 19th Century you could be transported to Van Dieman’s Land for knocking a gentleman’s hat off his head.
7. “Respect” meant deference. Only “respectable” people deserved it.
8. A society of mutual respect means something entirely different. It means recognising everyone’s humanity. It means applying both the golden rule and the platinum rule. It means that social status has no bearing on social regard. Ultimately, it means overthrowing the concept of social status.
9. Of course, it's fine to lose respect for someone if their behaviour merits it. It’s fine to dissociate from them. Even then, we should not lose our self-respect by stooping to their level (always a danger on X, where everyone gets dragged into the mud). Here, let’s be the society we want to see.
10. The whole thread on one page:
skywriter.blue
Page by George Monbiot (@georgemonbiot.bsky.social)
1. The difference so far (and for god's sake let's keep it that way) between X and Bluesky is not between right and left but between abuse and respect.
A good society is built on mutual respect. But w...
skywriter.blue