The Lefty in a Van

Competitive co-operator; gregarious hermit wannabe; misanthropic humanist; and socialist poker player - a mass of contradictions! 🏃‍♂️ ✌ 🌱 🇯🇴

[The Lefty in a Van @coleymc3]

First they normalised homelessness
And we did not protest enough
Because we were not unhoused

Then they normalised food banks
And we did not protest enough
Because we were not unfed

Then they normalised hospital treatment in corridors for our elderly and infirm

[The Lefty in a Van @coleymc3]

As any of you who have been to an A+E high care ward lately will know, the scenes there are like being in a wartorn country.
Well, we are in a war.
A war being waged on us by billionaires.
A war of attrition.
A war to test the limits of how far we will allow them to degrade us.

[The Lefty in a Van @coleymc3]

First they normalised homelessness
And we did not protest enough
Because we were not unhoused

Then they normalised food banks
And we did not protest enough
Because we were not unfed

Then they normalised hospital treatment in corridors for our elderly and infirm

[The Lefty in a Van @coleymc3]

And we did not protest enough
Because we were not unwell

Then they normalised treating those opposed to genocide like terrorists
And we did not protest enough
Because we were not protesters

Then they came for the rest of us
And there was no one left
To protest on our behalf.

[The Lefty in a Van @coleymc3]

First they normalised homelessness
And we did not protest enough
Because we were not unhoused

Then they normalised food banks
And we did not protest enough
Because we were not unfed

Then they normalised hospital treatment in corridors for our elderly and infirm

[The Lefty in a Van @coleymc3]

@joesegal @BarrysEconomics Recent subscriber, and already a big fan. Not seen this one yet, but looking forward to doing so 👍

[Howard Beckett @HowardRBeckett]

A Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 fan at the World Cup sees an 🇮🇱 flag & shouts for a Free Palestine 🇵🇸:

‘I was a nurse in Gaza 🇵🇸’
‘I volunteered’
‘I saw it for myself’
‘It is a genocide’

Refusing to be silenced 👏

A Flower of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇵🇸

[Canary @TheCanaryUK]

Moroccan fans are left devastated after heavy US visa refusals block their 2026 World Cup plans, costing them thousands
https://t.co/bUs95tiBxO

[Politics Global @PolitlcsGlobal]

🚨🇸🇴 NEW: Somali referee Omar Artan, who was scheduled to referee at this summer’s World Cup, has been denied entry into the US

Artan was elected the best African referee of 2025 at the CAF awards

[@Romain_Molina]

[Clare Hinchcliffe @Subversivite]

I'm reluctantly posting on X again because the world needs to read this.

My daughter Zoe Rogers gave her own closing speech at the Filton trial, as did 4 other defendants, while their barristers looked on.

This is what she said 🧵 1/

[Abier @abierkhatib]

Queen Grace is at it again,
upping her game against Zionists with every word

[The Lefty in a Van @coleymc3]

AKA the Just World Fallacy

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Our leaders are not going to fix the worst problems in our world. They couldn’t if they wanted to. And they don’t want to.

Our leaders are not wise or insightful. They’re not even particularly intelligent. Our society is led by plutocrats who only know how to make more money, by unelected empire managers who only know how to dominate and control, and by elected politicians who only know how to say the right words and make the right bargains in order to get themselves elected.

These people are not capable of curing our civilization of its dysfunction. They don’t have the necessary skills or attributes. Even if they weren’t a bunch of evil sociopaths who are only in the positions they’re in because of their willingness to collaborate with the agendas of oligarchy, war, militarism, imperialism, ecocide, exploitation, oppression and planetary domination, they don’t even have the personal characteristics necessary to do things like end poverty, rescue our biosphere, bring about world peace or give rise to human thriving. They’d have no idea where to start.

I say this because as I watch Americans and Australians falling all over themselves to justify the recent police brutality in our respective nations, I am struck by how many people still believe our society is run by leaders who more or less know what they are doing and will guide us to more or less where we need to be. They view their government as a wise and beneficent father who knows what’s best for all of us, and they believe anyone who disagrees with Daddy is being naughty.

That’s really all it is. They’ll make up all sorts of justifications and excuses, but ultimately their police apologia arises from an infantile worldview which believes the authorities are right for no other reason than because they are in authority. They begin with their tongue on the boot of power, and then they make up reasons for why their tongue needs to be there.

That’s the worldview that gets a lot of people through their day. Believing our society is basically just and decent, and that we don’t need to concern ourselves with the world’s problems because we’ve got highly qualified leaders working hard at fixing them.

Believing our society is just and decent allows one to relax under the assumption that they deserve all the comforts they have in life and that the system will never turn against them. If someone is killed by police, or is impoverished or imprisoned or homeless, then it’s because they did something wrong and immoral, and all you need to do to avoid the same fate is follow the rules and make ethical choices. Under a just and decent system, good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, so all you need to do is be good and you’ll be fine, and if things are going badly for you it’s because you deserve it.

Believing we’ve got highly qualified leaders working on our world’s problems allows one to relax under the assumption that everything’s taken care of. There’s no need to concern ourselves with all the information which tells us we’re plunging deeper and deeper into tyrannical dystopia on a collision course with environmental catastrophe under a globe-spanning empire that is fueled by human blood, because Daddy’s got it all taken care of.

Really these are just juvenile fairy tales designed to help us psychologically compartmentalize away from uncomfortable realities; no grown adult has any business believing them. But a lot of people would do anything to avoid internal discomfort. Entire psychological universes are constructed around the unconscious agenda of not feeling unpleasant feelings.

Daddy’s not gonna save us, kiddos. Daddy’s a serial killer with dead bodies in the attic, and many important parts of his brain are missing. Our problems aren’t going to get fixed until we get rid of Daddy. Getting rid of Daddy means forcibly getting rid of the entire system under which we live and replacing it with something that serves the interests of ordinary human beings.

Bootlickers hate revolutionary politics, because it is diametrically opposed to their infantile worldview of paternalistic government deities. But things aren’t going to get better until we find a way to get the steering wheel of our world out of the hands of the people who are currently in charge. Until then, everything’s just going to keep getting worse.

[rachel she/her 🇵🇸 #MentalHealthTimeForAction @lovebillybragg]

Our amazingly diverse Nottingham stands in beautiful solidarity against racism
#RefugeesWelcome #AsylumSeekersWelcome #LoveWins #Nottingham #BrianClough

[Derby City of Sanctuary @DerbyCoS]

Everyone is welcome to join @derbysolidarity 's #Parkrun with Refugees on 22 June in celebration of Refugee Week! 🏃‍♂️🏞

Meet at Markeaton Park Cafe at 8.45am.

For more info about #RefugeeWeek events in Derby, head to https://t.co/yxyFLbIH5e

[Dr Julia Grace Patterson💙 @JujuliaGrace]

In case anyone wasn’t clear about this, Labour have chosen to stand a candidate against Jeremy Corbyn who is a private healthcare boss…

[sarah @sahouraxo]

This is Lyon, France, right now.

🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[sarah @sahouraxo]

“Israel burned men, women and children alive. And the world stands by.”

“It’s unbelievable the genocide that is happening. A child with no head! And Israel says it’s a mistake.”

“I hope that Netanyahu burns in hell!”

—Irish politician Thomas Gould 🔥

[Pelham @Resist_05]

Irish politician Thomas Gould delivers one of the greatest speeches in modern history…

“I hope you burn in hell Netanyahu”…🔥