Ted Fearon💙

Cocktail Socialist. Just trying to learn stuff and share, preferably through the 'outdoors'. Red, green and woke as fuck.

[Tiberius @tiberiusfiles]

There has never been a better time to watch this video

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

Social democracy is not a viable alternative to capitalism. It is a tempting prospect, but ultimately suffers from violent contradictions that cannot be sustained.

Social democracy tries to establish a compromise between (a) capitalism, and (b) socialist demands for fair wages, good public services, and environmental protections. But the latter represents a real problem for capital. It increases input prices, and increases workers’ bargaining power, and makes capital accumulation very difficult to achieve.

One way to resolve this tension is to abandon capital accumulation and transition to a post-capitalist economy where production is democratically organized around human well-being and ecology (in other words, socialism).

But social democracy, which is ultimately committed to capitalism, takes a different approach. It resolves the tension through imperialism. Social democratic states appropriate cheap labour and nature from the global South, from an external “outside”, thus allowing them to offer good wages and public services at home while also maintaining the conditions for capital accumulation.

Even states that may seem neutral or benevolent, like some of the Scandinavian countries, benefit from a massive net-appropriation of labour and resources from the global South through dynamics of unequal exchange, which enables them to sustain the social democratic compromise.

Crucially, while this option is available to states in the imperial core, it is generally not available to states in the periphery. In the periphery, when capitalists face progressive demands from unions and environmental defenders, they don’t have the option of conceding and then relying on imperialist appropriation to maintain accumulation. There is no “outside” for them. Their only option is to crush the progressive demands. Indeed they often do this with the direct support of the core states.

This is why so many capitalist states in the South are characterized by violence and repression. It is not because they are somehow intrinsically given to violence… it is because capitalism *requires* violence. By contrast, the core states can have nice human rights at home because they externalize the violence that capitalism requires.

Social democracy offers only the illusion of a solution. An illusion for some, that is. The Congolese coltan miners and Bangladeshi sweatshop workers that supply Western multinational firms are of course under no such illusion.

The only real solution is to overcome capitalism and achieve a post-capitalist economy. It is 100% possible to have a functioning economy that ensures human well-being and ecological stability *without* needing imperialism. But it requires abandoning capital accumulation.

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

@CraigProfessor But is cars 100% of the time. As Snowball said, "two wheels good, four wheels bad".

[David__Osland @David__Osland]

If you want to know what a privatised NHS would look like, look at privatised social care

[Alonso Gurmendi @Alonso_GD]

Ouch.

[Matty @mattylufc_]

Busiest week of the year in pubs, so if you’re one of the twice a year drinkers please remember don’t queue single file, don’t order individually and get in rounds and don’t order your Guinness last. Thanks in advance from all the seasoned alcoholics.

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

"Ceasefire now" being projected onto Big Ben.

Don't RT it sends them completely rabid.

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

Quite interesting, quite revealing.

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

Here’s a short story about who wins and loses from the status quo of our inheritance tax rules - and about, what you might politely call ‘sub-optimal’ journalism🧵

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

Oh the 'wank tank'yness of it all.

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

The evolution of each car brand, then and now
https://t.co/gVnYQ0U81T

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

I have had a bad trouser morning. They would have been better with 500gms less of me. Subsequently the elasticity that was in my flesh has to be substituted with the elasticity in a trouser. #manofacertainage

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

@CraigProfessor Cool, all the best Prof, enjoy.

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

@deirdreheenan Dunfanaghy mostly closed when we visited last week. Had a good lunch across the road and of course it is always worth it.

[Prof Alice Roberts💙 @theAliceRoberts]

I know people are leaving Twitter, but the algorithms also seem to be mysteriously (or not so mysteriously) working against some of us. I know that some followers of mine have somehow automatically unfollowed me (without them doing that), and that my posts are hidden or buried. I like sharing science, archaeology and a bit of humanism here. I still enjoy the conversation. So if you can help me find my old followers again by RTing, I will follow you back.

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

@feistywomankent @melindiscott @BethRigby Perhaps you should.

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

@Drystonesonnet @alaninwinton @melindiscott @BethRigby Or off the back of a trailer as in the case of HMS Glamorgan.

[Ted Fearon💙 @expedted]

@CarlBovisNature Everyone loves a robin.

[Carl Bovis @CarlBovisNature]

As it's Friday, I'm asking all my followers to please retweet (and comment) on this post if you see it, to help my bird account be seen! 🙏😀
To make it worth sharing, here's a Robin in song from Woolacombe in North Devon. 😍🐦
Thank you very much! 📷 😊♥️

[State of Palestine @Palestine_UN]

On this day 24 years ago, the world watched, helplessly, as Jamal al-Durrah tried to protect his 12-year-old son Muhammad from Israeli bullets that rained down on them in Gaza for 40 minutes. Despite pleads, Israeli soldiers intentionally shot Muhammad in the stomach, whose final moments of fear and horror were caught on camera and streamed by France TV, and injured his father.

Muhammad became the defining and haunting image of the Second Intifada.

[Sir Norman of Nowhere. 🏴‍☠️ @Normanjam67]

As a billionaire is doing the first private spacewalk, I am reminded of this.
Whitey's on the Moon by Gil Scott-Heron.