Robert Painter

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@wesstreeting Childish nonsense.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@JoStevensLabour This sort of rubbish puts people off politics. Engage with the arguments please.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@judge148 Why didn’t you just google it yourself. I’ll save you the trouble. Yes.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@RupertLowe10 This man is obviously unhinged. Can any of his family help him?

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@ShabanaMahmood Stop. Do something useful.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@GBPolitcs Who are the intellectual influences of GB news regarding anything at all … …

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@TheGreenParty @ZackPolanski

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

I'm excited to announce this new study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, which explores public support for degrowth and ecosocialist transformation. The findings are quite surprising.

We surveyed more than 5,000 people in the UK and US, using demographically representative samples and two separate study designs. Here I'll report results for the UK, but the US is similar.

First, we presented people with a full proposal for degrowth-ecosocialist transformation, but without using any label. This included:

-scaling down damaging and unnecessary production/consumption
-cutting the purchasing power of the rich
-establishing universal public services and a public job guarantee to reorganize production around needs
-democratizing control over finance and the means of production
-ending imperialist appropriation from the global South through unequal exchange

We found that 82% of people supported it.

Next, we presented people with various labels - including "degrowth", "ecosocialism", and "well-being economy" - without any description.

We found that "degrowth" was supported by 20-26%, depending on the study, but also attracted a lot of opposition (16-34%).

"Ecosocialism" had higher support, at 36-58%, and much lower opposition (11-16%).

"Well-being economy" had even higher support (51-81%) and very minimal opposition (more on this later).

Next, we gave people the full proposal but this time together with various different labels. We found that support was high regardless of the label, with very strong majorities.

So what can we make of all this? For me, here are the main takeaways:

First, the transformative vision and policies advanced by advocates of degrowth-ecosocialism are extremely popular and can form the basis of a winning political campaign.

Second, the word "degrowth" is a crucial analytical and scientific term, but - depending on the context - perhaps less useful as a public-facing political slogan, as it is easily misunderstood....

...UNLESS you have the capacity to educate people about what the term means and what such a transformation would entail.

Third, the term ecosocialism is substantially more popular and I think can create broader political support (we didn't test related terms, like socialism or democratic socialism or communism... but this would be interesting!).

What about "well-being economy"? It's popular and very useful in certain contexts, but it is also apolitical and can easily be co-opted by capitalists. To me it's important to be clear about the political antagonism that is at stake: this is a class war. Ecosocialism does this job (but other terms may work just as well or better).

But ultimately, what this study shows is that we don't necessarily need a single term; it's the political substance and the concrete policies that matter.

And we must remember that the struggle does not consist in deciding on the right terminology and framing. It consists in building power. This must remain front and centre.

The paper is open-access, and I'll put a link in the reply.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

I'm excited to announce this new study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, which explores public support for degrowth and ecosocialist transformation. The findings are quite surprising.

We surveyed more than 5,000 people in the UK and US, using demographically representative samples and two separate study designs. Here I'll report results for the UK, but the US is similar.

First, we presented people with a full proposal for degrowth-ecosocialist transformation, but without using any label. This included:

-scaling down damaging and unnecessary production/consumption
-cutting the purchasing power of the rich
-establishing universal public services and a public job guarantee to reorganize production around needs
-democratizing control over finance and the means of production
-ending imperialist appropriation from the global South through unequal exchange

We found that 82% of people supported it.

Next, we presented people with various labels - including "degrowth", "ecosocialism", and "well-being economy" - without any description.

We found that "degrowth" was supported by 20-26%, depending on the study, but also attracted a lot of opposition (16-34%).

"Ecosocialism" had higher support, at 36-58%, and much lower opposition (11-16%).

"Well-being economy" had even higher support (51-81%) and very minimal opposition (more on this later).

Next, we gave people the full proposal but this time together with various different labels. We found that support was high regardless of the label, with very strong majorities.

So what can we make of all this? For me, here are the main takeaways:

First, the transformative vision and policies advanced by advocates of degrowth-ecosocialism are extremely popular and can form the basis of a winning political campaign.

Second, the word "degrowth" is a crucial analytical and scientific term, but - depending on the context - perhaps less useful as a public-facing political slogan, as it is easily misunderstood....

...UNLESS you have the capacity to educate people about what the term means and what such a transformation would entail.

Third, the term ecosocialism is substantially more popular and I think can create broader political support (we didn't test related terms, like socialism or democratic socialism or communism... but this would be interesting!).

What about "well-being economy"? It's popular and very useful in certain contexts, but it is also apolitical and can easily be co-opted by capitalists. To me it's important to be clear about the political antagonism that is at stake: this is a class war. Ecosocialism does this job (but other terms may work just as well or better).

But ultimately, what this study shows is that we don't necessarily need a single term; it's the political substance and the concrete policies that matter.

And we must remember that the struggle does not consist in deciding on the right terminology and framing. It consists in building power. This must remain front and centre.

The paper is open-access, and I'll put a link in the reply.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@novaramedia @AaronBastani @kieran_andrieu Does Rory Stewart know all the important numbers? Current CO2 levels? Global avg temp to 2dp? Remaining emissions budget to stay under 1.5?
The knowing the exact numbers is irrelevant anyway if you’re still basically ideologically neoliberal.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@ZackPolanski Keep on doing what you doing. I would say anyone proposing we carry on with the status quo is unserious and dangerous.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@iealondon @TimPhillipsAFP @IEA Yes. Join the @TheGreenParty

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@zatzi Yes, join the Green Party.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@TheGriftReport Worse for who?

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

https://t.co/yosv4u2hDI

Capitalism is over.

This is the final straw.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@Nigel_Farage And reform is full of failed tories who caused all our problems in the first place and will only make things worse if they get into govt.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@TVKev Did it occur to you to ask him?

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@KemiBadenoch @Conservatives “The country living within its means”. What the greedy elite tell everyone so they can continue ripping them off, privatising everything, trashing the nhs, schools, housing, water, basically everything. Inequality is out of control. Tax wealth not welfare.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@piersmorgan @TRobinsonNewEra Maybe they do care. But how many care enough to do a tiny bit of research as to why we are in a mess (neoliberal capitalism) and how we fix it (end neoliberal capitalism).

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@alex_house @ZackPolanski @danielhavfc @TheGreenParty Research modern monetary theory. Sadly Labour don’t understand it either. Which is one reason they’re failing.

[Robert Painter @painter_rob]

@elonmusk That’s not an observation though is it. It’s just some lazy made up divisive sh1t stirring rubbish.