This article is a public service. It's difficult to do a denunciation piece without its losing its footing in rancor or losing its balance in its emotions or in a personal agenda. And it's incredibly difficult to accuse someone of bad faith convincingly, since others' motives are usually out of our reach. But you do both. You crystallize…
This article is a public service. It's difficult to do a denunciation piece without its losing its footing in rancor or losing its balance in its emotions or in a personal agenda. And it's incredibly difficult to accuse someone of bad faith convincingly, since others' motives are usually out of our reach. But you do both. You crystallize something that hadn't fully come into focus for me, that Monbiot is properly radical, by which I mean sees to the heart of things, only in the one area with which the Guardian some years ago decided to brand itself, the issue of climate change. So as you say, he is a perfect commodified instrument for them, bringing in readers for whom he is a Trojan horse (he betrays them on all other subjects in line with the Guardian's betrayals of them). I'm especially glad you did bring up that last and most difficult matter, and argue that he is acting in bad faith . I don't know for sure that he is. but as things darken, bad faith is becoming a more convincing explanation for why the wheels are coming off everywhere we look. The most profound bad faith in US administrations of both parties, for example (see every video you can get your hands on by Jeffrey Sachs, starting with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmOePNsNFw0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=morj-3rdWwM, and https://www.youtube.com. /watch?v=g57ViSqmRFM).
This article is a public service. It's difficult to do a denunciation piece without its losing its footing in rancor or losing its balance in its emotions or in a personal agenda. And it's incredibly difficult to accuse someone of bad faith convincingly, since others' motives are usually out of our reach. But you do both. You crystallize something that hadn't fully come into focus for me, that Monbiot is properly radical, by which I mean sees to the heart of things, only in the one area with which the Guardian some years ago decided to brand itself, the issue of climate change. So as you say, he is a perfect commodified instrument for them, bringing in readers for whom he is a Trojan horse (he betrays them on all other subjects in line with the Guardian's betrayals of them). I'm especially glad you did bring up that last and most difficult matter, and argue that he is acting in bad faith . I don't know for sure that he is. but as things darken, bad faith is becoming a more convincing explanation for why the wheels are coming off everywhere we look. The most profound bad faith in US administrations of both parties, for example (see every video you can get your hands on by Jeffrey Sachs, starting with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmOePNsNFw0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=morj-3rdWwM, and https://www.youtube.com. /watch?v=g57ViSqmRFM).