Top all-time · #878
George Monbiot
Personal blog · monbiot.compoliticseconomics
George Monbiot's personal blog at monbiot.com covers politics and economics. Since 2007, 75 different Hacker News readers have linked it 98 times, most often “The Gift of Death”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 6 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
George Monbiot's Guardian columns on environment and politics. HN readers link his pieces on rewilding, vertical farming, enclosure and the tragedy of the commons, self-attribution, and inequality.
- Recommended for · 6 comments
- Called a good explanation, well documented, an excellent rebuttal and a great read; registry of interests praised.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Archive of his syndicated column about international and British politics and issues, arranged by topic.
Most-linked posts?
- The Gift of Death5 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2018-07-31
- Why vertical farms are a crock.5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-09-17
- Intelligence? Talent? No, it is through luck and brutality.3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-11-09
- Sheepwrecked (2013)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-01-17
- The Impossibility of Growth2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-05-30
- /2005/12/27/how-britain-denies-its-holocausts/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-03-23
- The Problem Is Capitalism2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-06-14
- The Gift of Death2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-12-17
- The Mind Thieves2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-09-11
- Legal Limbo2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-08-01
What Hacker News says?
> There is no 40% group of the population in Europe that holds views that are anywhere near as disgusting as that. Well, only 50+ years ago there was an over 40% population in the US that thought that blacks were inferior and shouldn't sit in the same restaurants/hotels/schools with whites. In fact it was even law in some states. Beyond that, there were about all major western countries, France, UK, Belgium, Holland…
Comment linking /2005/12/27/how-britain-denies-its-holocausts/
on “VLC contributor living in Aleppo writing about the Paris attacks”Submitted How did academic publishers acquire these feudal powers? as a story · 321 points
HN discussionIf you read more closely, you'll find out that this already is my argument. But I'd take it even further because even that is BS theater: industrial production of tons of crap in general should slow down. The packaging is an insignificant part of it. It just makes for nice headlines because dolphins and co get caught in it. http://www.monbiot.com/2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/
Comment linking /2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/
on “Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030”Submitted Avatar: The Holocaust We Will Not See as a story · 120 points
HN discussionGeorge Monbiot is a rare breed: a journalist with great integrity and transparency. As a case in point his "Registries of Interests" lists his annual fees, sources of income from one-off articles, gifts he was given, and just about anything that implicates him financially! It is astoundingly good and he makes a fine example that I wish more journalists and news organisations would follow. http://www.monbiot.com/regi…
Comment linking /registry-of-interests/
on “Indonesia is burning. So why is the world looking away?”Submitted The Gift of Death as a story · 114 points
HN discussionI often hear this argument, "oh, but how far can we possibly go??! But deer are pretty?!", especially from farmers and grouse shooting estates here in the UK. It's wild, because it's so easy to measure and asses: an ecological desert, dying ecosystem, rich in single overgrazing specie is unequivocally bad. Rich, lush ecosystems sustaining great biodiversity and ecologically unique features (eg chalk streams or tempe…
Comment linking /2025/05/12/the-commoner-kings/
on “Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees”Submitted Why vertical farms are a crock. as a story · 74 points
HN discussionSelf-attribution-fallacy http://www.monbiot.com/2011/11/07/the-self-attribution- fallacy
Comment linking /2011/11/07/the-self-attribution-
on “Economic Inequality”Submitted The Problem Is Capitalism as a story · 35 points
HN discussion> The label in my shirt says Made in China. Likewise for my jacket, and my jeans were made in Bangladesh. “Equal pay for equal work” is a nice idea, but I don’t think we apply it universally. Well, seen from one aspect we should. Clothes, gadgets, etc, should become more expensive, and those workers more well paid (let's ignore atm whether they'll still be given those jobs - perhaps jobs would move closer to the buy…
Comment linking /2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/
on ““Location-Based Pay” – Who are we to complain?”Submitted A Manifesto for Psychopaths as a story · 14 points
HN discussionMy blog and podcast feeds go around these few main interests of mine: software, art, design, music and Apple. Podcasts: Varieties, science, design. * This American Life. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ * Radiolab. http://www.radiolab.org/series/podcasts/ * Planet Money. http://www.npr.org/planetmoney * Stuff You Should Know. http://www.howstuffworks.com/ * The Infinite Monkey Cage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: What tech blogs, podcasts do you follow outside of HN?”Submitted Monbiot: the Hills Are Dead as a story · 8 points
HN discussionStrange he doesn't link directly to the article: http://www.monbiot.com/2014/01/06/dead-zone/ Imagine reading this article in a few months, then this article would have been buried further down on monbiot.com (Perhaps he is not permitted directly to the article from the Guardian's website.)
Comment linking /2014/01/06/dead-zone/
on “At last, a law to stop almost anyone from doing almost anything”Submitted With the collapse of the biosphere how do we stop ourselves from falling apart? as a story · 7 points
HN discussion"Tragedy of the Commons" is caused by the very existence of the modern state. No, you have it backwards. The "tragedy" was a fiction invented to justify the Acts of Enclosure in the UK, wherein public land (commons) was fenced off for sole use by the local lords. Here's a good explanation: http://www.monbiot.com/1994/01/01/the-tragedy-of-enclosure/ In a truly private system, one in which all land was owned, every pa…
Comment linking /1994/01/01/the-tragedy-of-enclosure/
on “What America looked like before the EPA, in photos”Submitted The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People as a story · 6 points
HN discussion> This is partly because the efficiency of work (its value for advancing a business project) is non-linear with time spent. Someone spending 100 hours a week maybe pretty inefficient due to overwork and thus lower (even negative) quality of things done. Someone spending 10 hours a week could be also inefficient because the project moves faster (when everyone else around works 40 hours), or the competition moves fast…
Comment linking /2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/
on “In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party”Submitted Legal Limbo as a story · 5 points
HN discussion"Too much stuff" is the gift of death: https://www.monbiot.com/2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/
Comment linking /2012/12/10/the-gift-of-death/
on “There Is Too Much Stuff”Submitted Malignant Growth as a story · 5 points
HN discussionIMO these should be required reading for anyone unfamiliar with Chomsky's positions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide_denial#Chom... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_genocide_denial https://www.monbiot.com/2012/05/21/2181/ (Chomsky defending the decision to write a foreword for a book denying the Rwandan genocide) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faurisson_affair (Chomsky signed a petition supportin…
Comment linking /2012/05/21/2181/
on “Study finds growing social circles may fuel polarization”Submitted The Gift of Death as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAlready happening. The UK is confiscating books for not being aligned with the government's foreign policy. https://www.monbiot.com/2025/08/01/legal-limbo/
Comment linking /2025/08/01/legal-limbo/
on “Belgium bans Internet Archive's ‘Open Library’”Submitted The Mind Thieves as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAs rjsw says, they refuse to disclose who funds them. See https://www.monbiot.com/2022/10/07/thinktanking-the-country/ for some background.
Comment linking /2022/10/07/thinktanking-the-country/
on “Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated”Submitted The Impossibility of Growth as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFor those wondering what's wrong with TTIP, a while ago Geroge Monibot wrote a well documented piece about it: http://www.monbiot.com/2013/11/04/a-global-ban-on-left-wing-...
Comment linking /2013/11/04/a-global-ban-on-left-wing-politics/
on “European Citizens’ Initiative against TTIP and CETA”Submitted Intelligence? Talent? No, it is through luck and brutality. as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
