Stonehenge sprayed with orange powder paint by Just Stop Oil activists
Stonehenge sprayed with orange powder paint by Just Stop Oil activists
Two people arrested, say police, while Rishi Sunak’s comments on protest prompt response from Labour donor
If you ever wanted to read about fake druids vs. environmental activists, now's your chance.
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The fact that we are talking about this and not about climate change is also partly your decision. You are free at any point to disengage this thread and focus your energy on more productive things. The fact that you're not doing this is just one example of humans being humans and not always doing the best of all things. Me still arguing with you is of course another example.
Why do you not want these actions associated with the other group?
I can repeat this as often as you want: people want to engage in different kinds of activities under different names because the actions do not relate and the messaging becomes confusing. I can both disturb the operation of a pipeline and try to mobilize locals to support the building of a solar power plant. Doing both under the same name makes everything more complicated even if there is personal overlap. I really don't get why you are so hung up on this.
Furthermore, you don't think painting a fucking rock is confusing to the people who want to discuss climate change, but having one interest group perform varying kinds of direct activism and grassroots organizing is confusing to the people who want to discuss climate change?
I don't exactly get the question here. I'm not saying any of those options is particularly confusing. I'm saying doing both under the same name might get confusing for people not intimately familiar with your group and their actions.
It's a hypothetical, not a strawman, which should have been obvious when the sentence began with "if".
The hypothetical that you are posing instead of what I'm actually arguing for. You then argue against that hypothetical instead of my actual points. That's a classic example of a strawman.
You're advocating for bothering random people at a tourist attraction,
Yes I'm advocating for bothering people in public. Where else would you bother people?
and you're doing it in a way that a) distracts from talking about actual climate change,
That's a choice the public is making. And again I think this is fine.
b) leaves them virtually NO information about how to address climate change,
That's also fine. It's not like there aren't any publicly available sources on how to fight climate change. If the people are interested they can go talk to the many many local groups that engage in productive activities.
and c) is potentially affecting people who already do what they can to address climate change. See how this entire thread has been about painting rocks, instead of daily choices we make that contribute to or affect climate change???
This thread is a prime example of people like you who could be allies here and engage people who aren't yet convinced that we need to take action, that instead take up a lot of time and energy to argue about the kind of protest.
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Because if you're not embarassed or ashamed of the pipeline disturbance/damage, then you shouldn't have a problem openly associating yourself with it. The fact that you're trying to hard to suggest it's prudent to distance oneself from a disruption/protest tells me that deep down you understand these things are perceived negatively and are therefore more likely to cause friction and disagreement than sympathy for a cause.
You are still arguing from the perspective that activism needs to please people or else it's "embarrassing" or "shameful". I do agree that there is activism that displeases people, I think that is still valuable and nothing to be ashamed of.
But I can acknowledge that there are people that do not see that as something that should be supported. Different forms of activism have different target groups and different wanted effects. It's just a rational thing to address different target groups and produce different effects under different names.
Ah, so now it's enough to acknowledge that public resources exist and people can find it if they want? Because seconds ago you were cheering for people to paint rocks in a public place to keep people from talking about anything else. Seems you're not quite sure what you believe or how you think it should be accomplished. So what is it? Should it be shoved into people's faces so they can't ignore it? Or should they be left to find their own resources?
I want the issue front and center in the public discussion. You and I are both aware that people aren't 100% of the time participating in the public discussion but spend time doing their own thing. Which is partially influenced by what is happening in the public discussion. If climate change is a topic, even if just tangential, that still helps influence people to think about it in the times they spend outside of the public discussion.
I am an ally. That's what you don't understand and refuse to entertain as a possibility. I'm an environmental advocate both personally and professionally, and I've been working on climate change and environmental issues for over a decade. And even I'm telling you that painting a rock is stupid and counterproductive.
Again I want to thank you for your work, we need people like you. But I don't think that's all we need. It has become apparent that just silently working on this at the grassroots level hasn't shown the necessary progress. So people have decided to express their opinion in more loud and disturbing manners.
The only people who give a shit and empathize with it are people who were already on your team.
Again, this protest isn't about sympathy. I don't think anyone is having the illusion that a majority would be happy about this kind of protest. But I think "no one gives a shit" is pretty evidently a lie. People very demonstrably give a shit about Stonehenge being orange for a little while.
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Part of your anger seems to stem from me saying that this whole thing isn't moving forward fast enough and somehow you think that's a critique of your personal work. I assure you that wasn't my goal. But you have to admit that we are, globally, not moving fast enough.
The connection to the fight for racial equality is interesting but I'm not sure how well this applies. How do you suppose you can do anything equivalently "not accepting the rules we want to protest" in the context of climate change? Because before there was a big movement there were just a few people breaking the unfair rules. Which where likely talked similarly about as you are talking about these activists right now.
I'm only speculating that you made that situation up because deep down you understand the need to disassociate yourself from these protests, and it's increasingly clear to me that you see their value in some kind of shell game strategy, where no one knows who's pulling the strings. But again, you made that up, not me.
I am being very clear about the fact that two forms of activism can and should be done under different names. And that that is because some forms of activism that I deem valuable would have detrimental effects on the other form of activism if done under the same name. You seem to have a hard time getting that but that's not because I'm being unclear about this.
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I really don't get what you're trying to say here. That's obviously great. I am all for doing this stuff, how could you even think I wouldn't? I'm saying both kinds of activism provide value.
(Aside from the fact that nothing really got damaged...)
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