And I still say doing a stunt that even makes it look like you've done some real damage to Stonehenge right in the middle of a religious festival does not make you look like the good guys. People in another thread said it spread awareness. Who isn't aware? I'm fully aware of climate change and there's fuck all I can do about it.
Not only did they decide to do it in the middle of a religious festival, they did it in the middle of a festival that’s part of a religion that worships nature.
I don't know exactly how I would spread awareness, but I know exactly how I wouldn't: Making people think I damaged a beloved ancient monument during a religious festival... a religious festival, as someone else pointed out, for people who venerate nature.
How about, as an idea, paint bombing Shell Oil headquarters?
They tried that in 2022. It got fuck all news coverage. The fact you don't know is exactly why they jumped it up to things that would get them in the news.
You literally told everyone else to follow me into the murder spree when I asked why you haven't started it.
What a silly lie.
And, again, I said at the beginning that I didn't know what the solution was, just that this was not a good one. I just came up with something on the fly because you asked.
Have you ever pissed someone off into getting your way? Have you ever heard of anyone pissing people off into getting their way? I haven't. Which is why I said this was a bad idea.
Clearly, a good portion of the population isn't aware of how serious the situation is, it's still an election issue.
If the right level of awareness was reached, having any kind of oil money around you would be a political death sentence. Instead, Trump has public bribe meetings with oil execs and his base grows because of it.
Pivoting into religious rights about the summer solstice celebration. That's a stretch if I've ever seen one. I don't see why religious monuments should be exempt from harmless protests but I really doubt you would have called stone hedge one yesterday if it wasn't for it suiting your argument today.
Is that your stance. You are pissed because you think the religious rights of the revelers got trampled on?
MLK advanced civil rights by being a nuisance. Gandhi pushed Britain out of India by being a nuisance. I'm sure there are others.
It is in the nature of protest to be disruptive. It has to be. If it isn't, it gets ignored. Climate change is getting ignored. What would you rather they do, go deface an oil refinery? That'll just get them arrested and the news suppressed. Big public displays that can't be hushed are the only way to make sure your message reaches the world. These folks have been considerate enough to make sure that message didn't permanently damage its canvas. I don't know what more you could ask from them.
I don't know... oil companies piss off lots of people when they cause oil spills...and yet they're rolling in profits day in and day out.
Maybe these protesters are trying imitate how oil companies behave since its works so well for them?
Damage the environment and make money if your an oil CEO. Temporarily color stone henge with zero damage and everyone loses their minds. Kinda backwards if you ask me.
But you asked how pissing people off has ever convinced anyone of anything. Oil companies successfully do it all the time. Or any muilti billion dollar industry really.
I'm fully aware that money is the difference, and that's exactly why we shouldn't be shitting on the protesters.
We should be asking ourselves why it makes us so angry when protesters cause "damage" but dont have the same reaction to oil companies causing way more damage for profit. Human psychology is interesting.
I'm not seeing oil companies convincing lots of people that they're benevolent when they do bad things. Especially not after an oil spill. So your claim that that's what they're doing doesn't make much sense to me.
They convince people we need their product despite the damage they cause. They still get investors and convince them their company is profitable. They spend billions of dollars lobbying against alternative energy sources like solar, nuclear, and wind.... convincing people they aren't as viable as oil...when some already are and others could be with more R&D.
They convince governments to allow for more oil drilling sites, despite the environmental risks.
They do A LOT convincing all the time.
They don't convince people we need their product. We don't have a choice but use their product. I don't make ICEs cheaper than EVs. I don't get to choose what my power company decides to use to generate electricity. I don't get to tell corporations across the business spectrum not to use plastic.
Those are not choices I get to make. Or you.
Also, it's interesting how you skipped from people to governments as if there's no difference.
I'm not sure why you think any significant number of people like oil companies. Do you have any hard data to support that or is it just this sort of conjecture?
Have you seen people coal rolling? I see it all the time. I get the feeling they love oil companies. People who buy huge, gas guzzling SUVs and oversized trucks they dont need dont seem to have an issue with them.
Also governments are made up of people.... often elected officials that were VOTED for. I'm not saying everyone loves oil companies. But they convince enough people to like them enough to keep making money.
And that lobbying I mentioned earlier? Yeah, that's what keeps the rest of us locked into using their products whether we want to or not. They convinced someone, somewhere to stifle competition like EVs.
Do you think any of those people will see an event like this and change their minds? Those people don't even give a shit about other humans, let alone an ancient monument.
I will continue to maintain that pissing people off is not a good way to get them to take your side. I keep asking people if they've ever intentionally pissed off someone who disagreed with them into agreeing with them and no one has said yes so far.
The message is that people care more about non-damaging vandalism to famous objects than they do about climate change which will cause irreparable damage to many of these same objects, be it through hazardous weather, rising seas, or global conflict.
You might tell that to all the people who are acting like I don't give a shit about climate change rather than just questioning some activists' methods.
Lots of things but the easiest would be to find local orgs that have already developed political strategies relevant to your local political context and work with them. They can fill you in on the rest.
Climate change won’t be addressed until there is a much larger movement that can flex serious political power. Think civil rights movement—that’s the kind of organizing we need.
Doing nothing would be a start since apparently, you are using that time to disparage the efforts of others.
You don't have to help, even though you have more than enough time from what you are saying. I know, it's not your fault, bla blah, you're a victim. You could just like not have a shitty attitude, that's all.
They're happy that folks like you are focusing on the people throwing cornstarch rather than the people causing higher acidity in rain that's actually damaging Stonehenge.
There is much work to be done and not all of it is physical. I don’t know the specifics of your condition but you are here posting on social media. At minimum, there is likely a need for similar work to be done in support of your local orgs.
Again, if you find some local folks doing such work, I am sure they would help you find your niche.
So you're saying don't look like you're vandalizing an ancient monument during a religious festival held by nature worshipers? I agree and that was my point.
I am somewhat undecided about this action. It gets people talking (as we’re doing now) but it may also risk turning people away from the cause, especially those who are only casually interested or aware of the facts or issues.
But my point was your suggestion that everyone is already aware of climate change is absurd. Especially the follow up that no one can do anything about it. Sure, they’ve heard of it, but everyone is continuing to behave as if it doesn’t exist. There needs to be much greater awareness, discussion, and then action on this topic, and until such time we will need to do disruptive things to get people’s attention. I do prefer to disrupt the people most responsible, personally.
Well, something other than your usual ceaseless negativity would be refreshing.
I don't think I've ever seen you post something productive. It's just constant negativity, pessimism, tearing other people or ideas down.
I've never seen you react positively to a positive idea or add anything that would lead to any kind of actual improvement. And then when you ask "what can I possibly do" and someone replies with something you could actually do to contribute to the thing you're complaining about, there's no reply.
I get that you have tough life circumstances, but you're just not contributing anything to anyone with this stuff.
You're making me explain that there are more kinds of labor than just physical, which is asking me to perform mental and emotional labor just to educate your ignorant ass. You know search engines are a thing right? The Internet, you may have heard of it? It can be used to find information. Asking others to do this for you is imparting labor upon some random and you have been doing it all over this thread. I'm assuming in an effort to play dumb and/or exhaust anyone who thinks differently than you. You may not even realize that's what you're doing, but it is.
I stopped reading at "ignorant ass." Just because I didn't understand what you were trying to say to me was no reason for that. I asked you what you meant so I would understand.
I'm sorry you think people asking for clarification are ignorant asses, but perhaps it would behoove you to be more sympathetic to the ignorant in that case.
You kind of did by trying to use your disability card (I've got one too!) to get out of googling what labor means by putting the expectation of telling you about it on me.
I was paying attention. That doesn't mean I don't wait for experts to say that it really isn't permanent.
Unless you are assuming the environmental protesters were geologists and familiar with whether or not things like getting into cracks would make a difference at Stonehenge. I don't see a reason to make such an assumption.
They said it was orange corn flour all along, and they have a history of not actually damaging anything but using the appearance of "damage" to make a point. Corn flour is a very simple, inert substance. You're actually demonstrating the hypocrisy that this group is trying to highlight - more concern over something like corn flour damaging these rocks than the damage done by millions of barrels of crude oil extracted every day. Where's your outrage over acid/micro plastic in rain that falls on these stone every week? There will be new species of moss that grow on these rocks, or pollen that blows on them from invasive species, possibly damaging them as the climate heats up - are you worried about that? Why can folks summon outrage over something inert that touched a famous rock, but not for destruction of the actual biosphere? If Stonehenge is that fragile, why are people allowed anywhere near it? You're more than welcome to disagree with them, but if you spend more energy complaining about Just Stop Oil than you do complaining about actual oil companies, you're actually just supporting the oil companies.
Am I not allowed to be concerned about both climate change and an important ancient monument? Are you not able to be concerned about more than one thing at a time?