Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the incident as a “disgraceful act of vandalism”.
Not as disgraceful as awarding oil drilling licenses to companies your family is invested in.
Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer said the damage
There is no damage: ‘Just Stop Oil said the orange powder paint was cornflour and it would “wash away with rain”.’
was “outrageous”
Not as outrageous as forcefully replacing local Labour candidates with your own choices.
and described Just Stop Oil as “pathetic”
Not as pathetic as Labour’s climate policies.
Did any of them comment on the reason for the protest, or just the act itself? I don’t want to see things like stonehenge or priceless art getting fucked up, but I am OK with more things being fucked up if that is what it takes… I’m fully expecting environmental extremism to become a thing in the next few years, as the situation will get worse and these sort of protests haven’t achieved anything.
It’s not what it takes. It turns people against the cause.
How many people do you know that were pro actual environment saving acts before and are now against?
None, but that’s also true in the other direction and those people are now more resolute.
They were never gonna do anything that doesn’t directly and immediately benefit themselves anyways.
Did any of them comment on the reason for the protest, or just the act itself?
Pro-tip: if you have questions raised by an article’s headlines, read the article.
“Just Stop Oil said the motivation behind the incident was to demand the next UK government end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.”
Pro Tip: Don’t be a cunt. Perhaps my wording was ambiguous, I am aware of the reason for the protest and the content of the article, my point is that the politicians have not commented on the reasons and deflected the topic to the protest itself.
So it didn’t work as a form of protest. Don’t give your opponent such an easy win.
In what way does that quote answer their question?
It depends on which “them” is being referred to in OP’s comment. Assuming “them” are the protesters, then the answer provides what the protesters said, or at least what the organisation they represented said.
Assuming “them” are the protesters
Why would you assume that? It was obviously asking about what comment the politicians have made, from the fact that they were asking about whether “they” had commented “on the reason for the protest, or just the act”.
It was obviously asking about what comment the politicians have made
Why would you assume that? It was obviously asking about what comment the protesters have made, from the fact that they were asking about whether “they” had commented “on the reason for the protest, or just the act”.
Yes, it’s very easy to make a bad faith argument if you just randomly pull quotes, rather than actually looking at context.
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Reddit
Uhh…
It’s a dumb copypasta
Indeed
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A collection of reactions from the oil industry…
Wait wait wait, hold your horses. Do you mean to tell me, that the oil industry doesn’t care for this protest, or any protest for that matter? I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell you. It’s almost as if this protest wasn’t meant to impress the oil exec-types…
Almost like the protest isn’t aimed at oil industry shills and instead at politicians.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t it come out a while back that Just Stop Oil is actually bankrolled by some oil company and is essentially meant to create a false narrative against actual climate protestors? Am I misremembering?
They are funded by an organisation called Climate Organisation Fund of which is funded by someone called Aileen Getty who’s family own Getty Oil.
Whether or not they are wanting to create a false narrative is questionable. I personally don’t think so, but who knows…
Some rich person who doesn’t like her family getting their money from oil and is trying to do something good instead is one if the people funding them afaik
No, that’s totally made up 🤣 where did you hear it?
"They are sensitive and they are completely covered in prehistoric markings which remain to be fully studied and any surface damage to the stones is hugely concerning.
“A rich garden of life has grow on the megaliths, an exceptional lichen garden has grown. So it’s potentially quite concerning.”
This is important - they aren’t just a bunch of old rocks, they develop a “varnish” and an ecosystem that can protect them.
They say it’s just cornflour and will wash off in the rain but people tend not to coat ancient monuments in cornflour, so we don’t really know what the effect might be.
"They are sensitive and they are completely covered in prehistoric markings which remain to be fully studied and any surface damage to the stones is hugely concerning.
Bullshit. There is next to no other historic site that has been studied in greater detail. If no scientist up until now has created a detailed map of what is to find on those stones, then frankly, it’s their own fault.
If anything, they should be concerned about acidic rain caused by air pollution. But you don’t hear much about that, now do you?
Yeah. There’s absolutely no way that they have not yet fully digitalized whatever is on them. And if they didn’t, then they’re huge fucking morons.
they should be concerned about acidic rain caused by air pollution. But you don’t hear much about that, now do you?
+10 billion Internet points to this man
They’re going to be fucking annoyed when they’re told there’s no oil there.
The Tories want to destroy Stonehenge to build a motorway so let’s not pretend it’s sacrosanct now
Is this hyperbole or literally true?
So you mean the Tories are also assholes? Tell me something I didn’t know
the world feels like 75% assholes rn ngl
Only 75%?! Paradise!
It’s the same handful of obnoxious individuals over and over making it look like it’s a majority.
That said, this thread started about Tories, and about half the population lean that way even if they don’t vote for 'em…
You might have to state your sources there.
I’m aware of the tunnel and at no point would it “destroy Stonehenge”. There are concerns that construction might harm as yet undiscovered parts of the wider ritual landscape.
Oh so you DIDN’T want a source, you just wanted to argue about it?
I wanted a source that backed up what you said.
This group undermine and delegitimise other climate activist groups by association
Hard disagree. As far as I’m aware, everything they’ve done so far is attention-grabbing and harmless. All the paintings were behind glass, and the stuff here is water soluble.
Disruptive protests help activists causes:
How? Is your support for not going extinct really contingent on your personal feelings about a particular activist group?
I disagree with their evaluation of the magnitude of climate change catastrophe affecting our lives. There isn’t going to be a Day After Tomorrow “extinction event”. Instead climate change is more insidious and will initially affect people who do not live in the West (as it is already doing). We are going to have global crises due to climate change but it’s not going to be on the same level as, say, a Mutually Assured Destruction scenario with nuclear weapons.
They have also failed to convince the majority of the rest of the public that it will be an ‘extinction event’. Since democracy has not got the result they want they are pursuing anti-democratic means of forcing their agenda onto news segments with stunts that poison the well for other - less extreme - climate change activists.
Disagree with their assessment all you like, but it’s ridiculous to say a protest, especially a non-violent one, is anti-democratic. Democracy does not end at the ballot box, especially in a representative one.
anti-democratic means
Protest is democratic.
other climate activist groups
What other climate activist groups?
Extinction Rebellion would be the famous example of a group that has publically distanced themselves from JSO’s methods. They believe in protest but simultaneously are wary of alienating people by taking their stunts too far.
Actually I had a friend from uni who was in XR and he helped organise a protest at Canning Town tube station where they clambered ontop of the train in rush hour to try to stop it. He was saying later that he thought they probably made a bad call picking that specific part of the city.
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They do, for decades, but it’s not a headline so noone cares.
Because defacing an ancient site has a clear connection to the environment… bunch of fucking self-centered attention-whores.
It’s either this or ineffectual protests that get swept under the rug and ignored. You should be happy that their protest is purely cosmetic too.
Just Stop Oil said the orange powder paint was cornflour and it would “wash away with rain”.
These dang protesters and their… *flips script* attention seeking! Can’t they just do nothin like the rest of us?
But why Stonehenge? Why not oil company buildings? I believe oil companies generally have buildings. Large buildings. With their names on them.
Because that doesn’t make the headlines.
Maybe we need to come up with a way to deface oil company buildings that does make headlines
Do what the French farmers do - back a muck-spreader up to the main doors and turn it on.
Out of interest. As I’m not a farmer. Do you know how I would go about buying and filling a muck spreader.
Plus Rishi Sunaks home address would be a totally unrelated useful fact to share.
Do you know how I would go about buying and filling a muck spreader.
You can hire one from any number of places, like here. I quite like the side discharge spreader for drive-bys as long as you knew the range.
To fill it try a pig farmer as they usually have large ponds of the stuff they want rid of - chicken shit or bull shit are also available for symbolic reasons.
Plus Rishi Sunaks home address would be a totally unrelated useful fact to share.
His home has already been vandalised as I assume the address is in the electoral register. I was quite surprised they got through security and I assume it’s been tightened up since. Driving a large farm vehicle at the house seems quite a good way to get shot.
Because when a child wants the attention that you’re not giving, it shits on your kitchen floor so that you have to pay attention.
Defacing random things that don’t have any connect at all to what you’re protesting only makes you look bad.
Yeah, it got attention. Bad attention.
Let’s be real here. What could climate protesters do that wouldn’t get them bad attention? History has shown: Nothing. There is nothing they could do that wouldn’t get them bad attention. In Germany, they even got cussed out for blocking private jets.
Face it: The powerful do not fear retaliation from the masses if they vilify climate protesters. The protesters cannot win the PR battle. So all they have left is publicity stunts. And as far as publicity stunts go, plastering stones with water-soluble paint is about as tame as it gets.The protesterscannot win the PR battle. So all they have left is publicity stunts.
Some will likely turn towards eco terrorism within the next years of continued inaction.
What would you have them deface?
Oh I don’t know… Something that has anything to do with oil production
One could argue that Stonehenge is an icon of humanity’s pre-industrial, sustainable origins and as such acts as a reminder of the future that humanity will face after the ecological and civilisational collapse currently underway as a direct result of oil production. And hence Stonehenge is something to do with oil production.
I would argue you’re grasping at straws.
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False choice. Those aren’t the only options. We’re in a election season. Get out there and help convince the public to vote for people who will actually make a difference.
Making noise and demanding things is what children do.
Were I the “protest type”, I’d be getting awfully creative with what can be done to the infrastructure of the things I was protesting. Big Oil? Would be a shame if the refineries were to suffer malfunctions… or the trucks/ships to suffer constant breakdowns…
But yeah, instead let’s go fuck with something that has no relation and only serves to piss people off - but not in the way you want them pissed off.
refinery malfunctions truck/ship breakdowns
sounds like “how to get prescribed as a terrorist organisation 101”
Ah yes, let’s commit industrial sabotage. That’ll go swimmingly!
Would be a shame if the refineries were to suffer malfunctions… or the trucks/ships to suffer constant breakdowns…
I am surprised that people haven’t taken How to Blow Up a Pipeline (book or film) as more of a guide. I presume, as the climate apocalypse intensifies, protestors might escalate.
I’m generally supportive of any and all forms of non-violent protest (by which I mean not harming human life), including these, but let’s not pretend the choice is between “standing around with placards” and “vandalise random artwork & monuments”. Blockading ports exporting coal is an excellent direct protest, or vandalising actual fossil fuel companies’ property in such a way that disrupts their ability to do business. Heck, even the classic “block roads in peak hour” is better than this (just for the love of the gods, don’t disrupt passenger trains or busways).
Don’t get me wrong, this is still ok, and it’s better than nothing at all, but there are more effective ways to protest.
well, at least nothing is reliable and free.
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Just because you support a cause doesn’t mean you need to support every attention seeking brainrot idiot that uses the cause as an excuse to flaunt their stupidity.
These people are not helping the environment, they’re playing a silly game for attention without caring about the consequences.
they’re playing a silly game for attention without caring about the consequences
They’re playing a silly but very serious game for attention, the same silly game that politicians and corporate PR departments play. And the protesters seem to care a very great deal about the consequences.
They are rocks my friend. Rocks. Birds shit on them daily and have for thoudands of years. But go ahead and be mad about the rocks getting cornflower on them. Very good little reactionary Brit.
Ever play a Civilization game where Stone Henge ends up underwater because of the sea rising? Yeah. Thats all our art. All our society.
One thousand shits on Mona Lisa for one saved human life. But we will choose to protect the symbols of capital and status quo.
Enjoying the Gulf Stream collapsing further this summer?
Any publicity is good publicity, it’s paint, it can be cleaned up. But drilling for fossil fuels, burning shit to get energy, etc. That will leave a mark on the planet for generations, it might even kill us in the long enough run.
Because defacing an ancient site has a clear connection to the environment… bunch of fucking self-centered attention-whores.
Just Stop Oil said the orange powder paint was cornflour and it would “wash away with rain”.
I wonder how many of your strong opinions are based on things that you don’t even bother to investigate beyond your first impression.
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They’re mostly toffs. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a conservative movement to make climate change protesters look bad
Cunts
