A few days ago 2 protesters clued themselves to a museum wall after splashing tomato juice on a painting. Here are 9 scientists gluing themselves to the VW museum floor in protest. And VW handled it just fine. VW said, “Great. we applaud your efforts.” And turned out the lights, locked the doors and went home.
My first thought was “That seems very inconvenient when you need to use the restroom” and, indeed, the article mentions a primary complaint from the protestors being that VW didn’t give them a bowl to shit in (and presumably clean for them).
Next batch, take note: Bring your own poop bowl.
According to the protesters, the carmaker supported their right to protest but neglected to give them ‘a bowl to urinate and defecate in a decent manner while we are glued.’
Boo hoo. I understand and am at least somewhat sympathetic to their cause in a general sense, but I do not agree with their method and this is just petty whining.
I’m certain they were hoping the company and police would accommodate their obvious ploy to create an ugly scene, but these protesters are doing nothing but making themselves look bad.
Good for VW. That was exactly the correct response.
Exactly the right response would be to actually vastly improve emissions instead of being the company that was caught lying about gas efficiency and emissions.
All Auto companies still building Internal Combustion Engines need to the same.
That’s what happens when you come unglued and try to stick it to The Man.
Should we send the nine sticky scientists a link to the Straight Dope thread on the strongest adhesive?
Another complaint from the scientists, “We can’t order our food, we must use the one provided by Volkswagen.” That seems a ridiculous thing to complain about if you’re protesting. (And I wonder if what VW is offering them are the company currywurst.)
I love what I read somewhere about protesters bicycling to their protest spot. They glued their hands to the counter, and people rode their bicycles away.
Glib little stories like this, put together by irresponsible reporters really suck.
The issue these people are trying to address is extremely vital. Somebody and their editor decided to make a joke out of the entire thing.
Jeff Parsons wrote a puff piece for VW. No mention of VW’s poor record on this subject. But instead he finishes with this:
In recent years Volkswagen has pushed heavily into electric cars and, last year, was the top-selling maker of EVs in Europe.
One of the commenters said:
Good point.
FWIW, I “get” these guys better than gluing yourself to a gas station or throwing soup at art. The museums don’t control the use of oil and some guy with a gas station isn’t going to turn it into a cat cafe just because you’re a nuisance. But if you could convince a car manufacturer to make more non-petroleum using vehicles then you have a concrete goal. And doing this in a nominally public place (it says it’s mainly for visiting VW fans) means people looking at the cars are confronted with how the cars might be a bad thing. It all fits neatly together.
But next time, bring your own camp bucket and trail mix rather than trying to make VW out as the bad guy for not supporting your floor gluing efforts. That just makes you look silly.
While I agree that what they are trying to address is very important, the way this current batch of crazy “glue ourselves to shit” protesters is handling things is more of a joke than anybody’s reporting of it.
Exactly.
I wonder how they planned to go to the pot anyway - with one hand glued to the floor and wearing regular pants and all. Oh well, they’re scientists. If prisoners can remove their shorts while wearing leg cuffs this should be easy.
Or be willing to wallow in your own shit and piss. I mean, that’s what I’d do if I were protesting something seriously. Isn’t that the point? That you’re so committed to your cause that you are willing to undergo some serious discomfort to voice your protest? I don’t think I’d want the people I’m protesting to help me out. My message is stronger and more effective if they act against me.
Or you just end up looking like a fool. Poor scientists learned the hard way.
Somewhere out there Ezekiel is rolling his eyes at these guys.
Volkswagen is one of the leading companies investing in EV’s. These “scientists” have no end game in this protest and are nothing but attention seeking jerks. They’ve accomplished nothing. They could be volunteering their time developing better batteries to replace the environmental disaster of Lithium batteries. .
You forget how recently VW proved themselves to be a very bad corporation.
Volkswagen announced that 11 million cars were involved in the falsified emission reports, and that over seven billion dollars would be earmarked to deal with the costs of rectifying the software at the heart of the pollution statements.[31]
Has nothing to do with what I said about their current plans. NOTHING. These protestors are a waste of space.
The company is a shitty company. But you’re acting like they’ve been a good corporate neighbor.