Crazy. Sure, I hate gas prices too and I have no love for the oil companies but is ruining the local station going to really have an impact? And what about the people who have to buy gas for jobs, school, etc.
Just stupid.
I’m not defending this mode of activism, but this is not about fuel cost inflation. It’s about the impact of fossil fuels on the planet.
One video I watched, they explicitly complained about gas prices. Regardless, they need to target refineries (if they feel they must use terrorism at all [and they shouldn’t]) not corner gas stations. What they are doing is stupid.
Looks like they’re only targeting people who sell petrol.
They prevent people from buying gas.
…gluing themselves to forecourts
Weird Al would be proud
How are they getting to the gas stations to protest?
Refineries have better security. And parading around the perimeter of a refinery (or gluing oneself to a refinery wall) will disrupt far fewer lives and attract less public attention.
That’s a lack of coherence among the protestors, then, because if you’re concerned about the environmental impact of fossil fuels, then higher prices are good. Of course, people behaving irrationally just because other people are behaving irrationally is hardly something unusual.
Roller skates. Bonus: no road tax.
Dan
These people are really loons:
From the article:
“What is worth more: art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice?” one of the activists yells, adding, “are you more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people?”
(1) Can’t it be both?
(2) Don’t throw soup at things then whine about what’s worth more than food. Someone could have eaten that food you just wasted.
What legal liability would the museum face if they just left them sitting there, glued to the wall, for a couple of days?
And covered in soup.
Considering they didn’t do any damage, while I don’t think that they are no longer loons, this might be a safe activity to channel their energies into, so that they will not instead be blocking traffic (causing more pollution due to cars idling, and occasionally causing a injured person to not get to the hospital in time), or deflating tires of vehicles they don’t consider pure enough (even electrics sometimes.)
An even better way would be to do activities that are disruptive to the fossil fuel industry. Like if they blocked the entrances to gasoline distribution centers (not saying that would be the wisest action to actually do, just the first thing I could think of). They would be both making a targeted political point, and any disruption to individuals would be far enough in the future that it could be planned for (and not, say make you late for a job you were legally required to be at.)
At least throwing soup onto a covered painting will merely get them dismissed as crazy, rather than malicious.
To say nothing of the fact that destroying gas stations just punishes the minimum-wage workers who live there. People have to feed their families, you know.
What effective protest tactics would people suggest?
I’d suggest a more concrete goal.
So that’s why TFG explicitly banned Brutalism from government building plans: he was secretly trying to cut down on GHG emissions from all the concrete!
Do we only support protesters who “get it right” from the get-go by having a vision, goals, and tactics that we entirely approve of and that don’t disturb us? Or should we think about protest as process with a learning curve for all involved?