this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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[–] disguy_ovahea 106 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (13 children)

So the meme is in agreement that defacing Stonehenge as a protest was pointless?

There are ways to get attention for a cause without defacing one of the seven wonders of the world. Next time spray that cornstarch in BP’s corporate parking lot.

[–] [email protected] 111 points 5 months ago (6 children)

The fact that you missed the Stonehenge under water worries me.

[–] disguy_ovahea 25 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

I saw it. That implies that spraying cornstarch won’t change anything. Think about it.

[–] ameancow 58 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (17 children)

THEN WHAT FUCKING WILL CHANGE ANYTHING

Because this is the only thing that gets people like you to even talk about this.

edit: I want to be clear that I don't care if it's rude or uncivil to talk to people about this like this, I will do it again and again and again and I support efforts to be annoying about it, because at this point it's all we have left to maybe, potentially, get enough people angry enough that someone, somewhere does something. Anything

You're all making your frowny faces and saying "This is counter-productive" and you're simply not getting it.

If through some magical means we were to learn that nuking Manhattan would somehow lower global temperatures, then we would need to do that, just up and vaporize 1.6 million people. It would STILL be the ethically superior action to take if it magically worked. Because in the next century billions of people may die.

If we learned that filling the Grand Canyon with concrete would get companies to stop producing carbon waste and get people to accept inconveniences like electric cars and paper straws without whinging like a wounded toddler, then yes, line up those cement mixers.

When it comes to the trolly problem, you're all not even looking at the right tracks if you're so upset about incivility or annoyances when it comes to climate activism. If anyone is left to do it, one day they will erect statues of these kids throwing soup at paintings and coloring rocks.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 months ago (14 children)

Oh your a spineless defeatists! Anyways...

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Like the 3 private jets that were vandalized with orange paint in London. That's the kind of thing I can support, it makes headlines, it grounds the planes reducing emissions, and it specifically targets those who are causing the most harm.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 5 months ago (4 children)

It hasn't made headlines though. Juststopoil goes after oil terminals, car manufacturers etc pretty often but it's never reported on. The only protest that gets attention is souping painting or spraying cornflour on rocks.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Like the 3 private jets that were vandalized with orange paint in London.

I didn't hear about that.

I am hearing about this.

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[–] ameancow 66 points 5 months ago (28 children)

So the meme is in agreement that defacing Stonehenge as a protest was pointless?

It was as pointless as everything else, that's why they did it, it's screaming into the void to get attention.

There are ways to get attention for a cause without defacing one of the seven wonders of the world

Are there though? I'm old enough to remember this has gone on for decades without anyone doing anything of significance and now we're at the actual edge of global catastrophe and STILL people are like "hmn, those kids should be recycling." Bruh, you and so many people have no idea how many lives are going to be lost in the next century while every milquetoast liberal and conservative in the developed world roll their eyes and get pissed at slight annoyances like... checks notes colored corn starch on rocks you will never visit.

It's like trying to shake someone in a dream to get them to pay attention. And the more you scream and hit them, the more they look ahead like zombies.

They HAVE sprayed BP's factories and lots and machines, they have sabotaged equipment and chained themselves to machines and have caused material harm to companies like BP, but that doesn't get any fucking coverage because media doesn't want to encourage "violent activism" for fear of turning away viewers like YOU who are annoyed by such things.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (12 children)

So the meme is in agreement that defacing Stonehenge as a protest was pointless?

The meme is saying you're getting angry about the wrong thing.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Now, I am not the biggest fan of those kinds of actions, because they are indeed exploited heavily by the burgeois press, but let's talk about attention. I remember there being at least two paint defacings and damaging of private jets here in Germany in 2023 by similar groups. There was next to no press about it - and if you search for it today, it is genuinely hard to find the articles that even mention them, one I found even focusing on the legal questions of insurance, instead of writing about the broader issues at all:

https://www.t-online.de/region/hamburg/id_100188204/letzte-generation-farbattacke-auf-sylter-privatjet-so-hoch-ist-der-schaden.html https://www.aerotelegraph.com/wer-zahlt-bei-einem-farbanschlag-auf-ein-privatflugzeug

So, you would be surprised - actions that target more "deserving" targets often just.... aren't talked about at all, or very little, small footnotes. This at least starts debates, which cannot be denied.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Quite literally the opposite, no one will remember that Stonehenge was defaced with cornflour, but we will see and remember climate change.

That's just a meme about the fake outrage used as a diversion, instead of the real issue and why people resort to defacing art and monuments for their cause to be in focus.

Any publicity is good publicity.

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[–] Madison420 31 points 5 months ago

It's not at all one of the seven wonders of the world, is not even the coolest henge in England and like maybe 5 top five in Europe. It's just famous because it was restored well within your parents lifetime for most of us.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Or its a representation of what the future looks like if we keep fighting the people who fight for all of us.

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[–] dejected_warp_core 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think the punchline goes multiple ways at once: "the protesters were stupid thinking this would help", "the protesters were stupid in how they tried to protest", and "everyone back then was stupid because it's Waterworld now."

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[–] ChillPenguin 64 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Won't you just think of the shareholders? /s

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago

Y'all are protesting the death of humanity wrong /s

[–] [email protected] 38 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

Man, the way this channels a mix of "it is the children who are wrong" and sheer impotence is hitting me hard. I mean, it really explains so much about modern activism.

[–] disguy_ovahea 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

I attended my first protest thirty years ago. Modern activists need to be more clever. Learn the law so you know how to circumvent it. Turning things up to 11 just gets you discredited as “radicals” in the media. It’s a fruitless attempt at awareness that will just get you charged.

[–] Cobrachicken 28 points 5 months ago (2 children)

How old were you back then? These kids awake to a world fucked up by the older generation. They try to take every step that comes to their mind to steer away from desaster. What is your personal input in that task? Criticism. Well done. Go out and teach them, if you're so clever.

[–] disguy_ovahea 19 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I do. When I attend a protest, I share my knowledge and experience. First rule is keep it safe. Second is keep it legal. Third is keep it together. Fourth is keep it heard.

The key to a successful protest is knowing the law and planning around it before organizing.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Oh, spare me that rhetroric. Protestors in the 90s and especially the 2000s felt just as disenfranchised. That's how you end up protesting in the first place. And those were the nice ones. The stories my parents could tell you about the 60s and 70s.

It's not like "don't be an idiot" is a struggle only now. I was in protests back in a different millenium where the smart ones were already standing in front of cops and bank windows to stop the idiots from throwing rocks at them and spoiling the whole thing.

The despondent "you just don't get it" online discourse is pretty new, though.

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[–] grue 23 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Turning things up to 11 just gets you discredited as “radicals” in the media.

Radicals need to exist in order to make the less-radical activists look reasonable by comparison. Otherwise they just get painted as radical no matter how milquetoast their protest is, and the Overton window moves away from their cause.

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[–] perviouslyiner 35 points 5 months ago (1 children)

For reference, Stonehenge is currently about 100 metres above what the UK considers to be mean sea level.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago

But I thought the point of comics was to be scientifically accurate!

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The only protests I agree with are the ones that don't bother me, are out my way, and have no impact on actually changing things. Also any form of action from a protest should be stopped by the police.

[–] Ragdoll_X 28 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

made climate activists look stupid for decades to come over some nonsensical and ineffective attention grab

didn't stop climate change

Yeah, seems about right.

They had the right idea when they spray painted those private jets. IDK what they were thinking with the Stonehenge stunt.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago (14 children)

ineffective attention grab

Seemed to grab your attention.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago

IDK what they were thinking with the Stonehenge stunt.

I wouldn't put it past Big Oil to infiltrate climate activist groups to make them appear unlikable. Same with throwing paint on a painting.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (2 children)

There's no stopping climate change in capitalism.

And nothing was done in the way of ending capitalism. Asking "pretty please stop using oil we will paint things" to a capitalist government is ridiculous. The only way to end emissions is being us the ones who control the industry.

So, from my point of view was a useless, possibly counter productive, action.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago

They also demand system change not climate change. But resting on "if we don't abolish capitalism, everything else is useless" we will never abolish capitalism. It is not a binary switch. It is a long and hard process for which every action counts. And defying the capitalist order and narrative of the corrupt and immoral government is an important step towards that.

Nobody will be more capitalist and more for the use of fossil fuels after he read whatever Murdoch tabloid complained about this. And who was like "well now i am against climate action" was just looking for an excuse, but always on the wrong side already.

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