Washington Post Notes That Climate Vandalism Backfires

But, will the Washington Post actually note why?

There are better ways to protest climate change than spray painting Stonehenge

Last week, two climate protesters walked up to Stonehenge dousing the 5,000-year-old stone monument in a cloud of orange dye. Police eventually arrested a 73-year-old man and 21-year-old woman, members of the group Just Stop Oil, a self-described nonviolent civil resistance group.

Workers were able to clean the stones, but defacing the cultural treasure, even if temporarily, has drawn near universal condemnation on both sides of the Atlantic — and, as intended, plenty of attention. (snip)

“Self-aggrandizing vandals who attack our shared cultural treasures deserve prison time, not support,” Jonathan Foley, a climate scientist and executive director of Project Drawdown, wrote on X.

Foley, it’s safe to say, is in the majority. But the real question is: Will Just Stop Oil’s tactics curb fossil fuel pollution? If not, what would?

Well, considering how many of them are wearing clothes, shoes, backpacks, eyeglasses, etc made from petroleum, along with their backpacks, smartphones, and signs…oh, and how do they get to the protests?…they aren’t giving up their own use.

To find out, I called Eric Shuman, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University and Harvard Business School who researches nonviolent collective action. Tactics have varied from Mumbai to Selma, he says, but nonviolent protests have undoubtedly changed the course of history.

The most successful ones, he says, tend to share three common elements.

First, protests must be disruptive, creating pressure and urgency to do something. Second, the public must believe the protesters have constructive intentions with clear positive goals, not just animus toward those who disagree with them. Finally — though Shuman says this is more anecdotal — it helps to be relevant: Protests carry more power when the target relates to the perceived injustice.

Well, the WP article goes on to say that most of the protests do not meet the last two targets. They’re just disruptive. And the piece goes on and on, but, fails to note that acts of vandalism are failing because they look completely unhinged. The protesters themselves look exactly how you think they would look like. Out of control, dirty, wacko. I’d say that these acts are actually driving people away. How many want to be associated with complete kooks who act like a cult?

Way more people were coming out against all these crazy acts, especially at Stonehenge and the golf tournament, then for them. Of course, even the fellow travelers aren’t giving up their own use of fossil fuels.

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