• disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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.

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        You don’t have to sell me on climate change protests. I’ve attended a few myself.

        I’m criticizing the delivery, not the message. The majority of people that heard that protest were those who travelled from around the world to see Stonehenge. Their plans were ruined, and they don’t care any more about climate change than they did that morning. Some may even resent the protesters.

        Performative radicalism is only compelling to those already behind a cause. It’s discrediting to everyone else, who should be your target audience.

        • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I’m criticizing the delivery, not the message.The majority of people that heard that protest were those who travelled from around the world to see Stonehenge. Their plans were ruined, and they don’t care any more about climate change than they did that morning. Some may even resent the protesters.

          "You know, I don’t disagree that the coloreds should have more rights, but did they really need to sit at the lunch counter all day? I couldn’t sit at the counter and it made my lunch take so much longer. Really inconvenient to everyone trying to get some food.

          I just wished they’d go about it differently. They’re liable to make people even less accepting of them if they keep pulling stunts like that."

          I hope you know that’s what you sound like. Like, read the first paragraph of MLK Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and you’ll see your argument in the “white moderate”:

          I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”

        • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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          2 years ago

          The majority of people that heard that protest were those who travelled from around the world to see Stonehenge.

          I didn’t travel to see Stonehenge and I’m hearing about it. So is everyone in this thread.

          Their plans were ruined

          And I see that now that the stones have been shown to be undamaged the dismissal of the protest is pivoting to “the poor people taking recreational flights have had their entire trip ruined!!!”

          If people become less likely to take unnecessary flights because protestors might “ruin their trip” I would consider that an absolute win.

          • blindbunny@lemmy.ml
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            2 years ago

            I’m criticizing the delivery, not the message.

            That’s the same argument white liberals used during the civil Rights movement.

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Is it? I used to bring literature to protests, now I bring QR codes. I’ve personally educated hundreds, if not thousands on initiatives over the years. That drives more change than ruining a family trip. Being compelling has been more successful than being loud in my experience.

            • MiltownClowns@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              I’ve heard of them. I’ve never heard of you. Your experience is insufficient data to be making this grandiose of a statement.

              • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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                2 years ago

                I advocate for the cause I protest, not myself. How many people do you think will be compelled to care or learn more about climate change after this protest? How many people’s plans to see Stonehenge were ruined, leading to resentment of the cause?

                Activism isn’t like Trump’s campaign. Bad press is in fact, bad press.

                • MiltownClowns@lemmy.world
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                  2 years ago

                  They have compelled more discussion in this single thread than you have with your whole life. Your moral grandstanding is nice. Effective tactics are nicer.

  • Phuntis@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    stop oil are industry plants they were founded by the daughter of an oil exec they’re designed to make the real people protesting look crazy by lumping them in

  • MudMan@fedia.io
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    2 years ago

    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@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      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.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        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.

      • Cobrachicken@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        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.

        • MudMan@fedia.io
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          2 years ago

          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.

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            You get it. I saw some bad shit at the Oil Wars and Occupy protests.

            It’s all one action. We need to keep it together for the clarity of message. Even more now in some states where one bad actor won’t just end a protest, but get everyone charged.

            • MudMan@fedia.io
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              2 years ago

              And beyond getting charged it’s the optics. I am from a place where you’re less likely to get shot by police and where serious charges are not likely to come from protesting (at least back then, it has gotten worse). But even then the marching orders were that if cops charge or disrupt the protest that’s good optics, if the protestors riot unprompted that’s bad optics, which should be pretty straightforward to understand.

              • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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                2 years ago

                Absolutely. The people you need to reach are outside of the movement. Performative radicalism is immediately discredited by your target audience, and only praised by those who are already supporters of the cause.