to dislike Extinction Rebellion

[Azeema]

I live in farming village. We are getting in harvest.
But today on village green extinction rebellion has decided to have a party with drums, loud music and a megaphone. Green is right opposite care home for elderly.
I asked them, who are you protesting? There are no corporations here. Everyone is aware of environment as we grow your food.
They have been very rude, refusing to turn down noise despite disabled residents with migraines suffering.
They made me very upset talking about how England could grow own food and have lower footprint if not so many people (I’m an immigrant) looking at me like I should leave country.

It's nice weather, they obviously fancied a day in the country to enjoy it.

You do realise that most of them have jobs. Many are academics, lawyers, teachers, doctors, nurses, shop workers, engineers etc etc.
It’s scary how so many people on this thread have no true awareness of how bad things really are, what we are all facing, and what these people are fighting for. Also calling them hypocrites is ridiculous as one of their principles is “no blame”. They don’t aim their protests at individuals, it is all directed at the government and corporations.
It is very unhelpful for posters to try to silence the conversation by calling them hypocrites. We are all hypocrites. Every single one of us living in any society. We cannot help it. We live in a system dependent on fossil fuels and reliant on world debt, growth economies and consumerism. We are all implicated in this. But it is not our faults, and by trying to silence each other, we are avoiding the conversations that need to happen to give us even a chance of mitigating the disaster we are facing.
The perfect should not be the enemy of the good. We need to be able to talk about climate change, not resort to blame, and most importantly lobby and protest to bring about change, and make the individual changes we can, without attacking each other.

I posted that on another thread so pasting it here as very relevant to the way this thread is going.

Azeema Fri 23-Aug-19 11:46:57

I do not see problem with bonfire or why outrage.
I went to bonfire night and see house parliament and Big Ben burnt up...
No one arrested for inciting violence against MPs

Azeema, just name change, you have had a very upsetting experience and however right the message might be, it is wrong to disturb sick and injured people, when my neighbour had an operation in her brain we made jolly sure to be as quiet as mice
Look at all the Brits abroad, if they all came back would they all enrich our country with their skills? I grew up with lots of immigrants and many have made a great contribution to British life. Ok some haven't, but that goes for those whose family has been here since before William the conqueror too.

Totally agree. All the Extinction Rebellion people I know are middle class mums with big cars who fly on foreign holidays but don't have enough to fill their time. It seems to give them a sense of purpose.

"They didn’t say anything directly to you about being an immigrant, unless you’ve missed out a key part of the conversation, you keep saying “they looked at me like...” so you’re filling in the gaps yourself.

I’m sorry they’re being obnoxious with their music but you can see how people who are genuinely terrified we are destroying humanity’s future can find someone having a migraine a bit trivial. It’s not like it’s the middle of the night."

Couldn't agree more @PooWillyBumBum

So these people drive/travel to the countryside to trample the grass and have a jolly good time telling people how to live their lives?

There was a protest at the European Show Jumping Championships yesterday on behalf of vegans. Two people ran into the ring just as a horse was coming to a jump. Fortunately the horse was not injured. The irony of their protest about some of the most cossetted, cherished horses in the world but ignoring all the real animal welfare and cruelty concerns! But that wouldn't get them on tv...

I am a bit on the fence ...yes their cause is great and they have raised a lot of awareness. However...Emma Thompson pissed me off when she said she wouldn't fly economy...ugggr!
I think it's annoying that people have to miss a day's work...however...the things people have to do to earn a crust in this society is a joke and mostly involves mass consumerism...which is killing the planet.

On balance i am glad they are raising awareness but i am worried there will be a backlash from people like the op.

Tbh, capitalism has been a massive fuck up and i wish more people would reject it and find alternative ways to make a living/ society/ community.

It is wrong to disturb people in the way described. Im not disputing it. And its no ones business how many children OP but the last line in her OP intimates that she thinks racism is behind their attitude towards her. Which she cant be sure of. Yet sees nothing with the blatant racism involved in that effigy burning I smell a big ol" rat

CalmAndQuiet We have only 11 years left to save ourselves and the earth.

I do admire how they are so precise. Not 10 years, not 13 years, but 11 years exactly. We better hurry up!

@CalmAndQuiet not that they are ruining my fun, that they are taking precious family time. I work half my weekends, so time with my son is very precious. I accept it, I signed up for this job knowing what it meant, but I don’t like it. And while I agree with their message I don’t agree with all their tactics.

I was using cloth nappies and clothing my children in secondhand garments and hanging my clothes out to dry when most of XR were in Pampers and brand-new clothes which were tumble dried.

They really annoy me too when they stop people getting to hospital appointments etc.

I do think consumers are partially to blame tbh...corporations want to make money.
So as a society we could ditch cars, stop buying crap and grow our own...but we don't.
I didn't learn to drive till i was 35 but the amount of people who were horrified i didn't drive was amazing....even when i told them it was to help stop pollution. I felt like a pariah. That really awful attitude towards non drivers is not the fault of corporations...neither is the urge to buy bigger cars. People don't want to take responsibility because as a species we ate not that great.

@Qualcheckbot your smug post just highlights how little you and so many others know about the climate catastrophe we are facing. “11 years to save the planet” doesn’t come from XR. It is from the UN.

The United Nations climate change committee released that data in their very widely publicised report last year when they stated we had only 12 years left to save the planet. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it. Maybe just google it and see.

That isn’t a leftfield fringe report from a minority group. It’s the United Nations.

The guide, which has now been deleted from its website, advised that the risk of violence inside prison was very low because "most prison officers are black and do not wish to give you a hard time".

WTAF?

Do as consumers we should boycott meat, palm oil, nestle, coco cola, shell oil etc, etc but we don't ...we choose to line the pockets of corporations and work for them and vote for capitalists like the Tory party and Trump. That is the fault of humanity.

Agree that climate change is the number one issue.

Have gates XR since they blocked an ambulance on Blue lights crossing waterloo bridge - they could have very easily let it through but their obnoxious attitudes didn’t allow it.

Tbh, capitalism has been a massive fuck up and i wish more people would reject it and find alternative ways to make a living/ society/ community.

What alternative ways have you found to make a living outside of capitalism?

So as consumers i mean...

I'm a passionate environmentalist and am a member of Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth etc. I totally get the cause but do think XR are a bunch of publicity seeker tosspots. They love the feeling of being a bit rebellious and jumping on the bandwagon - on telly omg how exciting.

OP I really feel for you and the poor residents across the way. I meant wtf are they hoping to achieve on someone's village Green??

CalmAndQuiet @Qualcheckbot your smug post just highlights how little you and so many others know about the climate catastrophe we are facing. “11 years to save the planet” doesn’t come from XR. It is from the UN.

Bet I'm waaaay more env friend than you though Ms. Sourpuss. I not only work from home all online, but my beasties produce fertiliser which I actually work into my own land myself with a ancient pitchfork which I found in a Victorian stable 20 years ago. I also feed said beasties with hand turned hay grown on my own fields. Stacking a hayrick is an ancient skill and I probably don't do it as well as people did 100 years ago but it works perfectly well.

I'm not actually joking. I do however find suburban people dictating to others how to run the countryside while partying and destroying grass incredibly patronising. Newsflash - you are not the only person to have heard of the UN diktat - I do however once again find the sheer precision a tad over-egging.

Ive seen shitty attitudes to non drivers on here. I dont drive and am child free by choice. Public transport is shit though Extinctions heart is in the right place but they do sometimes go about things the wrong way.

I also believe the 12 years thing is a totally arbitrary figure, personally I think we're completely screwed as a species and it's slowly beginning to dawn on us belatedly.

HelenaDove
I think that searching an ops previous posts is a really shitty thing to do. To then post the results of that search is even more shitty.

There are more ecological alternatives to capitalism...like socialism for example but people wont vote for it as they don't want to pay taxes as they dont want to spend their hard earned cash on society ( and those hortid benegit scroungers) when they could be spending it on stuff and cars and foreign holidays and plastic shite.