To think this is awful? (Just Stop Oil protesters throwing soup over Van Gogh painting)

[TheCatsPyjamas1]

Just read that some Just Stop Oil protesters have thrown soup over a Van Gogh painting in the National Gallery in London. AIBU to think this is unacceptable?

I fully support the message of the group (investing in environmentally responsible energy rather than fossil fuels, and helping to make society more equal for everyone), but I find their protest methods are awful and risk alienating people who would otherwise support them.

They keep on doing crazy things, and seem to be escalating their action each time they protest. I don’t really know when or how it’ll end.

They block ambulances and fire engines. They block access to hospitals. That’s inexcusable.

They block ambulances and fire engines. They block access to hospitals. That’s inexcusable.

and that’s every day x5 yet people still drive illegally

What do people think should be out in place around this type of protest?

Interested as just hearing someone talk about the issue

The tabloids are finding out about these child activists,there are a lot of private schools in their backgrounds.

I mean I hate poshos as much as the next person but I'm not sure this is really relavent? I bet there's more private schoolers in Parliament!

www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/just-stop-oil-protesters-throw-paint-over-aston-martin-showroom-and-block-park-lane/ar-AA131aPc

Aston Martin this time.

The truth is the poorer you are the greener you are, by default. It always turns out that these trust funders drive massive cars, live in great big houses, fly everywhere and consume more products than the average person. The protests don't work because they don't change attitudes. The protests make people aware of the protests, not the issues. As someone said upthread, the protestors would make more sense if they were protesting on a giant dairy farm, or taking on Russian kleptocrats or OPEC regimes. At the moment it just looks like a bunch of people with personality disorders are using these campaigns to act out their own problems. (Disclaimer: I'm exactly the kind of green, animal-preferring nutjob who should be on their side, but I just find them insufferable wankers whose tactics are only making it harder to effect change.)

Evidence please.

If they were from poor backgrounds, people on here would be calling them council rats or similar. If they were dark skinned, well, MN's getting a reputation, you know...

Depressing that people now need to be in the right demographic before they are allowed to protest.

Oh good. They’ve just sprayed paint all over an Aston Martin showroom. What a lot of silly little fuckwits they are.

It's not that I think the rich or middle-classes are the wrong demographic to protest, it's that they need to absolutely eschew everything they are protesting against first in order to prevent the look of hypocrisy.

I think that the implication being made is that they have enjoyed a privileged upbringing which may have included plenty of foreign holidays, ski trips etc. and we're certainly never forced to catch a bus to a Saturday job in order to help their family make ends meet.

And that disqualifies them from having an opinion, or mounting a protest, because...?

Sorry, that's ridiculous. The logical conclusion is that you have to live in a mud hut and eat leaves (or - even better - not exist at all) before you're allowed to carry out any climate-based activism.

It's the kind of nonsense that climate deniers come out with to shut down dissent.

No, but they ought to consider whether their own carbon footprint ought to be reduced to at least a level lower than those they are directly disrupting. It's a bit rich to be disrupting people who use public transport (and hence probably emit 2.4t less CO2 than those who don't).

Why do they pick on ordinary people anyway? We don't make the decisions. We're certainly not the Russian or Saudi oligarchs (nor for that matter American tech billionaires) with superyachts and carbon footprints bigger than a small country. I'd certainly not object if they sabotaged a few superyachts.

This one is interesting. The dad of this activist spoke out against her and how much has shamed her family. I hate the soup and milk stuff and also the blocking roads. But chucking excrement over the TM's statue is quite clever global warming will mean deterioration of people's health, hence what this campaigns aligns with what TM's stood for. It's also a tiny bit funny as his daughter obviously is rather questionable in terms her own morals and values.

On the whole I think it's either very privileged middle class kids who are getting involved and who feel they are invincible or people who have a special interest and are quite possibly neuro diverse.

The milk pouring has made me incandescent. The waste when so many people are having to use foodbanks is bad enough but some poor bugger on minimum wage will have to clear it up. If they were my kids I’d be so ashamed.

No you weren't horrified by that stunt. You don't get to pick and choose which illegal activity you do and don't condone
;there are a few of you on here trying to do that and THAT is one of the reasons I find this childish 'activism' hilarious. It's like watching circus acts. You feign shock horror at economical and environmental decisions, yet applaud amateurish acts of bravado. All steeped in hypocrisy. Do you use a mobile phone, drive a car, wear leather shoes,eat fish and meat, fly on planes, wear Western merchandise? Until you don't, you're a hypocrite. The rest of us are bored shitless by these constant crusades.

@Stars71 how on earth do you know how I felt about an event that happened? There is no need for me to feign anything, if I wasn't originally shocked there would be no need for me to lie, I didn't condone the event though - perhaps read whats written, as you got that part wrong even though it was written down.

you may find it all hilarious, but for many on the bread line its a very very different story - have some compassion

You don't get to pick and choose which illegal activity you do and don't condone

WTAF? I get to choose what I do and don't condone, thanks very much. Chucking soup at a bit of glass covering a painting - fine. Blocking ambulances and fire engines - stupid and counterproductive. IMHO.

Do you use a mobile phone, drive a car, wear leather shoes,eat fish and meat, fly on planes, wear Western merchandise? Until you don't, you're a hypocrite.

Bollocks. By this measure no-one would be able to say anything critical or constructive about climate change and its causes, ever.

Again, another denier just trying to shut down dissent.

I would be really interested, for mine and others' edification, to know your level of incandescence at (for example) the thousands of people that have just drowned in floods in Pakistan, that have been caused or exacerbated by climate change?

I mean, i think that was a crap bit of protesting - it was a bit shitty, and counterproductive, for the reasons you describe - but I would be interested to understand a bit more about your priorities.

You do know it was done by Animal Rebellion as a protest against the dairy industry and had nothing to do with climate change? What did it achieve? The square root of fuck all.

If they were my kids I’d be so ashamed.

could also work the other way around, if you were their parent they maybe totally ashamed of your attitude to their future - what was the point in the soldiers fighting the WW2 if this is how you treat the world. The have a different view point to you and are prepared to stand up and make that point by protesting.

30 years the have done peaceful and civilised protests - but no-one listened or took notice, but the are taking notice now

Of course they claim that it's to do with climate change. One of their latest tweets claiming that the "top five meat and dairy corporations" are worse than Exxon, Shell, or BP.

I call bollocks to that, and wonder who is funding them.

The link between veganism and climate change is that most of the land cleared and given over to agriculture is used to feed farmed animals, either by growing crops for animal feed or as grazing pasture. It's incredibly destructive. However, I still think the protests are asinine because they are not persuading individuals, organisations or governments to change their behaviour.