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.

In what way is it effective @Floydthebarber? Do you think they've persuaded people who weren't convinced climate change was an issue?

All they've persuaded me of is that they're entitled attention seeking little shits whose parents have deep pockets to pay for expensive lawyers. And if anyone was driven to school in a Chelsea tractor, it was these two.

@TheHouseonHauntedHill - that they blocked an ambulance is abhorrent to me . Yes , doing protests is allowed , but have some compassion . They have lost any support from me for that. I think a chap was trying to take his young child to hospital and they would not let him through. Badly done Just Stop OIL Protesters , Badly done ( a la JANE Austen , Emma )

Exactly. They are saying people are having to choose between food and energy but they want to further restrict oil & gas exploration? Make it make sense!

I know. If oil stopped tomorrow how much would be pay to turn on lights and heat? Way more

Why are they so muddled

They think they’re being clever and courageous. They’re just being cowardly cunts.

Wanna protect things? Go to Borneo and protect primates from armed poachers then.

All that went through my head was:

The oils in the painting are poppyseed

Super glue is made with toluene, fossil fuels

Cans of soup are best used inside people not outside pictures.

If they could muster up something that made sense they might gain traction

I've just had the same conversation with DH!

They didn’t really think this one through did they? 😂

That’s the whole problem with these nuts. They always score home goals as they haven’t got the brains to think or research

No, they were too pathetic to actually smash the glass. Because then they'd have probably ended up prison and/or Daddy would have had to pay millions of pounds. It's half-arsed attention-seeking.

And btw I don't drive, I use public transport or walk, so all this misogynist 'yummy mummy in Chelsea tractor' bollocks can fuck off.

They're too scared to face the consequences of REAL political action. The suffragettes actually died.

It's (probably) no permanent damage, but c'mon - wasting food when prices are spiralling and supply is dwindling globally and making messes for custodial staff to clean up isn't really the best message as it feeds into the age-old, oft-repeated trope that protest if a "game" for the overprivileged and immature. It's not.

If the objective is media attention, the naked parliament lot were leagues smarter and more principled.

@BloodAndFire That's quite the assumption. I think we will have to agree to disagree on this 🙂

It’s all for publicity - do you really think they didn’t know it was covered in glass?!

I support them in this - and other actions that do nothing to harm anyone or anything - as a means of getting this critical message out there.

The world cannot afford new oil exploration. Our government and media are in the pockets of the oil and gas giants - if this is what it takes for the alternative to be discussed, then so be it.

Also important to note that in the past the National Gallery has taken huge figures in sponsorship from fossil fuel companies, and many galleries continue to do so.

Every successful movement for change ever has incorporated a range of behaviours across the spectrum. Just think of the suffragists and suffragettes. Some people will be the respectful face of the movement and will argue for change within the law. Others will act outside the law to various extents, and will agitate and be the lightning rod, getting press coverage, side of the movement. I think you need the whole spectrum of behaviours for change to occur.

Plus, a lot of things seem a stupid outlandish idea until, well, suddenly they don’t. After reading the threads on here of people panicking about heating costs insulating Britain now sounds like the most obvious idea ever…

I think the blocking ambulances thing with a risk to actual lives is worse than throwing soup at a painting to be honest.

I can sort of see their point though -people have been protesting about climate change for absolutely decades and nothing has been done. It's all very well to do things "properly" and "democratically" but in this instance it doesn't seem to work - the uk is currently set to miss its carbon and climate change targets, we've just overturned the franking ban... I can see why they are frustrated.

I wonder if in 100 years people will look on them the way we look at the suffragettes now....another group driven to use extreme and highly criticised methods when all others failed.

Yobbos. Need a severe punishment.

I was responding to the post ending with Fuck the painting.

I am not on the side of these "people" who do such things!

Really good post. I just can’t reconcile with wanting to assault art though.

Kind of ridiculous if your recognition of the threat posed by climate change stands or falls on the nature of protests.

It's a threat regardless of whether their protests are misguided, destructive or perfectly by the book.

"Oh, those protestors didn't do things exactly to my taste, therefore climate change is something I can happily ignore" is a strange way to think.

Please let's not compare a couple of middle class kids who are taking zero risks to the suffragettes.

It's embarrassing

They'd sat on the roads around Knightsbridge on Tuesday morning. Caused so much traffic build up and we just sat in the bus not knowing what was going on. I eventually got out and kept walking. I then saw them and police were chatting to them in a friendly manner.

Some onlookers near me were appalled to see the police treat them like priced tourists while they committed arrestable offences. I also asked a police man why they weren't being arrested. He said the public have recently expressed their displeasure about how police carry out arrests so they're certain things that will need to be done first. 😱

These people delayed a fire truck and an ambulance in my presence and of course others like me trying to get to work.

Most people here are completely missing the point. They are holding up a mirror to your cognitive dissonance. Seeing this destruction is making you angry - as it should. But where is your rage at the destruction of the natural world? Amazing beauty that will never be able to be got back. Personally I think the act was misguided to real harm done as the painting was covered in glass and unharmed, as the protestors well knew.

You have no idea how much rage I do or don’t have, nor any other posters on this anonymous site.

And the pouring of pints and pints of milk everywhere. Breaks my heart. Such waste.

Whilst they sit there in their polyester clothes and fleeces, and their PVC shoes, cos, you know, cows, not really understanding that they come as a by-product of oil too.

Global wildlife populations have plummeted 69% since the 70’s thanks to climate change, overpopulation and the huge damage done by our food systems. Reported just yesterday by WWF.

In another fifty years Van Gogh’s sunflowers may be the only ones left, and another fifty years after that there may be few people left to look at the painting.

They clearly knew it was covered in glass, they are just trying to make a point about the things we get outraged about as a society and the things we don’t (climate change, biodiversity loss etc.). A point nicely proved by those people on this thread who seem more irritated by the stunt than by the threat it was designed to illuminate