To wonder if a lot of the Just Stop Oil protesters are not very nice people on a personal level

[HazelSchmazel]

There are a few Just Stop Oil threads around and I've noticed that a couple of posters have stated that the protesters are not very nice people.

Which got me thinking .....

A few years ago, I was in a horrible relationship with a rather unpleasant guy - a selfish, alcoholic, abusive cheater, who treated me like dirt and ended up stealing a considerable amount of money from me. Despite being a daily meat eater, regularly flying, driving a gas guzzler, having children etc. he would regularly pontificate on saving the environment (and would castigate me on environmental grounds for having a cat - even though I'm a childless vegetarian, who never flies!). Needless to say, the whole experience made me very unhappy.

Fast forward to the present, and I gather that he is now a very active Just Stop Oil protester.

Now, I'm bracing myself to be shot down in flames, as I appreciate that of course, it's unreasonable to judge an entire movement based on one bad apple.

But could it be the case, that there is something about JSO that attracts these nasty characters? Just wondering ......

You're right. I'll stop reading the posts on here, and then there's no risk of me rising to the bait again.
Anyway, if you speak to your friend who's in jail, please let her know that many of us think the sentences are ridiculously unjust, and that we're very sympathetic, whether we agree with their tactics or not.
Take care 💚

Tough. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

@DancingLions I'm so sorry about your dreadful experience with this vile abuser. My heart goes out to you.

My experience with my ex left me deeply traumatised and I still find it very difficult to trust people. Yet he portrays himself as a noble campaigner for justice, even though he treats people badly on a personal level.

My AIBU was more along the lines of what makes JSO so attractive to such unpleasant people, rather than the rights and wrongs of JSO per se (if that makes sense).

Quite often we see protesters, JSO,ER, climate this and that as a group of people who have zero respect for the rest of the public, so from wrecking works of art to glueing themselves to roads and buildings, non violence protests that often turn violent when you get the extreme elements. The activists see all the suffering on the rest of us and choose to join them. So they are a constitutionally trouble causing group who respect nobody which is why they come across this way, imo.

“Those causing the problem” (ie man made climate change) is every one of us (including the JSO narcissists) who lives our lives perfectly lawfully. What sort of sentence should we get?

ultimately if the JSO want to oppose climate change let them lead by inspiring others by living a no carbon life. How many of them use planes, own cars, etc? Instead they want to draw attention to themselves and annoy the rest of us.

Preventing people starting the holiday they've probably worked hard for is 'nice' is it? Why step round them, step on them, hard.

They orchestrated the event. They were not just chatting about a theoretical protest they were actively planning the action.

Guy Fawkes was the only one in the cellar, the other seven conspirators were also executed.

And what?

Most people aren’t in the habit of being nice and wishing nice things on people who are acting in an awful way.

Trying to be nice to people who are being awful, isn’t something to aspire to.

@PollyPeep @TryingToSeeTheFunnySide
@TheaBrandt

Thanks for all your efforts on this thread.

As I posted on another thread my DC is a climate activist- he’s been arrested twice, firstly with XR and then with JSO. The second time they were charged and convicted for walking slowly and peacefully down a road for 24 mins. I think a slow march is a peaceful protest and I’m horrified we are criminalising people for highlighting the failure of the government to address the Climate Emergency that the government itself declared.

JSO’s approach isn’t how I seek to deliver change but history has shown that direct action can be very effective in many campaigns. They are all fully briefed on the likelihood of arrest and conviction.

Having spent two days in court listening to six young people make their statements I came away much more convinced than I expected to be with why they were doing what they’re doing. They were from a wide range of backgrounds. All six were kind thoughtful people working hard.

I am deeply saddened by the tone and wording of many of the comments here. You may not agree with their approach but my experience is that the JSO protesters I’ve met are decent, passionate, calm and considerate truly trying to make the world a better place.

They deeply regret direct action, and the disruption that individuals suffer is, in their view necessary to secure the future of our children and grandchildren as well as the planet. JSO’s approach is based one could say on a peaceful variant of the Just War philosophy…..

As others have said it’s nuanced - multi faceted and there isn’t a single answer to making the world a better place. Looking for the good in all people can often be a helpful start.

Decent and considerate people don't stop ambulances, people getting to important medical appointments and funerals, no matter the cause.

Your child needs to get a job.

I am sorry your son is caught up in this. Obviously you have one view.

But no. They aren’t kind people.

and the people who were arrested, who didn’t mind situating everyone else life and stop them attending funerals and hospital appointments etc, then have their families moan about what they are missing out on, are not decent people. They are self absorbed.

The people who are encouraging people to punch down on people less privileged than them aren’t decent people.

Given they are encouraging your son where he will struggle to get employment, I am surprised you think they are lovely.

An unplanned slow march isn’t peaceful. Especially for the people they are disrupting. 24 minutes of traffic disruption causes chaos and again you will have people caught up in it, put in really awful positions.

@JSOmother unfortunately your thoughtful words will go nowhere on this thread ❤️

And for good reason.

I read a piece in the Telegraph with which I agreed. Prison is a waste of money on this young woman. Given that she is a music student, an appropriate sentence would be to be a secondary-school music teacher (proper music teachers are in short supply - dd’s couldn’t read music ) in a deprived area and not in yah Hackney either, but in, say, Great Yarmouth. Let her eyes be opened to real people with real problems.

they were charged and convicted for walking slowly and peacefully down a road for 24 mins.

The above attempt to try and minimise the above direct action is what many find extremely irritating. You make it sound like some gentle stroll down a quiet country lane or suburban back street when in fact the roads targeted by JSO are specifically selected to cause maximum disruption to as many people as possible. Would you describe the proposed plan to shut down the M25 as simply 'peacefully walking down a road'.

What kind act were the 2 women trying to get at the Magna Carta, engaged in?

How does, attempting, to damage it stop climate change? or improve anything for anyone?

24 minutes is nothing compared to some of the traffic jams I've sat in over my life

Just a point on the length of jail time Anjem Choudary has just been given a life sentence with a minimum of 28 years.

He was basically planning things over the internet.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/30/anjem-choudary-gets-life-sentence-for-directing-terrorist-organisation

@MaturingCheeseball the last thing we need is for her to have a new audience.

Good point! Hadn’t thought of that

You can have a job and be an activist

You can, but increasingly it seems the full time JSO activists are the middle class public school types who are not driven by financial necessity to have a day job/career like everyone else because mummy and daddy support them. This is why so many people who get caught up in their antics, people who end up financially out of pocket because they can't get to work or deliver a service, get so angry by what they see as overprivledged workshy kids who do not have a Scooby about paying rent or bills or the hardship their actions cause others.

blocking traffic for 24 minutes causes traffic jams longer than 24 minutes.

Traffic doesn’t clear instantly.

But that’s not really the point is it? Just because there’s been longer traffic jams, people should be able to pointlessly cause them? There being longer traffic jams doesn’t mean that this one didn’t cause huge problems for people.

@PollyPeep Yes, I guessed that would be the case ... I had hoped that there could be more of a conversation and a recognition of the complexity of the issues by contributing from direct experience but maybe that was a bit optimistic...

@AccidentallyWesAnderson my DC does have a job as do many of those active in JSO as @Allfur points out.

To all those complaining about disruption JSO's strategy is non violet civil disobedience. Their approach is to cause disruption and in so doing encourage society to consider the huge impact of climate change on our future. It is a deliberate tactic and interestingly it is effective in keeping action on climate change very much at the forefront of policy development. JSO are not asking any of us to like the disruption they are causing. It is an advocacy approach.

I should add that I've never personally been involved in Just Stop Oil marches and other actions and I am against protesters causing damage to property.

I am though very much in favour of securing the right to protest and in the interest of protecting democracy condemn the tightening of protest laws since 2022. The changes to UK law that have often happened through Statutory Instruments which are not debated in parliament is worrying and had been condemned by many international bodies and lawyers. It risks a slippery slope to authoritarianism.

Many of them are not nice people

I am constantly badgering my local council to strop spraying roundup to kill wildflowers and to stop
chopping down trees.
Where are JSO? They have no interest in nature, they just want to stop working class people from earning a living or enjoying their holidays.