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 ......

I think you may be right! Esp middle aged men .Roger Hallam the leader of recently jailed quintet JSO expressly broke the law ,and has basically got himself imprisoned .Fair dos you may say .however 22 year old Cressida Gethin who was also imprisoned, had a bright future as a Cambridge Student .She is young (only 20 when on protests) and was a talented Musician .Her mother spoke yesterday about her DD and how proud she was of her .Maybe he should think about the law and how we are all obliged to obey it! He has taken a young person just embarking on their life and screwed it up!

I was friends at uni with someone who went on to become an activist - real extreme behaviour, living in trees, travelling the country to protests, unemployed etc. He went down a strange route of conspiracy theorism and despite studying a science at uni, doesn't believe in vaccines etc. Then started personal vendettas on social media with his friends, including me, who were living what he decided weren't valid lives. I'm actually very environmentally conscious, but got all sorts of abuse one weekend about my life choices. Anyway, we're no longer friends...

A strong appeal to extreme activism for some is the desire exert authority over others. These people generally lack real political or economic power, so they seek to assert their, usually utterly blinkered, “moral” power.

She screwed it up all by herself. 22 is old enough to make your own mind up. The video her mother made was (unintentionally I'm sure) hilarious.

I don’t know any JSO protesters but they will just be people. Some lovely, some a pain in the ass.

Burning fossil fuel for energy is driving climate change, which is danaging global food production. A child already dies every 11 seconds due to hunger and malnutrition, and it will get worse if nothing is done. I’m not ok with that. It is heartbreaking. Some of these protesters are likely not ok with that either and whilst I’m not keen on their methods, I respect the conviction that drives these protesters to act. Dehumanising them is not ok.

Aww diddums. Poor little privileged Cressida. Prob never paid a bill in her life and the irony of her equally privileged mother bleating on about her missing her brother's wedding whooshing right over her head. Spare a thought for anyone missing or getting to their work, or missing an important hospital appointment or having someone close to you die as a result of poor little Cressida's actions.

Cressida is 22. Not 5. She can hopefully have a period of reflection to think about such actions and if they are really the best way to influence policy makers, in 'the big hoose' as we call it. No sympathy.

Theyre a bunch of self serving narcs. They do it to make themselves feel superior and because they enjoy the pain they inflict.

They're just the same as the leftist men who wholeheartedly supported aggressive transactivism because it was an outlet for their secret misogyny.

They make the whole situation worse by turning public opinion away from the environment with their ridiculous tactics.

They not stunning. Brave or shiny. They're a bunch of self important cunts who couldn't make a proactice positive difference in the world if they tried.

Look at the useless twat on the Canning Town train roof. What a fucking tool.

A lot of so called righteous thinking people are not nice. In fact they are downright nasty minded.

You can see it on MN.

For example: Brexit. People who claimed to be left wing, socialist and thinking of public good but happy to call other people thick cunts and suggest that uneducated Northerners shouldn't be able to vote. Etc.

Regarding the oil protestors; one day someone who is prevented from going to a life changing event will go berserk and run one of them down.

It's usually 'lefties' who say things like: die in a grease fire, and i hope you get arse cancer.

So, so kind!

Other posters have already said this but I think that they are incredibly selfish types of people, very self centred and absorbed, more likely to have grandiose and paranoid type traits

They then gaslight to make themselves look as if they are doing what they're doing for everyone else. They just want to feel important

I watched a documentary where they talked to the wife (iirc) of one of the JSO protesters who climbed onto the Bridge at the Dartford crossing when it was closed for days. They were really incredulous and outraged upset that he had got a jail sentence, and how that affected their family. It's OK to disrupt thousands of lives/livelihoods etc while they make their point...but haven't thought about their own lives being disrupted as a consequence of his own actions.

And blocking roads (to me) seems counter productive in a protest about climate. Vehicles at slow speed on the road for hours or days are going to create massive amounts of pollution. If the weather is warm they'll put air con on. Lorries delivering food might well have had to dump their load of it hasn't got to the destination quickly enough or couldn't be stored correctly.(wasting tons of food) In London they blocked bus lanes and glued themselves to trains ....which would probably prompt more people to take cabs!

This. Oil companies love JSO, because they can crack on knowing that they are doing an excellent job of turning people off the environmental movement. It's almost as if they are bankrolled by an oil heiress!

I think they're made up of all personality types like most movements, - there is a degree of self centredness for those who choose to drive everywhere

Like the one whose mum is in the Telegraph complaining that due to being in prison she'll now miss a family wedding. The inhumanity!! Not giving a thought to all the plebs who missed out on things in their ordinary little lives of course, her daughters at university don't you know!

This thread makes me sad. I know a few of the protesters personally, including one who has been jailed, and they are kind, thoughtful people who are absolutely desperate about the state of the world and see no other way of enabling change. I also know they read what's being written about them. These are people fighting for the future of our planet, being jailed, denegrated and ridiculed. Who is gaining from this?

Some of the posters on this thread need to have a good look at themselves if they think it's ok to jail someone for four years for just talking about blocking a motorway (not even doing it, just having a zoom chat about it). Think about what that means for the future of democracy. Peaceful protesters being jailed for record lengths of time.

Blocking people going to work, blocking ambulances, yes this is annoying, and in the case of the ambulance potentially devastating. So is climate change. It currently kills 400,000 people each year, projected to rise to 700,000 per year by 2030. The way people are talking on here is akin to the way people used to talk about women chaining themselves to railings for women's rights. It's embarrassingly small minded in the face of what we need to change. But if anyone has evidence that writing strongly worded letters to your MP or personally cutting one flight a year has any effect on climate change, I'm all ears!

They certainly come across as thick, hypocritical and amazingly up themselves and attention seeking. Also they don't seem to have jobs, so maybe they could try working in some field where they could actually contribute something positive, or effect actual change. Twats.

@PollyPeep could you ask your friends this? Why instead of disrupting peoples lives are they not chaining themselves and blockading the head offices of the big oil companies?
The videos of them that sticks with me of the woman shouting about needing to get her baby to hospital and they ignored her despite other drivers advocating on her behalf and trying to move their cars for her.
And the one with the paramedic speaking with them and being ignored till he and bystanders bodily moved them.
Absolute fuck wits.

Yes. Were the suffragettes ‘nice people’? If Emmeline Pankhurst was nasty to her fiancé, was that a sign the movement was full of unpleasant, unfaithful thieves?

@PollyPeep what have they done to have any effect on climate change? Caused more pollution on the M25? Turned millions of people who are doing their bit to effect climate change against them? Are any of them studying environmental science and trying to come up with actual solutions ( as many, many peoplexare doing)? How about training as a home insulation fitter or heatpump installer ? Because one of the main barriers at the moment to making Britain more energy efficient and less dependent on oil is that there arent enough of these people to install the equipment needed. What do they think happens if we just stop oil without any infrastructure in place?

Why instead of disrupting peoples lives are they not chaining themselves and blockading the head offices of the big oil companies?

Unlike @PollyPeep I don’t know these protesters. But oil companies are the richest organizations in the world. They will have all the resources they need to protect their offices and depots from protests.

I love this implied narrative that unless you are committing the moronic acts that JSO have been jailed for then you must be a gas guzzling car driver who doesn't care and does nothing for the planet.

It's not either or. And no one is worth collateral damage for this cause. Not one life. You can come with the 'but but but climate change causes x amount' of deaths.' Everyone knows this, but it doesn't justify anyone losing their life as a result. Find another way. If you think that start with your own then. You are not God.

JSO are just terrorists dressed up as privileged pensioners and sheltered students buoyed up by mummy and daddy.

They are not brave and they are not putting an issue 'on to the public agenda'.

They massively inconvenience the general public who cannot do anything to influence the people who could actually do something.

If you read the sentencing remarks of the latest case Hallam claimed that he was no longer a direct action protester.

At least in the UK they haven't discovered the practice of "rolling coal"

I know several activists but one male well and have done for years so this is all I can comment on.
He's mid 40s and hasn't worked for years. He has numerous young DC with much much younger women. He doesn't financially support any of his children and rarely sees them. When he does there's always a post on social media begging for money to travel and a bed, which are quickly offered up. If anyone dares question what he does, he says he's doing it for everyone's children.
The two women I know say he isn't well liked and question his motives. They self-support from past successful careers, downsizing and working on art projects now and again. I have respect for these women. They say he is disliked because he freeloads and treats the camps like a holiday. He is provided food, alcohol and drugs and shelter so has no need to earn a living. He seems to lead a jolly life at the expense of others with a band of willing supporters if he requires anything. In answer to your question, he's deeply unpleasant.

I don't for a minute think I'm going to change anyone's mind on here, and not being part of the movement myself I don't particularly care to, but here is an easily googlable article about why targeting "big oil" directly is very difficult, and in fact has already been done, over and over again.

wagingnonviolence.org/2023/12/the-method-behind-just-stop-oil-annoying-madness/