Extinction Rebellion - I'm extremely sorry for the inconvenience

Moggy wrote:

Mommy wrote:

Moggy wrote:

Mommy wrote:

BID0 wrote:I was there yesterday helping set up some band equipment which was donated last minute as a make shift PA system after the police impounded the stuff as "evidence" or something.

Most people who have put time in for XR have probably worked harder than Mommy ever has

Objection! Conjecture.

I worked from 6.50am yesterday until 9.30pm last night. Most of those hippies haven't seen either of those times in their lives.

Long hours at work doesn’t mean you were working hard.

I am here for at least 9.5 hours every workday, but I do bugger all while I am here.

And if those hippies have never seen the hours between 6.50am and 9.30pm, how are they managing to disrupt your commute?

My commute? You are confusing me with Comrade Vermillion.

If they are not disrupting you, why are you so angry with them?

Not me

Balladeer wrote:They are attacking the City of London, at least tomorrow. There aren’t many better places to tackle. They need to target events as well. That said, fair play for the more nuanced opinion.

BID0 wrote:

Balladeer wrote:Are you two both from Yorkshire perchance?

Essex bruv

Context might be needed:

never seen that one before

BID0 wrote:Is there any actual evidence of this? It's anecdotal but near enough everyone I have seen has been for it. I remember in the spring rebellion people were even not going in to work that day to join in.

Back in the spring there was a story in Bristol about a bloke who rang into a local radio station to say he was stuck in the blockade and didn’t make it to the hospital in time to say goodbye to his dying father. That really did hurt the cause somewhat, a lot of people in Bristol turned against them after that.

On the whole though I think most people either support them or just see them as a necessary evil.

BID0 wrote:

Balladeer wrote:They are attacking the City of London, at least tomorrow. There aren’t many better places to tackle. They need to target events as well. That said, fair play for the more nuanced opinion.

BID0 wrote:

Balladeer wrote:Are you two both from Yorkshire perchance?

Essex bruv

Context might be needed:

never seen that one before

How have you never seen that before!

It's one of the most famous Python sketches out there (even though it's not actually a Python sketch in the first place!)

2 weeks of disruption means literally strawberry float all compared to the potentially unsurvivable damage to the planet climate change will cause.

Governments and industries need to be shown that people are extremely worried and angry about how the environment is being destroyed and that action needs to be taken now while we can still prevent irreversible damage to the planet.

Jenuall wrote:It's one of the most famous Python sketches out there (even though it's not actually a Python sketch in the first place!)

chaining myself to trees is a passion so I guess it doesn't leave much time for Python

Moggy wrote:

BID0 wrote:Is there any actual evidence of this? It's anecdotal but near enough everyone I have seen has been for it. I remember in the spring rebellion people were even not going in to work that day to join in.

Back in the spring there was a story in Bristol about a bloke who rang into a local radio station to say he was stuck in the blockade and didn’t make it to the hospital in time to say goodbye to his dying father. That really did hurt the cause somewhat, a lot of people in Bristol turned against them after that.

On the whole though I think most people either support them or just see them as a necessary evil.

Yeh that sucks. Unfortunate for that guy.

Is there one in Bristol this week? I've only really heard about the London one this time. The worry is less people will attend going in to the colder winter months now.

OrangeRKN wrote:

Vermilion wrote:I'm all for reducing pollution and the like, but these wankers are doing more harm than good...

At worst they've inconvenienced some people.

Tell that to the chap who couldn't be with his father in his final moments.

As someone who works at a hospital and sees families coming to see their loved ones every day I see XR's actions as more than just inconveniencing people. But hey, what's a bit of collateral damage for "the greater good". Easy to sit on the sideline and bark as long it doesn't directly affect you.

BID0 wrote:

Moggy wrote:

BID0 wrote:Is there any actual evidence of this? It's anecdotal but near enough everyone I have seen has been for it. I remember in the spring rebellion people were even not going in to work that day to join in.

Back in the spring there was a story in Bristol about a bloke who rang into a local radio station to say he was stuck in the blockade and didn’t make it to the hospital in time to say goodbye to his dying father. That really did hurt the cause somewhat, a lot of people in Bristol turned against them after that.

On the whole though I think most people either support them or just see them as a necessary evil.

Yeh that sucks. Unfortunate for that guy.

Is there one in Bristol this week? I've only really heard about the London one this time. The worry is less people will attend going in to the colder winter months now.

I don't think there is anything planned in Bristol. I walk to work anyway so don't care.

[skeptik]if it iz cold in winter then how can da planet be WARMING[/skeptik]

Moggy wrote:

BID0 wrote:Is there any actual evidence of this? It's anecdotal but near enough everyone I have seen has been for it. I remember in the spring rebellion people were even not going in to work that day to join in.

Back in the spring there was a story in Bristol about a bloke who rang into a local radio station to say he was stuck in the blockade and didn’t make it to the hospital in time to say goodbye to his dying father. That really did hurt the cause somewhat, a lot of people in Bristol turned against them after that.

On the whole though I think most people either support them or just see them as a necessary evil.

Yeah that was a tricky one and caused plenty of people in our office who had otherwise been broadly supportive of the protesters to turn on them a bit.

It's hard though, and I'm not in any way saying there weren't justifiable grounds for anger and frustration in that instance, but looking at it from a cold and purely analytical perspective you have to assess whether that unfortunate event really invalidates the wider aims of the protest? And as has been pointed out - the aim of these protests is to prevent us strawberry floating the planet so much that pretty much everyone and everything dies. If it were possible to raise enough awareness to prevent that with zero negative knock on effects then that would be the ideal, but some level of pain or inconvenience is inevitable and, again being cold and analytical about this, I would say that someone missing the chance to say goodbye to their father is, though sad, within the realms of acceptable collateral damage.

Jenuall wrote: acceptable collateral damage.

Hello George W Bush.

Moggy wrote:

Jenuall wrote: acceptable collateral damage.

Hello George W Bush.

Careful, the boundary for what is acceptable could be extended to include you at this point

Like I say - ideally none of this would be necessary - no problem would ever require disruption and upheaval and the like in order to get enough momentum for change. But that is never going to be the case.

The easiest thing to do is to blame some protestors and it's a shame that that has happened in that situation. I'm sure nobody protesting that day in Bristol saw that guy and thought "hey let's make sure that guy over there can't get to the hospital".

What if the street was closed for a parade or a street carnival or road works... I imagine all of those things wouldn't have drawn as much ire, which is weird because they're arguably less important things to be closing a street down for than to prevent the planet that you're currently living on becoming uninhabitable.

Gemini73 wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:

Vermilion wrote:I'm all for reducing pollution and the like, but these wankers are doing more harm than good...

At worst they've inconvenienced some people.

Tell that to the chap who couldn't be with his father in his final moments.

I hadn't heard about this. That's clearly a very sad, unfortunate and unintentional consequence. I don't think such things can be absolutely avoided, although certainly they can be considered with every aim to avoid them (don't protest on hospital routes etc.).

Gemini73 wrote:Easy to sit on the sideline and bark as long it doesn't directly affect you.

Climate change will affect every single one of us if it hasn't done already.

BID0 wrote:What if the street was closed for a parade or a street carnival or road works... I imagine all of those things wouldn't have drawn as much ire, which is weird because they're arguably less important things to be closing a street down for than to prevent the planet that you're currently living on becoming uninhabitable.

This is a very good point also!

Gemini73 wrote:Tell that to the chap who couldn't be with his father in his final moments.

As someone who works at a hospital and sees families coming to see their loved ones every day I see XR's actions as more than just inconveniencing people. But hey, what's a bit of collateral damage for "the greater good". Easy to sit on the sideline and bark as long it doesn't directly affect you.

The blame is with the short-sighted politicians and complacent media that have made it necessary to hold disruptive protests in order to bring attention to climate collapse.

It's not like environmentalists haven't been trying to do it the polite way for decades, is it? The Kyoto Protocol was in 1992 but it didn't change anything. An Inconvenient Truth was in 2006 but the media made fun of it. The Paris Agreement was in 2016 but no-one is sticking to it. We have at most a few years left to drastically change our economy or millions will die.

I do sympathise with the guy who couldn't see his dad, but you can't blame the people protesting mate, their backs are against the wall - all of us are, actually.

OrangeRKN wrote:

BID0 wrote:What if the street was closed for a parade or a street carnival or road works... I imagine all of those things wouldn't have drawn as much ire, which is weird because they're arguably less important things to be closing a street down for than to prevent the planet that you're currently living on becoming uninhabitable.

This is a very good point also!

Yeah this is a very good perspective and is the line of reasoning I tried to use with people at work when this happened. It didn't go down very well.

https://www.facebook.com/dustie.miller. ... 330657208/

You just know banana splits will get upset about these guys dancing in front of a war memorial too. I'd like to think the war dead would be pleased that they fought for the right to protest against the end of the world.

Karl_ wrote:
I do sympathise with the guy who couldn't see his dad, but you can't blame the people protesting mate, their backs are against the wall - all of us are, actually.

I can't blame bunch of middle-to-upper class tossers who hold regular people to ransom until our government meet their unrealistic demands?

The strawberry float I can't

OrangeRKN wrote:
I hadn't heard about this. That's clearly a very sad, unfortunate and unintentional consequence. I don't think such things can be absolutely avoided, although certainly they can be considered with every aim to avoid them (don't protest on hospital routes etc.).

Originally the XR protest was away from the main hospital route. But then a secondary protest was started which was on the main route through the centre of Bristol and just minutes away from the hospital.

Gemini73 wrote:

Karl_ wrote:
I do sympathise with the guy who couldn't see his dad, but you can't blame the people protesting mate, their backs are against the wall - all of us are, actually.

I can't blame bunch of middle-to-upper class tossers who hold regular people to ransom until our government meet their unrealistic demands?

The strawberry float I can't

Holding us to ransom