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Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
156 points (98.1% liked)
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Fuck everything about this judge.
How are they harming their fellow citizens? They planned a peaceful protest. Maybe someone else can find where they caused an issue bc I can't.
No they didn't. They planned to shut the M25, one of the busiest motorways in the UK. Shutting that would force traffic onto all the roads around it, progressively gridlocking the entire south-east and causing misery for at least tens of thousands of people, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ran into six figures.
There's nothing peaceful about a massive DoS attack on the nation's infrastructure.
BTW before you bleat about protest being banned in the UK, no it isn't. Peaceful non-disruptive protest is enshrined in law and everyone has the right to protest about anything they want. What protesters don't have the right to do is disrupt the lives of those around them or to try to force the nation to capitulate to their demands by holding the country to hostage, which is exactly what those JSO wankers are trying to do, and is why they are so hated by so many people in this country.
JSO's message may well be 100% correct. It's not the message that's the problem, it's trying to force it down everyone's throats. You know how much you hate vegans and evangelical Christians? Well JSO is both of them put together on steroids.
Name a protest that is non-disruptive and worked. Also giving someone a jail term bc they might cause a problem with a protest is not a valid point.
The planning part makes this suspect for sure.
But there are ways to peacefully protest without blocking a fuckin highway. People that do this should be slapped. I think they do more harm to their movement than a myriad of other options that don’t involve them pissing off everyone just trying to go about their lives.
There are people who would otherwise support their cause that are negatively affected by dumb decisions like this. While I don’t agree with the sentencing for planning a dipshit move like this, these people should consider better ways to make a statement.
Protesting is meant to be disrupting. Also, planning is greatly required to ensure a PEACEFUL PROTEST.
Disruptive for whom? Normal people with the same power as the protesters to change something? People who simply need to go to work to make ends meet?
Yeah, not the best tactic. It is however a great way to piss people off who otherwise would have supported the cause.
Saying anything different about the prospect of blocking a major highway is just downright naive.
Then join them. Disrupt the elites that created this problem and is sentencing them to 5 years. Or you can vote for people that will hold the elites accountable. Instead you are mad at people trying to help save your house.
This kind of disruption is exactly what climate change is doing - negativity affecting people just trying to go about their lives and make ends meet. Dumb decisions are being made which causes people with no choice in the matter to suffer.
The question is - why are you angry when poor people do it (on a limited scale, for a few hours) but not angry when rich & powerful people do it (to everyone, forever)?
That's the genius of this kind of protest. Clearly too genius for some, tho.
As dismissive your response is…Wishing away the practical aspects of what I said, by looking at everything from an ideal perspective, doesn’t change real world application and results.
I could likely solve many world problems if human nature wasn’t a factor.
The media and people in general ignore non-disruptive protest. When protesting pollution, bringing motor vehicles to a halt is arguably a pretty good choice compared to, say, the stone henge (which I don't have a problem with either). Whether the optics are good is debatable. The media is mostly corporate owned, and they'll try to make any protest that goes against their interests look bad anyways. Which is probably why they only cover disruptive protests.
True. So the most appropriate solution would be for JSO to perform a LIMITED disruptive protest. This would - and we know because it did - hit the papers and everyone would know about it, spreading the message, and aside from those directly affected would gain them a lot of support.
But then you stop. You've done what you needed to. The message is out there, people are talking and thinking about it. And writing to their MPs to express support. And changing the nation's direction via legitimate democratic process.
This is where JSO went so badly wrong. They didn't/wouldn't stop. They kept on disrupting the lives of those around them. They kept ignoring complaints from the public and warnings from the police. They went on to chuck paint at artwork, snooker tables and Stonehenge*. By becoming a bunch of complete and utter wankmuppets they have destroyed any public support they might have had and are now little more than environmental terrorists.
*Yeah I know the details, decomposable powder blah blah. The point is: NOBODY CARES. The only response they get now is "oh no not fucking JSO again".