I'm gonna call bullshit on "too toxic." There were literal riots over getting civil rights. There were literal murders over getting civil rights. A lot of the reason why MLK looked so good was because there were those who took extreme actions, and his nonviolent protests would sometimes be treated the same as the violent ones. But you think a stall-in would be too far? Should we use the Suffragettes instead, who also vandalized museums (worse than these guys)? Was that too toxic? What a silly argument.
Condering that the art is unharmed, and they glue themselves to the gallery waiting for the police while explaining what their goals are so that passersby film them to spread the message, I'd say that they are, frankly, pretty distinguishable from vandals, or do you know of other vandals that do that?
Well destroying the Earth does not in anyway benefit art, either, but we're still doing that one.
Is blocking traffic invalid then? Because that was also part of the civil disobedience used in the civil rights movement. Oh wait, they DID claim it invalid then, too!
“We do not need allies more devoted to order than to justice,” Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in the spring of 1964, refusing calls from moderate Black and White leaders to condemn a planned highway “stall-in” to highlight systemic racism in New York City. “I hear a lot of talk these days about our direct action talk alienating former friends,” he added. “I would rather feel they are bringing to the surface latent prejudices that are already there. If our direct action programs alienate our friends … they never were really our friends.”
It's weird that there are people in this thread that think defacing the protective barrier of a painting is too far, but advocating for harming or killing oil industry executives is not because the painting didn't do anything to cause our climate emergency. By that argument, defacing a building with grafitti can't work, blocking traffic would put more pollution in the air, blowing up a pipeline would kill innocent people and animals.
Nothing is good enough for them except the status quo. They'd rather a museum burned down in a riot than plexiglass get covered in soup because riots are okay (but once that happens, the pearls will be clutched again.)
“We do not need allies more devoted to order than to justice,” Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in the spring of 1964, refusing calls from moderate Black and White leaders to condemn a planned highway “stall-in” to highlight systemic racism in New York City. “I hear a lot of talk these days about our direct action talk alienating former friends,” he added. “I would rather feel they are bringing to the surface latent prejudices that are already there. If our direct action programs alienate our friends … they never were really our friends.”
"What's blocking traffic have to do with racism? All it does is make people mad at black people!"
History rhymes.
Being told you're insipid isn't an insult, but it does fit with you wanting to feel superior about an answer. You are being impetuous and acting childish, which is a statement of fact and not an insult, though it might feel like one because I think you might feel as though you deserve to be treated better than you treat others. You have consistently mocked others and argued in bad faith, so telling you that should give you a moment to self-reflect and treat others better.
Yeah, who gives a shit about the cultural history of humanity, am I right? After destroying paintings, maybe the can go after other things of cultural significance! Bulldoze the Great Serpent Mound! Blow up Angkor Wat! Carve rude words into the Elgin Marbles!
Stuff like this is bad faith. Especially when no paintings were harmed in the demonstration, and yet you overreact to everything. You should consider overreacting to the fucking planet being killed for 20% growth year over year. You would look better and be right.
If you wish to conclude that the actions are correlated in a different way, please feel free to state another possibility, but these do show evidence that Just Stop Oil is being an influential force, and dismissing it with the age-old cornocau is, frankly, giving up.
Does throwing soup at paintings stop the oil industry? Has it made a single dent in their massive profits?
I'm glad you asked because it's good to be a learned adult! The UK government has stopped the licensing of new oil, gas, and coal projects since Just Stop Oil started their campaign of civil disobedience. New levies have also been placed on oil and gas company profits, that are increasing as of November.
Additionally, membership in Just Stop Oil continues to grow. So, it looks like, yes, throwing soup on paintings (as well as other forms of nonviolent resistance) DOES appear to put a dent in the profits of oil companies.
Think of how much faster it would've been to ask that right off the bat instead of being so insipid :)
Did they or did they not offset the oil industry: yes or no?
See, I can do the same thing you did. It required me to argue in bad faith.
I don't care if we have any monuments if we also have an oil industry that kills the planet. I don't want an oil industry. That is the answer! It has nothing to do with monuments, but monuments don't matter if we have an oil industry.
Not that it matters, because no art was harmed here, as you could plainly read in the article.
Frankly, most people don't want climate change, and most people would get used to having no oil industry really fast. I mean, we got used to Covid.
I'm not evading the question, you just don't like my answer and want one to that you can feel superior about, so you are attempting to lead me to a frankly ridiculous question based on what I can only assume is purposeful malintent.
There is no art on a dead planet. There are no monuments without people. People give those things meaning. If we all die for the oil industry, then what good was the plexiglass covered in soup protecting that painting?
It's great that the carbon output of those art installations is so low. Did it offset the oil industry? If no, then who cares?
Just. Stop. Oil.
You'll have to excuse me, your gotcha question was of low quality, so I assumed you set me up a slam dunk.
My mistake, I expected too much.
Is your question seriously: Would I rather monuments be destroyed and people be alive, or that people be dead and monuments be preserved? Because obviously people are more important. But, if we stop climate change, we are likely to be able to enjoy both people being alive and monuments being preserved.
No, I would prefer we just stop oil.
If we're all dead, the memorials are for all of us anyway.
There is no art on a dead planet.
Bringing attention and drawing ire are both sides of the same coin. Your sentence points of the hypocrisy:
Take your protests to the places that control these issues. Not a fucking art gallery.
They have been doing that for decades. And it didn't do anything, did it? The fact that you tell them to do this points out how ineffective it was because you didn't even know they were.
This same rhetoric you're saying existed during many protests, from the suffragettes to the civil rights, and it's always the same response. "It's ineffective." "It's bothering people." "Do it elsewhere." "You're making the cause worse." It gets pretty repetitive.
It does. There's actually been a fair amount of change from it, and pointing out the incredibly harsh punishments targetted at Just Stop Oil kinda shows that. If it didn't accomplish anything, why lock up activists for years for an act that was solved by cleaning the plexiglass?
The name is the message. Just Stop Oil. And it does work.
And yet, you talk about Just Stop Oil, so it does work.
What does Vincent van Gogh have to do with the current state of the petrol industry? What does any classical artist have to do with the current state of the petrol industry? Why go out of one's way to try and ruin something that isn't even remotely related to the subject? They're only making themselves look like a bad joke.
They literally address this: "There is no art on a dead planet." If all humans are dead, art means nothing. Just stop using oil.
Pearl clutching aside, the art was protected by a plexiglass barrier and did no permanent harm.