How to win friends and influence people by being a-holes
Climate change group disavows disruptive protests, but other activists vow to soldier on
Extinction Rebellion, the U.K.-based organization that pioneered disruptive climate change protests such as sit-ins at major London traffic circles, has made a New Year’s resolution to give up such tactics and focus instead on increasing support for the climate movement.
In a Dec. 31, 2022, statement on its website, the group acknowledged that despite garnering media attention for high-profile protests — including blockading five bridges on the River Thames in central London in November 2018 — its efforts have not led to a significant change in the trajectory of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Yeah yeah yeah, they’re going to supposedly stop doing wankers stuff. We’ll see. Others, though
In the last year, several new youth-led groups around the world have employed tactics pioneered by XR, especially in Britain and Europe. For example, the group Just Stop Oil, which was founded in February 2022, blocked traffic on highways in London and garnered international coverage and criticism for throwing tomato soup at a painting by Vincent Van Gogh in London’s National Gallery. In late October, activists from a group called Last Generation threw mashed potatoes at a painting by Claude Monet and glued themselves to the adjacent wall at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany, and carried out similar actions in other European museums.
Just Stop Oil responded to XR’s announcement on Monday with a pledge to continue engaging in what it called “civil resistance.”
“It’s 2023 and XR has quit,” Just Stop Oil wrote in a statement. “But it’s 2023, and we are barrelling down the highway to the loss of ordered civil society, as extreme weather impacts tens of millions, as our country becomes unrecognisable. … We must move from disobedience into civil resistance.”
You also have Insulate Britain, which is going to continue doing wackadoodle things. They’re working hard to piss people off to get them to rally to their cause, because that works, right?
Read: Other Climate Nutter Groups Plan To Continue Being Disruptive »
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis plans to send migrants to major cities including New York, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday, warning that the nation’s largest city is already struggling to deal an influx of people sent from Texas and other Republican-led states.
People in developing countries are feeling increasingly angry and “victimised” by the climate crisis, the US climate envoy John Kerry has warned, and rich countries must respond urgently.
The Transportation Security Administration is spending $18.6 million to deploy “non-binary screening systems” for gender-neutral passengers traveling through U.S. airports.
Over the past year, we’ve all seen the devastating images across America—and around the world—of people who have lost their homes, their livelihoods, to wildfires, hurricanes, or monsoon floods.
With the start of the new year, it became significantly easier for Alabamians to legally carry guns.
On the hottest day of 2022 in Kansas City, three people were shot and killed. Three more were shot and survived, the Kansas City Police Department said.
A far-left (borderline Marxist) group calling itself the “People’s CDC” has called for more radical coronavirus policies like indefinite mask mandates and social distancing, charging that America’s relaxed pandemic policies stem from a racist eugenics impulse beholden to corporate interests.
