This Stone Henge Outrage

Anybody else just shrug and not understand why people are outraged by a couple of protesters spraying rocks with paint that will disappear after a bit of rain? People have been drawing dicks on things since we learned how to draw. There’s so much shit going on in the world that I find it hard to see a reason to care about it. I honestly wouldn’t be bothered if it got covered in permanent marker or pushed over by a JCB like a giant set of dominos. Is it just me?

The right wing media control the narrative

They are just going to blame the snowflake wokery eco-zealots who want babies to die in ambulances as they block the roads…… or some such shit

the faux outrage is pathetic

I don’t really care about a bit of protest, but I do think that Just Stop Oil folks need to realise that, whilst their cause is noble, and they’re probably right, their approach to getting their message across is a bit shit.

^ this. What purpose do they think this is going to possibly serve?

^ this. What purpose do they think this is going to possibly serve?

They are on every mainstream news channel. Maybe that.

And?…….

They are on every mainstream news channel. Maybe that.

True but the reaction is usually what bunch of misguided plonkers not let’s get serious about hydrocarbon consumption

I agree that their approach is a bit shit. Nothing they’ve done to date, at least to my limited knowledge, has got to the root of what they want. I suppose it is difficult to just stop oil without resorting to some seriously extreme tactics.

Media and the public have always railed against protest. Women have the vote and that was one of the most unpopular protests in history.

Women have the vote and that was one of the most unpopular protests in history.

Letter bombs and blowing shit up was part of  the protest too. Seems to get forgotten about by a lot of people when looking back on it. No idea what the answer is. I just find it bizarre how genuinely outraged folk can get at something that is so trivial in the grand scheme. Similar to the Sycamore gap thing. Hundreds, if not thousands, of trees felled each day. Decimating rain forests, the lungs of the planet, that’s fine. That one tree from Robin Hood that Christian Slater sat in? HOW DARE YOU!

Well, if it didn’t cause outrage they wouldn’t be doing it. If it was a couple of rocks in the middle of Exmoor they wouldn’t do something like this. The point is to cause outrage and frankly I think it’s completely counterproductive.

You could understand the logic if they’d flown some drones over an oil refinery and dropped some orange powder over tanks or pipes, y’know, to just stop oil. Targeting an ancient monument that predates the oil industry by a few millennia makes them look like childish attention seekers. Sure they did get attention but if the overwhelming reaction is negative, to such an irrelevant and harmful action, what do they actually win but scorn and stronger reactions from the authorities and media? Weird.

I posted this in another thread so I’ll repost it here,

It is kinda ironic, that, although Stonehenge’s origins and purpose remain unclear, it is an ancient monument designed to align with the sun at the solstices. The sun is now frying the planet. 550 people have just been fried to death in Saudi Arabia in temperatures of over 50° C, yet some feel it’s more important to be outraged by some powder sprayed on 5000 year old monument than the extinction of life on planet earth.

Perhaps the media should highlight the damage done to rare lichen’s by air pollution instead?…………..Hah….hah….how silly of me…….cue our potential political leadership braying for their heads whilst cosying up to the real polluters.

Great point @somafunk although I’d add that Earth will be fine and new life will flourish. The whole argument needs reframing as saving humanity and other species, not the planet. The planet couldn’t give a shit and will adapt as it always has. We’re not even a blip on the radar and if we want to be more than that we need to sort ourselves out.

By all means protest and target things related to the oil industry either directly or by funding/sponsorship, but I’m not sure that applies to Stonehenge, which from memory has been the basis used to prevent further road building in the area. Just seems an odd target.

Anybody else just shrug and not understand why people are outraged

Are “people” outraged tho? 🤔

Yeah, the planet would adopt the “keep calm and carry on” approach, personally I’d like to the following as a starter.

I’d like to see every home, where possible, to have solar panels with battery storage and to be at least 75% self sufficient for electricity, all new builds to have complete self sufficiency with solar/battery/ashp/gshp/community heating boilers etc.

It would take a massive injection of Government backed cash/infrastructure/manpower for such a scheme but i feel this is essential if we are going to provide for the country as we attempt to get to net zero.

And as for Starmer and his Twitter outrage below……

https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1803420501995344250

I tell him to “get in the **** sea”…..or words to that effect

Just seems an odd target.

Odd for oil reasons, not if the aim is publicity. Right near the solstice on a national monument, they wanted to get all the papers frothing and they achieved it perfectly. Whether it actually helps their cause is another matter.

TBH both sides are looking a bit childish to my view. JSO because it’s pointless, apart from causing outrage, and the papers for the “OMG STONEHENGE WAS SPRAYPAINTED!!1!!1!” headlines when it was actually orange cornstarch 🙄

It’s exactly what [many people] above said: they have a good message but stunts like this are counterproductive. On the other hand, if they did blow cornstarch at an oil refinery it wouldn’t even make local headlines, so… 🤷‍♂️

I support their cause, unfortunately what they’re doing just rubs the masses up the wrong way. It gets them media coverage, just mainly negative.

Kier starmer is pandering to the electorate to draw in more votes.

Solar panels and batteries would do next to nothing for 3 months of the year. What we need is a lot of nuclear. Works 24/7 and as the French showed it can be done.

You could understand the logic if they’d flown some drones over an oil refinery and dropped some orange powder over tanks or pipes, y’know, to just stop oil.

That would likely fall under the prevention of terrorism act, and be judged extremely harshly in the courts

Nuclear is difficult to build at the pace required. Fails on both costs and timescales. Then there is the whole radioactive leftovers bit to contend with too. Not to mention our slap dash approach to maintaining infrastructure. Last thing we need is a massive radioactive lizard stomping about the place. Imagine what would happen if it trod on Stone Henge!

“Just Stop Oil are pathetic” from Starmer, that’s really pathetic. **** it I’m voting Lib Dem or Green.

^ Jim Radcliffe (ineos and Brexit supporter) has backed starmer whilst ridiculing the idea of net zero, starmer seems perfectly comfortable with such backing so I guess we’ll see another change in 5 years.

Just Stop Oil do seem to be on a mission to make it easy for the general public to hate them and politicians to condemn them by being provocative in all the stupidest ways, but the outrage still manages to be worse.

Amazing what people find time to GAS about or be annoyed by really. They’re generally younger people with some attitude, a canny message and there’s no harm done. Good luck to them I reckon. The point needs to be made and they’re doing more than I am about it.

I agree that net zero is a totally unrealistic objective. It’s not achieveable even if everybody in the UK does everything  they can. However, dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use are attainable and highly desireable. Starmer is making it clear that saving civilisation as we know it is so far down his agenda he wants to punish people who protest against fossil fuels rather than reduce fossil fuel dependance.

He’s on the wrong side of history. Ernie posted a link to a Mosely site a few days back. A few years down the line the likes of Starmer will be judged in the way we now view the fascists of the 30s. They had it all wrong.

Is it because quite often these days people confuse activity with action?

Spot on Edukator

Spot on Edukator

Yep. Starmer manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at every opportunity. He could use it as an effective weapon against the Government. All that Cameron “cut the green crap” nonsense has cost the country billions in extra gas usage, more emissions, less home insulation (and therefore higher bills for the homeowner), climate change is a real threat…

He could have said how bad the Tory policies were, how he’d fix it, how JSO were just highlighting the issues – but no, he says he’ll put them in jail. What a cock. 🙄

Lost my  vote for being spineless.

I bet the two protestors ‘drove’ to Stone Henge !  If they actually got on a bike or walked, I’d be OK.

I don’t think they really care about changing peoples’ minds – none of what they’re protesting about is new, it’s been known about for years. I think they’re more about being disruptors because no-one’s taking it seriously so the volume on the message needs to be turned up. Good on them, I say.

Wow, so it’s Starmer’s fault, before he’s even taken up the PM position 🤣

As for Just Stop Oil, they’re a right wingers wet dream for protests, they wind up the public more than the organisations they’re against, and every time it seems to be carried out by some student who can be derided for ticking all the ‘woke’ boxes just from a picture for the daily mail and so on to publish.

What happened between Extinction Rebellion doing their protests but trying to win hearts and minds, and now, with Just Stop Oil just antagonising the public as much as possible.

The green movement could do with more advocates that sit between the just-stop-oil children and serious climate scientists.  There is a lack of sensible, relatable people in the middle and 90% of the Green Party are a huge part of the problem.

Son’s mates have just turned up – mix of cars from a minty 90’s Honda Prelude to a heavily modified Subaru BRZ in bright pink.  They aren’t bothered about climate change…

They ask my son, ‘is your dad into cars ?’ – there is a rather mint old 22 year old Nissan Primera on the drive and a very mint 12 Year old Qashqai – no, look in the garage….. **** bikes everywhere !

You all make your own decisions about the environment. My and my wife’s car don’t do much miles.

Just Stop oil are  just hissing folk off. Demonstrate your commitment like many folk do, don’t drive.

This Stone Henge Manufactured Outrage

FTFY.

JSO deliberately used visually striking but not permanent dye. As protests go it was effective and pretty responsible.

Protesting how Tories want you to protest – silently, between the hours of 10am – 2pm and in allocated spaces only, tucked behind a big hedge – doesn’t get anyone anywhere.

The people getting hot under the collar are the ones who think it is their god-given right to drive a 4 litre, 8 foot wide SUV for the school run and, pissed, from the golf club to home.

JSO deliberately used visually striking but not permanent dye. As protests go it was effective and pretty responsible.

How, what did it achieve, the paint is gone, but the headlines caused outrage for the day, same as all the previous attempts they’ve done, all i’ve seen since they came on to the scene is for the government to have a hell of an easier time imposing more stringent protesting laws due to the public seeing this lot being the normal standard protesters.