- cross-posted to:
- climate@slrpnk.net
- cross-posted to:
- climate@slrpnk.net
Two activists arrested after Rokeby Venus artwork targeted, as dozens of others held after blocking Whitehall
Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after smashing the glass covering a Diego Velázquez painting at the National Gallery in London, as police detained dozens of others who blocked Whitehall.
Two activists targeted the glass on the Rokeby Venus painting with safety hammers before they were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
The artwork, which was painted by Velázquez in the 1600s, was slashed by the suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914. One of those involved on Monday said: “Women did not get the vote by voting; it is time for deeds not words.”
The Metropolitan police said at least 40 activists who were “slow marching” in Whitehall were also detained and that the road was clear after traffic was stopped for a brief period
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Drawing a direct line up the suffragettes is genius. History will prove them right
Hardly anyone argues again their cause being right. I’m not sure history will show that their campaign did much else than promote the misguided view that environmentalists are arseholes
…a lot of people do argue against their cause, though, is the thing. We cannot wait for change to happen, we gotta force some hands.
This isn’t forcing anyone’s hand. It just makes environmentalists look like assholes. Sure, shitting your pants in the name of whatever movement is a statement, but it’s not likely it’s one the rest want to make nor is it gonna do any good.
Other protests have already been tried for decades. Didn’t seem to work.
And an obviously stupid one that makes the entire movement look idiotic is going to fix that?
people constantly argue against their cause being right, because their cause is we need to work on fixing the problems as much as possible and governments are not doing that
Settle down with the formatting.
no
Exactly, I don’t understand how this is such a controversial take apparently.
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Why do they hate oil paintings so much?
Just a misunderstanding. This group is Just Stop Oil (paintings). They hate the medium.
The other group is Just Stop Oil: the anti-oil, coal, and natural gas group.
Same name, so it’s easy to get them confused.
Similar to the movement that’s prominent in small Scottish fishing villages - Just Stop Watercolour
“Why would activists pull a stunt that would bring attention to their concerns from the main stream media?”
~ Lemmy Users, Probably
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I find it funny that oil activists funny just go find a random piece of oil pipeline in the middle of nowhere to sabotage. Seriously, the things stretch for hundreds of miles, there can’t be a shortage of isolated segments behind no more than a chain link fence at most.
There’s actually a pretty good reason why they don’t do that. Media attention. Most acts of activism are ignored. Only extreme things make it into the media (sadly). Anything short of blowing up the pipeline won’t get them media attention. How do I know that? “Letzte Generation”, a German activist group did shut down a pipeline, but nobody bothered to report about it.
Wait… was Nord Stream an activist job?
Sure
Only extreme things make it into the media (sadly). Anything short of blowing up the pipeline won’t get them media attention.
I’m really not arguing against the obvious futility of fighting against these giants, but I mean, we’re here literally talking about people vandalizing paintings which honestly has absolutely fucking nothing to do with the oil industry and it’s hailed as some big statement. It’s a sad reality we live in, but things like this aren’t making anything better.
Yeah, we should probably do nothing. We’re not even talking about it right now.
Because wiping your ass on the entire movement is so much better than actually, really doing something! Have fun feeling high and mighty without doing anything useful.
Have fun beating that strawman…
We can’t be telling the youth that it’s too late to make things better, and then criticizing them for not making things better.
If we are at the point where people who feel they have no future are destroying the past of those who took the future, we are much further away from being able to do anything than you are currently ready to confront.
There is a massive difference between critique and telling people not to do anything. You enjoy that strawman as well. Jesus.
Making things worse is not a thing to be commended just for the effort, real life isn’t kindergarten, you don’t get a participation trophy. The road to hell is paved is good intentions and useful idiots do more harm than good.
Oil leak caused by activists is great PR.
Sort of a joke, given how many oil leaks our infrastructure is already riddled with.
Doing a little light domestic terrorism would be a drop in the bucket beside the enormous amount of waste polluting our groundwater and riverways. But new media would fixate on it as the de facto reason why oil spills exist, for the next twenty years.
But that isn’t just a little vandalism, that carries some serious criminal charges.
It’s crazy that they have the right idea about direct action and yet are using it on the worst possible targets.
Disrupting an art museum will not stop pollution or inconvenience the fossil fuel industry.
Take advice from MLK: Be nonviolent, but get in the way. Use methods of coercion.
This is non violent, and is in the way, and is coercion? And it’s exactly the kind of thing that King was criticized for doing.
No. It’s not getting in the way of fossil fuel production. It’s getting in the way of an art museum and coercing them into calling the cops to get them thrown out, achieving nothing useful in the process.
You have to disrupt and coerce the fossil fuel producers
Dudes be like nooo stop trying to hurt the nice paper and go protest somewhere else so we can more easily ignore you
Putting the protection of art above what these people are protesting is both hilarious and also extremely depressing
But this is very easy to ignore, a bougie art gallery?
Go slash a ceos neck or something if you’re going to go to gaol anyway.
A lot of these goons are paid by oil to make environmentalists look bad, and they do a good job at it. Even if they are real, they are so pathetic that they wouldn’t dare to do anything that would have an actual effect on the world like you said.
This gets just as much attention for much less jail time.
This gets almost zero lasting attention. CEOs start dropping like flies at the hands of angry citizens? Yeah, that’s going to make a bigger difference.
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That’s senseless violence which doesn’t accomplish anything… CEOs are easier to replace than a painting.
Great job comprehending what you’re reading.
It’s a million times more depressing that the majority of environmentalist-minded people apparently see these publicity stunts as positive.
The arts are like one of the first things to go if shit will start to go down due to climate change
There is this specific absolutely beautiful instrument at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. It was made out of trash by people in abject poverty. The arts might change, but it’s pretty damn hard to extinguish that creative spark people have.
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Yeah, because art clearly hasn’t existed when there’s strife, crises or people are poor or suffering :D
We are talking about a painting from an artist in the court of a Spanish monarch from hundreds of years ago, a type of art that museums strive to maintain via expensive means. We are not talking about more ephemeral art that doesn’t get maintained, and is eventually lost to time anyway.
Maintaining of art like this would absolutely be one of the first things to go. There is already often talks about defunding the arts even in peaceful times. Look at “went to an art school” being often thrown around as a joke about being useless even in decent times.
You can talk circles around justifying this idiocy, it’s not going to make this clout chasing vandalism stunt any more clever. If justifying some kind of funding is what you want to talk about you’re free to do so, funding has never been something that stops art from existing, but that discussion is absolutely irrelevant to this thing. Besides, “the arts are one of the first things to go” isn’t talking about this one piece, it’s very general and you know it.
Said “paper” has a shit ton of historical significance. art can define our culture alter our history and change our perception on things. Art like comedy or forms of media is also subjective what you may find rubbish another person may enjoy. And
in my upmost opinionthis isn’t protesting this is vandalism. I think it’s important that we must not forget history so we can learn from it and not repeat the mistakes of the past. and a large part of not forgetting history is restoring and maintaining pieces of art such as this… not vandalising it for a vague and nonsensical environmental message people like thisand also people like youmuddy the water for true discussion and debate on the environment and other topics relating to itThe fact that you see vandalism and protest as mutually exclusive is really odd. Reminds me of the liberal types who claim they’re all for protesting and yet draw the line at anything past marching or petitioning maybe.
Super great deflection technique by the big oil guys by the way - everyone’s arguing over art in a museum rather than holding them accountable
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These people are protesting the loss of the status quo of unchecked rampant overpopulation.
There were 500 million people when that paper was made… 2 billion when the sufragettes slashed it… there are 8 billion now, and how exactly has that improved things?
Do we really want to see what 32 billion people will do to the environment?
What the hell is a “safety hammer”?
A hammer designed to smash glass - it’s a ‘safety hammer’ because they are kept in cars to smash windows in emergencies where people are stuck.
lol nice
I watched that video, they def coulda smashed a lot better. Lets be real.
Aren’t these the same idiots who threw food at the paintilngs and people defended them with “well the paintings are covered with protective glass either way so they’re not doing any harm, just publicity for a good cause”? Like I’m all for protesting and especially old fashioned ways that do more harm than good, but these people are just assholes trying to destroy invaluable art which is never going to do anything positive for their cause and on top of it all is literally so misguided. No oil company or production or anything is gonna give a fuck about some old painting and this only gives assholes ammo to paint these kinds of movements unhinged. It’s like they’re paid actors to make it look bad.
So, how is this different from ISIS blowing up ancient artifacts?
lol not this shit again. what was the group of people that were slashing the tires of SUVs to “save the planet”?
I don’t believe that was the same group, but I’m fairly certain that protest just involved leaving a note on the windshield and using a lentil to deflate the tires. Their notes did touch in the environmental impact of SUVs, but from what I recall the notes focused on the negative impacts that SUVs have in cities. Such as the skyrocketing number of pedestrian deaths we are seeing.
It’s still quite an asshole move. Certainly doesn’t bring people to your cause. Prehaps maybe they should just consider speaking to the owner of the vehicle or maybe leave a leaflet with some contact information. underneath the cars window wiper and call it a day that’ll bring more people to your cause than causing them some hardship these people should aim to win hearts and souls not crack skulls or… deflate vehicle tires and cause severe traffic accidents
Not only that what if the owner is in a hury and doesn’t notice the deflated tires and continues his daily commute or what have you
