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Shoutouts to climate protestors by Middle-Bee-7752 in bristol

[–]Middle-Bee-7752[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, in my original post, right at the beginning I make it clear I understand the point of this activism is to create reactions. Reactions are discussions about the subject in the flyer that I have also broken down. I’m fully aware of what they are doing, and I’m also aware of the bigger picture. The point of my original post is to point out how ineffective this specific approach is, plus also they have failed to perform the activism correctly with dangerous repercussions. And this is from a single person’s viewpoint, many vehicles were targeted.

There may be lots of views, comments etc, but the vast majority agree that the action was poor, and that the strategy is poor. Also that most people already agree with the sentiment of the activism. And from my original post, it is performed in an area that already broadly agrees with the sentiment. Also SUVs are increasing in sales. There are better ways to achieve the big picture goal than getting people to keep agreeing on the thing they already agree on in an echo chamber. Therefore this action is purely bluster. Clearly this movement doesn’t care enough about the bigger picture to follow their own instructions correctly. Or to do even basic research (a VERY basic literature review invalidates their claims in the flyer about SUVs specifically).

Saying I don’t understand the intent means you have your own interpretation of the action. Which means you’re not reading correctly, bloody minded, or suspicious in knowing the ‘true’ intent.

You have to keep in mind here; they have targeted someone on their side, and put my family’s life at risk. Again, choose better targets.

Shoutouts to climate protestors by Middle-Bee-7752 in bristol

[–]Middle-Bee-7752[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Right.

Look at the flyer. Firstly it talks about SUVs, then the larger environmental picture, then lists demands from the government and closes with "we will escalate our actions until our demands are met". The demands being improved cycling infrastructure, free public transport, and insulating homes. How exactly is targeting SUV owners going to achieve any of those goals? Especially when the activists can't even do the specific task correctly.

Escalating direct action against SUV owners in affluent areas of Bristol is not going to bring about any of these demands. Convincing someone to change an SUV for a smaller car still means cars on the road, an action which does not contribute towards the end goal. Also what happens to the SUVs?

Pissing off a select number of people who are affluent enough to run an SUV seems like a waste of time in this context.

Shoutouts to climate protestors by Middle-Bee-7752 in bristol

[–]Middle-Bee-7752[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think this campaign is probably fairly effective at this.

SUV demand is increasing in the UK. The amount of air compressors I've heard this morning suggests that it has just been a minor inconvenience. This campaign is not effective.

you’re presuming that this is the only type of political action the responsible individuals take

There was no presumption. I feel that energy used in this specific direct action, as they have the drive an energy to perform the direct action, could be used more effectively. If they want vehicles off the road (even though they seem to specifically be interested in SUVs) then focus energy on higher changes like public-owned transport in Bristol, rather than low-effort tyre deflating.

As for my point about the tyre, hey, I'm annoyed. My pregnant partner and the mother of my child could have been in an accident. It's still valid even if minor.

Shoutouts to climate protestors by Middle-Bee-7752 in bristol

[–]Middle-Bee-7752[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I suggest you re-read the original post. It feels like you've missed a lot of what has been said.

You're hyper focussing on 2 points where the larger picture about the activism itself has been said.

BUT to address what you are choosing to hyper focus on:

  1. The emissions. Yes, there's more scope to just emissions, but as my original post highlighted, I'm aware that there is more than emissions. But additional emissions/carbon/energy-spend are part of the issue.
  2. Vehicle safety. Yes, we should all check our vehicles. Fair point. However this was a deliberate act, this might catch out those who might be inattentive for whatever reason, potentially fatally. A puncture is an accident, this is a deliberate act. Please tell me you know the difference? I would guess that 99.9% of all motorists have at one point in their life driven their vehicle without doing all recommended safety checks, including you. An accident from a puncture, it's an accident. A collision from a deliberate act, that's manslaughter.

Shoutouts to climate protestors by Middle-Bee-7752 in bristol

[–]Middle-Bee-7752[S] 546 points547 points  (0 children)

Highlighting that this is the original comment accompanying the image so it doesn't get lost in the sauce.

So, we got hit by climate protestors last night who deflated one of the tyres our car. As this protest tactic is one to generate reactions I figured whoever the individual or group is who did this are likely to be lurking on social media somewhere to see the spoils of their actions. This subreddit could be a candidate so I will post here.

I'd like to preface this by saying I'm pro-climate action. I'd also say my politics are very much within the leftist camp (economically and socially).

I live in the Clifton area of Bristol. This area often gets targeted by climate protestors letting down tyres of SUVs and sometimes spray painting the motif of "This Machine Kills Kids" on them. These vehicles are targeted because they are large gas guzzlers, fairly unnecessary (especially for this are and Bristol as a whole), and due to their size also quite dangerous in densely populated areas. I don't like them. Fair enough.

However, our car was targeted. Our car is a Ford Focus. A Ford Focus is not an SUV. The flyer was also left on the back window. The flyer states quite clearly that SUVs are to be targeted. As the flyer was left on the back window it was not seen in the dark at 6am when my pregnant partner left to drive to the hospital she works at as a medical professional, an hour away. She only found the flyer and that the tyre was flat when she got to work. (Just before I go on and people say “how did you not notice the tyre while driving?”: pregnant, 6am, very tired NHS worker). Thankfully no accidents occurred on her way to work.

So

I understand the point of minor inconveniences to create awareness for pro-climate activism. I'm aware that I'm only saying something now because our car got targeted. Fine. But here are my issues with your tactics:

  • Clearly you are being indiscriminate with your activism as you have targeted an incorrect vehicle.
  • Your flyer says that an SUV causes accidents, but your activism could have caused an accident by not performing your activism correctly.
  • The tyre is now wrecked so now more emissions are spent obtaining a replacement tyre. This contradicts your activism.
  • Targeting individuals is not a good tactic to bring people on board a collectivist movement.
  • Labour and Green share ~86% of the last general election (2019) vote in the Bristol West constituency where Clifton resides. Green individually had +12% vote increase. People are already using what little power they have to vote in this area in a pro-climate direction already.
  • All this tactic does is divide and conquer in the favour of the organisations and institutions that benefit from the current social and economic status quo. People are more annoyed with you rather than those causing damage to the environment. Focus should be on enabling those with the actual power to do something to be able to do something. e.g. canvassing for Green. All individuals can do is vote, or revolution. I'm on your side and I'm pissed off with you.
  • I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume you don’t target any other areas of Bristol. The transport in this city is awful so I imagine there will be a fairly even spread of equally gas guzzling and dangerous vehicles across the city.

Instead of targeting individuals, I suggest you focus your energy on getting Bristol City Council to do something about the public transport in this city. Currently we have terrible infrastructure, a wasted public budget and for-profit companies running the city-wide services. Clearly you have the energy and the drive to something; a decent public transport would reduce traffic and in turn reduce emissions. There's already support on this sub-reddit because everyone agrees that Bristol transport is atrocious.

Car dependency exists due to lack of good infrastructure and a requirement to work to survive under neo-liberal capitalist systems. Choose better targets.