• @[email protected]
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    1011 months ago

    The funny thing is that we have politicians here in Australia that complain about “woke” environmentalists standing up for the environment by sitting down on the road. They’re trying to have them labelled as terrorists for simply sitting down in the street.

    Meanwhile in France, Farmers who are angry about stopping of diesel concessions are setting things on fire, blocking streets with tractors and dumping manure and dirt into the street to block public servants responsible into buildings.

    The point is two fold, French have always done protests better. And the west conservatives have a massive raging boner for eroding ones rights to protest.

    • @[email protected]
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      -511 months ago

      I support protesting wholeheartedly, but blocking a road is among the most moronic ways to protest I can think of.
      They are blocking emergency vehicles, people going to work, people doing errands, visiting family, goods being transported etc.
      There is a reason people get pissed off and pull them off of the road themselves. It does absolutely nothing to further their cause.
      It doesn’t even effect the people they protest against.

      Imagine missing your kids show, mothers dying breath or the flight to your long awaited vacation and family visit because someone couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to protest than sitting down and being an absolute butthole.

      • Ian@Cambio
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        1211 months ago

        Isn’t the inconvenience literally the point though?

        • @[email protected]
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          -511 months ago

          I don’t call people potentially dying an inconvenience.
          They have no moral right to decide wether or not people make it to where they are going.

          So what do they hope to achieve?
          If it is awarenes, then there are much better ways of doing it

          • Ian@Cambio
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            711 months ago

            Just wondering if you’ve ever participated in a protest or this is just an academic exercise. In my experience well behaved protests are basically ineffective. It’s true that you can actually end up vilifying the cause in the eyes of people that you’ve inconvenienced.

            But that creates social pressure on our leaders to address the problem. Either by compromise with the protests demands or clearing them out by force.

            I get that it may block the direct path of an ambulance potentially. But most gps algorithms when they see a ton of stationary phones in the street interpret that as traffic and try to route around it.

            At the end of the day, yes there is the small potential for harm to a few individuals, but (hopefully) the benefits to a larger group offset that.

            I went to UT and there were protests in the street all the time. It always inconvenienced me and I actually came to blows with a few of the protesters, but they should know that’s a possibility going into it. There’s really no right or wrong here. There’s only large organized group against a few impacted drivers.

            • @[email protected]
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              111 months ago

              I appreciate your arguments but respectfyully disagree.
              A GPS guided detour should not be necessary for vital social functions to operate.
              I also dislike the small potential for harm to a few individuals when there are better ways to get the point across.

              Block construction.
              Occupy offices and locations.
              March.
              Send letters and run awareness campaigns.
              Vote.

              Do anything you can that makes people see you. Just don’t block the road. To me that is too risky. If everybody would protest like that to achieve their political goals we would live in total anarchy.

              Hope my opinions make sense even though you might disagree.

              • Ian@Cambio
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                311 months ago

                Totally. No animosity here. Never considered occupying an office.