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The article says the opposite of this invented headline. EDIT: HN guidelines are to use the original title. It is: "Climate protesters arrested after painting

The article says the opposite of this invented headline. EDIT: HN guidelines are to use the original title. It is: "Climate protesters arrested after painting Stonehenge monument orange". It does not claim damage was done and the article is vague on damage and so I think the HN headline is unjustified.

glxxyz 2y ago
It implies there's damage but it's a bit ambiguous: "English Heritage [...] said curators were investigating the damage" (investigating to see if there was damage or investigating to see how much damage?) "Wiltshire Police said the pair were arrested on suspicion of damaging one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments." (suspicion that it was them or suspicion that it was damaged?)
muaytimbo 2y ago
Not sure how you reached that conclusion: "English Heritage, which manages the UNESCO World Heritage Site, said it was “extremely upsetting” and said curators were investigating the damage."
- throwup238 2y ago
  > According to Just Stop Oil’s website, the pigment was made of an “orange cornflour” that would wash away in the rain. I assume the biggest impact here is that archaeologists will have to exclude orange corn flour as background noise from any future analyses
  - cjensen 2y ago
    The assumption that it will wash away in the rain rather than find its way into cracks and pits in the rock is an awfully big bet to make vs permanent damage to history.
    - maronato 2y ago
      It survived 4500 years, it’ll survive a bit of cornflour
      - Turing_Machine 2y ago
        Cool. So you'd be fine with me coming over and spray painting something of my choice on your house, assuming I assured you (with absolutely no supporting evidence) that it would go away over some unspecified period of time? I do not think so. Anyone who's been around small children knows that some food dyes do NOT disappear when washed, even with detergent.
    - crtasm 2y ago
      If this could "damage history" then we're way overdue putting the stones into a safe indoor storage facility.
phaedryx 2y ago
I'd go with "Climate Protesters Vandalize Stonehenge"
- ortusdux 2y ago
  Vandalize is defined as "deliberately destroy or damage". I don't think a food grade powder that will wash away with the next rain counts, but I could imagine some municipalities disagree. Does sidewalk chalk count as vandalism?
  - Turing_Machine 2y ago
    > I don't think a food grade powder that will wash away with the next rain counts Your evidence for it "washing away with the next rain" would be? Ever see what a child can do with a glass of "cherry" Koolaid? A dye being labeled as "food grade" has essentially no correlation with its permanence. > Does sidewalk chalk count as vandalism? Sidewalks aren't 4,500 year old World Heritage Sites.
    - Turing_Machine 2y ago
      Hmm... still not seeing any evidence.
  - phaedryx 2y ago
    Our definitions of vandalism are different. I would count graffiti as vandalism. I would also count racial slurs written on private property using sidewalk chalk as vandalism.
alwa 2y ago
The article doesn’t say that there was no damage, the article quotes the vandals as claiming that their vandalism would “wash off in the rain.” Personally I don’t understand the political value they see in this type of disruption. The acts are theatrical but don’t seem connected to the protestors’ political desires: they grab attention but they don’t do anything with it. It feels like these performative disruptions deepen the impression that the climate movement is unserious, self-absorbed and antagonistic—I’m sure they calculate that it that contributes to their cause, I just don’t understand how.
- a4000 2y ago
  I've seen a lot of conspiracy types speculate that Just Stop Oil is actually a creation of the Oil companies as a controlled opposition group to basically make the climate protesters look so bad that they lose public support. Personally, I haven't seen any compelling evidence of this, I think they really are just well meaning idiots who have no real idea or strategy of what they actually want to achieve or how to get there.

glxxyz 2y ago

It implies there's damage but it's a bit ambiguous: "English Heritage [...] said curators were investigating the damage" (investigating to see if there was damage or investigating to see how much damage?) "Wiltshire Police said the pair were arrested on suspicion of damaging one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments." (suspicion that it was them or suspicion that it was damaged?)

muaytimbo 2y ago

Not sure how you reached that conclusion: "English Heritage, which manages the UNESCO World Heritage Site, said it was “extremely upsetting” and said curators were investigating the damage."

throwup238 2y ago
> According to Just Stop Oil’s website, the pigment was made of an “orange cornflour” that would wash away in the rain. I assume the biggest impact here is that archaeologists will have to exclude orange corn flour as background noise from any future analyses
- cjensen 2y ago
  The assumption that it will wash away in the rain rather than find its way into cracks and pits in the rock is an awfully big bet to make vs permanent damage to history.
  - maronato 2y ago
    It survived 4500 years, it’ll survive a bit of cornflour
    - Turing_Machine 2y ago
      Cool. So you'd be fine with me coming over and spray painting something of my choice on your house, assuming I assured you (with absolutely no supporting evidence) that it would go away over some unspecified period of time? I do not think so. Anyone who's been around small children knows that some food dyes do NOT disappear when washed, even with detergent.
  - crtasm 2y ago
    If this could "damage history" then we're way overdue putting the stones into a safe indoor storage facility.

phaedryx 2y ago

I'd go with "Climate Protesters Vandalize Stonehenge"

ortusdux 2y ago
Vandalize is defined as "deliberately destroy or damage". I don't think a food grade powder that will wash away with the next rain counts, but I could imagine some municipalities disagree. Does sidewalk chalk count as vandalism?
- Turing_Machine 2y ago
  > I don't think a food grade powder that will wash away with the next rain counts Your evidence for it "washing away with the next rain" would be? Ever see what a child can do with a glass of "cherry" Koolaid? A dye being labeled as "food grade" has essentially no correlation with its permanence. > Does sidewalk chalk count as vandalism? Sidewalks aren't 4,500 year old World Heritage Sites.
  - Turing_Machine 2y ago
    Hmm... still not seeing any evidence.
- phaedryx 2y ago
  Our definitions of vandalism are different. I would count graffiti as vandalism. I would also count racial slurs written on private property using sidewalk chalk as vandalism.

alwa 2y ago

The article doesn’t say that there was no damage, the article quotes the vandals as claiming that their vandalism would “wash off in the rain.” Personally I don’t understand the political value they see in this type of disruption. The acts are theatrical but don’t seem connected to the protestors’ political desires: they grab attention but they don’t do anything with it. It feels like these performative disruptions deepen the impression that the climate movement is unserious, self-absorbed and antagonistic—I’m sure they calculate that it that contributes to their cause, I just don’t understand how.

a4000 2y ago
I've seen a lot of conspiracy types speculate that Just Stop Oil is actually a creation of the Oil companies as a controlled opposition group to basically make the climate protesters look so bad that they lose public support. Personally, I haven't seen any compelling evidence of this, I think they really are just well meaning idiots who have no real idea or strategy of what they actually want to achieve or how to get there.