16 ms·

It does as much good for the cause as those climate activists who glue themselves to motorways and block ambulances.

by ChocolateGod 3mo ago

dTal 3mo ago
So quite a lot then?
- kbelder 3mo ago
  It does a lot; just not any actual accomplishing of goals.
  - dTal 3mo ago
    Are you sure? It's popular to call them "ineffective" because it's a safe way of saying they annoy you while virtue signalling that you do in fact care about climate change and do think that something should be done. But I've never heard anybody follow up that complaint with their own, more effective suggestion. In the general case, disruptive and particularly self-sacrificing protest does work. It's how women got the vote.
antonvs 3mo ago
Martin Luther King wrote about that attitude: > First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White citizens’ “Councilor” or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direst action” who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. Certainly, the stakes are lower in this case, but the claim that the use of hyperbole causes you to "lose a lot of sympathy" is an obvious excuse for a position that you would have taken anyway.

It does as much good for the cause as those climate activists who glue themselves to motorways and block ambulances.

dTal 3mo ago

So quite a lot then?

kbelder 3mo ago
It does a lot; just not any actual accomplishing of goals.
- dTal 3mo ago
  Are you sure? It's popular to call them "ineffective" because it's a safe way of saying they annoy you while virtue signalling that you do in fact care about climate change and do think that something should be done. But I've never heard anybody follow up that complaint with their own, more effective suggestion. In the general case, disruptive and particularly self-sacrificing protest does work. It's how women got the vote.

antonvs 3mo ago

Martin Luther King wrote about that attitude: > First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White citizens’ “Councilor” or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direst action” who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. Certainly, the stakes are lower in this case, but the claim that the use of hyperbole causes you to "lose a lot of sympathy" is an obvious excuse for a position that you would have taken anyway.