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Farmers protesting new nitrogen emissions regulation. They are also setting hay bales on fire next to highways. The rail sabotage is relatively harmless, the tr

Farmers protesting new nitrogen emissions regulation. They are also setting hay bales on fire next to highways. The rail sabotage is relatively harmless, the tracks use block signalling so if you use a conductive metal bar or jumper cables to connect the rails, the system thinks a train is present and the preceding signal will stay red.

consp 12d ago
The harm is in the cost. Not the actual danger. Or are they going to pay for the damages caused due to lost productivity?
- account42 12d ago
  Protests are much less effective if they can just be ignored. At the very least "lost productivity" is a very abstract harm and not something that endangers human lives directly.
  - avianlyric 12d ago
    That does depend on the productivity being lost. No doubt many of the people who were unable to commute that day would have been doctors and nurses. I think it would be of a stretch to actually claim that this specific incident caused loss of life, but it’s possible to see how such wide sabotage, especially conducted over a number of days, could result in compromised emergency services and result in loss of life. Protests also tend to be more effective if the protesters involved actually make some clear demands about what they want. Simply breaking shit isn’t much of a protest.
  - preisschild 10d ago
    But its also not reasonable to let someone having grievances block the entire country. The farming industry is 1% of GDP in NL. Why do they get to hold the entire country hostage?