World snooker championship disrupted by Just Stop Oil protesters in Sheffield

ThatRobGuy

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I may be a little out of place here in that I'm probably one of the 14 people in the US who actually watch/play/follow snooker lol, but anyway...

“They are demanding that the Government immediately stop all new UK fossil fuel projects and are calling on UK sporting institutions to step into civil resistance against the Government’s genocidal policies.”

The former world champion Stephen Hendry, on commentary duties for the BBC, said: “I have never seen that before at a snooker event. It’s a first. It caught us all by surprise.”

The latest protest – and the publicity it immediately generated – will also raise concerns across sport of copycat incidents in the weeks ahead, especially as it came just two days after 118 animal rights protesters were arrested after disrupting the Grand National start.


If memory serves, these are the same folks who have been attempting to cause havoc at various art museums


I'd have to question their strategy on two fronts.
1) It would seem as if their targets of protest are ones that really have nothing to do with fossil fuel policy.
2) It would seem as if their targeting of art, in particular, runs the risk of alienating people who could otherwise be receptive to their message. (I don't think I'm saying anything off-base by suggesting that the "artsy crowd" and climate change activism crowd likely have a high degree of overlap in terms of political affiliation and social issues)
 
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rambot

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Yeah. All this stuff bothers me and doesn't convince anyone of anything. I was VERY perterbed when they started doing that nonsense to famous cultural pieces; in the same way I was upset with the Taliban destroyed those hundreds of years old giant buddha statues.
 
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durangodawood

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Yeah. All this stuff bothers me and doesn't convince anyone of anything. I was VERY perterbed when they started doing that nonsense to famous cultural pieces; in the same way I was upset with the Taliban destroyed those hundreds of years old giant buddha statues.
Except they didnt wreck the paintings, which in all the cases I heard of were behind glass. The Buddhas of Bamiyan by contrast, are gone for good.
 
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durangodawood

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I may be a little out of place here in that I'm probably one of the 14 people in the US who actually watch/play/follow snooker lol, but anyway...

“They are demanding that the Government immediately stop all new UK fossil fuel projects and are calling on UK sporting institutions to step into civil resistance against the Government’s genocidal policies.”

The former world champion Stephen Hendry, on commentary duties for the BBC, said: “I have never seen that before at a snooker event. It’s a first. It caught us all by surprise.”

The latest protest – and the publicity it immediately generated – will also raise concerns across sport of copycat incidents in the weeks ahead, especially as it came just two days after 118 animal rights protesters were arrested after disrupting the Grand National start.


If memory serves, these are the same folks who have been attempting to cause havoc at various art museums


I'd have to question their strategy on two fronts.
1) It would seem as if their targets of protest are ones that really have nothing to do with fossil fuel policy.
2) It would seem as if their targeting of art, in particular, runs the risk of alienating people who could otherwise be receptive to their message. (I don't think I'm saying anything off-base by suggesting that the "artsy crowd" and climate change activism crowd likely have a high degree of overlap in terms of political affiliation and social issues)
Ive seen my sport (bicycle racing) interrupted by on the road climate protesters a few times. I dont like it. I mean how dare these protesters interrupt my fun to project their despair over our natural systems dying by the hand of human action.
 
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ThatRobGuy

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Ive seen my sport (bicycle racing) interrupted by on the road climate protesters a few times. I dont like it. I mean how dare these protesters interrupt my fun to project their despair over our natural systems dying by the hand of human action.
It's not so much the interruption as it is the property damage.

There's obviously the aspects of protest and civil disobedience that people have found to be useful forms of awareness raising over the years, but I think defense of that stops at the line of destroying (or attempting to destroy) property that belongs to someone else.


Plus, as I've mentioned before, protests seem to be more effective when the target of the civil disobedience is the entity that's either committing the perceived injustice (or those who are directly complicit in it), or the entity that actually has the power to make policy to change it.

For instance, during the civil rights era sit-ins, people (who were protesting segregated lunch counters) sat at the establishments that were complicit in the segregation movement...there was a connection there "we're protesting at the places that are participating in these unjust actions"...it made sense.

What, realistically, were the "Just Stop Oil" protestors looking to accomplish by pouring paint powder on (and trying to superglue their hands to) snooker tables? Or throwing cans of soup and mashed potatoes on historical works of art? Where's the connection to fossil fuel usage?

They say that their goal is to get the UK to stop all new fossil fuel projects. Is the snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan running ecological policy for the UK government now? What am I missing here?
 
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ThatRobGuy

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Yeah. All this stuff bothers me and doesn't convince anyone of anything. I was VERY perterbed when they started doing that nonsense to famous cultural pieces; in the same way I was upset with the Taliban destroyed those hundreds of years old giant buddha statues.
1682455484471.png


I wonder if they realize that hair dye and condiment bottles are made from petroleum products :scratch:
 
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rambot

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View attachment 330424

I wonder if they realize that hair dye and condiment bottles are made from petroleum products :scratch:
I was at that museum this summer. Amazing museum. Van Gogh is just...... his work is so loaded and shows such an interesting progression.

Generally, everything we have is touched in SOME way by petroleum products; not the least fast fashion tshirts.
 
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ThatRobGuy

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Generally, everything we have is touched in SOME way by petroleum products; not the least fast fashion tshirts.
Correct...and it seems like (and perhaps it's just the "exuberance of youth") there's a demand of ideological/moral purity from everyone else, but they often haven't considered their own impact on things.

...and their attempts at property destruction aside, given that they seem to be picking completely random venues to do this stuff (ones that seemingly don't have any correlation to the issue they're trying to advocate for), I wonder if they're "selectively" picking venues that they see as low risk for themselves.

On the scale of 1-10 for "how likely am I to get beat up by other people there if I pick this place randomly and start trying to destroy stuff and calling people fascists?" -- art galleries and low-key sports like billiards would have to rank pretty low on the list.


It's sort of reminiscent of the approach some of the animal rights activists take when they do their "megaphone in a restaurant" routine. They never pick places like a biker bar or some rough and tumble tavern. They always pick some more upscale sort of place where it's not really the "fighting" type of crowd.
 
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MyOwnSockPuppet

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Except they didnt wreck the paintings, which in all the cases I heard of were behind glass. The Buddhas of Bamiyan by contrast, are gone for good.
I think all of the paintings at the National Gallery are, as the result of a previous generation of frankly rather unpleasant people using indefensible or pointless methods to campaign for a worthy cause (only with a less than worthy spin).

Specifically one Mary Richardson who, wanting to get the vote for propertied women as well as propertied men, took a break from her usual line of arson and vandalism to attack a seventeenth century painting with a cleaver.
 
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jacks

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I don't think they think there actions will really have any affect. It's kind of like a dare/panty raid type activity. "I dare you to glue your hand to a wall or I dare you to jump on the snooker table while there is a match going on." Protesters just want to have fun!
 
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If all of the UK stopped using oil... nothing would change.

They just want to interrupt the lives of other people and bring attention to themselves..
Yes.
That’s how “protesting” works. Spot on.
 
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DarkForest

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Yes.
That’s how “protesting” works. Spot on.
Why should I spend hours and hours advocating and making a difference, like volunteering or funding organizations when I can pick a random day to ruin someone's day? Need to perform or receive surgery? Tough. On the way to the ER? Tough. First day work? Should have thought about the environment.
 
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Why should I spend hours and hours advocating and making a difference, like volunteering or funding organizations when I can pick a random day to ruin someone's day? Need to perform or receive surgery? Tough. On the way to the ER? Tough. First day work? Should have thought about the environment.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
 
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ThatRobGuy

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If these people think they can stop what is -- at least at this time -- essentially thee lifeblood of a country's industry and economy by appearing at a snooker match, all I have to say is:
View attachment 330428
Ironically enough, it was the Mitchell and Webb sketches that got me into playing snooker lol (it's not too popular here in the US as most people play 8-ball and 9-ball here)
 
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ThatRobGuy

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I don't think they think there actions will really have any affect. It's kind of like a dare/panty raid type activity. "I dare you to glue your hand to a wall or I dare you to jump on the snooker table while there is a match going on." Protesters just want to have fun!
To be fair, I don't doubt that these kids may be passionate about their cause.

But I think this highlights the flaws with a "movement" that has a weak organizational structure and no real guidance or quantifiable goals.

Not sure if this guy is still "steering the ship" so to speak.


...but he seems to have taken it far enough that even labour party Mayor of London, Khan, supported injunctions against him.

Khan is someone who seen as a leader in battling climate change and was nominated by a major climate change organization as their chair.

His quote:
1 November 2022

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan defends injunctions against Just Stop Oil protesters saying we need to tackle climate change in a way that "takes people with us" and says he doesn't support many of the campaign group's tactics as they are "not the way to win over public opinion". .



Certain activism efforts are very worth while (I would say targeting emissions that are bad for the environment would fit that criteria), however, these scattershot approaches of just randomly vandalizing things (that have no real connection to the problem) highlights why it's important to have some adults in the room when talking strategy.
 
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durangodawood

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...Plus, as I've mentioned before, protests seem to be more effective when the target of the civil disobedience is the entity that's either committing the perceived injustice (or those who are directly complicit in it), or the entity that actually has the power to make policy to change it...
Youll probably have to see what their organizations say, if you can find it.

My guess is: climate change is ultimately a collective problem with political solutions - if there are any solutions. And so the target audience is the public generally. Also I think they want to get across to older generations, who are largely sleepwalking through this issue, that "we are kind of like you know freaking out about the state of the world youre leaving us with". Again, a general-public target.

So, overall, its a step back from tactical targets of particular bad guys that we can generally applaud - and then forget. Its trying to make everyone look at themselves and society. Im not yet sure of its effectiveness. But I do think one way or another we all need to appreciate where younger people are at generally.
 
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ThatRobGuy

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Youll probably have to see what their organizations say, if you can find it.

My guess is: climate change is ultimately a collective problem with political solutions - if there are any solutions. And so the target audience is the public generally. Also I think they want to get across to older generations, who are largely sleepwalking through this issue, that "we are kind of like you know freaking out about the state of the world youre leaving us with". Again, a general-public target.

But I think a target of "everyone" is too vague to be meaningful. Plus, it sets up this ideological framework where they should be vindicated in just picking random targets of vandalism under the premise of "since everyone is complicit, everyone should just have to stand back and let them do their thing and listen to what they have to say"...

And prompts somewhat disingenuous sarcastic rebuttals of "Oh, I'm sorry, is my passion about the planet being destroyed interrupting your <insert thing made to sound trivial here>" as a defense.


If I wanted to protest the fact that my country doesn't have universal healthcare yet, and did so by going to a random restaurant and cutting the power lines, would anyone view it as a sincere or productive rebuttal if I replied with "Oh, I'm sorry, is me trying to save lives getting in the way of you enjoying your chicken nuggets??"
 
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durangodawood

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But I think a target of "everyone" is too vague to be meaningful. Plus, it sets up this ideological framework where they should be vindicated in just picking random targets of vandalism under the premise of "since everyone is complicit, everyone should just have to stand back and let them do their thing and listen to what they have to say"...

And prompts somewhat disingenuous sarcastic rebuttals of "Oh, I'm sorry, is my passion about the planet being destroyed interrupting your <insert thing made to sound trivial here>" as a defense.


If I wanted to protest the fact that my country doesn't have universal healthcare yet, and did so by going to a random restaurant and cutting the power lines, would anyone view it as a sincere or productive rebuttal if I replied with "Oh, I'm sorry, is me trying to save lives getting in the way of you enjoying your chicken nuggets??"
Perhaps a self immolation would work better. I think in the Vietnam war era it did help to punch it home to disengaged Americans that wow maybe there really is some suffering happening which people have been trying to bring to our attention.

Overall I think people will go on ignoring "sensible" tightly targeted protest, and only seeing freaked out young people when it gets awkward.
 
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