This organization clearly wants to have it both ways. They are hiding behind the guise of advocating for "democracy" and claiming to be repressed by the state, but they are actually advocating for a very, very unpopular and <i>undemocratic</i> position and resorting to undemocratic methods to achieve it.<p>Championing people like Ghandi or Mandela is a false equivalency as they actually fought to increase suffrage and representation. Just Stop Oil is advocating for non-democratic means to their specific policy positions. Maybe they are right in the long run, but they are not being intellectually honest about their justification.
Good. Two years is a proper sentence, even if they are only likely to serve half of it per the article. These kinds of moral outrage stunts do very little to further their cause, make A lot of people angry, and have the real chance of damaging property and harming people. The latter by which I'm thinking of blocking traffic, which includes emergency vehicles.
I believe they are doing this mostly to get attention, with the hope that <i>some</i> of the people who hear about the action will also take a little time to learn about the issue.<p>There are climate-change protests every day worldwide that get no attention from media at all.
If I want the public to tune out of climate issues in disgust, I can't think of a more effective way than throwing soup on Van Gogh while crying "Climate!"<p>The cynic in me wonders if somebody is funding these protestors. If I were an oil baron I would feel deeply indebted to them.
Good.<p>My problem with Just Stop Oil is all their activism is just targeting people that have nothing to do with oil. They could be much more productive if they petitioned governments or people in power to change energy policy but no all they do is make the lives of people that have nothing to do with it miserable.<p>Their logic goes something like: "if I splash paint on this painting or block traffic, people will see our message and that will motivate them to join our cause". But in reality those people aren't going to be motivated to join your cause, they will just think you are a giant asshat.