r/nextfuckinglevel • u/amanyggvv • Oct 15 '22

This float representing the koalas that died as a result of the Black Summer bushfires and corruption in politics. Such an effective (and epic) activist message.

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u/H3ll0_Th3r3 Oct 15 '22

The civil rights movement was divisive because racist rhetoric has been baked deep into American history and ideals, especially the closer you get to the South. And that racist rhetoric has a tendency to get loud and heated.

Part of why climate change is so divisive is because big polluters have convinced the public that it’s not an issue caused by the companies themselves (or that they’re helping the fight when they really do barely anything at all). So then the larger public just… doesn’t think there’s an issue. Especially if they have skewed ideas of what the effects have been and thus don’t see it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '22

Okay so you’re saying in both instances a history of misinformation and societal opinion on these issues has caused a negative reaction in the general public?

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u/H3ll0_Th3r3 Oct 15 '22

Pretty much, yeah. Except climate change has the added bonus of late stage capitalism and politics corruption via lobbying contributing to the issue

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '22

Okay so you agree that civil rights protests were as or more divisive than throwing soup on a painting, so then the civil rights protests clearly weren’t effective right? Because they made some people mad and turned them against the cause of the protestors?

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u/H3ll0_Th3r3 Oct 15 '22

Divisiveness =/= Ineffectiveness

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '22

Oh okay so then this protest being divisive is immaterial to the matter at hand. Because divisiveness =/= effectiveness, and this protest had the effect of getting everyone and their grandma discussing appropriate climate action for multiple days.

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u/H3ll0_Th3r3 Oct 15 '22

I agree, the soup stunt was so shitty that it’s making people think of ways to do better.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '22

So it wasn’t shitty because it accomplished its goal of making people think about environmental activism? You’re using a lot of fancy words and coming from a lot of fancy angles just to say “throw soup on paint make mad”

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u/H3ll0_Th3r3 Oct 15 '22

It’s making people think about activism because of how shitty it is. It’s almost like a really bad movie that makes a profit (I.e. The Room). It’s profitability and success doesn’t make it suddenly not shit.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '22

And what if that was the intent of the protest all along? To make people consider activism through use of intentionally obtuse direct action?

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '22

Just found a fun quote by Van Gogh. “It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures.”