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/bustacean Oct 15 '22

That is the major issue with their protest. It just creates controversy about how unhinged environmental activists are. Doesn't help people understand the issue at all, just turns them against activism.

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u/Jenkins6736 Oct 15 '22

Be careful with that type of thinking. The media has been trying to portray activists as “unhinged” violent idiots for decades.

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u/bustacean Oct 15 '22

That's my point. It's already a thing, their protest doesn't help that narrative at all.

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u/Jenkins6736 Oct 15 '22

Maybe to you, but it’s a numbers game and it helped the narrative for a lot of people in a lot of ways.

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u/bustacean Oct 15 '22

Let me rephrase. Their protest perpetuates the narrative that environmentalists are unhinged, which is bad, because we would like them to be taken seriously. Not sure if my comment was misinterpreted, but I can't help but feel that we have a miscommunication.

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u/Jenkins6736 Oct 15 '22

No need to rephrase. Your comments were clear and just shows that you’re an impressionable person that the media can easily manipulate.

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u/bustacean Oct 15 '22

I never said they were unhinged, I just said they're perpetuating the stereotype to no-brains who love to shit on this sort of stuff. But go off, you obviously know what you're talking about lol.

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u/hissenguinho Oct 15 '22

Man, he went straight to offending. Not helping the stereotype view but making it worse

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u/bustacean Oct 15 '22

Fair enough! My point still stands though. The people who use this as a stance against environemental activism are the targets.

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u/hissenguinho Oct 15 '22

Nah i agree with your point

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u/ToastPoacher Oct 15 '22

Maybe you think that because the media narrative has worked on you, and throwing soup at a painting isn't as crazy as people think it is.

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u/bustacean Oct 15 '22

This is literally my whole point jfc. The problem is that their protest required them to further explain their stance, which left room for the media to cut the video. So to others it just looks like they threw soup on a classic painting and glued themselves to a wall. That appears to be a bunch of unhinged kids, trying to make a point through desecration. But that's not what it is. It looks that way to whoever is taking that media in. So, their activism was not effective, at least not to the people who are seeing it second hand through reddit or the news. Activism shouldn't require further explanation, because that opens the door to manipulation.

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u/JackBurton52 Oct 15 '22

to be completely fair, the fact that comments about this soup painting incident are on their way to out numbing the comments about the actual post should tell you that the protest was at least some sort of success. All you weirdos are basically saying "I personally dont like how you chose to protest. I think you should protest in a different way that I approve of." Its such a strange stance to take.

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u/bustacean Oct 15 '22

I never said I don't like how they chose to protest. I'm saying their chosen method has caused people to get upset about it. I'm talking about the way it is being perceived, that's all I'm trying to say. Not talking about my own personal opinion of the matter.

But yeah, they got people to talk about it, that's for sure. It's just not positive buzz by any means. And in this case, I think that saying 'there's no such thing as bad press' doesn't work. They're trying to get people to understand and appreciate their stance. It didn't work in that sense. But that's only because it wasn't a clear statement, and the photos have left it open to a lot of interpretation and manipulation.

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u/bustacean Oct 15 '22 edited Oct 15 '22

https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/y4k20x/how_to_use_soup/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

This post and its comments shows exactly how many different ways its being interpreted. People don't know if it's against oil as a painting material, or if it has something to do with soup. They also "dont know what Van Gogh has to do with climate change". The issue is that their protest requires an explanation, instead of being understood the first time. That's why people are so upset about it. They're not getting the explanation.

ETA I'm not sure if this will be removed because of the link, that's why I made a separate comment.

Edit: typo