I have to say whoever did this is good. Close down an international airport for the better part of two days, just before Christmas even, impressive. But evil, unless this was an elaborate way to protest something, but there has been no statement so I guess not.
Its first class terrorism, done the way it should be.
How would it not still be evil if they were protesting something?
I could see a protest blocking transportation, especially if it targeted Conservative MPs, as a poignant protest of Brexit. Still illegal, but a loud statement of “I’ve got your ‘will of the people’ right HERE!”
I think anything that targets general people like that is evil. If they think their cause is more important, okay, but own it.
It could be a way to protest climate change by shutting down a major source of fossil fuel use with nothing but a few electric toys? However I suspect it’s more likely an elaborate prank, which would be a shame.
I totally agree. No one deserves more hours in an airport, much less trapped on a plane.
“We don’t know who did this or why, but bear with us while we construct this eco-activist strawman and then thrash it!”
From the linked article
It hasn’t taken long for The Sun , Telegraph , and Times to point the finger (currently without any evidence) at environmental activists as potentially being responsible for the drone.
I agree with Avyctes that this specific case is more likely an elaborate hoax, but, to answer the question of what kind of protest could do this without being evil; I’ll leave it to Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives
I can’t find the quote I’m looking for, I think it was Nasheed, but it was some leader from one of these low lying island nations who said something recently about their people not just lying down and dying because their country was going under due to sea rise.
I’m sure I’m representing this poorly, but commercial air flight is a huge contributor to global carbon emissions that are causing anthropogenic climate change. As important as it can be to be with family some times, and ‘the holidays’ are a big time for that, I think stopping traffic at a popular airport during the busiest time for ‘elective’ flight, to make a statement about how that is literally contributing to genocide (sounds hyperbolic, but thinking about it, this shit is serious - no hyperbole at all) we, in the wealthy, relatively safe countries need to start thinking about our impacts. As far as I know no one has been hurt from this, so if it were a protest about thinking more about the necessity of this kind of flight, I kind of applaud it. As no one has been hurt (very inconvenienced, sure) I can’t see this as evil.
Commercial air flight is also a primary source of revenue for many low lying countries. I would be surprised if anybody from the Maldives would consider breaking the flow of winter bound tourists from the UK at Christmas.
Ok. You seem to be better informed than I am on this issue politically.
My point was only that if you believed some activity, which was being over-used as a comfort/convenience to some, was literally going to end your people’s way of life and destroy their homeland, it wouldn’t be evil to protest it in any way that didn’t hurt other people physically.
I really don’t think this has anything to do with climate change protests. I was only trying to point out that this wasn’t necessarily an ‘evil’ if the context was right. No one died here.
Plenty of Maldivians would like to curtail tourism; most of the revenue from the industry goes to a small number of wealthy locals and foreign concerns, and the jobs the industry creates are mainly low paid. (This combination is true in most places where tourism has supplanted traditional business, including my own island.) Moreover, fewer than 10% of tourists to the Maldives are from the UK, so they’d hardly be missed.
I was convinced this was the answer, before seeing your post! Send in the Spider-drones!
Or, as it turns out, radio waves. Hold the lasers.
I’m distrustful of mass-disruptions that don’t directly kill people. (The US partial government shutdown won’t directly kill anyone, right?)
“Do you understand what I’m saying?" shouted ■■■■■. “You can’t just go around killing people!”
“Why Not? You Do.” The golem lowered his arm.
“What?” snapped ■■■■■. “I do not! Who told you that?”
“I Worked It Out. You Have Killed Two Point Three Three Eight People,” said the golem calmly.
“I have never laid a finger on anyone in my life, Mr Pump. I may be–– all the things you know I am, but I am not a killer! I have never so much as drawn a sword!”
"No, You Have Not. But You Have Stolen, Embezzled, Defrauded And Swindled Without Discrimination, Mr Lipvig. You Have Ruined Businesses And Destroyed Jobs. When Banks Fail, It Is Seldom Bankers Who Starve. Your Actions Have Taken Money From Those Who Had Little Enough To Begin With. In A Myriad Small Ways You Have Hastened The Deaths Of Many. You Do Not Know Them. You Did Not See Them Bleed. But You Snatched Bread From Their Mouths And Tore Clothes From Their Backs. For Sport, Mr Lipvig. For Sport. For The Joy Of The Game.”
