London cops switch off wifi in the tube to make it harder for climate protesters to organise

#12

Anti-Coasean? In the sense we’re trying to up transactions costs?

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#13

The protesters are doing it wrong. Inconveniencing people, particularly people who thing they are important, doesn’t endear them to anyone and causes their message to be disregarded.

Also, got to be honest, I’ve stopped going to protests as they achieve precisely diddly-squat, while every weird fringe group that’s vaguely aligned feels the need to yell at me. I’ve nearly been in many a fight with animal liberation front fucktards.

What I do now? I go to my MP’s surgery and talk to her. Have a feeling it’ll achieve more.

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#14

Yeah other metro subways have cell service at the stations. Not uncommonly anyways.

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#15

Suppose you were on the tube going to work, or school, or home, or a medical appointment, and the train you were on came to a screeching and indefinite halt due to action by pro-Brexit protesters.

Would this make you
(a) more likely to support Brexit
(b) less likely to support Brexit
© not change your opinion even a little

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#16

Yeah, this. I was going to describe this sort of protest as “self gratification” until I realized that would not be fair to the millions who masturbate to internet porn, inconveniencing no one in the process.

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#17

Right. Because no protest in the history of the world ever achieved anything.

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#18

Your comment simply suggests you don’t understand the seriousness of the problem. We’re well beyond normal approaches. I applaud all these people doing what i lack the courage to do.

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#19

This isn’t about garnering support, this is about making a noise until people start to pay attention and then continuing to make a noise until something gets done. Very few of those in power in the UK are seriously denying global warming is an issue. Now they’re going to have to explain themselves.

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#20

I’m well aware of how serious the problem is - thank you very much. What I am saying is that what they are doing is inefficient and quite probably detrimental to their cause. I know some people who work at Shell - they’ve just been told to work at home while they fix the windows and hire some security. Net result: nada.

They’d be better hiring lobbyists, or PR firms, or following the examples of led by donkeys, or buying ad time, or protesting at their MPs offices. You apply leverage where it is most beneficial. When you are trying to convince someone to change you use reason. Turning a commute into a nightmare doesn’t make anyone care about what you’re saying.

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#21

To use an already overused analogy, if your house is on fire and your baby is inside, you don’t lobby the local fire department to improve its response time, you (and i use this word carefully) fucking panic.

You do whatever you can to get anyone who will listen to stop what they’re doing and help. That’s literally where we are, and if you don’t think that’s a reasonable response, then you don’t understand the seriousness of the problem.

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#22
  • Suppose you were a colonial merchant whose tea shipment was interrupted by a bunch of ruffians in Boston harbor.
  • Suppose you were a resident of Manhattan in 1911 whose commute was disrupted by 80,000 protesters marching down Fifth Avenue in the wake of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.
  • Suppose you were a working-class East Berliner in the 1980s whose weekly schedule was thrown into chaos by the Monday presentations.

The point of public protest isn’t to avoid disrupting anyone’s lives. The point is to force people to pay attention to an issue they might otherwise choose to ignore.

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#23

image

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#24

We did that, and it didn’t work.

If the government and big business were willing to listen to reason then this would have been sorted out 30 years ago. They weren’t, so now we have to take more drastic measures.

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#25

This is just crazy on everyone’s part here.
Turning off WiFi won’t do much, as few parts of the underground have any signal, and any organisation will have gone on well before protesters are in the stations.

Also, this is a terribly targeted protest. If you care about the climate, you should be targeting London’s Airports, or its streets clogged with single passenger vehicles, rather than blocking the most environmentally friendly mode of transit that most people use.

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#26

I think the point is to cause economic chaos, if the people in power won’t listen to reason then maybe they will pay attention to the money they think they are losing.

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#27

Sorry, the correct response is to panic and do something that won’t make any difference, while damaging your case in the eyes of people placed to make decisions?

OK then.

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#28

The important point is that you’ve found a way to feel superior to everyone.

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#29

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There are many many examples in history where protests inconvenienced people and direct change occurred.





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#30

There is more than one way to skin a cat, but if I question the one you’ve gone with (and looking at the success rate of British protests over the last twenty years isn’t effective) I’m acting superior, while condescending to me that “you don’t understand how serious the problem is”. Cheers.

Jesus wept. We’re on the same side, but you’ve managed to make me feel like dipping tyres into petrol and winging them into the sea.

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#31

The problem is you’re telling everyone what they should be doing. I want to know what you’re doing? Have you joined XR to influence policy? Do you have any quantifiable result for your lobbying? These are serious questions, because right now I’ve no idea what we should be doing and I desperately hope this time things will be different.

I had no intention of being snarky at you personally, so i apologise. I’m exasperated at the lack of progress and the desperation of our situation.

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