Climate Protester Or Spoiled Brat? How Destroying Priceless Art Is Actually Just Showing The Ultimate Privilege

Outrage sparked worldwide over recent demonstrations that climate activists have used to further their environmental agenda. Demonstration is a really gentle way of putting it, however, since destruction of private property and timeless art and obstruction of public spaces is really more than a demonstration. These “protests” are militant attacks motivated by privileged people who have no idea how good they’ve got it. If it turns out that they do know how good they’ve got it, then they’re not only privileged, they’re hypocrites who need to stop putting people and paintings in harm's way. 

Climate Activists Are Obsessed with Destruction

It started with tomato soup. Two climate activists from Just Stop Oil, a coalition of environmental activists determined to hold governments accountable for fossil fuel exploration, development, and production, shot the group into the global spotlight when they brought Heinz tomato soup into London’s National Gallery and poured it on Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting. 

Tomato soup can stain but can also be wiped off. After all, the museum shared that the only damage is likely to the painting’s frame. Perhaps the protesters should put their own skin in the game instead to make a bigger statement. Oh wait, they did, gluing their hands to the frame of a 16th-century copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” painted by Da Vinci’s pupil Giampietrino and housed at the Royal Academy. This was followed by protesters throwing mashed potatoes at Claude Monet’s “Les Meules” painting before gluing themselves to the floor.

“Why are we placing a higher value on paintings than we are on the landscapes that the painters were actually viewing in order to create those incredible masterpieces?” said “Last Supper” stunt activist Caspar Hughes, who expressed that his motivation was the “utter hell” we’re facing with climate change.

It’s not limited to art either. A Rolex storefront was spray-painted orange using a fire extinguisher. A wax figure of King Charles at Madame Tussauds in London had cake smeared all over it because stopping oil is apparently a piece of cake.  

The cost of gasoline is already excessively high, but don’t worry – Just Stop Oil will make it that much more expensive to pay for petrol after they deliberately smash up the pumps in protest of fossil fuels. Is it any wonder why these people are being branded as eco-terrorists? I mean, wouldn’t you feel worried if you were minutes away from filling your gas tank to get to work or to get home to see your family, and the gas station looks like a war zone?

What about if you were innocently trying to feed yourself or your family? You’re going down the aisles grabbing the basics, eggs, meat, milk…but then eco-warriors get in the way because they have also turned to pouring out milk on grocery store floors to put pressure on farmers and encourage plant-based milk consumption. 

“We urgently need the government to support farmers in the transition to a plant-based future. In a plant-based food system farmers and the countryside, alike, would thrive. Instead of desolate fields, we could see beautiful woodlands stewarded by independent, well-supported farmers,” said one of the protesters.

The group behind the milk-pours, Animal Rebellion, also expressly stated that the prospect of a plant-based future could eliminate suffering for farm animals, but what about the people who rely on those gallons of now-spilled milk for nourishment? Seems like they’re only interested in eliminating the suffering for some, but not for all.

Art? Trashed. Essential groceries? Trashed. Then there are the protesters who take to the streets and block traffic, which certainly couldn’t impede people from going about their business, right? They’re irritating truck drivers who need to make deliveries, blocking streets that already face extremely heavy traffic like London’s Abbey Road, willfully obstructing drivers to the point of arrest, and even getting forcefully dragged out of the street. Clearly, people are fed up with the public displays of disobedience.

So many questions come to mind when you see climate activists' greatest hits that trigger public unrest. Why is there always a film crew? How come no one confiscated the tomato soup cans from their bags? Where was security to intercept the activists? How exactly do these protesters continue to have a platform to prop them up?

Follow the Money, You’ll Find the Motivation

Just Stop Oil, despite its base in the United Kingdom, relies heavily on American donors. In April this year, their primary funding source was the Climate Emergency Fund (CEF), an American organization collecting donations for climate activism. The 501c(3) gathers small-dollar donations, which you can watch pour in on the footer of their website, but they see enough major donor contributions to be able to distribute over $4.5 million in funding for activism in 2022 alone. 

Billionaire fossil fuel company heiress Aileen Getty is a co-founder and board member who has given more than $1 million to Climate Emergency Fund. Also on the list of major players is co-founder Rory Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy, and Don’t Look Up director Adam McCay, whose recent $4 million pledge to CEF came around the same time he joined their board of directors.

CEF proudly writes on their “Fall Uprising” landing page how their activists have “created a proven method for scaling up disruptive protest” and that Climate Emergency Fund is the lead funder for building up this mass civil resistance. They also wrote that “nonviolent disruption has to continue day after day, week after week, to build momentum, publicity and pressure on the government to respond.”

It can’t be easy to take time off work to go partake in elaborate protests, unless you’re unemployed and receiving handouts from the government or being paid to contribute to the uprisings. Therefore, being able to protest like this is a definitive sign of privilege. It’s a first-world luxury that someone can either survive without a blue-collar or labor-focused job in the first place. It’s also a first-world luxury that someone can comfortably exercise their bold opinions, since many countries worldwide don’t guarantee as many freedoms as Western ones do.

The moralizing, militant attitude of climate protestors is both privileged and classist, though I’d imagine many of them carry a public-facing facade of pretending to be anything but that. They look down on those of us who need fossil fuels to get to work or to do our work. When gas prices go up, delivery drivers feel the pain. Semi truck drivers have to shell out over $1,000 when they used to average $400 to fill up their tanks that deliver goods from manufacturers to retailers, whether that’s essential groceries, office equipment, medical supplies, timber, and everything in between.

Some DoorDash drivers have reported losing 20% of their gig’s income from rising gas prices, which are only worsened by restricting fossil fuels. I hope that belligerent climate activists have fun paying more for their goods and services because when the cost of raw materials and labor increases, so does the cost of the end product! After all, I highly doubt that it’ll get cheaper to produce oat milk or Beyond meat, and I’m certain that it won’t get any less expensive to get that oat milk latte or Beyond meat burger delivered to your doorstep.

Some people work the skin off their fingers to be able to provide for their families. It’s probably easy to look at the American laborer from a myopic view when you’re used to getting paid to protest, but just because many of us are working safer desk jobs now, it doesn’t negate the fact that many Americans still need to work necessary, physical jobs. We’re all just trying to get by, so don’t be so high and mighty about your ideology when it’s directly singling out the people who fuel your lifestyle.

Eco-Activism Exemplifies First-World Luxuries

Furthermore, making an extreme lifestyle your identity is distasteful no matter what the cause is: militant carnivores, militant vegans, militant atheists, militant religious extremists. In the climate conversation, an approach that might actually sit better with average Americans is to not force an ideology down people’s throats. Look, I’m happy for you that you want to reduce your carbon footprint. We can all do a better job of being more mindful about taking care of the planet in measurable ways, but we also have to be realistic. 

We have to keep in mind that our planet is much more resilient than we are. Fighting fire with fire is unproductive and immature, so why threaten priceless art to try to get people to reframe how they think about the environment? It’s noteworthy how hypocritical it could be to constantly bash people for their lifestyle, which is allegedly damaging the planet, while turning a blind eye to the damage that you’re doing.

I’m going to take a page from the playbook of progressives who insist on all of us checking our own privilege. According to scholars, privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of group membership. This can be seen in class privilege, where wealthier people have unearned advantages over those without financial resources due to their greater access to opportunity. Climate protesters might not want to admit that they’re the aggressors or that they’re “complicit in a system that gives them an advantage at the expense of others,” because that would mean having to own up to the fact that things are actually much better than they claim.

Closing Thoughts

Timeless masterpieces are not critical to our survival, but that doesn’t mean they should be used as props to advance a political agenda. Art lets our spirits rise, and the widespread public outrage over Just Stop Oil’s public stunts shows that their messaging of “choosing life over art” is out of touch with reality. This type of activism doesn’t help the little guy, it harms the little guy and is woefully over-funded by elitists who won’t feel the pain when or if their climate agenda is fully seen to fruition. So, I urge you to check your privilege and take a step back because this civil resistance is spoiled and shortsighted.

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