Honestly they seem kinda useless to me. Today, they blocked a bridge which just fucked a bunch of normal people over. Everyone I talked to who was affected by it just said it pissed them off and they've now got less interest in XR.
Aside from that they're blocking construction of a high speed rail, and failing miserably. Bunch of builders have to deal with them playing their bongos and climbing trees by the construction site. Feels ineffective.
I see them as modern day suffragettes, which I weirdly admire.
I don't see any of them doing anything close to radical things like what Emily Davison did.
If you have 20 mins, here's Prolekult's "Selling Extinction".
It explains that XR are largely neolib lanyards cosplaying as progressive activists in order to push ideas like 'green new deals' which, spoiler alert, are actually economic plans to retool existing capitalist power structures to future environmental conditions - while not addressing any of the urgent, fundamental needs of the working class.
That is amazingly stupid, way to not win over the public.
Additionally, I think their founder said something along the lines of "Everybody is welcome, even Nazis if they share the same view on climate".
Lmao you got a source on that?
My parents live next door to the guy, never realised he was such a tool.
Okay, I have to admit I cannot find that quote, so I might have been mistaken there.
But he did say this:
[Hallam] has sparked anger in Germany after referring to the Holocaust as “just another fuckery in human history”.
[...]
In the interview, due to be published in full on Thursday, Hallam said Germans were being constrained by what he referred to as their obsession with the Holocaust, describing it as a national trauma the extremity of which “can create a paralysis in actually learning the lessons from it”.
[...]
When the reporter, Hannah Knuth, suggested to him that the Holocaust stood alone in history in terms of its implementation and scale, Hallam responded: “There are various debates as to whether the Holocaust is unique or not. I know that that’s the conviction in Germany. But with all respect I don’t agree with it.”
sourceHe apologised for his remarks on the holocaust and claims they were taken out of context.
they put out advice telling people to spray paint their hand red and turn themselves into police, XR is either unwittingly harmful idiots or an op
Getting a generation of potential activist put on a police record before they have a chance to do anything effective is so stupid it has to be psyop. The only other option I can imagine is that it's very elite based and they're just throwing flunkies in the trenches until they get to run the system. Neither option is mutually exclusive either.
Zero class conciousness, zero dialectics. 100 percept liberal approved.
XR has a bunch of potential, since it is a widespread group of activists,.with an organizational structure built in, and directions from the top.
However, they are currently super libs, with directions to get arrested (listed in the system?), and organize useless events. It's not their fault, as they are just radlibs who have no understanding of what effective action would be. But their I know a few people involved in my city and they are genuinely smart, caring and concerned people, that could be convinced by real ideological strategy.
A friend of mine was involved with their Danish branch. Her impression is they are a bunch of libs that care more about partying, bickering with each other and walks rather than real action. Also seems to have a lot of toxic idpol stuff going on.
In general a lot of people will get pissed when their day gets interrupted due to direct action. Its the nature of things, and people do not like when their otherwise peaceful day of going to the office and doing nothing there gets interrupted.
I actually organized a group here in canada. I went through a short phase where I tried to motivate libs I thought once they got active in organizing they I could build class conciousness, internationalis.
LOL no, Canadian libs are a full on fucking waste of time. Just as reactionary as conservatives with a facade of progressive performance.
