Take this situation that just happened:

? Just Stop Oil protestors have thrown tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery pic.twitter.com/LkJpar1SVv

— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) October 14, 2022

The painting was undamaged.  All of these types of paintings are behind glass to protect them.  Whether or not Just Stop Oil knew that is irrelevant.

My wife asked me why these people would do this?

How did Van Gogh contribute to climate change?

What do they hope to gain by doing this?

She is very smart and I love her very much, but she fell into the trap that lots of smart and rational people fall into: she is a rational actor trying to apply reason and logic to irrational people and their irrational acts.

At the very best, the only logical inference you can draw from this is that these people are “trying to draw attention to the issue.” As though not enough attention has been drawn to the issue already.

We’ve seen this happen where like minded protesters will block traffic.

THREAD: This morning during rush hour, climate activists once again blocked I-395, their third time doing so in two weeks.

They hoped to draw attention to climate change and encourage President Biden to declare a "climate emergency." pic.twitter.com/bIRkfOTBEf

— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) April 13, 2022

"I gotta get to my wife, she's pregnant. What the fuck?" one driver got out of his car to yell at the protesters blocking the highway. "I need to get to her to have my child."

Police arrived and one protester left the road, opening one lane. pic.twitter.com/dcp4nQYxIb

— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) April 13, 2022

Then there are the Tire Extinguishers who slash tires on trucks, SUVs, and cars they accuse of being too fuel consuming.

?600+ SUVS DEFLATED IN 9 COUNTRIES IN WORLDWIDE NIGHT OF ACTION?

SUVs ‘disarmed’ last night in UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Czech Republic & Canada – exactly 2 months before #COP27 climate summit and 6 months since Tyre Extinguishers launch pic.twitter.com/cfwhlLLHiI

— The Tyre Extinguishers (@T_Extinguishers) September 7, 2022

Again, how does this sell their message?

This is effectively very low level terrorism, i.e., “do what we want or will will inconvenience you.”

This is just a lopsided act of political violence.

We don’t seem to understand that because it doesn’t cause permenant damage or casualties.

This is why I keep saying there needs to be a Stand Your Ground law for traffic.

If someone runs out into the street with the intent to block the flow of traffic, you should have the right to keep driving through, and if you hit them the liability is on the person being run over.

(Of course I’ll have to tinker with the language, but the law will be able to separate protesters like this from someone who is having a emergency and is trying to flag down people for help, just as SYG can differentiate between a mugger and a panhandler.  But you get the point.)

The reason is that it’s a moral principle to meet force with force.

Irrational actors are impervious to rational arguments but they do understand force.

I have been saying for a while that it’s time we bring back the use of force in the defense of property.

Property crime is off the charts because of a lack of policing and prosecution of criminals.

It’s the wild west out there and people should have the right to protect what they have when they system fails.

Given what these and other protesters have done, I believe that the defense of property with force should be extended to the defense of a third party’s property, just as SYG covers defense of a third party.

When protesters were tearing down statues, it should have been the right of decent citizens to yeet the rioters.

If someone in front of you at a museum pulls out a can of soup and cocks their arm, you should have every right to stop them with violence.

Explaining to these people that their protests are an annoyance that doesn’t make other want to side with the.

The message that needs to be sent is: “block traffic and stop me from getting to work, deflate my tires, or deface the things that beautify my community and if you survive, you will see the scars of your encounter every day every time you look and the mirror and put in your dentures.”

We are not morally obligated to counter irrationality with rationality, we should be allowed to meet force with force.