That’s just because they live in the 21st century.

shrug Where I live, cars feel (and know) that they’re invincible and likely to suffer no punishment if they kill someone.

Drivers like to think that they can do no wrong all the time, not just when it suits their purpose.

This might be survivorship bias. If you get hit by a cyclist, you might - worst case Ontario - break a limb or something if they send you flying into something else. If you get hit by a driver, you are definitely going to break something and you will most likely die.

As for how likely it is that you actually get hit - do you think it’s easier to avoid a 2’ x 6’ object moving at 15 mph or a 8’ x 16’ object moving at 45 mph?

You’ve waited years for this moment, haven’t you?

Reserving judgment, but “unfiltered” places on the internet usually tend to veer one way.

Hey, everyone deserves two or three back and forths before I write them off as not really wanting to have a debate on a thing

Currently the earth is overpopulated and many parts of the world are only just starting to slow their population growth. The problem of crowding is going to be here for awhile. Eventually it would be great if we could reduce our population to the point where there’s plenty of space for all, if that sounds utopian to you, but for the time being we’re going to have to live in denser areas if we want to deliver amenities and services to all (and we do).

Dense and (I guess I should have said or) urban areas. If these people are moving to the outskirts of metro areas, they’re creating a dense, if not urban, community.

https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html

Tbf, people moving from rural areas to more dense and urban areas is kind of inevitable as time goes on. Megacities when?

I’m not even going to wait for you to come up with a new angle to come at me with.

I award you the Useful Idiot Ribbon.

Sorry, I wasn’t aware that animal abuse is on the same level of inanity as throwing soup at a painting. You’re being insanely disingenuous.

My argument is not “if a protest is uncomfortable, then it is effective”.

It is “how can you in the same comment say ‘this is a stupid way to go about risking jail for a noble cause’ and ‘there never has nor will there ever be such a thing as “the right way to protest”’?”.

This exactly. Protests happen more often than people think. It’s just easy to bury it.

Morally, perhaps not. But legally yes, justified crimes are still crimes.

Mmmm, yes, we are

I hear that, really I do. But here’s the thing - if you don’t have faith in humanity then we’re all screwed anyway. And nihilism is not the answer. Never is.

And why is that? At least partially because a) like it or not, oil barons have a lot of influence and b) people are whinging about it, which makes judges think that they’re doing the will of the people.

Perhaps you are. I would assume you’re already probably at least somewhat on board with environmental causes.

How do you think a person who lives in the middle of nowhere, doesn’t have much of an education or anything, would react if they saw someone doing this? Probably that they must care a lot to get arrested for doing something intentionally. What makes it worth it? What are they about? Oh, something called Just Stop Oil… oh, an environmental group. Something called climate change? If it’s actually happening, I guess we should be doing something about that.

Uh… do you know what their punishment is for this? They usually get carted to the local jail, held for between a few hours and a few days, then released once the media have gone away. The offense is so minor that the punishment is the equivalent of getting lost in a corn maze. Usually, the JSO people are older people who don’t have much going on and so it’s literally no skin off their back if they have to sit in the local jail for a few days. (Also, UK jails are much more humane than US jails, so they don’t really suffer)

See, I don’t think you do. I’m not trying to No True Scotsman you, but if you agree that protests inherently have to upset people a little bit, you can’t then turn around and say “but don’t upset us like this!”. You don’t get to pick and choose what protests are morally correct or even worth it - that’s the protestor’s job, not yours!