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XR UK’s new line

I lean towards seeing the new XR UK strategy as a mistake:

WE QUIT - Extinction Rebellion UK

It seems like it’ll be difficult for them to rebrand into a kumbaya hug fest (and they make a good point why such a hug fest is needed: to build solidarity vs the politicians) after all the hate points they’ve racked up. It’d be easier for a new group with a new name to fill that role, while at the same time, I still see some merit in their old role and old tactics.

Years ago, I read the analogy between climate change activities (like air travel) and smoking around kids, which used to be much more common until it was successfully changed as people became more aware of, and less tolerant of, the problems.

Since XR started with radical tactics—akin to physically snatching the smokes out of the mouths of caretakers—their UK branch announcing this new line is a massive increase in tolerance and acceptance and approval of climate-impacting abilities (an increase which holds regardless of whether you thought their old line was wack or awesome). It sends a super weird message.

As always, we’ve got to take care to not blame the problem (CAGW and the corruption boosting it) on the few people actually trying to fix it. I’m not blaming XR here, it’s 1000% understandable that they’re doing this, just sad that this happened and I wish it hadn’t.