from Hacker News

Just Stop Oil soups two more van Goghs hours after sentencing of earlier souping

by lando2319 on 9/29/24, 11:48 AM with 57 comments

• by Daviey on 9/29/24, 4:06 PM

  These people will likely end up going to prison, despite the painting being undamaged which is clearly excessive. Even if you dislike the cause or the method they adopt.

  Let us remember that these paintings are behind protective glass, meaning the actual item is not affected. This is a shock tactic protest and to also send a message regarding the recent excessive custodial sentence (2 years!) for the previous protestors.

• by Apreche on 9/29/24, 12:49 PM

  I know they need a way to get attention. But you have to get the attention in a way that doesn’t make people angry with you. Stopping a sporting event or ruining a priceless painting is not the way.

  Try throwing that soup on a politician or a billionaire. Everyone will love that.

• by Eddy_Viscosity2 on 9/29/24, 1:53 PM

  I wonder how the pitch meeting went for this at protestor headquarters:

  Pitcher: We need the public engaged so that we can change policy to help mitigate climate change. So I suggest we vandalize beloved historical works of art. This will prove to the general public not only the value of our cause, but also enamor them to us. They will see that, by vandalizing art pieces, we are the most sensible and trustworthy to lead the way.

  Protestor: I get it, so we vandalize art owned by the wealthy oil oligarchs hidden away in their giant mansions to highlight the disparities between them and those that actually have to suffer the consequences of climate change.

  Pitcher: Nope. We go after the ones in open art galleries routinely viewed and appreciated by huge swaths of the general public. Also, we're going to use soup.

• by JoeAltmaier on 9/29/24, 1:29 PM

  Seems weak, ineffective, theatrical and unnecessary.

• by bitshiftfaced on 9/29/24, 1:05 PM

  They need to get more time in prison than the last ones.

• by lando2319 on 9/29/24, 1:11 PM

  Discussion from earlier souping https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41671548

• by rendaw on 9/29/24, 12:29 PM

  Subject: Just stop oil soups

  Adverb?: two more

  Verb: Van goghs

  Object: hours after sentencing of earlier souping

• by orcul on 9/29/24, 12:42 PM

  My nasty suspicion is that these fools are secretly paid by Big Oil.

• by ajrtka on 9/29/24, 12:23 PM

  How brave! Going after paintings when they could protest wars, inefficient shipping routes for natural gas etc.

  Where would they get their soup from if all use of oil and fertilizer suddenly stopped? Why are they wasting food?

• by LightBug1 on 9/29/24, 12:20 PM

  Good for them.

  Considering the injustice of the sentence given out (relative to what others have gotten for far worse crimes), I'm considering having a go myself.

  Everyone get a soup tin ...

  In other news, the incoming new government have had to release many small time prisoners because of the prison overcrowding crisis in the UK.

• by jgalt212 on 9/29/24, 12:22 PM

  I hate these people. Van Gogh is my favorite artist. I feel like going out and buying a Hummer.

• by Borrible on 9/29/24, 12:48 PM

  I am an avid news junkie, but this one came to me just a few minutes ago via an obscure social media dedicated to anything that satisfies intellectual curiosity. From this I conclude this performance from two days ago is not having the desired effect on the masses.

  To what extent this can be considered a work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, I don't have a clear answer to that yet.

  Although it was the second performance of the play, as far as it is known no Heinz' soups were harmed this time. I will have to ask some LLM on this later after feeding it with the works of Walter Benjamin.