By Bryan Chai,
This is a story about idiot climate protesters, but let’s start with a different idiotic protest: the national anthem protests that rocked the NFL in 2016.
Then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sparked a wave of controversy when he began kneeling during the recital of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
He invited others to join him, and some partook in the stunt.
Kaepernick has long claimed that he engaged in these protests to combat racial injustice and push police reforms.
Two quick thoughts on that:
1. Racial injustice and police reforms are two incredibly uncomfortable, and yet incredibly worthwhile, conversations to have.
2. There is, quite literally, no worse way to begin any conversation, especially an uncomfortable one, with a person than by spitting in that person’s face.
The national anthem protests were widely derided as being disrespectful to the American flag, so nobody wanted to speak with Kaepernick about his concerns — they just wanted to yell at him in anger.
And can you blame them? When the conversation begins with disrespect, perceived or otherwise, it’s difficult to wring anything of substance from it. There’s just anger and annoyance.
Seven years later, it appears leftists have learned nothing about tact or the art of persuasion, at least based on the childish stunts from a climate activist group calling itself Climáximo.
According to the Portugal Resident, nine members of that group were arrested Tuesday after they plastered their behinds to a busy highway in the Portuguese capital to block traffic — a familiar tactic adopted by many people who claim to be fighting for the planet.
The stunt mucked up traffic on Lisbon’s Segunda Circular, and it was during rush hour to maximize the nuisance they were causing, according to Fox News.
As to what they were protesting, Climáximo bragged about this little caper on social media and claimed to be fighting against “the government and companies” that have “declared war on people and the planet,” according to a Google translation.
A cada hora que passa, o governo e as empresas condenam mais mil pessoas à morte. Eles estão a destruir tudo o que amamos. Temos de enfrentar a realidade: há muito que o governo e as empresas declararam guerra às pessoas e ao planeta. pic.twitter.com/2sLn6tGGKP
— Climáximo ⌛️🌍 (@ClimaximoPT) October 3, 2023
Now, the video the group shared tried to lionize the protesters — right up until they were dragged off the street and authorities showed up. Then, all of a sudden, the proceedings were mysteriously de-emphasized.
But fret not, others on social media posted a viral clip of these irritating protesters being forcibly torn from the streets, but fair warning: It’s pretty rich with schadenfreude.
Climate activists tried to block a highway in Portugal. Drivers quickly ended it.
This is how it’s done pic.twitter.com/VJKZJDWZxM
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 3, 2023
In the above viral clip, which had garnered more than 82,000 likes as of Friday afternoon, you can see a group of clearly agitated motorists banding together to physically remove the protesters and their signage.
Look, not unlike racial injustice and police reforms, environmental conservation is an uncomfortable and worthwhile topic for discussion.
But these discussions need to be nuanced debates about how to be good stewards (whether it’s of our fellow man or of this God-given Earth) of the future without actively harming or weighing down present society.
That nuance is impossible to find when you’re just angering people out of the gate. Nobody wants to talk about criminal justice reform or environmental conservationism when they’re 20 minutes late to their fifth 10-hour shift in eight days.
And until the left learns this, these little stunts of theirs will never be anything more than just that — little stunts.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
