Earth Liberation Fools
Hey, Earth Liberation Front. Way to make your enemies look sensible. Morons.
- Public officials, firefighters and Hummer fans rallied outside an auto dealership to denounce the unidentified vandals who did $1 million in damage as an environmental protest.
“We don’t disagree with the need to improve fuel efficiency,” said West Covina City Councilman Mike Miller. “But vandalism doesn’t get the message across.”
About 25 members of a Southern California Hummer fan club joined officials outside Clippinger Chevrolet for Sunday’s rally. They toured the area where fires early Friday gutted a parts warehouse and destroyed 20 Hummer H2s. Another 20 Hummers and several Chevrolet Tahoes were significantly damaged by fire and spray-painting.
I hate Hummers. They pollute more than just about anything else on the road and their hulking presence makes driving less safe those of us who don’t want to drive a tank. Driving a Hummer is one of the most selfish decisions a driver can make.
But there’s good ways and bad ways to get attention for your cause. Writing letters to the editor and your congressmen? Good way. Handing out flyers in front of car dealerships? Good way. Setting a bunch of stuff on fire? Bad way. (By the way, a burning car dealership creates a lot of air pollution)
If the retards at ELF were smart, they’d concentrate all their protests around Arnold Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial campaign. He owns five of the damned things and he’s on the news 24-7. If they followed him everywhere, they could get some pretty good air time and could avoid being called “terrorists”.
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i don’t agree with the tactics, i hate vandalism, etc… but i’m glad to see someone doing something…
i agree, it was probably the wrong tactic for the ELF to use, but i completely agree with their intent. and at least it got some anti-SUV message on the air.
i agree it could cause bad press for environmentalists, but when was the last time you ever heard good press for environmentalists? it’s always negative. i’m sick of the media treating environmentalists, and other protesters, like they’re a bunch of cry-baby hippies. or in the case of satirical critics such as al franken or michael moore, it’s too easy for people to dismiss their message in light of the entertainment value of their tactics.
although i disagree with the tactics, i’m glad when i see more “revolutionary” tactics being used to spread the word of a cause. the main reason for those tactics is to get attention. and it works. bad press is better than no press at all. when was the last time you saw a mainstream news channel report about someone handing out fliers? or coverage of someone writing a letter to their congressman? that doesn’t happen. fliers don’t get the message out- it’s too easy to throw them away. editorials don’t work- it only reaches a limited ammount of people who read papers, blogs, etc… writing letters to congressman doesn’t work- because they’re in bed with the big businesses and they’ll just send you a generic form letter in return.
i think there should be more people willing to actually fight for their causes. maybe it could actually cause some change. when bush stole the presidency, there should’ve been a billion-man march on washington of people demanding that Gore be put in the white-house. there should have been a revolution. instead, we get a nation of people who just bitch about it all the time in editorials, books, and blogs because we’re all (myself included) too caught up in our own self-centered worlds to actually get out there and really fight. and instead of marching and demanding they impeach bush and throw him in jail for stealing the presidency, we sit and wait nervously as we hope that one of our 9 candidates will be able to win the next election. that’s bullshit. and that’s why bush was able to the white house in the first place.
criticizing the ELF for what they did is useless. if i were to criticize these vandals, i’d say they should’ve fire-bombed the SUV factories when they started producing Hummers,, instead of waiting a couple of years and spray-painting them in the dealers lot. why not march on the factories and try to shut down production instead of punishing the businesses and the people who are too ignorant to know not to buy shitty polluting vehicles?
like i said, i don’t agree with their tactics, but i agree with the intent. someone should be fighting. no, not someone- all of us should be fighting. we shouldn’t be sitting in our cozy offices writing comments on blogs and bitching about injustice. we should be out their fighting an protesting.
like woody allen’s character said in the film manhattan:
Isaac Davis: Has anybody read that Nazis are gonna march in New Jersey? Y’know, I read this in the newspaper. We should go down there, get some guys together, y’know, get some bricks and baseball bats and really explain things to them.
Party Guest: There is this devastating satirical piece on that on the Op Ed page of the Times, it is devastating.
Isaac Davis: Well, a satirical piece in the Times is one thing, but bricks and baseball bats really gets right to the point.
Comment by tom — August 25, 2003 @ 1:04 pm
also, i’d like to add, that i also support handing out fliers, writing letters, and editorials and blogs, etc, as well. i don’t mean to completely discount those tactics- they get the message across to plenty of people. but there is a huge part of this country who are never going to see fliers, letters, blogs, or editorials- they only see what goes on their 10 o’clock news. and if they see something like what the ELF did- it might not get them thinking that SUVs are bad, but it will at least make them think about something.
Comment by tom — August 25, 2003 @ 1:08 pm
although i disagree with the tactics, i’m glad when i see more “revolutionary” tactics being used to spread the word of a cause. the main reason for those tactics is to get attention. and it works. bad press is better than no press at all.
I totally disagree. What extremists like ELF don’t seem to realize is that they’re fighting for the support of mainstream Americans, not against them. Firebombing makes them look like selfish, immature assholes. From now on, every time a sensible argument is made by someone on the left about how awful Hummers are, this is going to get thrown in our faces. Those dumbasses at the Earth Liberation Front may think they’ve gotten some much needed attention for their cause, but they don’t realize that they’ve handed their enemies a rhetorical atom bomb. The whole anti-SUV movement has been seriously set back and it’s all because those morons weren’t creative enough to come up with a better way to gain attention than blowing shit up.
when was the last time you saw a mainstream news channel report about someone handing out fliers? or coverage of someone writing a letter to their congressman? that doesn’t happen.
What about Howard Dean? He was unknown a few months ago, but thanks to his grassroots support on the internet he was on the covers of Time and Newsweek simultaneously. He’s gone from long shot to front runner using the methods that extremists like ELF are too lazy and impatient to rely on. Moveon.org and Arianna Huffington were able to raise lots of money and media exposure for their anti-SUV campaign. Grassroots activism does work. It’s a slow process, but it’s got a much better success rate than vandalism.
Comment by greg — August 25, 2003 @ 1:25 pm
I have to agree with greg on this one - in the entire history of the US, particularly the 1960’s, when people resort to this sort of violent bullshit, all they do is succeed in creating a myth of evil, and tainting the entire movement they claim to be a part of. Furthermore, if blowing up the World Trade center didn’t make us seriosuly consider getting the hell out of the middle east, why the fuck do the Earth Liberation front assholes actually think burning down a dealership would make people stop using them? Now all the Hummer owners will band together as if they’re part of a community, and anyone who tells them to get rid of their hummers will be instantly labled a terrorist sympathizer.
This isn’t just idle speculation, it’s pretty much the history of evry similar event in the us. Think about how people react now when you suggest that we reduce our dependence on oil: “If we do that then osama wins”. They’re going to say the same thing about those of us who hate pollution causing vehicles too. Hummers already have this fake patriotic glamor, now that image will only be boosted.
The thing is, when it comes to political change, bad publicity IS bad publicity. All it takes is one mistep to ruin your entire campaign. Just think of Walter Mondale in the take, Hubert Humphrey breaking down in tears, or Joe McCarthy being called out in front of Congress for having no decency.
Comment by Ross Angeles — August 25, 2003 @ 2:12 pm
I mean Dukakis in the Tank. I wrote too fast to write clearly or accurately.
Comment by Ross Angeles — August 25, 2003 @ 2:13 pm
“What about Howard Dean? ”
you’re right, you got me there… but that’s why i don’t discount the efforts of these more peaceable means of getting a moement going. and in a perfect world, this is all it would take. but more often, it doesn’t happen that way.
“I totally disagree. What extremists like ELF don’t seem to realize is that they’re fighting for the support of mainstream Americans, not against them. Firebombing makes them look like selfish, immature assholes.”
you’re right. and i agree with you… like i said i do’nt agree with their tactics- what i do agree with is the idea of getting out there and really fighting these things. what they did was wrong, they attacked innocent people (it’s one thing to attack a company, but to attack someone’s personal property is dispicable, and hurts the cause) it would’ve been much more effective if they’d blocked the production of these vehicles at the factory. have a bunch of people squat on the assembly-line, or baricade truckroutes, etc… i don’t know…
i don’t know what the answer is. what i’m trying to say is that i wish that there were more people fighting, instead of just reading and writing. unfortunately the ELF had a bad idea that could have hurt people, but at least they got their message out there.
in the past i was never a fan of public protests, i’ve always been one to just try to make myself the best i can, and hopefully lead by example. but last year changed my opinions of how effective protesting can be (or was supposed to be, it still didn’t keep us out of war, but it did raise awareness).
last year was amazing to see how many people were marching and protesting against the war. now it’s sad to see the lone protester still on the corner today, while the rest of us are back to our daily lives… why aren’t we still out in the streets every day? people are still dying! iraq is still fucked up! bush is still the president! people are still driving SUVs! why aren’t we all still out there every day protesting this stuff in more visible ways, rather than commenting on blogsites? and i don’t discredit the bloggers- you are all doing an important thing in raising awareness and keeping an eye on everything. but what good does it do if all we do is sit around reading?
i don’t know… if you feel so strongly that the ELF fucked up, then maybe you should join with them to help to give them better ideas, rather than right them off as extremists and “retards”? maybe they need better leadership. maybe they need better ideas. maybe they need support of like-minded, but more rational people like you who are full of ideas, who can help them to use more effective tactics. try to help them, rather than just call them retards and fools.
Comment by tom — August 25, 2003 @ 2:39 pm
whil we’re on the subject of protesting… why aren’t all the un-employed people marching on washington?
as i sit here commenting on a blog and chastising people for commenting on blogs, rather than taking it to the streets, i feel like a hypocrite. but part of the reason why i’m here, instead of on the street, is that i have to work.
well, all the unemployed people no longer have that problem (yes, i know they are probably busy trying to find a job, but anyway…). they should be marching on washington- or better yet, crawford, and protesting the president and his shitty economy. we should all pitch in and buy every unemployed american a plane ticket to crawford.
Comment by tom — August 25, 2003 @ 2:49 pm
What about howard dean, indeed? as someone with a dicy environmental record and not exactly an efficient car lover himself (he drives a suburban, i think?) id like to know if he could or would do more for getting hummers off the road than the elf.
i’d never use violence. i deplore thier actions.
but i admire thier spunk, by god…
Comment by josh — August 25, 2003 @ 4:55 pm
unfortunately the ELF had a bad idea that could have hurt people, but at least they got their message out there.
Really?? Are CNN and Fox News doing stories about the environmental damage that Hummers cause? Are they spotlighting the abysmal gas mileage that these beasts get? Is the media paying any attention to the reasons ELF is doing this or are they just reporting this as a horrible act of eco-terrorism?
… why aren’t we still out in the streets every day? people are still dying! iraq is still fucked up! bush is still the president!
We lost the Iraq battle. Holding an anti-war rally right now would do as much good as protesting the Florida recount. It’s done. The fact is, the progressive agenda isn’t as popular as it should be. Personally, I think the best thing to do is to try to raise awareness about the evils of the Bush Administration in anticipation of the 2004 election. For me that means highlighting news stories that aren’t getting enough attention through this site as well as sharing my own interpretation on those stories. I also write plenty of letters to my congresspeople and various newspapers. Others have concentrated their efforts behind trying to get their favorite candidate elected. Once a Democratic candidate emerges from the primaries, I plan to do everything in my power to help get him (or her) elected. Either way, not everyone is sitting around reading.
if you feel so strongly that the ELF fucked up, then maybe you should join with them to help to give them better ideas, rather than right them off as extremists and “retards”?
Because there are groups out there whose views more closely mirror my own that I already support. I think Operation Rescue is “fucked up” too, but I’m not going to join their organization and try to convince them that they’re wrong about abortion.
The Earth Liberation Front are a bunch of criminal thugs. They don’t deserve praise, they deserve to go to jail. Have you seen their site? They actually have a document called “Setting Fires With Electrical Timers - An Earth Liberation Front Guide”. This is extremism every bit as severe as those who firebomb abortion clinics. Just because they’re on “our side” doesn’t make their actions right.
Comment by greg — August 25, 2003 @ 5:36 pm