Taibbi: On the Loony van Gogh Protest

First: I don't blame the children doing these things all that much. [a] If you believe progressive climate apocalypticism, what they're doing is plausibly warranted. In fact, they're probably not going far enough. Why aren't they blowing up transformer stations? Coal plants? Aircraft? Well...one answer: these are gender studies majors, not chemical engineers... But anyway. [b] They've been brainwashed by progressives--by progressive adults, media, universities, government...and one of our major political parties. The fault lies mainly--or so I guess I'd say--with the scientists and scientific institutions who are going along with progressive climate hysteria. And of course, as usual....I blame...the progressive left!!! dun-dun-DUUUUUNNNNNN.... 

   As I've said, I just don't believe in climate apocalypticism. I don't believe climate change is an "existential threat" to humanity...but, then, so far as I can tell, neither does the IPCC... And this all fits a standard progressive pattern: fabricate or exaggerate a crisis, then leverage it to accomplish pre-existing political goals. 

   But: given the theory relentlessly flogged by the left...can you really blame people for thinking that radical action is justified? In fact, demanded?

   Anyway.

   Different point: the group in question said something obviously stupid and false...unless they're even stupider than they seem:

I happened to be rereading Fahrenheit 451 when news arrived that a pair of protesters from a climate action group called “Just Stop Oil” hurled tomato soup at Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at the National Gallery in London. A spokesperson for the group, Mel Carrington, was quoted in the New York Times saying the choice of art was irrelevant, since the only thing important about “Sunflowers” was that it was famous, “an iconic painting, by an iconic painter.” On the other hand, the choice of Heinz Cream of Tomato was more “symbolic,” because some can’t afford to heat up a tin of soup.

Look...no one is that stupid...right? RIGHT???

   Anyway, this good point from Taibbi:

I don’t buy the idea that thought was put into what to throw at a Van Gogh, and not where to throw it. It’s just too much of a coincidence that campaigns of kids dumping on Botticelli and Van Gogh are taking place in the middle of a years-long war on art, literature, music, humor, and even math and science, when there are movements to obliterate entire fields like classics, and professors are fired for everything from reading passages from great books to teaching subjects students deem too difficult. Young people seem more and more to come out of college convinced ancient thinkers have nothing important to teach them, and may even actively symbolize the politics of exclusion, à la Beethoven. Whoever is teaching these kids is robbing them of all the joy of learning, and using them as political pawns. Another theme of dystopian literature that’s proved depressingly on-target is that the youthful urge for idealism would be appropriated for society’s ugliest work, especially destruction. “I’m afraid of children my own age,” says young Clarisse in Fahrenheit 451. “They kill each other. Did it always used to be that way?”