Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Sunday Listicle here on Trauma Response! Get excited because I don’t have a listicle for you today! While thinking about what list I should make, my mind kept wandering to more topical matters I wanted to discuss, whose value would only depreciate as time went on. So today, instead of your normal listicle, we will be discussing one of my favorite topics here, and that is activism! When is activism good activism? When is activism effective activism? When is activism stupid activism? Let’s get into it!
On October 14, 2022, two members of the climate activism group Just Stop Oil were filmed throwing a can of soup on Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers” located in the National Gallery in London. The video was uploaded to Twitter where thousands upon thousands of people viewed it and subsequently gave their takes on it. Initially, reactions to the video were positive, “You go, girls!” “Finally people will take notice!” etc., but, in what I would say is a bizarre turn of events, many people began retracting their statements and denouncing the act as “stupid” and “nothing.” Normally when activistic events like this happen they have a bit more longevity, this is probably the first time I’ve seen an instance like this flare out in a matter of hours.
When I was first made privy to the video early in the day I had nothing to say because I already thought it was batshit and stupid. What could throwing a can of tomato soup on a painting by a long-dead depressed artist possible accomplish? It’s fucking stupid, I’m sorry. I’m 1000% on board with climate activism and it’s something that my generation will have to address directly, but, my god, what a stupid little gimmick. The painting was protected by a pane of glass, so no damage was done there, and I could care less about the integrity of the frame that the tomato soup probably warped, but I still found the whole thing tasteless and obscene.
When support for the event began to falter, the narrative quickly turned to, “Well, at least they’re bringing awareness…” To what? Climate change? Fossil fuels? The group is called Just Stop Oil and the two girls were wearing shirts emblazoned with just that, so we know what they’re all about. Climate change isn’t a new thing, climate change isn’t something people have never heard of, this isn’t the 80s. Bringing “awareness” to climate change in and of itself is needless at this point (we already have Greta Thunberg), and to do so in such a bizarre manner like throwing tomato soup on a piece of art just makes the whole thing that much bigger of a joke. No one needs to be told about climate change because it’s something that many people have lived with their whole lives.
“At least they’re doing something,” is another excuse. Do. Something. Better. I am not an activist, I have never claimed to be an activist, and quite frankly I have no plans to become an activist; if I was an activist, and my boss(?) told me to go throw tomato soup on a painting at the Art Institute of Chicago I would laugh in their face and assume they were joking because, again, it’s just so dumb. While yes, I assume they are doing something, everyone in the whole world is doing something, it doesn’t matter if you’re just doing something when it comes to activism, it matters if you’re doing something important. The point of protest, and the greater point of activism, is to go after the ones in power. A Van Gogh painting in a museum has no power, and the only ones you’re putting out by throwing a can of tomato soup on that painting are the poor museum archivists who have to make sure it’s undamaged.
Though the dust finally settled and most people were bored of the soup drama and tired of hearing about it, some people had final hot takes to deliver. I issued a series of tweets (which I later deleted because I didn’t want the trouble) responding to one person saying, “you really can’t do shit in protest without someone crying about the comfort of the ppl bro we will never get anywhere.” They went on to compare the soup drama to blocking roads, another topic I’ve covered, and I found that quite interesting! When you think about it, blocking roads and throwing soup at paintings are similar, albeit minutely, but not for the reason that the person who tweeted about it seemed to think.
While yes, I’m sure having your roads blocked by cyclists in metropolitan Chicago and having a can of soup thrown on your favorite painting might be “uncomfortable” for some people, both of those activism efforts do two things similarly: ostracize the people who you’d hope would join your cause, and divert political action towards those not in power. People who drive cars are not the ones responsible for the lack of bike lanes, in the case of the car-blocking activism, nor are the patrons of a museum or a Van Gogh painting responsible for the actions of the oil lobby. People aren’t upset because they are “uncomfortable” that you’re blocking their traffic or defacing their art, they’re upset that you’re taking political anger out on them, the common folk with equally as much power as you do. The oil lobby and the Chicago city government are more powerful than Joe Schmo going to a museum or driving a car, so you’ll have to try a bit harder to get their attention.
Still, the internet works in mysterious, and very quick, ways… It didn’t take people that long to find out that Just Stop Oil was run by… you guessed it… the oil lobby! That’s right, folks, the activist group Just Stop Oil is funded by The Climate Emergency Fund which was founded by beloved oil heiress Aileen Getty. Jokes on literally fucking everyone. Whether Aileen Getty or perhaps someone on her payroll mandated this act to be done, in an attempt to undermine the actual efforts of climate activists, or these activists decided to undertake this themselves, and they just happen to be funded by Big Oil, who can tell? The conspirator inside of me worries that literally everything is a psyop designed to make everyone look crazy, but, at the same time, the more grounded part of me thinks that this was a real(ly stupid) effort by real activists.
I am not a foe of climate activists, I’m not a foe of any activists at all, but I’m not going to pretend that just because I agree with Goal X I will agree to Method Y. Climate activism is a noble pursuit, but, sorry, there is nothing noble about defacing art. The only thing the soup drama has succeeded in doing is feeding an endlessly hungry news cycle for a few hours and allowing people to make fun of climate activists on Twitter dot com. I don’t write about activism with the expressed intent to dunk on activists, I save my dunking for Marvel movies and politicians, I write about activism because I want better for our activists. I want change, I want a better world, and, yeah, maybe I’m an asshole because I’m not doing anything personally to aid in it, but at the very least I can tell you that throwing soup isn’t going to do anything either.
And that is our show, everyone! What a fun ride! If you liked this article, go ahead and buy yourself a can of tomato soup, just don’t throw it at any beloved paintings by long-dead depressed artists. Originally I set out to write an article about the She-Hulk show today, but I couldn’t figure out how to organize all my thoughts, instead, I will give you a link to this video by one of my favorite film critics who pretty much encapsulates my feelings about the show entirely. Enjoy the rest of your week, my beloveds, and I’ll see you next weekend!
Couldn't agree more!!!
Loved it.