Spanish climate activists sprayed red paint across a superyacht owned by billionaire Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie in Barcelona on Friday, the second time the yacht has been the target of protests in the past two months.
Spanish climate activists sprayed red paint across a superyacht owned by billionaire Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie in Barcelona on Friday, the second time the yacht has been the target of protests in the past two months.
Literally no damage done to the boat will ever actually financially harm the removedionaire. That's not the goal of protest - though it's certainly a bonus when it's achievable.
Yes, really. There are no ethically sound reasons for a person to have all this money when there is so much inequality. Moreover, there is no ethical ways to accumulate all this money. If you are billionaire either you or your daddy had to do a lot of explicitly unethical shit, and in order to retain it, you have to do unethical shit, actively, right now.
You really think they give a shit? About something like this? They just pay someone $200 to clean the yacht. Sink it and they just buy a new one. This isn't anything.
Governments should stop billionaires. Tax them 100% income tax after a certain amount of income, tax them 50%% of their networth yearly after a certain amount of value.
I don't think there ever was a time where not the richest were in power. From warlords to kings and now politicians in the pockets of CEO's or shareholders by extension, people in power amass riches and with it more power.
100% agreed, billionaires should not exist. It's absolutely disgusting that they do. They'll take and take and take and take some more. If you haven't seen it yet, please check out this site visualizing Jeff Bezos' wealth. These people believe that they owe nothing to a society that gave them the tools, infra, security, and workforce for their companies to succeed. The level of excess is really unfathomable, and this chart is like Power of Ten for helping you understand the difference in a few zeros.
More mandatory overtime for her staff. She'll never know it happened unless one of her social media managers sees it on Twitter and mentions it to her.
And then they buy more red spray paint on Amazon because Walmart was out .
Side note, didn't the movie company make bank from people buying those V for Vendetta masks to protest against corporations or something? Vague memory of it
They got their message on international news, and they did it targeting the super wealthy instead of blocking traffic or otherwise hindering innocent people. Frankly I don't care if the crew has a 'headache' being paid to clean up some biodegradable paint, they're just being paid for one task instead of another. What actual harm of any kind has this done? The benefit might be small but it's nonzero unlike what most of us are doing.
Because targeted vandalism is easier and more satisfying to animalistic urges than the long work of organizing political backing, running for office, enacting societal change
A spokesperson for Marina Port Vell said that the boat had not been damaged in Friday’s action. “After a quick action on behalf of the security team, the incident has been corrected and the boat is now in a perfect state,” the spokesperson told CNN.
Cannot stress enough that a new paint job is not the kind of action that's going to fix jack shit. More than likely, it's barely an annoyance. Few people on the planet have not heard the message already. If you don't want them joyriding a massive yacht everywhere, remove the yacht.
So, while you're entirely correct, someone on the team of "let's harass the inconceivably wealthy" would probably still appreciate this action because it's better than nothing.
It's also possible they're trying to get the media to cover it more, rather than cause actual property damage
Uh. Lemme check. Yes. We're well past the "please stop killing me, it's really mean :(" stage. They know. They are choosing to jetset anyway.
If the disgustingly rich haven't shifted their focus by now, they've basically made their stance known already and stuff like this strikes me as just toying around. It makes activists feel like they accomplished something, and then it's rectified quite literally the same day and everyone continues about their business.
And end up like Will Van Spronsen, who was called a terrorist and demonized by almost everyone for doing good. (Reddit would suspend your account just for mentioning him.)
The super wealthy's propaganda tools are more powerful than ours because they control the media, and there aren't as many people who are awake to what's happening as you might think. I'm all for direct action like what you describe, but we still need the red paint to make people aware of what's going on. And I promise, it does do something. What do the unlovable rich want that they can't buy? Love and respect. (Look at fucking Elon, that pathetic insect.)
I recently read a sci-fi book called "Station Six" by an anarchist author who goes by S.J. Klapecki. Let me quote one of the characters:
He wants to live like good King Arthur, loved and cherished and appreciated by his serfs. I like throwing a wrench into that. I think it's important. And, who knows, maybe the next set of malcontents will learn something from us. I doubt it, but there's my optimism for ya.
You and I look at the activists pictured and think, "What was the point," but the majority of people are still learning their ABCs of why this whole system is fucked. Sure, I'd have preferred the ship got destroyed completely, but these folks still did a brave act that has hit that sweet spot where it will get media attention without being entirely buried like a Will Van Spronsen (who, for the record, is a god damn hero and I'm not disparaging him at all).
Yeah, one of the big countermeasures being the people who live on board, as in, the crew. I hope they can sleep at night knowing they killed a working class schmuck. Fire, or these more outlandish ideas of explosives and scuba shit, will almost certainly get the crew members if it's enough to actually sink a yacht like this.
Super yachts are built similar to cruise liners. Compartmentalised below the water line. You breach one, it gets detected and will seal it off. They are obviously gonna be connected to several alert systems and will notify the owner or whomever is in charge of maintenance. If anyone does manage to damage the hull, gonna have to do it more than once.
For a boat that big, you can get into the idea of an economic loss. For example, flooding the engine room for long enough can ruin the engines, and make the cost and time of repair high enough that you can practically rebuy the boat with the price.
Obviously it is insured, but insurance goes up when you’re the target of economic terror attacks (To think I live in world where I get to type that sentence). Also there would be the wait for a new vessel. And maybe… just maybe, the Waltons might think, “hey, maybe some people are upset we have a $110 million boat while our employees are on food stamps.”
Underwater cutting torch. Edit: now I’m bullshitting. No idea whether somebody would get sucked into the hole or whether there are underwater cutting rigs that don’t rely on surface support.
I've had traffic blocked while I was cycling to work by eco protesters and lamented they were targeting the wrong folks here- so they're doing what they can to target the right folks.
no matter what people do to try to draw attention to the right focus on the issue, there will always be thumb typers saying its wrong, so good work
Yeah but blocking traffic is just as valid. Frankly too many regular people just don't give a shit about climate change. We need to do anything to spread knowledge.
With the added bonus of letting these people know that them and their assets aren't as hard to get to as they like to think. Trust that this won't end with paint.
Here's a personal finance tip: Don't buy a yacht, or any boat, like, ever. If you really want one and have the money, just rent one, these thing costs a ridiculous amount of money to maintain for something that's going to be used like once or twice a year at most.
Oh there's lots of times when it's perfectly ok. Like this one. How many of their employees need government assistance? Fuck this rich lady and her superyacht.