A thread about how the media incentivises protest movements to be divisive and counter-productive.

Extinction Rebellion hasn't had a great few months. Its biggest media hits have been for blockading trains & newspapers and crashing Remembrance Day

It's felt like they're craving the attention they got in spring 2019. Becoming the Peta of the climate movement. Some people (me included) have been saying they should quit alienating the public and focus on the big polluters.

And now XR have done exactly that. This weekend they've been targeting the IMO shipping talks in London: a really good target.

But I only know about it from the Byline Times, a site that is subtitled "What the papers don't say". I really hate to be "you won't see this in the MSM" but AFAICT it's true here.

A couple of people stopping a train or turning up at the cenotaph gets masses of coverage, but a protest at a conference with implications for the future liveability of the planet is ignored.

These are really stupid incentives journalists are creating.

If you liked XR's early work but think they've gone a bit crazy since then, maybe this is why.