Slander, shame, jail, divide and kill: how to silence an environmentalist in five easy steps

By Dilip -
Venice is drowning, Brazil is burning, the ice caps are melting. With these stark realities, the age of climate change denial might finally be coming to a close. But don’t rejoice just yet. The climate conversation still has a way to go. At the recent COP25 meeting in Madrid, Brazil and Saudi Arabia tried to block the words “climate urgency” being used in the UN. But censorship is just the bluntest of many tools being employed to silence climate activists. Here are a few more.

1. Call them names
“Uncooperative crusties”, “tree-huggers” or, in Greta’s case, “brat”, name-calling is the first port of call for those wanting to dismiss environmentalists. Its beauty is simplicity: you don’t need to engage with the people you’re attacking, which is good news as, let’s face it, arguing takes effort and your opponents might very well out-gun you with facts. Name-calling is a way to put down and keep down. While we take solace in the way Extinction Rebellion has responded to such put-downs with good humour, we fear the less thick-skinned might think twice before putting themselves in the firing line.

2. Out their hypocrisy
Greta Thunberg’s yacht crew flew to New York; Prince Harry and Meghan took a private jet.  Calling people hypocrites is an excellent tactic used to divert attention away from good people by showing how they fall short of perfection. Unless you dwell in a cave eating locally-sourced mud, you’re going to have some kind of carbon footprint – and when you do, they’ll be coming for you...
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/climate-change-protest-cop25-extinction-rebellion-brazil-amazon-fires-a9250241.html

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