Hey, everyone deserves two or three back and forths before I write them off as not really wanting to have a debate on a thing

A cable subscription isn’t a depreciating asset, though.

The cultural victory, if you will.

Currently the earth is overpopulated and many parts of the world are only just starting to slow their population growth. The problem of crowding is going to be here for awhile. Eventually it would be great if we could reduce our population to the point where there’s plenty of space for all, if that sounds utopian to you, but for the time being we’re going to have to live in denser areas if we want to deliver amenities and services to all (and we do).

Dense and (I guess I should have said or) urban areas. If these people are moving to the outskirts of metro areas, they’re creating a dense, if not urban, community.

https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html

Tbf, people moving from rural areas to more dense and urban areas is kind of inevitable as time goes on. Megacities when?

I’m not even going to wait for you to come up with a new angle to come at me with.

I award you the Useful Idiot Ribbon.

To be fair, they are older. They don’t have much time left on this earth and they don’t have the ability to adapt to change as well as younger people. Most of them are not exactly financially stable, and they’re worried that their routine could be disrupted by forces beyond their control. That being said, fear has always been a great motivator, especially for conservative/reactionary types.

Sorry, I wasn’t aware that animal abuse is on the same level of inanity as throwing soup at a painting. You’re being insanely disingenuous.

My argument is not “if a protest is uncomfortable, then it is effective”.

It is “how can you in the same comment say ‘this is a stupid way to go about risking jail for a noble cause’ and ‘there never has nor will there ever be such a thing as “the right way to protest”’?”.

I think the fact that you’ve spent a lot of time in liberal organizations is why you think that way about where it falls on the continuum between progressivism and conservatism.

Interesting that you characterize my statement as "both sides"ing. I would say the thrust of my statement is not “both sides” but “one side”. America does not have a progressive party, only conservative and conservative-lite. Given the choice, of course I’ll choose the latter, not least because the former is so far off the deep end it may never recover as a party. That does not mean I think that both parties are the same.

Visually:

--------Progressivism ------------------------ Center ------ Liberalism --------------------------- Conservatism.

Liberals and conservatives are more similar than liberals and progressives.

I don’t know about civic duty. In my opinion seniors are more uneasy about any policy that might change their lives in any way, and they tend to vote to maintain the status quo.

This exactly. Protests happen more often than people think. It’s just easy to bury it.

Morally, perhaps not. But legally yes, justified crimes are still crimes.

Mmmm, yes, we are

I hear that, really I do. But here’s the thing - if you don’t have faith in humanity then we’re all screwed anyway. And nihilism is not the answer. Never is.

And why is that? At least partially because a) like it or not, oil barons have a lot of influence and b) people are whinging about it, which makes judges think that they’re doing the will of the people.

Perhaps you are. I would assume you’re already probably at least somewhat on board with environmental causes.

How do you think a person who lives in the middle of nowhere, doesn’t have much of an education or anything, would react if they saw someone doing this? Probably that they must care a lot to get arrested for doing something intentionally. What makes it worth it? What are they about? Oh, something called Just Stop Oil… oh, an environmental group. Something called climate change? If it’s actually happening, I guess we should be doing something about that.