Vox Tries To Defend Protestors Who Vandalized The Van Gogh Painting

Last week, protestors threw tomato soup on a Vincent van Gogh painting and then glued themselves to the wall of London’s National Gallery. Most people simply wrote the protestors off as lunatic attention seekers, but not Vox.

To writer Aja Romano, the protestors exhibited an act of "thorny brilliance."

The threshold for brilliance is now — at least according to the folks at Vox — exceedingly low.

The protestors hucked a few cans of tomato soup at van Gogh's Sunflowers. The painting was just fine because it sits behind a big sheet of glass. As you might expect, the two protesters weren't bright enough to realize this, turning their act of rebellion into nothing more than an inconvenience for the poor sap who had to mop up the soup.

Easily the best part of that whole thing was when they missed the irony of yelling about families not being able to "afford to heat a tin of soup," and then wasting one.

If that was intentional, then bravo.

These two were protesting on behalf of Just Stop Oil, a "coalition of groups working together to ensure that the government commits to ending all new licenses and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK."

Well, if that's what they want. It's been going well for California.

Vox Tried To Argue These Two Were Playing 3D Chess

While most on social media saw the protest for what it was — an act of self-indulgent attention-seeking that did nothing but alienate the people whose opinions they were trying to change — Vox tried to argue that wasn't so.

No, these two had drawn up a trick play for the ages...

The Vox writer concedes that upon learning the painting wasn't harmed, their opinion shifted. From "horror" to thinking it "might be the best protest ever."

"There’s a huge difference between a climate protest that destroys art in the name of saving the planet and a climate protest that threatens the destruction of art but doesn’t actually go through with it," Romano writes.

So this was all part of their grand scheme?

They have since claimed that it was and that it was intended to open a dialogue about the fossil fuel industry.

They failed at that endeavor because all anyone has talked about was the act of throwing soup at the painting.

People and outlets who defend these two act like they just changed the world. They didn't. None of these "look-at-us" protests have ever changed anyone's opinion let alone the world.

The best this could do is open a dialogue, but it failed at that because now people just say "Hey, they could've messed up that painting" instead of discussing oil and fossil fuels like they wanted.

And even if it had are people like these protestors, outlets like Vox the type who would sit down for an exchange of ideas. Nope. They'd accuse you of xenophobia because you simply pointed out the need for oil.

A Just Stop Oil Protestor gets escorted off the pitch during a soccer match in London. (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)

Vox's Defense Is Misguided

If anything Vox is doing a disservice to anyone who is actually trying to affect any country's energy policy by making it look like lunatics like these two are the kind who move the needle.

We shouldn't be surprised though. People on the left love performative nonsense that accomplishes nothing but makes them feel like the hero in their own little story.

Frankly, it's sad.

Just Like Oil is the kind of organization that loves to do this. They feed off the little bit of positive attention they get from running on the pitch during soccer games and trying to mess up paintings.

It accomplishes nothing. It doesn't combat climate change or stick it to the oil industry.

All it does is inflate their undue sense of self-importance.

It will keep happening as long as outlets like Vox clap like seals whenever someone decides to "make a statement" like this.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle