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Fifth Column

Hollywood stars bankroll anti-capitalist eco-warriors who blockaded Burning Man

2023-08-29

[NY Post] Follow up to yesterday's Cluster
These aren’t your ordinary anti-capitalist climate crusaders.

Extinction Rebellion, the radical environmentalists who tried to blockade traffic to counterculture festival Burning Man on Sunday — only to be rammed aside by tribal police — are funded by some of the biggest names in Hollywood, along with an heir to the Getty fortune and outdoor retailer Patagonia.

The group calls itself part of a "decentralized, international and politically non-partisan movement" demanding climate action — and until now has largely stuck to causing disruption in Europe.

Under its banner, protesters have superglued themselves to the Speaker’s chair in the British parliament, blockaded busy roads — often by affixing to each other and the asphalt — and even attached themselves to the top of a plane. Allied groups in Europe have vandalized a Walmart heir’s superyacht.

On Sunday the eco-warriors from Extinction Rebellion, known as XR, were one of a group of activists called Seven Circles who went after Burning Man festival-goers, setting up a blockade of a road into Black Rock City, Nev., to protest against capitalism.

They wanted Burning Man leadership want a ban on private jets, as well as single-use plastics and "unnecessary propane burning," according to a statement released Sunday by Seven Circles. The festival ends by literally burning a tower.

"The time has come," said XR organizer Mun Chong. "Burning Man should aim to have the same type of political impact that Woodstock had on counterculture. If we are honest about system change, it needs to start at ’home’.

"Ban the lowest hanging fruit immediately: private jets. No single individual should have the luxury of emitting 10 to 20 times more carbon pollution than a commercial airline passenger. Burners, rebel with us."

The protest, however, ended when Rangers from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Police Department smashed through the barriers before detaining demonstrators at gunpoint, which XR called "horrifying."

XR, which was first founded in the UK, receives most of its funding from individual donations.

Posted by:Frank G

#8 Emergency services lane was restored. I’m not sure why the Burning Man folks would run the AC in traffic and then turn it off once they begin camping.

Posted by: Super Hose 2023-08-29 16:26

#7 ^I'm sure the protestors came on a bus.:-)

Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-08-29 12:26

#6 Grom the Reflective but the "protesters" driving cars to get there is OK. Necessary evil.

Posted by: Deacon Blues 2023-08-29 12:23

#5 Guess the tribal police train a little different.

Posted by: Skidmark 2023-08-29 09:45

#4 ^People who fight a Holy war don't worry about things like this - it's car owners fault anyway for using cars.

Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-08-29 09:29

#3 So was a roadblock that trapped a thousand cars in the desert heat with their AC running at max good for the environment? Or just a necessary evil they hadn't thought about?

Says a lot that nobody in that line of cars drove through the wimpy barricade.

Posted by: ruprecht 2023-08-29 09:22

#2 They are npcs. They shut their minds down long ago, thus there is no reasoning with them with facts.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-08-29 07:09

#1 Well... they're right. The kind of people who go to Burning Man are exactly the kind of people who need to be harassed by protestors. Not London commuters just trying to get to work.
But hard left having their We Love Us party in the desert.

Posted by: Otto Gurly-Brown9938 2023-08-29 03:34

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