"Let's stop giving these attention seeking adult-toddlers the coverage they clearly crave," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted last Saturday (not long before his own government collapsed). That came in response to a shocking viral video of two young people slinging canned tomato soup onto a glass-covered painting by Vincent van Gogh in London's National Gallery, and then gluing themselves to the wall behind it. Gasps can be heard in the background. Someone says in astonishment, "Oh my gosh." Another calls for security.
Meanwhile, the two activists — both in their early 20s — have been called just about every name in the book, including "philistines, barbarians, idiots, [and] terrorists." Others have baselessly suggested that since the organization these young people represent, Just Stop Oil, is funded by Aileen Getty, this act was just "performative. Oil companies pay them to make actual real activists look 'crazy.'"
