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    Re: Ian - a request for your assessment, please - Archived Message

    Posted by Ian M on September 17, 2019, 9:24 pm, in reply to "Ian - a request for your assessment, please -"

    Hi Rhis, thanks for that. I haven't heard a huge amount of discussion of the tech smokescreen theory in XR but then I mainly keep to the newsletter side of things. Did a search of their online forum for 'morningstar' out of interest a while ago and there were only a couple of mentions, oddly enough. Or perhaps people recognise it as a smear that they don't want to devote energy to, dunno.

    Personally I don't see any convincing evidence of XR serving as a covert pro-tech organisation. Wouldn't you expect to see at least a few articles on their various online platforms lauding 5G or the latest 'renewable' tech miracle if they were trying to lay that groundwork? As SB notes, that's not to say there could never be an effort to co-opt their actions in that way, but... where's the evidence? I've included many renewable-sceptic articles in the 'recommended reading' section of the newsletter and never had any issues with that fwiw. Generally, for better or worse, XR tend to avoid prescriptive solutions with the Citizens Assembly cure-all. Whether that will offer anything helpful in the grand scheme of things is another question...

    I'm in a place at the moment with lots of long-term environmental activists, and while they each have problems with XR's politics (too liberal, too white, too naive re: the cops) that hasn't stopped them from participating and viewing it as a force for good in the final analysis. Judging by their descriptions of meeting loads of their old activist comrades at the April rebellion, it is well supported by those-who-know-best in the 'scene', who probably view it as a continuation of their various struggles.

    Dunno if that's good enough for you but there it is. As ever I'm happy to look at critical analysis (especially if there are constructive suggestions) but if there's obvious bad faith or lack of evidence, not so much.

    Cheers,
    I

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