Last week, reality TV star Kylie Jenner sparked a lot of hate and criticism online for a 17-minute flight on her private jet. Since then, several other celebrities have been exposed as serial offenders when it comes to taking unnecessary trips on their own respective private jets – with many calling them “full-time climate criminals”. Juxtaposed to this was news of young climate activists trying to vandalize priceless works of art by sticking their hands to their frames. The paintings remained intact, but activists were vilified online for seemingly unnecessary acts of resistance.

There is a common thread connecting the seemingly disparate events – the identification of the bad guys in climate change. Sometimes, in the case of celebrities on jets, they have recognizable faces. Other times, the connection between the villain and the object of public anger is more indirect – embodied in the art worth millions, collected by the super-super rich. But of the two forms of collective anger, it is the private jet-setters who have become the acceptable face of climate wickedness. Anti-capitalist sentiments seem to be on the rise, and “eating the rich” is a familiar slogan (even if its origins are not), making outrage against them an acceptable form – even kosher — form of speech. It’s when young people target art that we get pause – many even mocking activists who divert their anger at valuable cultural artifacts.

The jarring responses to the two incidents show how climate anxiety has become common enough to incite anger against specific individuals. But that doesn’t mean tangible actions follow. In other words, being mad at the Kylie Jenners of the world is easy right now because it’s popular. It is a unique feature of late capitalism in the age of algorithmic public discourse that a radical, anti-establishment slogan like “eat the rich” and similar sentiments have become entrenched in the establishment. In some places, you can now literally eat the rich in the form of their faces on popsicle sticks. Anger at specific individuals who coalesce into climate anxiety manifests in a kind of resigned unease – which begins and ends by simply pointing out the obvious: that some people are more responsible for the climate crisis than others.

But what is the next step? The litmus test for judging where we are in the fight against climate change is to look at the response to the protest that still remains – at least for now – outside the bounds of “civilian” outrage.

“We are here glued to this painting – this beautiful painting – because we are terrified for our future,” said Louis McKechnie, a climate activist associated with Just Stop Oil, who glued his hand to the frame of a painting. of Van Gogh to a London art gallery.

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“I am an art student myself and sometimes I feel that the art world sees itself as existing in isolation from the rest of the world. But, you know, the climate crisis affects us all,” Hannah Bright, another Just Stop Oil activist, told Euro News about her protest of sticking her hand on Horatio McCulloch’s “My Heart Is In The Highland”.

Most of the activists who resort to this specific form of protest are young – many in their early twenties – and face a flood of criticism for resorting to “extreme” means to get their message across. Many of these activists have been arrested – and they join a long tradition of climate activists who engage in civil disobedience and are branded “violent” or otherwise vilified for disruptive protests. Moreover, they are frequented for their age and inexperience – and in the middle of all the conversations on How? ‘Or’ What they did, we lost sight of why. More importantly, public indifference to the angst of young climate activists driving their action betrays an indifference to engaging meaningfully with climate change itself. The younger generation have been tasked with saving the planet – and yet their attempts are dismissed as incorrect when they try.

But the link between art and protest predates the efforts of these activists. Anonymous political artist Banksy shredded a piece of his own work as it was about to be auctioned to comment on corporate greed that commodifies art for elite consumption. Then Banksy parodied other great works of art to make a comment on society’s indifference to climate change – those parodied pieces then fetching millions at auction too. In the years that followed, climate criticism became fashionable – action, not so much.

The discourse on climate change therefore suffers from two essential problems. One, we’ve learned enough now who to blame, but we disagree on how to do something about it. Second, blaming someone is often seen as an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. This is why blame accompanied by action is so contested: it is really about disrupting the status quo in a way that is neither comfortable nor pleasant.

This is why systems of so-called accountability – the law – prey on protesters who cling to famous works of art rather than those we recognize as the real climate “criminals”. For the outrage against celebrities with private jets to actually mean anything, it means taking all climate action seriously, even the ones we don’t like. It would also mean getting a head start on identifying climate criminals – toward identifying with climate protesters. Philosophy commentator Abigail Thorne has noted how environmental activism has always been nonviolent and how these forms of protest have generally not worked very well. Many activists and academics point to the need for direct action targeting the real machines and devices that are actively aggravating the climate crisis.

“When do we climb? When do we conclude that the time has come to also try something different? When do we start physically attacking the things that are eating up our planet and destroying them with our own hands? writes Andreas Malm, in How to blow up a pipeline. The young climate activists targeting the paintings may not have the things that are destroying our planet on their hands, but their form of protest comes close.