Things have been going increasingly badly for Extinction Rebellion over the past ten days, particularly in Great Britain. John wrote about this previously when commuters (and the Mayor of London) were already lambasting the group. But now it’s getting worse. After the Brits began busting up the group’s antics, the Americans got in on the action out on the west coast. (Daily Wire)

On Saturday, perhaps inspired by London commuters, Americans shut down two Extinction Rebellion protests meant to shame Californians in San Francisco and Long Beach into submitting to the group’s aims.

In San Francisco — a city which is certainly sympathetic to Extinction Rebellion’s aims — at least the ones that XR typically makes public — an angry commuter wearing scrubs came upon a line of Extinction Rebellion protesters blocking traffic with a huge sign and quickly took matters into his own hands, ripping down their banner and chucking it away, clearing the path for cars to continue on their way.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the video of the angry commuter pitching their sign over a fence, particularly the title. You have officially left the safe space.

https://twitter.com/tyIerzilla/status/1185278788197896192

Meanwhile, in Long Beach, another ER group tried to invade a local burger joint and shut it down. Employees physically picked them up and threw them out of the building as the diners cheered. The police refused to intervene on behalf of the protesters.

Climate change activists raid a burger joint and harass the workers. Neither the employees nor police are having it. People are fed up with Extinction Rebellion. https://t.co/6bIPK4pb9U

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 18, 2019

This was something I predicted as soon as they started shutting down the airport in London. These idiots simply don’t understand the most fundamental concept behind the idea of protesting. You’re trying to win people over to see your side of the debate. You do that by getting your message out in a way the general public might be open to. If all you do is “disrupt” normal society, you’re just going to make everyone angry… at you. And by association, your cause.

Even if I’m one of the people most sympathetic to your climate cause, by the time I’ve sat in the airport for nine hours after you made me miss my flight, I’m running out to buy a fresh bag of charcoal, firing up my BBQ grill as soon as I get home and lighting off my fossil fuel-powered flamethrower off the back deck for no damn reason at all. And when you shut down the highways and the places where the public expects to engage in commerce, you’re going to get the same reaction. This is a good clue that should be absorbed by the Black Lives Matter movement and every other group of any ideology who thinks they’re going to win the debate by “disrupting” society.