'Am I complicit in a Holocaust?' asks Tom Swarbrick, as Just Stop Oil compares oil and gas giants to Nazis
20 July 2023, 10:59
Just Stop Oil compare oil and gas bosses to holocaust architects
Tom Swarbrick unpacks the complexities of Just Stop Oil's comparison of oil bosses to nazi architects of the holocaust.
Tom Swarbrick began by questioning Zoe Cohen, a spokesperson for the group, saying: "Coming back to your description of gas chambers and the Holocaust and Nazis, how complicit in the Holocaust was someone who voted for the Nazis or the teenager who took part in the Hitler Youth?
Narrowing his question down further, Tom said: "The argument from Just Stop Oil is that ordinary people, everybody listening, has to take action themselves in order to combat this great problem that we're facing, and if they don't, I wonder what to what extent they are complicit?"
Replying to Tom, Ms Cohen stated the group were asking individuals to "pick a side".
Explaining her point about encouraging individuals to "pick a side" Ms Cohen asserted: "It means speak up and act, it means support a civil resistance campaign".
Standing on Parliament Square on Wednesday, six activists made the announcement that they would begin to collect evidence against them to put in front of a court of law.
In a statement, mum-of-two Chloe Naldrett said: “Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi, at his trial sought to defend himself by saying that he didn’t kill Jews because he was only in charge of transporting them to the death camps.
"The judges threw out this obscene defence and he was hanged.
“When those in charge today go to court in the coming years, they will claim that they only facilitated the continued use of oil and gas and coal.
"They will argue that they never directly killed the millions who are already dying and will continue to die of starvation, floods, drought, wildfires and deadly heat.”
Just Stop Oil eco-protesters announce 'legal action' against oil and gas bosses for 'facilitating genocide'
Noting how Tom could involve himself in the campaign group, the spokesperson said: "So it means for you, for example, in your role as a senior presenter on a very big show on LBC, you must start speaking up against new oil and gas".
Tom disputed her point exclaiming: "Otherwise I'm complicit in a Holocaust?"
Struggling to answer Toms's question, Ms Cohen stated: "We seem to be in a position where people in positions of power in all sorts of sectors in the country and globally think that we can negotiate with the melting point of ice".
Concluding Tom asserted that many individuals are "turned away" from supporting Just Stop Oil due to their outlandish and disruptive protesting etiquette.
Regarding the comparison of oil bosses to Nazis, Tom added was "completely unnecessary".
