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Beege wrote about this story a week ago when the two women who threw soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers were sentenced. Yesterday, Politico published a deep dive into the two activists behind this stunt and how they wound up getting a lot more time in jail than they bargained for.
Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer are about the same age but come from very different backgrounds. Holland grew up in a forested area in the north of England. Plummer was attending a ritzy private school and later dropped out of college after having some kind of breakdown. What they had in common was climate doomerism and gender identity.
Holland had ever been a rule-abider. Growing up in a small village in a wooded corner of northwest England, they were happy. Holland’s childhood was spent, largely, in the forest, or with their head in a book. (Both Holland and Plummer use “they” and “them” pronouns.)
Of course. People who seek out edgy trends seek out more than one. Holland was initially radicalized online.
As a reader, Holland fell most deeply for characters with a penchant for turmoil and revolution. But during their late teens, Holland’s social media feed gave them a sense that the world outside was even darker than the imagined worlds of their books. Holland kept a journal of anxious thoughts hidden under their mattress.
I have a strong suspicion the books in question are the Harry Potter novels and that Holland eventually turned into another woke scold denouncing JK Rowling for transphobia, but that’s just a guess. In any case, both women joined up with Just Stop Oil. In Holland’s case, she was attracted to their recruiting pitch about shifting the Overton Window. If you’ve ever wondered why these groups carry out stunts, like blocking streets during rush hour, that only serve to anger normal people, this is why.
Another activist spoke about how Just Stop Oil was part of a genealogy of activism that includes the suffragettes and the Black Panthers — groups that broke the law and were broadly despised among the public of their time but helped drive some of the great social changes of the 20th century.
