here are some hyper-polluting individuals:

  • the Rolling Stones’ Boeing 767 (5,046 tonnes of CO2)
  • Lawrence Stroll (1,512 flights)
  • Thirty-nine jets linked to 30 Russian oligarchs – (30,701 tonnes of CO2)

relevant quote:

But I will say this, a movement can’t get along without a devil, and across the whole political spectrum there is a misogynistic tendency to choose a female devil, whether it’s Anita Bryant, Hillary Clinton, Marie Antoinette, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or J.K. Rowling [or Taylor Swift]. And there’s always gonna be people who seize on any opportunity to be misogynistic. So I would advise trans people and our allies [or environmentalists] to keep in mind, that J.K. Rowling [Taylor Swift] is not the final boss of transphobia [anti-environmentalism]. She’s not our devil. The devil is the Republican Party, the Conservative Party.

Natalie Wynn (emphasis and bracket text mine)

edit: if you can’t respond to this without using the c*nt expletive it is not helping your case lmao. mods are we okay with this? in any case, please don’t feed the trolls.

edit 2/FAQ: “but why did she threaten legal action against that college kid though?” still shitty, but refer to this comment for a good explanation of the context behind that decision.

She only threatened legal action since those memes started before when her flight movements got the attention of the right in an attempt to make her less credible of a voice speaking out against trump. And knowing how batshit insane trump cultists can be and how she’s basically the single most hated person of his base I’m not surprised that she feared for her security. Those records were public for years but the legal action only happened after someone created that meme and even fox news suddenly cared about plane emissions…

and another good comment

[…] For Swift, this is legitimate fear. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced actual fear for your life, but it’s crippling, and it effects your psyche. To experience that on a daily basis because of an app? You bet your goddamn ass I’m going to talk to my lawyers about what my options are.

sources/timeline for the above:

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    257
    ·
    9 months ago

    Stop trying to make this about Swift being a woman.

    She’s getting all this attention about it because her legal team sent a cease and desist letter to the guy tracking her jet threatening him with legal action over priding publically available tracking information.

    • deaf_fish@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      46
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      Na, she is getting this attention because some very powerful people, who benefit from producing a lot of greenhouse gases, would prefer that everyone be mad at T Swift instead of them.

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        9 months ago

        Or, the much more likely thing that private jet usage has become a big talking point on the inter etc recently and swift having by far the biggest jet emission footprint of any celebrity.

        • deaf_fish@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          9 months ago

          Oh yeah, I agree, it is an interesting talking point. But If you have the goal of reducing green house gas emission, is memeing on T Swift the best target for that? Don’t get me wrong it is hilarious. I just get really frustrated when people say they are doing it for the environment, when what they are doing is mostly ineffectual and playing into the desires of the major polluters (who are very wealthy).

          So in my mind, either a large group of online environmentalist have decided to be less effective at working towards their goal for no reason. Or there is a significate astroturfing thing going on here. Given that oil companies have done this kind of thing multiple times in the past, I think I have a reasonable assumption. I smell bullshit and I am calling it.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      How does this make her “actions wrong”? Because you disagree?

      Yes, it’s legal for him to do what he’s doing, but it is also legal (and completely reasonable) for Swift to challenge that right because she fears for her safety. This is literally what our legal system is for.

      There are a lot of insane people out there (and most of them tracking Swift’s plane at this moment are right wing psychopaths that wish her harm). I really can’t fucking blame her for wanting to do something about it.

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        101
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        So you think it’s perfectly moral for the ultra wealthy to abuse the legal system to threaten and bully random people into submission because they are ruining the billionaires image?

        And again to reiterate, this is all publically available information, anyone who wants to track her jet can do so without the tracker that guy set up. She has no legal standing in her actions.

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          20
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          So you think it’s perfectly moral for the ultra wealthy to abuse the legal system to threaten and bully random people into submission because they are ruining the billionaires image?

          Lol yeah bud, that’s what I said.

          Dude, I understand it’s public information. I understand that current law (probably rightfully) allows air traffic to be tracked, including private jets.

          I was simply doing something that you’re clearly incapable of, and empathizing (you remember empathy right?) with her position. A position that is markedly different than Musk’s, given that she receives a constant stream of legitimate death threats from people known to be violent; she has valid reason to fear for her life right now. I think I would probably do similar in such a situation.

          I don’t think it’s “wrong” for her to seek to do what she can to protect herself, and that includes this.

          The argument that “what they’re doing is legal” is pretty stupid too… I’m not even saying that I disagree that it should be legal, but how do you think laws change? The boundaries of them get tested in courts. This is not an abuse of the legal system, this is using it as intended.

          • gmtom@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            48
            ·
            9 months ago

            Lol yeah bud, that’s what I said.

            That is in fact, literarily, what you are saying and what you are continuing to say in the rest of your comment.

            I was simply doing something that you’re clearly incapable of, and empathizing (you remember empathy right?) with her position.

            Oh wont somebody please empathise with the poor billionaires that are using the insane wealth to bully people for criticising their insane over-use of private jets.

            You guys are doing actual mental backflips to try and make Taylor Swift the victim here and its honestly just kind of sad.

            given that she receives a constant stream of legitimate death threats from people known to be violent

            And those people could find that same PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE information even without the guy’s tracker. So even if he did take it down, she is in literally no better position when it comes to stalkers.

            Literally all getting him to take down the website does is stop people from criticising how much she uses her jet, which hurts her image. Thats it.

            Like if she ACTUALLY cared that much about being tracked and her safety she could just charter private jets instead of owning her own. That way no one could track her. But she doesnt, because its not about her safety, its about her image.

            This is not an abuse of the legal system, this is using it as intended.

            Lmao swift stans are actually neurotic.

            • prole@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              14
              ·
              edit-2
              9 months ago

              Lmao swift stans are actually neurotic.

              FYI (because apparently this needs to be said), I’ve never once purposefully listened to a Taylor Swift song, and besides maybe two, I couldn’t even tell you if a pop song currently playing is her or not. That’s how little I care about this person’s art/music. My feelings toward her can be described as, at most, ambivalent. I’m definitely neurotic though, but that’s unrelated to this subject.

              All I’m doing is empathizing with another human being. Billionaires might be (for the most part, though I’m not sure I can imagine a more ethical way to become one than how she has) awful people, but they’re still people and they deserve basic human rights such as: not being in 24/7 fear for the lives of you and your loved ones because fascists are mad that she told young people to vote.

              I’m not even advocating for taking down the site or making the info no longer publicly available. I’m literally just putting myself in her shoes and rationalizing why she did what she did and understanding that I might have done the same.

              We seem to be having two completely different conversations here, which I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about given that you clearly can’t comprehend nuance. Your clear hatred for this woman is clouding your ability to be a decent human. Do better.

              • gmtom@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                20
                ·
                9 months ago

                All I’m doing is empathizing with another human being.

                And all im saying is you can empathise with her without excusing her doing something immoral like harassing an innocent student.

                Also you keep talking about empathy but refuse to even consider empathising with the guy being harassed by a billionaire celebrity.

                • prole@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  7
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  9 months ago

                  Lol yeah dude that’s definitely “all you were saying”. You’re being such a reasonable interlocutor 🙄

                  She’s not harassing an innocent student. I don’t think it really matters to her who created it. She is just doing the one thing she can do that would maybe give her a fraction of a feeling of security back into her life. Something that I bet most of us, including you, would do. A student being involved is irrelevant.

                  And yeah, I do empathize with that guy as well. Assuming they didn’t create the app specifically for these types of people to be able to harass and endanger her more easily. Which he may have, I don’t really know all the details.

                  Isn’t that crazy? Empathizing with both people in a situation? Wild right?

                  Also, this pretending that it’s about giving her shit because of the environmental impact, give me a fucking break. Let’s not waste everyone’s time with that bullshit. Conservatives only “believe” in climate change, when they can use it as a cudgel against someone they feel threatened by. Actually a textbook fascist move (this isn’t a joke, it really is).

                  • gmtom@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    17
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    She’s not harassing an innocent student.

                    and

                    I do empathize with that guy as well

                    are contradictory statements

                    You are bending over backwards to excuse what she is doing. and its really just kind of sad.

                    She is just doing the one thing she can do that would maybe give her a fraction of a feeling of security back into her life.

                    Like i said last time. If she actually cared so much, she would just charter a jet instead. That would literally solve her whole problem, no one could track her and she would be perfectly safe. But you keep ignoring this point because it doesnt fit dumbass position you’ve argued yourself into where Taylor is just an innocent girl whose scared for her life 🥺 and shes just using her vast wealth to threaten people into doing what she wants because shes sooooo scaaaared.

                    . Let’s not waste everyone’s time with that bullshit. Conservatives only “believe” in climate change

                    And now you’re trying to claim everyone critical of her is a conservative? You dont think there are any leftists out here criticising the billionaire for being one the most directly polluting people on the planet?

          • Sethayy@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            24
            ·
            9 months ago

            There’s no way musk doesnt get nearly a billion death threats per day, but when your job is to be known by as many people as possible, it scales up the good and the bad.

            But if either of them are having a bad day I’m sure they can dry their tears with a couple hundred dollar bills and sue some more poor people into dust (completely legally!) to make themselves feel better

            • prole@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              11
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              9 months ago

              I would bet my next paycheck that Taylor Swift gets at least one order of magnitude more death threats on a daily basis than Elon Musk. At least.

              Let’s just say there are certain demographics that tend to lash out in that manner, and they seem to overlap quite a bit with Musk fans.

              And yeah dude, I get it. They’re billionaires, it’s hard to empathize. I agree to a point that they should shut the fuck up and just wipe their tears away with $100 bills. But in this case, when we’re talking about legitimate threats against her life constantly, by people who have shown to be very capable of carrying out such threats, then I can start to see why she is doing what she’s doing. Just because she’s got money doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve to live a life free from that kind of fear.

              That’s all.

              • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                9 months ago

                I would bet my next paycheck that Taylor Swift gets at least one order of magnitude more death threats on a daily basis than Elon Musk. At least.

                I worked in video games, and at one company there were five game designers, one of them a woman, the rest men.

                I think she got a death/rape/etc threat once a week. One of the other designers had never even been messaged, and another designer was also the Community Manager. So, despite one guy being the literal face of the company, the single named woman on the design team got almost every single threat.

                She left the industry, which is worse for it, but I don’t think anyone thought she made the wrong choice.

      • Red Army Dog Cooper@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        9 months ago

        How is knowing at what airport an airplane is, public information that anyone can just pull up and find without that much know how, a massive risk to safety.

        And if it is, hpw is she going to stop them from dping the neglegable research themselves

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          It’s not about it being public information. There’s tons of shit that’s “public information,” and available to get, but there are steps that need to be taken to get it. Some more steps than others. Kind of like a soft “paywall” of sorts (minus the pay) that makes it so the internet isn’t just inundated with data constantly. And sometimes, get this, you can even be denied requests for information that’s “publicly available” if, for example, t’s deemed that you shouldn’t have it for whatever reason. But I digress…

          Just because something is “publicly available information” doesn’t mean it just gets broadcasted all over the internet to anyone with a Facebook account that the algorithm knows is a hateful conservative.

          It’s a joke that people are pretending that this is about free speech or something, and not about making it easier to constantly harass and threaten.

          It’s about it being targeted at one specific person, and it’s about the people who are doing the targeting (which differentiates it from the Musk situation). No, not the college student who made the app, before you go there to try to undercut this argument. I’m not talking about him.

          I’m talking about the people who would use a tool, that they found in their far right/conservative/republican/fascist echo chamber bubble to threaten rape and death to another human being and their loved ones.

          And if it is, hpw is she going to stop them from dping the neglegable research themselves

          This is kind of the crux of it, isn’t it? These people are being whipped into a frenzy by whatever hate-media they consume, and without a Fox News or Tucker Carlson or whomever else to steer that frenzy toward Taylor Swift and this app, then that info would have remained “public knowledge” behind a simple search as it probably should be.

          The college kid who made the app is just a tool (witting or not).

          • Red Army Dog Cooper@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            17
            ·
            9 months ago

            No what I mean is the FAA has a very easy registry search, and then I go to any number of FOSS aircraft trackers and I can now find the aircraft by redgistry number. that took me what 10 minutes and I was done? no need for an app. The FAA does it because its public information the plane trackers do it because plain spotting is a genuine hobby (and public information) I am someone who holds this hobby. So taking this app down does basicly nothing, it turns 2 simple steps into 1 simple step

            Ontop of this, it is unreasonable to send a LEGAL team out to send a threat when no laws a broken, in some states that is an illegal act, a request from her to stop sure is reasonable (and its reasonable for him to refuse).

            • prole@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              9 months ago

              It doesn’t matter how easy the search is to you or I… The people who have found this tool (or made it, I don’t know. Don’t want to accuse the student of anything untoward) are distributing it to people who would have otherwise:

              1. never even knew such a possibility exists,

              2. had no fucking idea how to even begin finding that information themselves regardless of how simple it may seem to you and I, and,

              3. not have even had the idea to use the information that way in the first place.

              This is basic transparency on the part of the FAA. They disseminate this information to keep track of things, and for research purposes. It was never intended to be used in this way.

              In fact, if anything significant comes out of this, it would be to limit what info the FAA makes public (and it will skew toward private jets of course). So in the long run this will probably have the opposite effect of what you want.

              • Red Army Dog Cooper@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                9
                ·
                9 months ago

                While yes it will likely remove public access that is more so because that is what capital has been wanting for a while, not only that but I would argue that this is part of the intended use case, to keep track of who is using our air ways and how often. Just because its not often thought of does not mean it is not right proper or intended.

              • wildginger
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                9
                ·
                9 months ago

                The corporate bootlicking here is insane

                Are you also anti union because a unionized stage crew threatens swifts profits and thus her ability to hire security?

                Do you think margret thatcher has girl power?

                • prole@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  9 months ago

                  Lol it’s funny how quickly this place became reddit. There were maybe three weeks or so there where people here actually understood and cared about nuance…

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          9 months ago

          Musk isn’t receiving credible rape and death threats at nearly the level of Swift (if he is at all, let’s be real) by people who are known for following through on such threats.

          Look, I even empathize a little with Musk regarding that specific situation. If I were in his shoes, I also wouldn’t want an app like that to exist. I don’t think his situation warrants any kind of action to stop it because it’s really just an inconvenience for him. And he knew that it’s just an inconvenience, so how he handled himself from day to day didn’t really change.

          For Swift, this is legitimate fear. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced actual fear for your life, but it’s crippling, and it effects your psyche.

          To experience that on a daily basis because of an app? You bet your goddamn ass I’m going to talk to my lawyers about what my options are.

          • spujb@lemmy.cafeOP
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            9 months ago

            i linked your comment in the original post because yeah. this is the fact that no one gets.

            the public information was available for ages and the cease and desist only happened after fox news et al sicced their rabid hoards on her.

            we can still debate whether legal action was the “correct” option, but if you think it wasn’t understandable, or counts as “harassment” somehow, it’s because you have never been in the shoes of a woman who lives her whole life in fear.

    • sverit@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      9 months ago

      This right here. Posts like that are guilty of what they accuse themselfes: Making it about sexism.

    • anon987@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      Nah she’s getting attention because from the information I could gather, she has the 2nd highest carbon footprint of any single person on the planet.