Roger Hallam, the co-founder of the extremist environmentalist group Extinction Rebellion, is angry that he got exactly what he was asking for.
Hallam, 56, is in a British hospital after breaking his leg on his bicycle, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. He’s currently in a hospital run by Britain’s National Health Service.
You would think that if anyone was responsive to the needs of the militant vegan ecologist, it would be the sainted socialized medicine behemoth that is the NHS. And, to be fair, he was served a vegan meal — he just wasn’t particularly happy with it. It wasn’t clear exactly what Hallam was expecting from the “vegan” option. Maybe he didn’t think he got enough boiled carrots?
“30 [years] after we were told that refusing to move to plant based diets would result in the greatest spasms of human suffering in our historical experience due to ecological/social collapse, this is what the health service of the 5th largest economy has just served me up for dinner (plus six new potatoes I ate before I took the photo from my hospital bed),” he wrote in an 11-tweet diatribe posted late last week.
2. … this is what the health service of the 5th largest economy has just served me up for dinner (plus 6 new potatoes I ate before I took the photo from my hospital bed).
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 28, 2023
Well, that is indeed a vegan option (and one might like to have seen what the portions were like before the tubers were eaten, but whatever). Just to show how much of a bubble this guy lives in, however, he devoted nine more direly worded tweets to noting that vegan hospital food in a country with socialized medicine is every bit as bad as I would assume non-vegan hospital food in a country with socialized medicine is.
“ANALYSIS: This situation is far too serious for easy rhetorical finger pointing,” he continued.
Does Hallam deserve a better vegan meal?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 100% (9 Votes)
“This is not a problem of the hard working staff at this hospital, nor a problem for the hospital or NHS, or of any one country’s ‘policies’. It is deeply and catastrophically SYSTEMIC – as evidenced by the complete failure of the whole global human system (with one or two peripheral exceptions) to make a system change response.”
4. It is deeply and catastrophically SYSTEMIC – as evidenced by the complete failure of the whole global human system (with one or two peripheral exceptions) to make a system change response.
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 28, 2023
“And the reason for this is because of the totalitarian ethos of utilitarian short termism and freeriderism under conditions of competition – the foundational logic of billions of decisions made every day,” he continued.
“A reformist regime is BY DEFINITION unable to respond to the threat of an all system pathology which is universally existential & exponential. The logic of this system is it will double down on short termism responses as all systems pressures increase: & become more irrational.”
6.A reformist regime is BY DEFINITION unable to respond to the threat of an all system pathology which is universally existential & exponential. The logic of this system is it will double down on short termism responses as all systems pressures increase: & become more irrational.
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 28, 2023
It goes on — and mind you, this is all because the guy got carrots and potatoes when he asked for a special meal in a place where the regular meals are probably just as dire.
8. The deepest irrationalism in our human experience is that hundreds of millions of university educated administrators of this mass suicide still resist the only solution at this stage.
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 28, 2023
10. I am involved in building networks of such individuals who can feed into the growing civil resistance organisations around the western world. Message me for details.
Sound mad? Remember you only now have 2 options – wait to die or take your chances & jump over the fence.
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 28, 2023
11. PS in case you thinking I am cherry picking for this photo – I have had similar meals for that last 5 days.
Contact me at: [email protected]
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 28, 2023
TL;DR: Hospital food being terrible and ill-proportioned for vegans just like it is for everyone else equals “complete failure of the whole global human system.” I’ll try this line next time I’m in the hospital and see if I can get tiramisu instead of Jell-O.
You might not be shocked to learn that this reaction didn’t endear him to many people:
Do you want those carrots or not?
— Sartorial Thug 🍸 (@SartorialThug) April 29, 2023
You ordered the vegan option and you got the vegan option veggie boy. Now are you going to eat your carrots or not? pic.twitter.com/ba3sQFf9KG
— Oli (@GameSetOllie) April 29, 2023
You’re in hospital not a restaurant. If you’re going to be picky about what you eat then it’s going to be hard to feed you.
— Generali (@Generali11) April 29, 2023
But this is the thing about Extinction Rebellion, an extremist group whose activists have tried to shut down air traffic at London’s Heathrow Airport by deploying drones, had one of its members accused of throwing eggs at King Charles III late last year, and was involved in dumping loads of cow dung outside the White House back in 2021 because President Joe Biden isn’t green enough for them.
This is a group that preaches forced austerity in the name of saving the Earth. Yet when it’s asked to be part of this forced austerity, the hypocrisy is rank.
You don’t even have to look hard to find further hypocrisy on Hallam’s timeline. The forced austerity Extinction Rebellion so loves would obviously be inflationary and make living more expensive, right? That’s the point — after all, if the problem is partly caused by rampant consumerism, why would you want to encourage it?
Yet, when Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill said last week that households and businesses in the U.K. needed to face the fact they’d be poorer because the cost of energy had gone way up over the past year, Hallam likened Pill to a “house slave” who is “keep[ing] the slaves in order.”
The house slaves try to keep the slaves in order.https://t.co/5SoxVRzX41
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 30, 2023
But this — and the plate of carrots and potatoes — are exactly what the group is clamoring for. Except Hallam swears he’s not, and he practically demanded the Daily Mail face him in a debate after writing about his tweet storm.
“This is our great national tradition – to engage in free speech and openly discuss the great questions of the day. I look forward to them getting back (via DM Twitter) to set a live date,” he tweeted.
2. This is our great national tradition – to engage in free speech and openly discuss the great questions of the day. I look forward to them getting back (via DM Twitter) to set a live date.
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 30, 2023
4. @ElizabethHaighx @MailOnline
— Roger Hallam (@RogerHallamCS21) April 30, 2023
Except Extinction Rebellion doesn’t debate. They throw eggs at the king. They attempt to shut down air traffic at England’s busiest airport.
These are high-tech thugs of the highest order — but when their co-founder gets called out for a Twitter tirade from his hospital bed, now he insists on a dialogue?
No. Shut up, get better, eat your veggies and go back home. Or suck it up, take the regular meal and have to deal with animal protein for a few days.
Either way, it’s going to be terrible — and let it be a glimpse into the future food austerity you and your ilk want the rest of us to adopt, Mr. Hallam. Apparently, you needed to break a leg in order to burst your Beyond Burger bourgeoise extremist bubble.
