ABC’s “The View” co-hosts slammed climate protestors who attempted to trash a Monet painting in Sweden this week, claiming they are ruining everyone’s days with the actions, even those who agree with them on the issue.
Co-host Joy Behar ripped the recent climate stunt as “annoying,” while co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed, calling it “counterproductive” for climate activists.
Whoopi Goldberg rebuked the protestors, declaring that vandalizing art is “not your job,” even if the earth is suffering.
The points came up while the co-hosts were discussing “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert postponing the publishing of her new book, “The Snow Forest,” due to Ukrainian critics slamming it for being set in Russia.
Though the book has nothing to do with Ukraine’s current ordeal at the hands of its invaders and merely provided Russia as a setting for the work, Gilbert delayed the release indefinitely, citing the pain of the oppressed Ukrainian people.
The ladies disagreed with Gilbert caving to critics and mounted a defense of not stifling art simply based on the politics of the day.
They then applied that point to the recent string of climate activists attempting to vandalize great western art in galleries across Europe.
Most recently, two female climate activists were arrested in Stockholm, Sweden for throwing a paint-like substance on the classic Claude Monet painting, “The Artist’s Garden At Giverny” at Sweden’s National Museum this week.
The painting was covered with glass, but museum staff have reportedly been analyzing the piece to see if any damage occurred.
The attempted act of vandalism is one of many similar climate change protests, aimed to shock bystanders into taking the threat of climate change more seriously.
Though even the liberal ladies of “The View” insisted that these protests miss the mark.
In the middle of the discussion on Gilbert’s book, Behar brought up the Monet debacle, initially reporting on set that the painting had been “destroyed” before correcting herself later in the segment.
Though she agreed with climate protest in general, Behar disapproved of this method. She said, “Now I agree with climate activism because the planet is on fire. We’re going to have that smoke again from Canada. It doesn’t stop. But why are you using art?”
“It’s so annoying in a way to use art as your cudgel. Don’t use art. Leave art alone,” she declared, adding, “Art is there to teach you something, to illuminate something in the world. That Monet painting – what is the point of that?”
After asking her co-hosts if they saw the point, Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in on how it was “counterproductive” protest. She said, “No, and it’s counterproductive to the cause because it makes people frame them as, ‘Look at these extremists,’ when it’s an important issue.”
After more discussion of Gilbert’s book, Goldberg blasted the attempted trashing of the Monet painting, saying, “I think we should be careful when people go up and throw paint on stuff. It’s my same argument with the libraries: If you don’t want to read a book or you don’t want your kids reading a book, tell the librarian not to give your kids this book. But don’t stop my kid form reading the book if my kid wants to read it.”
She continued, saying, “I feel the same way about art. Don’t stop me from seeing it. Cause you don’t know, I’m an activist too, but now you ruined the day for me. So why are you doing that?”
She then rebuked the vandals, saying, “That’s not your job. Your job is to go out and make people understand why we need to be careful about the earth, not to ruin art that’s been giving pleasure for years to people.”
