Failed rally reveals empty threat

The failure of Extinction Rebellion to get boots on the ground at a protest in Melbourne highlights the weakness of the rhetoric of disruptive online activists, writes Andrew Bolt.

Extinction Rebellion protesters at the intersection of Flinders and Elizabeth Streets. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Thank you Extinction Rebellion pests. You’ve just helped journalists and business leaders to wise up to social media frauds.

On Friday, Melbourne’s Age blared: “Up to 10,000 protesters to ‘swarm’ CBD ahead of blockbuster MCG final.”

Its eager report on this Extinction Rebellion protest said “police are expecting up to 10,000 protesters … to meet at the State Library” before they scattered to block traffic and shout about global warming.

But hours later the Age had to admit: “Only about 300 demonstrators gathered at the State Library.”

In fact, the Herald Sun counted closer to 100, one-hundredth of what The Age had tipped.

But how often has social media — that hall of mirrors — made one activist seem 100? And how often have fellow-travelling journalists and nervous businesses fallen for it?

Extinction Rebellion protesters in Melbourne. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Take the social media campaign to spook companies into thinking they’ll lose thousands of customers if they don’t stop advertising on the show of Alan Jones, Australia’s most popular broadcaster.

Sleeping Giants, one of the main Leftist groups behind this ban, tried the same trick against me and other Sky News presenters, again to try to ensure other Australians couldn’t hear who they wanted.

And, again, its activists did this by making themselves seem more than they were, not least by sending advertisers multiple complaints under various names.

A small crowd of Climate Change protesters congregate at the State Library. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

But then they made a mistake. Grown arrogant, Sleeping Giants called a public protest, in Sydney’s daylight.

Oops. Its vast army turned out to be about 25 people, including the Greens MP it invited. None looked like consumers with full wallets.

This isn’t new. One startling example of a shadow army of activists disappearing when exposed to air came in 2012.

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Social media warriors had decided Joseph Kony, head of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, was the world’s worst man. A film on Kony’s war crimes by the Invisible Children charity scored 100 million views and 1.4 million likes.

“#GetKony” went viral, but when Invisible Children held rallies around the world to show how much their supporters cared, only 25 turned up in Sydney and a dozen in Melbourne.

Extinction Rebellion has just reminded us of that lesson, which somehow has trouble sticking.

To repeat: the true measure of a movement’s strength is not what protesters do with their thumbs, but their legs.

Do they care enough to get off the couch?