Everything You Need To Know About The Dakota Pipeline Protests In One Photo

Everything is right here.

Assumption #1: You  have an opinion about this.


Assumption #2: You are mostly misinformed.

Assumption #3: This is by your own choice.

Hats off to NBC photographer Jim Seida who captured this perfect image. A man chopping wood (hydrocarbons) framed by a pair of woodpiles (hydrocarbons) in front of a teepee (cultural appropriation?) while automobiles (hydrocarbons) and other tents (oil byproducts) sit in the background.

Working backwards: the people at this protest have nothing better (employment) to do, so they'll need to survive on the cheap. Thankfully, petroleum byproducts have flooded markets with inexpensive survival products ala tents, campstoves, bottled water, porta-potties, Dodge motor vehicles, and of course, coffee. (Ask any one of these people to give up their cheap coffee and they'll be the first to start welding this fucker together. But that's just an obvious digression...)

... the teepee is there for marketing. Because comfortable RV's would send the wrong signal. So they'll have a teepee with all the comforts of an RV...

..the wood is there for irony and cognitive dissonance. The protectors of the earth haven't bothered to read about how bad burning wood is for the environment and people who inhale the smoke, but this isn't about global warming: this is narcissism dialed to eleven, or as those in the marketing trades call it, "YouTube."

At the top of the hill that overlooked the main camp, a woman took a photo of her young daughter standing against the edge of the scene

Below, the muted echo of ax blows could be heard. The drumbeat pulsed on, a horsed whinnied. Everything smelled like fire.

 A stronger indictment couldn't be made more cleverly. A woman documents (for social media) her identity (via her daughter) while burning every form of energy in their grasp.

They will lose.