Recently there was a false alarm in our newsroom. There was a traffic jam on Conrad von Hötzendorf-Strasse in front of the Styria Media Center, and suddenly it was said that 200 meters up, climate activists had glued themselves to the road. Curious, we rushed to the window and looked out searchingly. But it quickly became apparent that we were only looking down on the daily madness in tin.
When we a few days ago When we then discussed in our editorial conference whether the term climate adhesive was permissible, I inevitably had to remember this scene, how we had peered down into the rush hour from the high seat of our editorial office, so to speak. The location determines the point of view, I thought to myself with a touch of sarcasm. But then I bit back my mockery.
Above all younger colleagues say the term climate glue is pejorative and trivializes the activists’ urgent agenda, idealism and desperation.
Linguistic Sensitivity is essential for good journalism. In a climate of increasing social polarization, an almost philological interest in the word is one of the most important tools for effectively exposing fake news, simplifications and demagogy.
In the specific case I think the concerns are inappropriate, however, since the term is not associated with any value judgment. It is a not particularly successful neologism that combines the central aspirations of climate activists with their dubious methods. Nor can I recall a single instance where a climate activist who poured gazpacho on a painting and pecked at it complained about being called climate glue. So why be more papal than the Pope?
That journalists I think taking sides is essential. Without this partisanship, without Émile Zola’s famous “J’accuse” in his letter to the President of the French Republic, published in the daily newspaper L’Aurore, Alfred Dreyfus would have perished miserably on Devil’s Island as the victim of an anti-Semitic judicial scandal. Without journalistic partisanship there would be no nuclear-free Austria, the wonderful old town of Graz would be largely destroyed and the Nockberge mountains in Carinthia would be built up.
But in my understanding Despite all the passion for something, serious journalism also means avoiding total identification with it and pushing a glass barrier between yourself and things, including those you are passionate about. There were quite a few situations in which I regretted this distance. But the intellectual freedom that I have retained as a result has fully compensated me.
Even if I’m the root cause the climate adhesive support, prepare me their apocalyptic tone and their brute methods discomfort. Both carry the fanaticism gene. Both wear out sooner rather than later. Increasingly drastic means must be chosen to attract attention, and I wonder what will come next after buried paintings, angry morning commuters and flat tires. Because what do you have to shy away from when everything loses its validity at the end of the world?
The legitimate concern the climate glue to support their fight against man-made global warming and at the same time to make it clear that the end does not justify the means is not an easy task. But we at Kleine Zeitung see our task in differentiation.
It’s about the nuances. We will continue to strive for them, promises you with warm regards
Stephen Winkler
