Saw advice from a firefighter elsewhere, it’s horrible to burn the car batteries and releases a lot of bad chemicals. Also fire danger is high in some places. All for destroying Elon but maybe there’s another way to fuck his shit up.
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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You can't have a revolution without a revolution. We're going to have to do way worse things before it's over.
By reading the title I was expecting a totally different kind of content.
I believe the ALF guidelines about safety are more relevant and apply in this case as well. I don't remember the exact phrasing they used but the essence was this:
Any direct action must be organised in such a way that no human or other animal is harmed in anyway, at any point
In this conversation about EV cars, it is especially important to think of safety, because their batteries have the nasty habit of exploding in uncharted yet ways. If I remember correctly ELF following the ALF guidelines in one of their actions before burning down a building, they moved a gas tank a few blocks away so that the firefighters that would come to extinguish the fire would not get hurt by a late explosion. That is safe, and nothing less is good enough, at least that's how I see things.
This is dumb advice; use thermite instead.
Thermite is the opposite of discrete and is notoriously a bitch to light
Aluminum-rust is truly hard to ignite.
Thermites where the other component (besides the typical aluminum) contains a second light metal can be lit easily, but tend to burn quick with a blinding flame, and produce a lot of gas / vapour. I have once produced electrical power with solar panels during a thermite experiment (for fun, not for any practical use). :) One shouldn't stare into their flame, its spectrum has a lot of harmful UV.
Once upon a time, I also had a model rocket burst its case (too small nozzle) with thermite. Fortunately I was at a safe distance. (Note: thermites don't have a good specific impulse, they're exotic and fun, but not good propellants.)
Light thermites wouldn't be capable of melting through metal, but I think they would ignite aluminum-rust. Regardless, I would not recommend them as the first resort in any situation. But it's worth remembering that they exist.
I think one can use them to build an underwater torch. Another nice ability is producing molten copper on site (copper can't be welded with electricity because it's the most conductive metal, so thermite helps splice together thick copper conductors).