The situation you are describing where a car owner returns to their vehicle, fails to see their four flat tires, fails to notice the note on their windscreen explaining that their tires have been deflated in protest, fails to notice their car's tire pressure warnings, and drives any way, and drive enough to ruin their tires AND wheels seems unlikely enough to qualify as catastrophizing. The far more likely outcome is that the owner returns to their car and then spends some time, perhaps an hour or two, figuring out how to reinflate their tires.

I'm sure the individuals taking part in these protests also support politicians who desire stricter regulations about the types of vehicles they are targetting. Participating in peaceful protest and participating in a political process are not mutually exclusive.

I wish this form of protest would catch on elsewhere as well. Every day I’m struck by the number of huge gas-guzzling pick up trucks parked around the city, and seemingly every bed completely empty. Letting out the air to their tires would certainly be slower and more work than the old method of puncturing their tires, but has the dual benefit of not necessitating replacement (which has a carbon cost of its own) and not enabling the vehicle owner to file an insurance claim.

There’s no immediate “big car = bad person” logic that’s valid.

It's very easy to tell the difference between a big car that's big for a reason (7 seats for large families, van for a business) and a car that's big just because (i.e. a large SUV).

Yeah, they should just slash their tires.

Breaking things that are bad is kinda the point of direct action

I'm sure the 90/10 ratio is simply a rhetorical device for the sake of argument, but since you brought it up, given that the protest does not destroy personal property but merely inflicts considerable inconvenience on the owner, what ratio would be permissible in your eyes? 95 and 5%? 99% and 1%? What if instead of deflating tires someone merely put some sticky jam under the drivers' side door handle along with a note explaining why the owner has been "jammed"?

Yep, you do, sorry. Change doesn't happen when you politely ask. Change happens when you're a disruptive asshole for long enough. Look at the history of protests and activism that actually brought about change.

even if you need your truck for work reasons, you should not be taking it into a dense urban area like Hamburg or London (where this group also operates.)

I live on 7 acres of mostly heavily wooded land

Well, the activists target SUVs in the middle of Hamburg. That's not really a comparable situation. I agree it would suck if you visit a big city and get targeted there, but I would hope the activists can decide between a polished up city-only SUV and an actual working-vehicle and act accordingly.

They're not leaking the air out while the car is driven. Modern European cars all have pressure sensors and will warn the driver when there isn't enough air in the tires to drive safely. Saves you from walking around the vehicle to see if everything is tied and pumped up properly.

To be perfectly frank, I think it's weird to write so much about your personal life in a reply to a stranger on the internet. How am I supposed to respond to any of your personal details without risking you taking it personally? Are you looking for my approval of your rugged individualist lifestyle? For whatever it's worth, it sounds very romantic and if I knew you in real life I'm sure I would be polite enough to keep whatever opinions I have about your vehicle to myself.

So for many reasons, I need a truck. It is almost never loaded when I have to go into the city. It’s not lifted, I don’t have obnoxious wheels, but it’s a big truck (they don’t seem to make them any other way these days).

I suspect we both agree that vehicle sizes have gotten out of control, especially with respect to pick up trucks. Would you have bought a smaller truck if it were available? Would you support governmental regulation to bring pick up trucks back in line with where they were 30 years ago?

Now I have to also worry about people with attitudes like yours taking their misguided vigilante justice out on my vehicle because you’re not thinking beyond your nose? Do you really think that’s fair?

When I think of "vigilante justice" I think of violence, so it seems a little disconnected with the reality of letting the air out of someone's tires along with posting a note on their windscreen. I think the protestors would agree that 'thinking beyond your nose' is very important, and that individual choices can have collective impacts.

Nppe, you don't need a truck. We don't need these things to survive.

Haul what you need on a bicycle or don't haul those things because you don't need them.

This tastes the same as right wing efforts to convince people making $50k a year that their enemies are those making $100k a year when, in fact, the enemy of both those groups is billionaires.

If you're a climate activist, your enemies aren't those with a carbon footprint 2x or 5x what yours is. The enemy is those with 10000x the carbon footprint

Catalytic converter theft is at an all time high in the u.s. Those old farts ain't doing shit.

I feel this would go over differently in the land of “fuck around and find out”. You’d have bored old dudes with rifles setting up watches. And if when something did happen, public opinion is not going to be on the air-letters side.

Bored old dudes with rifles watching over their parked vehicles in dense urban centers seems like a disproportionate response to having some tires deflated. I think your speculation about the public supporting someone being murdered over their participation in peaceful protest is pretty depressing. I hope you don't actually think that.

My insurance comes with road hazard that would cover this at no cost; and I’m a poor.

This is a good point - I'm not very knowledgeable with respect to insurance, especially internationally. Thank you for your insight

Go pop some private jet tires.

I think this is something we can all get behind

Not really that big of a factor, German car owners will not drive around with flat tires if they notice, which is likely rather soon.