Science Greta Thunberg Megathread - Dax Herrera says he wouldn't have a day ago (I somewhat doubt that)

Why is Greta Thunberg so triggering? How can a 16-year-old girl in plaits, who has dedicated herself to the not-exactly sinister, authoritarian plot of trying to save the planet from extinction, inspire such incandescent rage?

Last week, she tweeted that she had arrived into New York after her two week transatlantic voyage: “Finally here. Thank you everyone who came to see me off in Plymouth, and everyone who welcomed me in New York! Now I’m going to rest for a few days, and on Friday I’m going to participate in the strike outside the UN”, before promptly giving a press conference in English. Yes, her second language.

Her remarks were immediately greeted with a barrage of jibes about virtue signalling, and snide remarks about the three crew members who will have to fly out to take the yacht home.

This shouldn’t need to be spelled out, but as some people don’t seem to have grasped it yet, we’ll give it a lash: Thunberg’s trip was an act of protest, not a sacred commandment or an instruction manual for the rest of us. Like all acts of protest, it was designed to be symbolic and provocative. For those who missed the point – and oh, how they missed the point – she retweeted someone else’s “friendly reminder” that: “You don’t need to spend two weeks on a boat to do your part to avert our climate emergency. You just need to do everything you can, with everyone you can, to change everything you can.”

Part of the reason she inspires such rage, of course, is blindingly obvious. Climate change is terrifying. The Amazon is burning. So too is the Savannah. Parts of the Arctic are on fire. Sea levels are rising. There are more vicious storms and wildfires and droughts and floods. Denial is easier than confronting the terrifying truth.

Then there’s the fact that we don’t like being made to feel bad about our life choices. That’s human nature. It’s why we sneer at vegans. It’s why we’re suspicious of sober people at parties. And if anything is likely to make you feel bad about your life choices -- as you jet back home after your third Ryanair European minibreak this season – it’ll be the sight of small-boned child subjecting herself to a fortnight being tossed about on the Atlantic, with only a bucket bearing a “Poo Only Please” sign by way of luxury, in order to make a point about climate change.

But that’s not virtue signalling, which anyone can indulge in. As Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and their-four-private-jets-in-11-days found recently, virtue practising is a lot harder.

Even for someone who spends a lot of time on Twitter, some of the criticism levelled at Thunberg is astonishing. It is, simultaneously, the most vicious and the most fatuous kind of playground bullying. The Australian conservative climate change denier Andrew Bolt called her “deeply disturbed” and “freakishly influential” (the use of “freakish”, we can assume, was not incidental.) The former UKIP funder, Arron Banks, tweeted “Freaking yacht accidents do happen in August” (as above.) Brendan O’Neill of Spiked called her a “millenarian weirdo” (nope, still not incidental) in a piece that referred nastily to her “monotone voice” and “the look of apocalyptic dread in her eyes”.

But who’s the real freak – the activist whose determination has single-handedly started a powerful global movement for change, or the middle-aged man taunting a child with Asperger syndrome from behind the safety of their computer screens?

And that, of course, is the real reason why Greta Thunberg is so triggering. They can’t admit it even to themselves, so they ridicule her instead. But the truth is that they’re afraid of her. The poor dears are terrified of her as an individual, and of what she stands for – youth, determination, change.

She is part of a generation who won’t be cowed. She isn’t about to be shamed into submission by trolls. That’s not actually a look of apocalyptic dread in her eyes. It’s a look that says “you’re not relevant”.

The reason they taunt her with childish insults is because that’s all they’ve got. They’re out of ideas. They can’t dismantle her arguments, because she has science – and David Attenborough – on her side. They can’t win the debate with the persuasive force of their arguments, because these bargain bin cranks trade in jaded cynicism, not youthful passion. They can harangue her with snide tweets and hot take blogposts, but they won’t get a reaction because, frankly, she has bigger worries on her mind.

That’s not to say that we should accept everything Thunberg says without question. She is an idealist who is young enough to see the world in black and white. We need voices like hers. We should listen to what she has to say, without tuning the more moderate voices of dissent out.

Why is Greta Thunberg so triggering? Because of what she represents. In an age when democracy is under assault, she hints at the emergency of new kind of power, a convergence of youth, popular protest and irrefutable science. And for her loudest detractors, she also represents something else: the sight of their impending obsolescence hurtling towards them.

joconnell@irishtimes.com
https://twitter.com/jenoconnell

https://web.archive.org/web/2019090...certain-men-1.4002264?localLinksEnabled=false
Found this thought-provoking indeed.

 

[Terrorist]

He makes a good point. A lot of poorer nations are rapidly starting to catch up to the west in wealth, and the quickest way to do that is through mass industrialization that produces pollution. I highly doubt these people are going to tell African nations anytime soon "Stop advancing! You're killing the Earth!" and I EXTREMELY doubt said African nations are going to give a fuck about environmentalists anyway. If Africa is going on projected population numbers they are going to EXPLODE in numbers in the coming century, and Asia is ofc going to be high as hell as well.

Greta is unintentionally right about the chinks developing africa. It'll lead to even more overpopulation their societies can't handle, that'll spill over into the west with a lot of consequences including environmental.

Of course, if she realized what she's saying here, she'd immediately pedal back and be like no, it's actually childless affluent wypipo who need to be having less kids.

 

[moocow]

People are still scared shitless about them.

I'm afraid of flying, but that doesn't mean it's not safer than driving or that I don't still fly when I need to get somewhere fast.

People are afraid of all sorts of things. People are fucking idiots. If we never did anything people were afraid of, we'd still be living in caves barking and flinging shit at each other.

ETA:

It appears that the left is eating their own again.

Ah, I fucking live for shit like this.

Whenever it feels like these batshit insane people actually making inroads into something destructive or dangerous, stuff like this helps remind me they'll never really get anywhere because they hate each other more than they hate us.

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

Whenever it feels like these batshit insane people actually making inroads into something destructive or dangerous, stuff like this helps remind me they'll never really get anywhere because they hate each other more than they hate us.

Who is "us"?

 

[moocow]

Who is "us"?

Less-insane people?

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

It appears that the left is eating their own again.

Isn't that the same stuff they said about feminism?

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

Isn't that the same stuff they said about feminism?

Yeah the radical left wants white people to die. It doesn't really matter whether or not you're actually a nazi, these ravenous hellspawn want to murder your children.

Greta is literally doing everything right according to their own standards and these savages still want her head on a pike.

 

[Spicy Tacos]

I watched a little of the event. As I expected Chase was being Chase. You’ll have to fast forward over 20 minutes in to get to Greta appearing.

Early on, Chase’s daughter says they recently moved to Pine Ridge from Standing Rock. They did it because of the resistance movement there. Awkward laughs follow.

The whole event is in a school gym and there are yelling and screaming kids and babies. It’s a bit hard to hear, but I think the audience was told to not be loud when Greta is speaking. A number of children/babies go quiet when she speaks. I’m guessing those kids/babies got muffled somehow.

Lakota People's Law Project on Facebook Watch

We’re live from #PineRidge with activists Greta Thunberg and Tokata Iron Eyes for a youth panel on #ClimateCrisis. #NoDAPL , #NoKXL. Please share!...

www.facebook.com

While looking for news articles, my memories got refreshed on some of the players during Standing Rock. That Native American “Vietnam veteran” who banged his drum in those MAGA kids faces in DC was at Standing Rock for example.

One of the many things they want Greta to speak out on is the two “Water Protectors” who sabotaged the pipeline and construction equipment. I haven’t looked into it, but I remember there was a spill that appeared to be sabotage. If it was these two, I find it ironic that they want them to be pardoned.

Twitter

archived 7 Oct 2019 03:07:22 UTC

archive.today

 

[thismanlies]

One of the many things they want Greta to speak out on is the two “Water Protectors” who sabotaged the pipeline and construction equipment. I haven’t looked into it, but I remember there was a spill that appeared to be sabotage. If it was these two, I find it ironic that they want them to be pardoned.

Can they make it any more obvious she's a puppet? It's like all these activist groups can't wait to get a hold of her strings.

 

[Positron]

Can they make it any more obvious she's a puppet? It's like all these activist groups can't wait to get a hold of her strings.

Everyone wants to get their hands on a shiny new toy. Soon she'll be discarded.

 

[pwnest injun]

No, but he gets triggered when individuals post memes of Iron Eyes Cody on his posts.


I wish.

It was allegedly about a pipeline going over ancient native burial grounds, going through the reservation, and that the pipeline was going to contaminate the reservation water.

Court documents showed that there was no native burial ground where they alleged. There were a few times artifacts magically appeared on ground that had already been surveyed. This ground was above an existing pipeline that was built in the 1960s or 1970’s.

By following that existing pipeline, the new pipeline didn’t need to go through the Standing Rock Reservation. This upset certain leaders because they were hoping to force the pipeline company to pay them a $20 million fee.

They had a huge wave of protests, had an encampment on Standing Rock, damaged pipeline equipment, held riots, and then went to Trump’s inauguration to try to cause problems. It was mostly white progressives causing problems.

Ironically, the pipeline is safer than transporting oil by rail, and uses less carbon too. You would think Greta would support that.

Also, I assume the second topic about missing and murdered native women is a call out to the First Nations in Canada. (Trudeau is trying to get their votes.) I would not be surprised if Greta goes to western or central Canada next.

Update: “They” are blaming fossil fuel companies for the missing and murdered indigenous women.

Why Aren’t Fossil Fuel Companies Held Accountable for Missing and Mur…

archived 6 Oct 2019 17:25:38 UTC

archive.today

Interesting fact about Keystone XL: It was a Koch brothers thing. After Chavez shut off the cheap tar from VZ, which Koch Enterprises had just built a massive Texas refinery to process, they decided to say fuck it and try to import loads of tar sands oil from Canada. So, in a round about way, delaying the Keystone KL pipeline saved Venezuela from collapsing sooner.

 

[Antipathy]

I think I should start a nuclear energy rally.

The only problem is I'm not an easily manipulated Scandinavian girl, but an adult white man with ideas and ambitions which run counter to the interests of both parties in a lot of ways.

So maybe I should stay home and avoid 'committing suicide' by getting shot three times in the back of the head.

 

[CWCissey]

I think I should start a nuclear energy rally.

The only problem is I'm not an easily manipulated Scandinavian girl, but an adult white man with ideas and ambitions which run counter to the interests of both parties in a lot of ways.

So maybe I should stay home and avoid 'committing suicide' by getting shot three times in the back of the head.

Troon out.

 

[AltisticRight]

My only problem with environmental hypocrisy is when the environmentalist in question refuses to acknowledge it. Like its really really hard for a being that sustains itself on other lifeforms to not have a carbon footprint.

People who truly care about the environment don't call themselves fucking environmentalists. I'm not one, I separate my trash and I use public transport, I repurpose plasticware so it doesn't get dumped. I've done more than these fucks and I'm sure many here have, we just don't wave stupid signs around and cause havoc in the public.

 

[Spicy Tacos]

Everyone wants to get their hands on a shiny new toy. Soon she'll be discarded.

Another thing that was interesting last night was that she was declared a relative of the tribe, and told she was one of them now. I don’t know if it was made official where she was given tribal membership, but that is one way for them to get rid of the “white” issue.

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

I think I should start a nuclear energy rally.

The only problem is I'm not an easily manipulated Scandinavian girl, but an adult white man with ideas and ambitions which run counter to the interests of both parties in a lot of ways.

So maybe I should stay home and avoid 'committing suicide' by getting shot three times in the back of the head.

You were joking but the progressive stack was designed to keep whites and wealthy blacks out by turning their own successes against them.

 

[meinhausinneuberlin]

https://www.infowars.com/effigy-of-climate-activist-greta-thunberg-found-hanged-in-italy/ (yes I used infowars there was nothing that wasn't italian that is reporting on it)

https://archive.is/LTTzi#selection-909.0-915.85

EFFIGY OF CLIMATE ACTIVIST GRETA THUNBERG FOUND HANGED IN ITALY
Puppet with pigtails hanged from bridge, along with sign reading, ‘Greta is your God’



Its not just the Germans the Italians will not accept this 16 year old puppet.

 

[AnOminous]

So which is it, she's a poor puppet child who is being taken advantage of by evil parents or she's a monster who needs to be murdered to stop her from saying things and making weird facial expressions?

 

[Krimjob]

https://www.infowars.com/effigy-of-climate-activist-greta-thunberg-found-hanged-in-italy/ (yes I used infowars there was nothing that wasn't italian that is reporting on it)

https://archive.li/LTTzi#selection-909.0-915.85

EFFIGY OF CLIMATE ACTIVIST GRETA THUNBERG FOUND HANGED IN ITALY
Puppet with pigtails hanged from bridge, along with sign reading, ‘Greta is your God’

View attachment 962593

Its not just the Germans the Italians will not accept this 16 year old puppet.
View attachment 962592

I told you the German-Roman Empire would rise again. I fucking told you faggots!

 

[Hux]

So which is it, she's a poor puppet child who is being taken advantage of by evil parents or she's a monster who needs to be murdered to stop her from saying things and making weird facial expressions?

She's a poor puppet child who is being taken advantage of by evil parents but she also makes weird facial expressions

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

So which is it, she's a poor puppet child who is being taken advantage of by evil parents or she's a monster who needs to be murdered to stop her from saying things and making weird facial expressions?

She basically stole my act. Getting up and telling Senators that shit is their fault and I'm coming for their tendies is my entire shtick.