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.

 

[TowinKarz]

A kid who sailed to America on rich parent's yacht, burning more resources than I do driving to work, who then scolds Congress for being meanie-heads to Mother Earth is JUST the kind of person who represents the common man these days, dontcha know?

And I still maintain that the Green New Deal, as originally conceived, is completely insane and will result in a massive welfare state at best.

That was it's goal all along, to socialize all industry/key economic producers under the guise of "For the Planet" since 90 years of "For the Workers" has failed to bring about that revolution they want.

 

[Wooper]

[/QUOTE]

You just reminded me about the 8 year old AOC impersonator who received death threats from the tolerant left, got doxed & had to delete all her social media accounts.

The people who orbit AOC are insane. When the Lil' AOC thing happened there were people threatening to not only kill her, but rape her. If I can find some of those tweets I'll post them.
BUT, I imagine there will be a media circus that will call for the end of the Internet when people learned that Greta has been called a downy.

 

[Dynastier]

The story you based your joke on is fake news, the problem was that galileo made some remarks about the pope and the pope realy didnt like that.

I know I know, but you knew what I meant.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Who cares about this mong?

 

[CWCissey]

Congress doesn't care what you were told by your teachers Greta...

Malala at least was legit genuine, Christ.

 

[TFT-A9]

Congress to Greta Thunberg: "lol who the fuck are you"

 

[Pixy]

BUT, I imagine there will be a media circus that will call for the end of the Internet when people learned that Greta has been called a downy.

Already happened, except it was on radio. Alan Jones, a 'shock jock' in Australia insinuated that a month or two ago.

The usual outrage over Jones whenever he says something controversial happened and everyone moved on after a week or two.

 

[Christ Cried]

Ever since Epstein was killed I've been noticing that the Jews are getting progressively more desperate and less tactful

 

[thx1138]

some child of rich swedes who thinks she can order the US around? BAHAHA, go back to Swedistan, kid. I'm sure before you're 18 you'll be wearing a burka and getting a clitorectomy, then marching around trying to lecture the world on why it's empowering and everyone everywhere should do it.

 

[Slimy Time]

I have high optimism for kids used like this that when they're older they start to question what they've been fed and she might turn out okay, but it's fucking Sweden, and Sweden's chances to stop taking 'tard pills has been passed year after year.

She has (confessed by both her and her parents) Aspergers, OCD and selective mutism. Others here also believe that she might have fetal alcohol syndrome due to how odd her face is. Regardless of the last one, when you combine those three disorders with Sweden, she will never break/question the conditioning.

 

[CWCissey]

selective mutism.

That one's only if you point out that nuclear power is the best option or that if the dozy bitch stayed in school and did some science, she may come up with a fantastic breakthrough.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

I wish my parents had loved me enough to use me as a political pawn in my youth, ruining my adult life forever and making me hated before I even understood social interaction fully.

Guess mom's going in the bad nursing home.

 

[Secret Asshole]

Nuclear energy is the way forward. Not even kidding.

This. We're already developing tech to rid ourselves of nuclear waste. We've allowed fucktards to control the narrative, so good luck.

She has (confessed by both her and her parents) Aspergers, OCD and selective mutism. Others here also believe that she might have fetal alcohol syndrome due to how odd her face is. Regardless of the last one, when you combine those three disorders with Sweden, she will never break/question the conditioning.

In the United States, we call this child abuse. She's obviously getting her talking points from her parents.

But all in all, I don't give a fuck about this child. Another political pawn used by rich people to talk down to the poor and try to guilt them into doing all the work for them instead of holding massive global corporations accountable. The average worker or guy in the US is barely a blip on the radar. It is all mega corps and multi-nationals killing the world.

I have long since stopped listening to rich and privileged cunts trying to lecture plebs. Greta is a complete virtue signal by her rich parents who use their money to spread a political message while ignoring China and India, the biggest polluters on the planet.

Problem is China doesn't give a singular fuck and India wants to race its way out of poverty as quick as humanly possible. So all of this is an exercise in intellectual masturbation, egotism and superiority over the plebs. Its a modern day minstrel show.

 

[Matthew216]

some child of rich swedes who thinks she can order the US around? BAHAHA, go back to Swedistan, kid. I'm sure before you're 18 you'll be wearing a burka and getting a clitorectomy, then marching around trying to lecture the world on why it's empowering and everyone everywhere should do it.

In a strange way it could be empowering. If it counts as a form of anonymity than this could apply:

 

[CWCissey]

I wish my parents had loved me enough to use me as a political pawn in my youth, ruining my adult life forever and making me hated before I even understood social interaction fully.

Greta's a sperg, she'll never fully understand social interaction fully.

Maybe that's why the parents are doing this.

 

[Fentanyl Crop Duster]

Can these corporate, special interest backed, crisis actors get any more obvious? It’s really sad that boomers eat these blue pills like candy.

 

[AnimeGirlConnoisseur]

whats your personal thoughts of Greta Null?

Underfed.

 

[big ol' idiot]

>china
>india
>the whole of africa
>airplanes and cruiseships
no problem at all
>the west actually giving a damn
TRY HARDER YOU FUCK THAT 16 YEAR OLD AUTISTIC TOLD US SO

 

[YooA]

“We need your leadership,” he told Thunberg. “Young people are the army politically, which has arrived in the United States."

Of course children are the leaders of this movement, by definition, they are the least knowledgeable, least mature, and least independent minded demographic. Why not let kids just talk about what they want to talk about? Those kids should have been up there talking about the high cost of legos, and trade deals with Nintendo and pokemon.

 

[Death Grip]

Indisputable Facts On Climate Change

When it comes to climate change, there are certain indisputable facts. Even if you are a skeptic, you should familiarize yourself with the things we know to be true on this issue.

www.forbes.com

So climate change is a thing, though there is controversy on how we deal with it, as the only creatures on the planet who could possibly do anything to change this course we are on.

I personally think that if we planted two trees for every human on the planet, that might do something to help. But I also could be wrong.