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

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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
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https://web.archive.org/web/2019090...certain-men-1.4002264?localLinksEnabled=false
Found this thought-provoking indeed.
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1) Trump is the best fucking troll.

2) So, betting pool on when she stabs someone? Like seriously, she looks like she wants to stab him in that footage.
 
Ah yes, we should listen to her likes she's an adult but we can't rip on her like an adult because she is a child. Seems fair to me.
 
Krimjob said:
2) So, betting pool on when she stabs someone? Like seriously, she looks like she wants to stab him in that footage.
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She looks more like when a kid is angry at another kid for taking the last pizza slice or something.
 
'She seems very happy': Trump appears to mock Greta Thunberg's emotional speech
Teenage climate activists told world leaders ‘you are failing us’ and accused them of ‘betrayal’


Donald Trump appears to have taken a swipe at teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, tweeting a video of an emotional Thunberg with an apparently sarcastic comment that she seems to be “very happy” and looking forward to a bright future.

“She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” tweeted the US president late on Monday night.

The president tweeted out a video with the comment showing visibly upset Thunberg as she delivered a blistering speech to world leaders at a United Nations summit, saying they had betrayed young people through their inertia over the climate crisis.
In the stinging speech on Monday, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist told governments: “You are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal.”

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” she said.


“The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line.”

Thunberg, who kickstarted the global School Strike movement with her weekly Friday school strikes in Sweden, has been in New York for the climate summit. She briefly crossed paths with Donald Trump at the United Nations on Monday, as he arrived to attend a meeting on religious freedom. The US president decided to snub a major UN climate summit, held on the same day.

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Greta Thunberg stares down Trump as he arrives for UN climate summit – video

As Trump passed in front of Thunberg, she fixed him with a steady stare, video of which quickly went viral. Julián Castro, the Democratic presidential contender, tweeted the video with the words: “I think a lot of us can relate.”

When Thunberg arrived in New York late in August, she said she had little hope she would be able to convince the president to take action on the climate emergency: “I say ‘listen to the science’ and he obviously does not do that. If no-one has been able to convince him about the climate crisis and the urgency, why would I be able to?” she said.
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archive.li

'She seems very happy': Trump appears to mock Greta Thunberg's emotio…

archived 24 Sep 2019 08:00:20 UTC
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"Hhhhhhhhhhhhhng, I'm going to STRANGLE that Clyde Cash!" - Greta Thunberg.
 
How dare you guys be upset about this political sockpuppet. This is further proof that rightoid incels are easily triggered.

What's the value of child pawns if you can just call out the propaganda?

Have sex.
 
Freddy Freaker said:
The angriest potato spazzes again.

At least David Hogg and pals had an actual crisis to shamelessly piggyback off of. How did this little turd blow up so fast and when will she go back to swedenistan?
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Her mother is a famous swedish celebrity, she had connections with media agencies to make her daughter a 'phenomenon'.
 
LordofTendons said:
Another thing to remember about autism spectrum disorder and these super intense interests is that people can drop them just as quickly and intently as they got into them. Next week this kid may decide she's into lime-flavored cupcakes shaped like Sean Penn and she doesn't want to do this other stuff any more, and there won't be a damn thing anyone can do to change her mind to continue to be the climate change Christ child. She'll find out what it is to have someone standing over her making her do stuff THEN.
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Spicy Tacos said:
Unfortunately, she’s been doing this for over a year.
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I remember hearing about a guy with autism who was really interested in urban planning and who built a huge miniature city in his house. He was really into it for around ten years until one day when he just wasn't interested in it anymore and became obsessed with something else (I think it was mathematics). So it's absolutely possible that she is going to completely lose interest in it one day even if this has been going on for over a year; it's just that it could take anything from a few days to over a decade.
 
For someone who is so pro-environment Greta sure is against swedish nuclear power. If we shut down our emission free nuclear reactors we will be forced to buy electricity from german coal plants instead. Why would the superhero genius kid who will save us all do that to the people of her own country?
 
""This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean."

Did this little activist explain why she had to actually fly across the ocean, instead of using teleconferencing?
As a climate-change expert she should know air travel is very polluting.
"It's all wrong", you don't say darling.
 
Uncanny Valley said:
Plus she's a teenwho has somehow never hit puberty (likely due to an atrocious diet)
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Ohh, damn, she's 16 years old. I thought she was much younger than that. Makes things a bit better to be honest, but I'm guessing part of her "appeal" is being seen as younger.

Water-T said:
I just saw a video of her speech, and I don't know if it's because of her 'tism, or the fact the English was not her first language, but...she comes off so...."bleh".

It's not inspiring at all. It's like watching a porn actor trying to do Shakespeare - stilted and clumsy. If she at least had some charm and humor, she could get away with it, but she's like a black hole of personality. This won't be as cute when puberty kicks in and she doesn't look like she jumped off a box of Swiss Miss cocoa anymore.
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because she's some awkward teenage sperg trying to deliver some epic emotional speech. You saw something similar with the Parkland kids. It feels like they are trying very hard to create some "I have a dream" moment, but when that falls flat it gets really painful to watch.
 
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