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.

 

[The Flawless Gazelles]

since when are children moral authorities? i agree with most of her points, but this entitled brat belongs back to school and not in front of tv cameras. she will achieve nothing, besides getting fucked by the media and some creeps in DC.

 

[Dynastier]

since when are children moral authorities? i agree with most of her points, but this entitled brat belongs back to school and not in front of tv cameras. she will achieve nothing, besides getting fucked by the media and some creeps in DC.

Could you elaborate what points she has made that you agree with? I've yet to see her make a point.

 

[Denmark Mafia]

Mama Merkel fucking loves her. Now stop spreading your hate campaign that is being spearheaded by oil companies (some sped friend actually told me this). This 16 year old sperg is actually inspiring left wing conspiracy theories.

 

[The Flawless Gazelles]

Could you elaborate what points she has made that you agree with? I've yet to see her make a point.

climate change bad, we should take care of our planet.

 

[Dynastier]

I enjoy complaining about this girl but does she really need 4 threads?

 

[TowinKarz]

Greta is being used for that age old leftist trick form Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals'. Inducing shame.
Every other gushing article makes mention of crying, blubbering contrition.
We all should PANIC, remember? We're NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH.

It's the guilt trip wedge on a massive scale. Maybe her parents are spreading their own guilt around for having spawned an FAS poster child.

Too bad for anyone following the Alinsky playbook that since PCism took root in the 90's, the public has been on a 30-year uninterrupted guilt trip, and it's getting beyond tiring, now it's getting irritating to the point that instead of rolling your eyes at the next "Stop your behavior at once dirt-person, and think of the children !" moralist talking head, you find your fists clenching.......

It's one of the reasons populism and Trump blew everything up, finally, at long last, after all those years, someone was saying "you DO NOT have to be ashamed to be alive and not poor"

And it's why the canned media-elite response has been so feeble, the only thing they can think to do is turn up that guilt so now, even being WELL FED AND HAPPY is oppressing someone.....

Workable solutions that allow things to continue mostly as they are throw a monkey wrench into the works. They want people in restrictive teeny-tiny energy boxes. Hence why their on-paper fantasy energy plans are always really heavy on "conservation" (read: stop doing shit we are doing now) and light on "making shit work as it did before".

It's exactly how the left goes apoplectic when a Republican volunteer group goes and cleans up litter, or an "R" stumps for votes in a black working class neighborhood, they decry such as having "impure" motives and being done not to help, but to "hide" their obvious racism/uncaring. And to hide the fact that 200 people volunteering at their own cost just accomplished more than 30 years of "D" rule in that very city.

Because, they don't WANT things to get better, they WANT there to be perpetual just-scraping-by poverty so they can be the designated ruling class that keeps it from getting worse by vague promises of utopia someday, and fiery condemnation that any other proposal is just a false hope sold by BIGOTS!

 

[Dynastier]

climate change bad, we should take care of our planet.

Perhaps we have a more flexible definition of what a "point" is then. I meant more, what actions has she recommended to deal with those problems that you agree with. Those are pretty milquetoast points, I think someone could have made them without flying all over the world. Didn't al gore say that stuff back in 2000?

Sorry, I am old and jaded, don't let me sap your enthusiasm if you care about the environment. Just... try to do something productive with it instead of whatever this girl and her people are doing.

 

[The Flawless Gazelles]

Perhaps we have a more flexible definition of what a "point" is then. I meant more, what actions has she recommended to deal with those problems that you agree with. Those are pretty milquetoast points, I think someone could have made them without flying all over the world. Didn't al gore say that stuff back in 2000?

Sorry, I am old and jaded, don't let me sap your enthusiasm if you care about the environment. Just... try to do something productive with it instead of whatever this girl and her people are doing.

i'm posting on kiwifarms, it is more productive compared to being pimped out by the media.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

since when are children moral authorities? i agree with most of her points, but this entitled brat belongs back to school and not in front of tv cameras. she will achieve nothing, besides getting fucked by the media and some creeps in DC.

When their parents are rich and influential actor/theatre luvvies who want to push an agenda.

Although TBH I'd love to see a live Greta vs Soph debate.

 

[LordofTendons]

I enjoy complaining about this girl but does she really need 4 threads?

I think a megathread would be easier to track.

Meanwhile, the troll king has spoken:

Donald J. Trump on Twitter

“She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see! https://t.co/1tQG6QcVKO”

twitter.com

 

[Manwithn0n0men]

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?

Because if you look at her funding (like most European enviromentalist groups) it comes from Russia and Saudi Arabia [Or allied businesses]

 

[Manwithn0n0men]

I think a megathread would be easier to track.

Meanwhile, the troll king has spoken:

Donald J. Trump on Twitter

“She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see! https://t.co/1tQG6QcVKO”

twitter.com

View attachment 947072

This has been classified as Sarcasm by the media

 

[Malodorous Merkin]

I think a megathread would be easier to track.

Meanwhile, the troll king has spoken:

Donald J. Trump on Twitter

“She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see! https://t.co/1tQG6QcVKO”

twitter.com

View attachment 947072

Brutal.

He cuts right to the heart of it and guts her like a fish with a flick of his twitter scalpel.

She's the top 1% of the top 1% of privileged kids on the planet, and her future is one of nothing but opportunity, plenty, and comfort, and yet she's angry and miserable because she's been brainwashed by adults who are using her as a meatpuppet in their stupid kabuki theater.

 

[Kerr Avon]

The more I see and hear her , the more she gives me Gert Frobe vibes.

 

[EasyPeasy]

Greta will be responsible for melting more conservative snowflakes than CO2 ever will.

 

[Matthew216]

I was going to say “who’s Greta Thunberg?” again, but this works better.

https://babylonbee.com/news/marionette-strings-clearly-visible-during-greta-thunberg-testimony

Marionette Strings Clearly Visible During Greta Thunberg Testimony
September 23rd, 2019

NEW YORK, NY—Climate activist and adolescent Greta Thunberg gave a passionate speech at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, declaring, "How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, and yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing."

"This is all wrong," she declared, clearly on the verge of tears.
Savvy viewers, however, noticed there were marionette strings attached to the 16-year-old throughout her speech.
"Hey, wait a minute!" one attendee shouted. "Those are puppet strings, kinda like on Thunderbirds!" This caused some uproar, with everyone tracing the strings to see who had brainwashed this young girl into thinking the world was ending and pulling her strings. Some people got bored with the speech after that and just went and watched Thunderbirds, which had more interesting puppets and better acting.
Security found the other end of the marionette strings hastily abandoned by whoever had been controlling her, and a man fitting the description of Al Gore diving off the fire escape into a private jet. Thunberg slumped down in her chair and shortly woke up out of her daze, angered and disappointed to find she had been exploited like this.

 

[Freddy Freaker]

The way she talks as if she represents young people as a whole is cringy and idiotic even for a 16 year old.

Sheeeeiiit nigga we Generation GND© now!

 

[Azovka]

Why the fuck is she suing France of all countries? We’re literally an example of how nuclear energy should be used.

Hell, even Macron, our highly unpopular, corporate puppet President that’s been courting the French Green lobby for months now, gave up and said Greta’s speech is “too extreme” , and that he doesn’t think that “France is delayed” when it comes to reducing its emissions.

He also said that Greta Thunberg tries to “antagonise our societies”, that Poland is way worse than France when it comes to polluting, and that, if French youth is so worried about climate and the environment (speaking of the Climate March this weekend in Paris), they should just spend a day per week cleaning up beaches or something instead of protesting.

As much as I dislike Macron, he does have very good points there, points that I never would’ve expected from someone so desperate to rim the Greens for votes.

 

[Freddy Freaker]

Why the fuck is she suing France of all countries? We’re literally an example of how nuclear energy should be used.

Nuclear bad.

 

[Spatula]

Why the fuck is she suing France of all countries? We’re literally an example of how nuclear energy should be used.

Do you expect her PC celebrity mother will ever tell her asian and african overpopulation is the real issue?

I'm sure Greta doesn't know any better and blames the old white rich cigar smoking imaginary man she thinks is in charge of everything.

They expect Europe and North America alone to carry the weight of pollution, when they are the most progressive when it comes to solutions for the environment.