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.

 

[Manwithn0n0men]

Eleven pages Jesus Christ. What is it with this Greta kid that twists peoples' fucking panties so much?
She's a retard. Nothing she says holds any weight. Why does she provoke a response like this?

because whats being done to her is child abuse

 

[Jason "Qriist" Close]

because whats being done to her is child abuse

Agreed. Were she neurotypical (and perhaps with less batguano insane parents) she could conceivably argue effectively and rationally consider her positions. Moreover, she could identify and object to the exploitation being done to her. Instead, Greta is assualted with doomsday scenarios and is given the world stage where everyone can observe her unraveling.

The adults around her inducing fear within her on a constant basis is horrifying.

 

[Hechter]

It's sad when even pro-Greta cartoonists can't draw her in a flattering way:
View attachment 948309

Haha!

Has anyone trolled her already? Like, the way we used to troll Chris back in the day?

 

[Manwithn0n0men]

Agreed. Were she neurotypical (and perhaps with less batguano insane parents) she could conceivably argue effectively and rationally consider her positions. Moreover, she could identify and object to the exploitation being done to her. Instead, Greta is assualted with doomsday scenarios and is given the world stage where everyone can observe her unraveling.

The adults around her inducing fear within her on a constant basis is horrifying.

And given her alleged Autism and Anxiety disorders she delivers the perfect emotional pablum for weaker minds

 

[Hatoful Dandy]

Haha!

Has anyone trolled her already? Like, the way we used to troll Chris back in the day?

I'm sure someone out there considered doing a Liquid Greta

 

[CWCissey]

I'm sure someone out there considered doing a Liquid Greta

Great, now I want to see Greta screaming 'LIQUIIIIIIID!' at someone utilising a Swedish Chef puppet.

 

[Sneed's Feed And Seed]

Spoiler: Your move, Ms. Thunberg.

 

[Jason "Qriist" Close]

Spoiler: Your move, Ms. Thunberg.

View attachment 948525

Alright. Who farted on the world map?

 

[Particle Bored]

“Wearing a T-shirt that says ‘Antifascist All-Stars’ doesn’t mean you support Antifa, but anyone wearing a MAGA hat is automatically racist.”

I think there's a fair possibility she knows next to nothing about Antifa outside the term "antifascist." I wouldn't be surprised if she was given that shirt.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

Powerlevel but I lost a Facebook friend I've had for a long while by pointing out that she's probably mentally impaired, seems like she has FAS, and is basically being a shill for the neoliberal establishment. Then I was told this has nothing to do with CLIMATE CHANGE, when CLIMATE CHANGE has jack shit all to do with why this weird looking girl is being forced down our throats by the media. I guess it's because I'm a bad person for not believing in the Prophet Greta?

 

[Hux]

Spoiler: Your move, Ms. Thunberg.

View attachment 948525

Jesus, China looks like it's on fucking fire here

 

[Duke Nukem]

View attachment 947598

Combine that with the fact that CO2 capture also gets cheaper and cheaper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11027-019-9847-y

But you have to remember economic growth is bad. Disregard the technological advances and lets smash capitalism.

What actually makes me upset is that the focus is as always on activists, social commentators and politicians. But who is actually doing the ground work? Engineers, scientists, technicans. These guys but they never get any credit.

Engineers, scientists, and technicians are nerdy beta incels and often white and male. God forbid we acknowledge their existence, let alone consider dating them.

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

I think there's a fair possibility she knows next to nothing about Antifa outside the term "antifascist." I wouldn't be surprised if she was given that shirt.

It's a pretty cool shirt. I don't doubt that her teenage brain decided to just put on the cool shirt without much thought.

 

[Spicy Tacos]

Take this article with a grain of salt, but it gives details on her handler and includes a weird video of her mom buying a frozen pizza, among other details.

MUST READ: Greta Thunberg Pushed to Prominence by ANTIFA Parents and Soros Connections - Big League Politics

The Greta phenomenon is far from organic.

bigleaguepolitics.com

Thunberg’s frequent handler is Luisa-Marie Neubauer, an operative from the ONE Movement. Neubauer can be seen behind Thunberg at many of her public events.

She's a member of "ONE Foundation" managed by BONO, Bill Gates and George Soros


Malena Ernman, is a popular Swedish opera singer, and a long-time far left activist. She indoctrinated her daughter, who has been diagnosed with Autism and other mental disorders, from the youngest of ages with apocalyptic dogma about the environment. She even claims her daughter can see particles of carbon dioxide in the air...

They have also turned Thunberg into a money-making machine, using the child to fleece environmentalists out of large donations. Rentzhog founded a climate-focused PR firm ‘We Don’t Have Time,’ and put Thunberg on the Youth Advisory Board. The organization has raised nearly a million pounds before Thunberg was even thrust into the spotlight as a worldwide icon.


Sounds like MBP.

 

[Water-T]

Do you think anything productive will result from these protests? I really doubt, it's going to like Occupy Wall Street. Come to think about, this decade began with those protests and ended with these protest, they are prefect bookends of this low dishonest decade.

OWS was nothing more than lazy children, screeching autistically at people that worked to earned their own money. They just sat around, presented no solutions or plans, and expected everyone to capitulate to their demands without resistance. Without any focus or long term goals, it fell apart pretty quickly.

Greta is OWS, distilled into a mentally unwell child thrust into the spotlight by opportunistic, agenda-driven parents using her as a shield against criticism. You can see from her body language in her speeches that the poor girl is on the verge of a mental breakdown. She's being exposed to more pressure and stimulation than she can handle. It's fucking child abuse.

 

[Hechter]

I'm sure someone out there considered doing a Liquid Greta

Throw pickles at her

OWS was nothing more than lazy children, screeching autistically at people that worked to earned their own money. They just sat around, presented no solutions or plans, and expected everyone to capitulate to their demands without resistance. Without any focus or long term goals, it fell apart pretty quickly.

Greta is OWS, distilled into a mentally unwell child thrust into the spotlight by opportunistic, agenda-driven parents using her as a shield against criticism. You can see from her body language in her speeches that the poor girl is on the verge of a mental breakdown. She's being exposed to more pressure and stimulation than she can handle. It's fucking child abuse.

It's not like she's innocent, she loves the attention

 

[Male Idiot]

Yeah, who better to tackle a complex science related problem than a 16 year old snotty kid?

 

[Diana Moon Glampers]

This seems to be a new tactic of the left: put someone up as a representative of a vision which cannot be argued with, because the person at the center of the media frenzy is so fragile.

This happened with "Lily" whatever he was called in the UK as well, and "Aimee" Challenor, a mentally unwell person pushed to political prominence by older handlers.

It's supposed to work two ways: You're supposed to be very impressed at how much inner strength it must take this person to put themselves in the spotlight, instead of questioning anything about whether the spotlight/publicity was the whole point. Of course they wouldn't otherwise want to draw attention to themselves, look at how unwell they are!

The second purpose, of course, is just making them impossible to argue back against. "Oh yes, big man, arguing with a 16 year old girl." "Can't you see she's giving this her all, how dare you try to complain about someone so brave?" If these fail, they'll move on to the "you're making her literally physically ill!"

You can either decide to be an activist, or a fragile mentally unwell person who it's unfair to oppose. If you say you're an activist, I'm going to treat you like one, and that means you need to learn to face opposition. The whole reason it's brave to be an activist is that you face opposition. If it was all celebrations and making a difference, everyone would do it and it wouldn't be brave in the slightest.

 

[Hechter]

Since she is a retard, a noisebomb would do well. Throw it in tge crowd and watch her go insane

 

[Water-T]

It's not like she's innocent, she loves the attention

I really can't blame her. Many kids on the 'tism scale like her don't have many friends (or none at all), and based on what i've seen of her parents, they probably keep her very isolated. So being a child that is suddenly in the spotlight, Greta feels validated now. "People are listening to me! They like me! They're defending me from people who talk bad about me! I get to meet celebrities and travel around the world!". Of course she's going to love that attention.

Sadly, it's going to be short lived and it's very unhealthy for her. The spotlight will fade as it always does, and she's never going to get that validation or dopamine highs again. It's why so many former child stars bottom out.