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.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

View attachment 950511
Poor Chelsea, she isn't autistic enough to yell at her parents.

Well like DU30 said she lives in a glass house

 

[TheGuntMobile99]

I feel bad for Greta Thunberg.

She is obviously a product of her parents, based on the information we know. Her parents are using her as some kind of political "Joan of Arc," and taking her autism into consideration, all of this is really fucking gross.

I believe Greta's tears. I believe that she believes what she's saying. And mostly, I believe her childhood was taken from her. Her parents obviously raised her to be absolutely petrified.

Her acting was shit, they probably just shook her beforehand so she could cry on cue

 

[Dracula's Spirit Animal]

They told her about climate change by age 8 in ways scary enough that she pretty much disengaged from everything in her life and developed anxiety and eating disorders. This has all been admitted to by the parents.

I don't think you should raise kids with no knowledge that bad stuff exists, but you should make sure it's at a level they can handle, and that you take steps to deal with anxiety or depression that develops. Kids need to know it's not their responsibility to change the entire world, that their very minor changes like veganism don't matter, and that by the time it is their turn, they'll have better tools and skills to take on the problem if it's still their priority.

Mr. Rogers said "look for the helpers," when times are hard, and he's fucking right. While Greta talks shit about older generations, she'd have none of the science she's talking about, and none of the activist organizations she's working with, if it wasn't for those generations. No one putting out the papers about climate science is a teenager. But instead of seeing this as a complicated, multigenerational problem that has always had good and bad actors, she's gone for a very teenage "young people have had their future stolen by old people" narrative that was honestly being pushed when my own parents were young and people were heading to Woodstock to get free.

Parents have a responsibility to help their kids see the world in a way that helps them to stay grounded and sane. When your kid is developing eating disorders because of her anxiety and guilt over the damage she's doing to the planet just by existing, there's probably some daylight between that and "wrap her in cotton wool and never let her see the dark side of the world."

It's so weird. How many of us grew up and spent years or decades expecting the reasonable possibility of an instant end due to political perniciousness leading to nuclear war? The threat was far more imminent than the climate change shit, I don't remember anyone every having this level of anxiety about it. We accepted the possibility, and moved forward with life.

I have no doubt this girl will end up a wreck out of this, and either become a lolcow or disappear completely. I feel sorry for her, and her current state is clearly the result of child abuse. Still, if she keeps up with being exceptional, I will more than gladly mock the shit out of her in a few years.

 

[bippu_as_fuck_ls400]

Bleep blop bloop, error, error.

 

[Silence of the Troons]

Bleep blop bloop, error, error.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0bwLt_5t73g

"I can't speak on behalf of everyone"
Mate, you've been doing that for a long time

 

[Hechter]

I too, feel sorry for her and her sister. I watched Null's stream and it's abundantly clear that the mom is using them to get attention for herself. Munchhausen's without the medical, basically.

Powerleveling here but it's relevant-
I'm a female autist. Speaking from literal experience I can guarantee you that Greta is not only being heavily coached in everything she says- (would not be surprised if she gets an earpiece with lines fed to her) but is also being carrot-sticked to do any of this. At 16, she doesn't give a shit about the environment, she's having weekly breakdowns over why she can't be like the other girls or the teens she sees in media. She's being bribed with whatever she wants to make all these appearances and be gawked at by people- example: "We'll go to Disney World if you read this speech at the Capitol", "We'll go to the store and you can buy all the My Little Ponies you want after you attend this meeting and wave to the camera". She absolutely does not run her twitter account, it'd look like Chris Chan's if she did. She likely has no idea what half or more of the sexual things and threats being said/made about her even mean.

Both she and her sister will never be able to have any sort of normal life. Null is absolutely right- she's going to kill herself because of all this, and the fingers will point everywhere but where they matter- her mother. It's utterly disgusting.

Honestly I didn't play with ponies aged 16 and I certainly did have sex. Asoergers is not always mental delay. I did get into fights with people bc of my bluntness and lack of empathy. I am still the sane just hide it more I guess, preferring to post online.

 

[madethistocomment]

The amount of celebrity worship that adults shower upon this girl is honestly so fucking creepy.

 

[Crystal Golem]

Honestly I didn't play with ponies aged 16 and I certainly did have sex. Asoergers is not always mental delay. I did get into fights with people bc of my bluntness and lack of empathy. I am still the sane just hide it more I guess, preferring to post online.

I think we are all in a state where we know she is 16 and remember our own experiences at that age but her stunted appearance keeps tricking our minds into thinking she is 10. I wonder if her handlers realized this and that's why they used her. All the cuteness and reluctance to criticize of a little girl combined with the surly sassitude of a teenager. Would explain the braids too. They are really trying to mindfuck us with this one.

 

[RumblyTumbly]

Honestly, I feel bad for her.

She's being used as a glorified ventriloquist dummy to parrot all the talking points that her parents and handlers want her to say. She's going to continue to get used by her side and draw over the top negativity from the other side, and it feels like an unfair position for a child to be in. (and yes, I consider 16 to still be a child).

 

[BSV]

You just don't care about the suffering children.

 

[Lucille Bluth]

The amount of celebrity worship that adults shower upon this girl is honestly so fucking creepy.

She ticks all the “right” boxes.

Underage making her “act” more “brave”. She’s not American and not male because fuck them. And she’s Autistic, making it even more “impressive” that’s she’s soooo aware of the dangers of the world and wanting to “fight”.

You have a propaganda puppet right in front of us for everyone to hear and see but many are praising her instead and attacking anyone who questions her beliefs (that were indoctrinated) and or hypocrisy.

 

[Jason "Qriist" Close]

CHELSEA DROPPING DIMES

She's your only child Hilldawg please don't take her for a walk!

Clintons did it.

 

[AnOminous]

Was she a shaken baby?

 

[AlexGroans]

Was she a shaken baby?

Yeah. Shaken, not stirred.

 

[Diana Moon Glampers]

It's so weird. How many of us grew up and spent years or decades expecting the reasonable possibility of an instant end due to political perniciousness leading to nuclear war? The threat was far more imminent than the climate change shit, I don't remember anyone every having this level of anxiety about it. We accepted the possibility, and moved forward with life.

I have no doubt this girl will end up a wreck out of this, and either become a lolcow or disappear completely. I feel sorry for her, and her current state is clearly the result of child abuse. Still, if she keeps up with being exceptional, I will more than gladly mock the shit out of her in a few years.

That's a great point. Where were all the kids screaming about what was stolen from them when nuclear apocalypse looked more and more likely? It seemed a lot more likely that developed-world kids actually wouldn't make it to adulthood then. When people in northern countries with lots of hills and mountains act like they'll surely die from warming and a sea level increase, it seems a lot more farfetched than someone in a major US city during the worst of the Cold War thinking they're not going to make it to have children themselves.

Even then, kids weren't saying "We won't have babies / go to school until you disarm all the nukes." And if they had...it wouldn't have worked.

 

[The best and greatest]

It's so weird. How many of us grew up and spent years or decades expecting the reasonable possibility of an instant end due to political perniciousness leading to nuclear war? The threat was far more imminent than the climate change shit, I don't remember anyone every having this level of anxiety about it. We accepted the possibility, and moved forward with life.

I have no doubt this girl will end up a wreck out of this, and either become a lolcow or disappear completely. I feel sorry for her, and her current state is clearly the result of child abuse. Still, if she keeps up with being exceptional, I will more than gladly mock the shit out of her in a few years.

That's because there was nothing you could have done other than accept the inevitable. People like Greta feel that they HAVE to do something because they CAN do something before its TOO LATE! So it is a little different.

 

[murgatroid]

I'm not convinced this "Greta Thunberg" person is not just Stephen Merchant getting into character for a new role after he finishes playing the grindr killer.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

That's because there was nothing you could have done other than accept the inevitable. People like Greta feel that they HAVE to do something because they CAN do something before its TOO LATE! So it is a little different.

A lot of people don't understand is this is literally a life and death situation for them. We're feeling the effects of climate change now and while some of us won't be alive when the real bad shit happens, but these kids will.


The cold war was a matter of IF our leaders were finally gonna do it. Climate change is a matter of WHEN. We've past the point where we can reverse it and now these kids are trying to at least keep the planet livable.

 

[Recoil]

A lot of people don't understand is this is literally a life and death situation for them. We're feeling the effects of climate change now and while some of us won't be alive when the real bad shit happens, but these kids will.


The cold was was a matter of IF our leaders were finally gonna do it. Climate change is a matter of WHEN. We've past the point where we can reverse it and now these kids are trying to at least keep the planet livable.

not sure if serious

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

not sure if serious

I'm serious about the climate change part, but honestly I don't know enough about Greta nor do I care to know about her. I'm just browsing new at the moment.