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.

 

[Sheryl Nome]

First of all, I'm familiar with the concept of tax incidence. But what you're talking about primarily concerns situations where the demand is elastic but the supply isn't. It isn't nearly so cut-and-dried when both are highly elastic elastic, such as - for example - luxury goods like high-end cellphones, luxury food, etc.

Second, and again this is the irony I tried to point out posts back, the joke here is that my whole point to begin with was predicated on the concept of taxing things with an inelastic demand.

You claimed that tax incidence of an elastic good is going to fall on consumers. Thats untrue as a rule. Now you're just changing what you said and you're in denial. Velben goods like high-end shit is not relevant.

Do you think every single good has inelastic demand? Hopefully not because you don't seem to realize that some degree of Carbon Tax would hit almost everything.

 

[ICametoLurk]

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg For Consent: A Design to Win — A Multi-Billion Dollar Investment [VOLUME II, ACT I] - Wrong Kind of Green

September 11, 2019 By Cory Morningstar The Manufacturing of Greta...

www.wrongkindofgreen.org

Basically she's manufactured so a mutli-billion dollar investment can happen.

Remember this: All "progressives" are either spooks or paid.

 

[MembersSchoolPizza]

You claimed that tax incidence of an elastic good is going to fall on consumers. Thats untrue as a rule. Now you're just changing what you said and you're in denial. Velben goods like high-end shit is not relevant.

Except that every example I used was either a luxury good with a largely arbitrary value, or an unavoidable staple. I didn't discuss things like precious metals and stones, or land because while I may not be an economics major, I'm smart enough to realize those behave differently. The closest example to an inelastic supply item I've used is jet fuel, but that's not really inelastic, at this point, we just like to pretend it is sometimes when it's convenient. The frequent market shakeups show otherwise.

Apple couple retool to supply goods to more inelastic markets, for example - indeed, they had the academic market locked down for decades, they could try to go back to that. And farmers could grow more in-demand crops if it reaches a point where they can't charge enough for an avocado to get people to buy it. Certainly it would shake up the markets, but that wouldn't be the first time for most big corporations.

Do you think every single good has inelastic demand? Hopefully not because you don't seem to realize that some degree of Carbon Tax would hit almost everything.

... No, seriously, that is exactly my fucking point, and the fact that you seem to think you're explaining that to me is baffling when it's what I'm complaining about.

 

[Sheryl Nome]

>There are only luxury goods and staples, replacement goods don't even real, people shifting their production/consumption to avoid the tax entirely or lessen their tax incidence doesn't even real

Truly you are the master of economics. There are only two kinds of goods, luxury and staple.

Incentivizing shifting production away from wasteful shit is literally the point of the carbon tax you moron.

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

>the corporations are fucking us, but lets not change anything because the corporations might still be fucking us even though that can only occur through a failure to understand basic economics. or them literally breaking the law and having to eventually pay up anyways.

Bravo.

I understand the sentiment, but do you think any form of carbon pricing or taxes as actually implemented will actually encourage positive change?

The whole rotten system needs to be kicked over to allow for anything beneficial to the common people.

 

[Sheryl Nome]

I understand the sentiment, but do you think any form of carbon pricing or taxes as actually implemented will actually encourage positive change?

The whole rotten system needs to be kicked over to allow for anything beneficial to the common people.

Yes, Carbon Taxes are by far the best form of carbon pricing, economics are economics.

 

[Coldgrip]

Pointing out that something is pathetic is getting “triggered” now? Lmao, the only person who’s triggered is the guy who’s driving that truck.

I dunno. Seems like he's just exercising his right to free speech. Also, who is he? Is he being funded by shady organizations in an attempt to use an obnoxious child to push a flawed and pointless agenda? Seems like people like the guy with the truck do it to get people like you to lose their shit over it. Because I'll bet that if Greta wasn't so, for lack of a better word, popular, he'd be driving the same truck with a different message aimed at a different lefty mouthpiece.

 

[MembersSchoolPizza]

>There are only luxury goods and staples, replacement goods don't even real, people shifting their production/consumption to avoid the tax entirely or lessen their tax incidence doesn't even real

Truly you are the master of economics. There are only two kinds of goods, luxury and staple.

Taking lessons from Adam Shit, are we?

Incentivizing shifting production away from wasteful shit is literally the point of the carbon tax you moron.

I thought it was incentivising more responsible and cleaner production and distribution methods in service of being kind to Mother Nature, which is why I presumed you would be concerned with the fact that... well, it doesn't really work very well for that.

If you're just after an anti-consumer tax that goes after that mean ol' capitalist society of ours, well, carry on then and ignore my objections.

 

[neverendingmidi]

>There are only luxury goods and staples, replacement goods don't even real, people shifting their production/consumption to avoid the tax entirely or lessen their tax incidence doesn't even real

Truly you are the master of economics. There are only two kinds of goods, luxury and staple.

Incentivizing shifting production away from wasteful shit is literally the point of the carbon tax you moron.

Technically all people need is a room that's warm enough to not freeze in the winter, cool enough to not die of heat stroke in the summer, some kind of covering for modesty and feet (feet are negotiable), a slurry of some kind to give nutrients, and enough water to not die of dehydration.

Everything else is luxury. Yay carbon taxes!!!!

Please move to Venezuela and explain how wonderfully their people are embracing a lack of carbon use!

 

[Sheryl Nome]

Fucking moronic right wingers always jump to "Everything I don't like is socialism."

Fucks sake.

 

[Fork Cartel]

can we split the bare knuckle treehuggin talk off to Deep Thought or someplace? Also, I hope y’all realize talking up a storm about Greta will Streisand her; shoot the puppet master not the puppet

 

[neverendingmidi]

Nah I just love the idea of being unemployed as my job moves overseas where electricity won't cost me a kidney and a lung. The place already fled California when they could only do manufacturing at night because the prices weren't quite as eye-bleedingly gouging as during the day. I'm sure they'd love to shutter it again and go to Mexico where they both will have affordable energy and less ecological guidelines.

It's awesome to think about how I and millions of others will be destitute and told to "learn to code" except we won't be able to afford computers or power to run them for companies that long since fled the US's stupidity.

 

[neverendingmidi]

Ah. So the ultra wealthy will be slightly inconvenienced, the middle class of all stages would be fucked dry with a rusty iron dildo, companies wouldn't flee excessive taxation because "reasons", and I'm dumb. You have convinced me, carbon taxes are the future. Every democrat should be trumpeting them every time they're interviewed. It's truly a winning plank of any election.

 

[Strange Looking Dog]

Fucking moronic right wingers always jump to "Everything I don't like is socialism."

Fucks sake.

Fucking moronic socialists always jump to "Everything I don't like is a right winger."

Fucks sake


Tribal warfare sure is fun when you get arbitrarily assigned a tribe

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg For Consent: A Design to Win — A Multi-Billion Dollar Investment [VOLUME II, ACT I] - Wrong Kind of Green

September 11, 2019 By Cory Morningstar The Manufacturing of Greta...

www.wrongkindofgreen.org

Basically she's manufactured so a mutli-billion dollar investment can happen.

Remember this: All "progressives" are either spooks or paid.

Despite them being an genuine tree-hugging, humus-eating, vegan-cat-having, bicycle-riding, bath-hating, tie-dye-wearing pinko commie, I can respect that Wrong Kind Of Green writer, They're consistent with their ire, and they're largely on point with their criticisms of this whole thing.

They're also just the right person to be digging into it and dredging up deep lore.

 

[Fatrick Hamlinson]

"Better loved and richer at 16 than you will be at 60. How does that make you feel?"

She's going to have a shitload of mileage on her from everyone riding her to the bank all the time, so that makes me feel better. Thanks for asking.

 

[billydero]

"Better loved and richer at 16 than you will be at 60. How does that make you feel?"

She's going to have a shitload of mileage on her from everyone riding her to the bank all the time, so that makes me feel better. Thanks for asking.

Exactly. And the way I look it:

If human-caused climate change isn’t the catastrophe she thinks it will be, she’s going to be like a child star who peaked way too early, and will crash and burn in her 20s when everyone either forgets about her or turns on her. For being so shrill and so wrong.

And if climate change is the catastrophe she say it will be, all the money in the world isn’t going to help her. She’ll either starve, or more likely get trampled and killed in a food riot.

I’m surprisingly comfortable with both those outcomes.

 

[ICametoLurk]

https://ekstrabladet.dk/flash/filmogtv/film/gaar-amok-paa-greta-thunberg-mopset-svensk-barn/7802884
Danish comedian using dolph the fascist rhino to play 'this pavement tile is greta thunberg'. A miffy swedish child who will say anything to get out of school.

Dolph is an old character of that comedian and he was always a nazi and fascist and goes around beating the shit out of faggots, communists and other people he don't like in the comedy sketches in the past. With the catchphrase. Death by club/Dod ved kolle.

But it's so appropriate in this case. Because swedish progressives are calling danes nazi for being against immigration. So dolph is taking his baseball bat and is playing a game called 'the pavement tile is greta thunberg'. And calls her an annoying swedish brat.
>greta thunberg. do you know her? An annoying swedish brat who will say anything to skip school.

 

[Stoneheart]

Danish is such a language.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

View attachment 954273

<Driving a huge, smoke-billowing truck with “fuck you Greta” printed on the back along with a skeleton that’s presumably a death wish against Greta

This is just a new level of pathetic and trashy.

>16 years old
>travels the Atlantic in a yacht
>speaks before the UN
>child

She ain't a child if you want her to be your Dear Leader, hon.

 

[millais]

https://ekstrabladet.dk/flash/filmogtv/film/gaar-amok-paa-greta-thunberg-mopset-svensk-barn/7802884
Danish comedian using dolph the fascist rhino to play 'this pavement tile is greta thunberg'. A miffy swedish child who will say anything to get out of school.

Eugene Ionescu did the fascist hippo thing all the way back in 1959 with his play, "Rhinoceros"