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.

 

[neverendingmidi]

"Greta Thunberg turns Putin's words against him"

"After the Russian president said Thunberg doesn't understand the complexities of the modern world, the 16-year-old responded by changing her Twitter bio."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday dismissed Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg as “a kind and very sincere girl” who doesn’t understand the complexities of “the modern world.”
As she did after President Trump appeared to mock her last month, the 16-year-old responded by changing her Twitter bio to mock Putin’s dismissive words.
“A kind but poorly informed teenager,” Thunberg’s Twitter bio now reads.
Thunberg, who has been nominated for a Nobel Prize for her work raising awareness about climate change, has become an inspirational figure for fellow teens. Last month she sailed from Europe to the United States on a zero-emission yacht.
At an energy forum in Moscow Wednesday, Putin discussed Thunberg’s recent speech at the United Nations, where she denounced world leaders for failing to combat climate change.
“I may disappoint you, but I don’t share the common excitement about the speech by Greta Thunberg,” Putin said, according to Reuters’s translation of his remarks.
“No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and different,” Putin continued. “People in Africa or in many Asian countries want to live at the same wealth level as in Sweden.”
Putin said children who are passionate about environmental issues, like Thunberg, should be supported. But he also accused her parents of exploiting that passion.
“When someone is using children and teenagers in personal interests, it only deserves to be condemned,” Putin said. “I’m sure that Greta is a kind and very sincere girl. But adults must do everything not to bring teenagers and children into some extreme situations.”

Fuck, I'm SURE an omnicrat like Putin is totally ASSBLASTED AND EPIC TROLLED by Greta because she CHANGED HER TWITTER BIO.

This is the equivalent of being assblasted that somebody here posted your comment on the random.txt thread by posting it below your username.

But look it's on twitter, that makes it mean something!

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

Climate activist Greta Thunberg does not have ‘handler’

Climate activist Greta Thunberg does not have 'handler'

CLAIM: Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has a “handler,” Luisa-Marie Neubauer, who has ties to the “ONE Foundation managed by Bono, Bill Gates and George Soros.” AP’S ASSESSMENT:...

www.apnews.com

 

[MyCatIsFarty]

Climate activist Greta Thunberg does not have ‘handler’

https://www.apnews.com/afs:content:7740750778

So she's an unsupervised child traveling the world?

 

[moocow]

"Greta Thunberg turns Putin's words against him"

"After the Russian president said Thunberg doesn't understand the complexities of the modern world, the 16-year-old responded by changing her Twitter bio."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday dismissed Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg as “a kind and very sincere girl” who doesn’t understand the complexities of “the modern world.”
As she did after President Trump appeared to mock her last month, the 16-year-old responded by changing her Twitter bio to mock Putin’s dismissive words.
“A kind but poorly informed teenager,” Thunberg’s Twitter bio now reads.
Thunberg, who has been nominated for a Nobel Prize for her work raising awareness about climate change, has become an inspirational figure for fellow teens. Last month she sailed from Europe to the United States on a zero-emission yacht.
At an energy forum in Moscow Wednesday, Putin discussed Thunberg’s recent speech at the United Nations, where she denounced world leaders for failing to combat climate change.
“I may disappoint you, but I don’t share the common excitement about the speech by Greta Thunberg,” Putin said, according to Reuters’s translation of his remarks.
“No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and different,” Putin continued. “People in Africa or in many Asian countries want to live at the same wealth level as in Sweden.”
Putin said children who are passionate about environmental issues, like Thunberg, should be supported. But he also accused her parents of exploiting that passion.
“When someone is using children and teenagers in personal interests, it only deserves to be condemned,” Putin said. “I’m sure that Greta is a kind and very sincere girl. But adults must do everything not to bring teenagers and children into some extreme situations.”

Fuck, I'm SURE an omnicrat like Putin is totally ASSBLASTED AND EPIC TROLLED by Greta because she CHANGED HER TWITTER BIO.

So ... is just quoting someone in your bio now all it takes to "pwn" someone?

My god, none of these fucking people ever left high school, did they?

 

[Yotsubaaa]

Fuck, I'm SURE an omnicrat like Putin is totally ASSBLASTED AND EPIC TROLLED by Greta because she CHANGED HER TWITTER BIO.

I feel like many of the Twitter addicted types unironically believe this though. They genuinely think its an epic own, instead of the most passive-aggressive shit ever.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg does not have ‘handler’

Wait a second. Reading that article, they say:

CLAIM: Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has a “handler,” Luisa-Marie Neubauer, who has ties to the “ONE Foundation managed by Bono, Bill Gates and George Soros.”

And then go on to document the "facts". I've underlined the relevant bits:

THE FACTS: Facebook and Twitter posts attempting to link Thunberg to the One Campaign through Neubauer began circulating widely in recent weeks as the 16-year-old Swedish activist promoted worldwide rallies to call attention to climate change and spoke at the United Nations Climate Action Summit on Sept. 23. The posts featured pictures of Thunberg and Neubauer, and falsely identified Neubauer as a “handler” or a “supervisor.” They also claimed Neubauer has ties to the “One Foundation,” an apparent reference to the One Campaign, co-founded by U2 frontman Bono.

Neubauer, a German climate activist, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that she met Thunberg at the 2018 United Nations climate change summit in Katowice, Poland. She described Thunberg as a friend and inspiration.

“I was inspired by the way Greta acted while everyone seemed speechless,” said Neubauer, speaking to the AP from Berlin."

The teen, who landed in New York City on Aug. 28 after traveling across the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-emissions sailboat, was accompanied on the trip by her father, who travels with her, according to the AP.

According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website, “One originated in conversations between Bill Gates and Bono in the early 2000s about the need to better inform Americans about extreme poverty around the world.” The One Campaign has ties to Soros, founder and chairman of Open Society Foundations, which works to build democracies.

Brooke Havlik, a communications officer with Open Society Foundations, told the AP that the organization has given $10 million to the One Campaign since 2011. Havlik said Soros had not had any interactions with Neubauer.

Question: Where's the quote for Neubauer's denial? They put in her quote about meeting Greta, and then the very next paragraph is about Greta's sailing. What?

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

❤ this gal

User Clip: 'We need to eat the babies'

Climate nut job raves at AOC town hall 10-02-2019.

www.c-span.org

 

[HTTP Error 404]

❤ this gal

User Clip: 'We need to eat the babies'

Climate nut job raves at AOC town hall 10-02-2019.

www.c-span.org

That does seem to be the way to defeat AOC et all. They're just barely able to hold back the insanity. They're trying to pretend they're not pushing for Socialism, for GloboHomo, for everything else.

As we've seen in GamerGate and the hobby culture wars, they tend to shoot their load early, thinking they have more allies and control than they really do.

A few trolls in the audience of AOC rallies shouting about revolution and overthrowing the US, say it properly and convincingly, and you might just get AOC or one of her handlers to agree with you. And then boy howdy, we're off to the races.

Bringing it back to the thread, Greta's an idiot, so she's even more vulnerable to this shit. Dress up like her and shout something insane but sane sounding like "we need a 100% tax on outdated and potentially illegal combustion engines to push the sale of electric cars" or "We need a total injunction against any and all forms of carbon toxins being emitted to the air in non-green industries" and see if she's stupid enough to agree.

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

❤ this gal

User Clip: 'We need to eat the babies'

Climate nut job raves at AOC town hall 10-02-2019.

www.c-span.org

The real question is does AOC understand Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" was satire, right?

 

[Spatula]

My god, none of these fucking people ever left high school, did they?

Greta hasn't. She doesn't even go to school anymore.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

And the left has started pushing to get 16 year olds the ability to vote (because only literal children are stupid enough to support them, and thanks to Gen Z that might not even be the case anymore).

If we ask them then if they push to get 16 year olds to vote, we should ask if they'll lower the age of drinking to 16 as well?

 

[Vecr]

If we ask them then if they push to get 16 year olds to vote, we should ask if they'll lower the age of drinking to 16 as well?

Nah, voting and drinking age got decoupled, IIRC because of the draft.

 

[GeorgiaGuidestones]

"Greta Thunberg turns Putin's words against him"

"After the Russian president said Thunberg doesn't understand the complexities of the modern world, the 16-year-old responded by changing her Twitter bio."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday dismissed Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg as “a kind and very sincere girl” who doesn’t understand the complexities of “the modern world.”
As she did after President Trump appeared to mock her last month, the 16-year-old responded by changing her Twitter bio to mock Putin’s dismissive words.
“A kind but poorly informed teenager,” Thunberg’s Twitter bio now reads.
Thunberg, who has been nominated for a Nobel Prize for her work raising awareness about climate change, has become an inspirational figure for fellow teens. Last month she sailed from Europe to the United States on a zero-emission yacht.
At an energy forum in Moscow Wednesday, Putin discussed Thunberg’s recent speech at the United Nations, where she denounced world leaders for failing to combat climate change.
“I may disappoint you, but I don’t share the common excitement about the speech by Greta Thunberg,” Putin said, according to Reuters’s translation of his remarks.
“No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and different,” Putin continued. “People in Africa or in many Asian countries want to live at the same wealth level as in Sweden.”
Putin said children who are passionate about environmental issues, like Thunberg, should be supported. But he also accused her parents of exploiting that passion.
“When someone is using children and teenagers in personal interests, it only deserves to be condemned,” Putin said. “I’m sure that Greta is a kind and very sincere girl. But adults must do everything not to bring teenagers and children into some extreme situations.”

Fuck, I'm SURE an omnicrat like Putin is totally ASSBLASTED AND EPIC TROLLED by Greta because she CHANGED HER TWITTER BIO.

Thanks for changing your Twitter bio, Greta. It’s truthful now.

 

[Antipathy]

As long as children like Greta are paraded about screaming about nonsolutions or total nonissues (SOLAR DOES NOT FUCKING WORK), we will never have change.

I'm starting to wonder if all of this shit, like that climate 'protest' in September, etc, is actually orchestrated by someone who wants to paint conservationists as tards.

I just want nuclear power plants instead of coal and oil ones. That's it.

 

[Stoneheart]

Guys, imagine if Hillary Clinton had won the election and a couple of years later Greta came sailing across the Atlantic on her yacht.

Its called Jugendführer der Hitlerjugend...

 

[kūhaku]

As long as children like Greta are paraded about screaming about nonsolutions or total nonissues (SOLAR DOES NOT FUCKING WORK), we will never have change.

I'm starting to wonder if all of this shit, like that climate 'protest' in September, etc, is actually orchestrated by someone who wants to paint conservationists as tards.

I just want nuclear power plants instead of coal and oil ones. That's it.

You know it's interesting, for people who push clean energy so hard ""they"" really don't want to push nuclear, even though its just a better option overall for waste and power.

 

[Antipathy]

You know it's interesting, for people who push clean energy so hard ""they"" really don't want to push nuclear, even though its just a better option overall for waste and power.

I think it's due to a lack of understanding about it. They think nuclear and then immediately Chernobyl and icky radioactive waste, since there have been some very excellently performed smear campaigns against nuclear power's reputation.

 

[kūhaku]

I think it's due to a lack of understanding about it. They think nuclear and then immediately Chernobyl and icky radioactive waste, since there have been some very excellently performed smear campaigns against nuclear power's reputation.

I almost wonder if the cold war is still giving us shit from the grave, red scare really is biting us in the ass. The research on nuclear right now is really promising, hell it has been for a while. Thorium based plants and the like produce such insignificant waste compared to regular ones it's astounding and the power to fuel ratio is amazing too. Just hope they wake up to it soon before we do a complete solar/wind overhaul before realizing it's shortcomings.

 

[Antipathy]

I almost wonder if the cold war is still giving us shit from the grave, red scare really is biting us in the ass. The research on nuclear right now is really promising, hell it has been for a while. Thorium based plants and the like produce such insignificant waste compared to regular ones it's astounding and the power to fuel ratio is amazing too. Just hope they wake up to it soon before we do a complete solar/wind overhaul before realizing it's shortcomings.

I've been pushing for Thorium for a long time, but maybe I should air my grievances to actual policymakers. I can have a pretty entertaining rant every now and then about what I think must be done in order to improve countries, and it's a long, long list.

Maybe I'll write a document or something about it. Fuck it, I'll do that eventually and post it on Deep Thoughts to accumulate dumb ratings.

 

[ICametoLurk]

❤ this gal

User Clip: 'We need to eat the babies'

Climate nut job raves at AOC town hall 10-02-2019.

www.c-span.org

omg the Simpsons predicted this

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

omg the Simpsons predicted this

Austin Powers also did: