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.

 

[Genkoda]

Really aint sure who this is, and do not really care about some 16 year old that looks even younger.

 

[Slimy Time]

Literally who?

That's not an insult, I really don't know who this is.

Oh no, it's starting, her decline into nothingness where people will eventually not have a clue as to who she is has already started.

16-year olds should not look like stocky 7-year olds. Her diet must be beyond fucked up.

She's a vegan. Gotta keep that body looking pre-teen for all those donors to the cause.

 

[2al]

I know this is parodying her mom, but this might be relevant. It's portraying her mom as some kind of out-of-touch prima donna who tries to pretend she's just a normal and average person but fails. This used to be available with subtitles, but not anymore.

 

[Pointless Pedant]

If you're actually hurling abuse at a 16 year old you should rethink your life. Even this site doesn't allow lolcow threads on minors; it's for mocking autistic manchildren, not literal autistic children.

Your anger is far better directed at politicians capitalising on the environmental crisis to increase government power.

 

[Übertroon]

Normal people don't flip shit on reddit. This girl's a huge deal for some reason over on the_donald.

Because they mocked her for being a FAS face mongoloid propped up by her parents?

Because the fact that a disabled child can read science better than them and their paid oil shill friends is upsetting.

It must be because I can't read science good, but I must have missed the part where you can see CO2 with the naked eye, let's not kid ourselves here, this kid is knee deep in all the pseudo science that comes with watermelon politics

 

[PantsFreeZone]

Who?

People get mad at chicken sandwiches. This is 2019 and we live in a society.

 

[Azovka]

Fucking this.

Not since the French put a mentally ill teenage girl who claimed to hear the voice of God in charge of their armed forces in the 14th century, have I paused to wonder if everybody is taking crazy pills.

Actually, and forgive me for the historical sperging here, Joan of Arc never fought at all. She merely carried a banner to inspire the troupes, and mainly stayed with the “supplies” convoy, far away from any battle.

She never had any power other than that to inspire. And, the Frenchmen were pretty desperate at the time, having literally lost the throne to an English king, so any divine “sign” was welcome. Because that’s what people do, see meaning where there is none.

And that’s another thing to add, - the reason why Joan of Arc inspired the masses was because she was a herald of hope (on top of being a charismatic crazy chick that had auditory hallucinations).

Whereas Greta doesn’t preach hope or faith. She’s just the ecological equivalent of those doomsday cultists that run around yelling “abandon all hope ye who enter here”. I’ve seen her talk at the French Parliament (our National Assembly), and it was all just REeeeing about despair and how we’re all gonna die along with the planet.

Like sure, people did and still could metaphorically follow wild-eyed prophets in the desert, but she ain’t it.

 

[Krimjob]

It's gonna be a fun watch though. Girl is already involved with AntiFa and that green terrorist group (forgot their name, they did shit in Sweden and UK). This is gonna end like a god damn trash fire.

Even more so as I'm knee-deep in the whole "using kids for marketing" stuff. This always ends with either rape, drug abuse or straight-up suicide. Best case scenario: she gets severe depression for the rest of her life when she becomes a has-been.

She's 16 now, so people don't demand actual solutions. The second she hits 18-20 however, people won't accept empty flufftalk.

Never seen a single person that is mad at her though. People just think it's retarded to use a kid that is now without education, literally learns nothing about society nor responsibility, and that constantly spends time alone with rich men that are already shady as fuck.

Her mother is most likely supporting this because she's a has-been herself. Her career is essentially over and she is now using their other daughter for musical tours, while the dad is doing this whole Greta deal. Great parenting there.

 

[Matthew216]

You've been called out incel kiwis, what's your response?

Who's Greta Thunberg?

 

[Feline Supremacist]

She really doesn't look like an average 16 year old, her vegan diet is probably partly to blame.
Does this look like a healthy 16 year old girl?

View attachment 927918

Women need at least some body fat in order to function normally and she doesn't have any. At 16 she should at least have begun to undergo puberty but she has no breasts, no hips, poor muscle tone and looks as she's in a daze. She doesn't look like a healthy 16 year old she has the same look as an anorexic girl. Isn't there a thread here about vegans basically starving their bodies of nutrients like choline, turning themselves into imbeciles? Well Greta's the poster child for that.

 

[Iron Hamster]

It's why we're suspicious of sober people at parties.

I've always been too drunk at a good party to be suspicious of anyone. She really is paranoid.

 

[TFT-A9]

...Who the fuck is this bitch and why am I getting angrier the more I look at her face?

 

[Krimjob]

Women need at least some body fat in order to function normally and she doesn't have any. At 16 she should at least have begun to undergo puberty but she has no breasts, no hips, poor muscle tone and looks as she's in a daze. She doesn't look like a healthy 16 year old she has the same look as an anorexic girl. Isn't there a thread here about vegans basically starving their bodies of nutrients like choline, turning themselves into imbeciles? Well Greta's the poster child for that.

Another reason is probably stress and pressure. Combine all of this and you have an incredibly unhealthy lifestyle.

I've always been too drunk at a good party to be suspicious of anyone. She really is paranoid.

...Since when is anyone suspicious of sober people at parties? I usually only have one drink at most, never been an issue. What the fuck is this woman smoking?

 

[Shroom King]

Another reason is probably stress and pressure. Combine all of this and you have an incredibly unhealthy lifestyle.


...Since when is anyone suspicious of sober people at parties? I usually only have one drink at most, never been an issue. What the fuck is this woman smoking?

The sober person is usually the designated driver, and no one fucks with those people, unless you like walking home 12 miles in a blizzard.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

It is possible Greta might find herself in the same position as many child actors when her time runs out. "Where did my money go!" she might ask, but because she's a sperg the money is measured in Sonic merchandise.

Seriously, there were tweets about how this was the only way she found friends. Imagine that effect on an austistic mind when her star no longer shines because she was a fad, just an accessory. If she really is a 'sperger she won't understand that. It will be brutal to her and it makes me feel a bit sad.

 

[Ma_Hooty]

"Lolol y u so triggered? She's just a 16-year old autistic girl, get a life, creep."

I mean, I'm not the one parading her around like some sideshow act, but go ahead and keep trying to ignore the slow-moving inevitability of you throwing her away when she stops getting your cause attention.

Twisted, disgusting immoral fucks.

The sober person is usually the designated driver, and no one fucks with those people, unless you like walking home 12 miles in a blizzard.

Spoiler: Off-topic

Not too, powerlevel-ly, but I had a friend who (drunkenly) tried to start shit with me during a pub crawl.
Guess who had the authority to leave his ass behind?

 

[Antipathy]

Never heard of this girl, am extremely disappointed in her marketer's lack of suggesting solutions.

 

[ElAbominacion]

Ayo, Joan of Arc wasn't just a sideshow in the war.

Siege of Orléans - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Riding with troops isn't the same as 'staying back with the supplies crew'.

And unlike this Greta bitch, there was no money involved in her family. Her parents were peasants, she was illiterate, not 'school striking'.

 

[Jarolleon]

Because imagining what might've happened to me if my 16 year old political hot takes were being broadcast and advertised for millions of people to see makes me want to retract my body so far into my ass I enter another dimension, hopefully one that isn't as clownish.

In the other dimension Fox News & co. are propping up Soph and airing her bits on national TV.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

I like how they add she has Aspegers like we should feel bad, it makes me want to mock her m

Anyone that steps into the political sphere should expect to be mocked and harassed. It doesn’t matter if she was supporting a right or left wing cause.

She really doesn't look like an average 16 year old, her vegan diet is probably partly to blame.
Does this look like a healthy 16 year old girl?

View attachment 927918

She looks like a 12 year old because she doesn’t eat.