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.

 

[Hux]

because spoiled teens online hate successful kids, remember when they hated justin bieber ?

Hating Bieber is a sign of being normal, not spoiled

 

[benithedude]

Hating Bieber is a sign of being normal, not spoiled

oh please, so you're jealous some kid has more money and attention than you, how insecure can you be

 

[BrokenWokenBespoken]

I feel like you are asking for this.

View attachment 1050813

One actually does actual damage Greta is powerless to stop. The other is plain hurt feelings from people with power to make the world an unhappier place.

View attachment 1051949

"You have stolen my childhood!"
"People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of the mass extinction [...]"
"Nuclear energy isn't good enough! We need to destroy the patriarchy!"
"We will put the world leaders against the wall!"

When a kid is acting completely out of line and running up and down the aisles screaming at everybody, it's an adult's job to tell the kid to chill the fuck out. Somehow this is something that a lot of adults are finding difficult. It's not as though she's just some random kid, either, because the media and an entire political faction will not shut the Hell up about her and they put her on magazines and drag her to the fucking U.N. to yell at everyone.

Rather than encouraging her to focus on her education or try and rationalize with her to help her understand that she's not about to fucking die they just keep feeding this kid delusional propaganda until she's whipped into this absolute frenzy because she's convinced that we're all years away from being completely destroyed by this Climate Spooky nonsense. They're not trying to help her calm down, they're feeding her fear and it's creating an insane person.

I don't understand how telling the physical manifestation of "lol calm down" equates to throwing a tantrum. It's what any rational person should do in the face of a child who just will not calm down.

Time like this I wished the opposition went and do it specifically to piss her off. You got a military, economic resources and a lobby filled with people wanting to knock her down a peg. Enable them instead getting into tweet fights and outrage.

 

[thismanlies]

I think your post misses some context. Let me try to help

- Greta posted a picture on her Twatter where she was forced to sit on the ground because the train was so overcrowded.
- This caused a shitstorm against the German railway company
- German railway company respond to her tweet:
Dear #Greta, thank you for supporting us in our fight against climate change! We felt flattered that you traveled with us in the ICE 74 with 100% green energy.
it would be even better if you had mentioned how friendly and comfortably our team has treated you on your seat in the First Class section of the train.

I see one of two possibilities here. The first being that Greta's handlers were testing to see how much outrage they could stir up against some random train company by the mere mention of her name. The second being that someone on the train somehow managed to slightly inconvenience one of her handlers so they cooked up that photo op to fuck with the train company.

Either way, Greta's left holding the baggage (no pun intended) while her handlers skate on by without as much as a dirty look being thrown their way. And here I thought my opinion of them couldn't get any lower.

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

because spoiled teens online hate successful kids, remember when they hated justin bieber ?

Both are two different leagues. Sorry, for defending him, but...

Bieber did something for his fame, he made songs, and well, middleschool lasses found him hot, and at least he was fun to them.

Meanwhile, Thunberg is 16 but looks like, like 12 and like as if she has serious developmental disorders. She got everything handed on a silver tablet to her by her rich parents and PR agencies and possesses no valuable skills of her own. Meanwhile, she now demands hardworking common people to give up on all the cool stuff they have like cars, planes, meat, milk, fresh fruits, fashion, houses, dogs, cats, kids, consumer electronics, central heating, toys, streaming services, videogames... and her success is only based on fearmongering.

Bieber was all about parties and love affairs, Thunberg wants, no, she commandeth us to live in pods and eat bugs. And unlike Bieber, she has autism. We all know this equals an automatic failure in every situation imaginable.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Hating Bieber is a sign of being normal, not spoiled

And these clips of Justin Bieber being killed by everyone never get old.

 

[AnOminous]

I don't understand how telling the physical manifestation of "lol calm down" equates to throwing a tantrum. It's what any rational person should do in the face of a child who just will not calm down.

Look at how every facial expression this cunt has is just pure malice and anger at the world not being exactly what she wants it to be. Just cope, you utter autist. The world isn't, and never will be, exactly what you want it it to be. You aren't being raped and murdered by that fact, you just should grow the fuck up and deal with the fact that the world isn't what you'd prefer.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Meanwhile, Thunberg is 16 but looks like, like 12 and like as if she has serious developmental disorders.

That's not all about any honest disorders she may have. Her marketing team deliberately dress her up to look like a kindergartner to manipulate the audience. It's no different than Hillary affecting a southern drawl or talking about abuela when addressing a crowd.

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

That's not all about any honest disorders she may have. Her marketing team deliberately dress her up to look like a kindergartner to manipulate the audience. It's no different than Hillary affecting a southern drawl or talking about abuela when addressing a crowd.

Thunberg herself admitted she has autism.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Thunberg herself admitted she has autism.

I know, but you don't think her handlers are playing that up?

 

[Real Mutha For Ya]

Look at how every facial expression this cunt has is just pure malice and anger at the world not being exactly what she wants it to be. Just cope, you utter autist. The world isn't, and never will be, exactly what you want it it to be. You aren't being raped and murdered by that fact, you just should grow the fuck up and deal with the fact that the world isn't what you'd prefer.

This mentally subnormal truant should be in a (special) school.

 

[Coldgrip]

When a kid is acting completely out of line and running up and down the aisles screaming at everybody, it's an adult's job to clothesline the child so they chill the fuck out.

It's also their job to tag in the other parent so they can assit with an elbow or leg drop from the top of the shelf. Remember, it's better for the family when both parents are on the same page and back each other up when it comes to disciplining a child.

 

[Zhoban]

I think your post misses some context. Let me try to help

- Greta posted a picture on her Twatter where she was forced to sit on the ground because the train was so overcrowded.
- This caused a shitstorm against the German railway company
- German railway company respond to her tweet:
Dear #Greta, thank you for supporting us in our fight against climate change! We felt flattered that you traveled with us in the ICE 74 with 100% green energy.
it would be even better if you had mentioned how friendly and comfortably our team has treated you on your seat in the First Class section of the train.

I love how she and her companions actually took their sweet time to carefully arrange all the luggage in a way to make her pitiful, complete with a carton of Chinese leftovers. I can just imagine several rows of first class passengers travelling together standing up, carrying their luggage to the end of the car, then spending ten minutes, hunched over, shuffling shit around and getting in the way of passengers trying to move around.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

How much does anyone actually listen to her in her own home country? Is this one of those situations where American clickbait likes writing sob stories about her but native swedes mostly go "who?"

 

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

Why does she look 12 and yet shes 16?

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

Why does she look 12 and yet shes 16?

She has several developmental disorders, among them every Kiwi's favourite sickness, autism.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

Why does she look 12 and yet shes 16?

thats what not eating meat dose to you.

 

[Wy4M]

Here's some footage when she arrived in Madrid last week.
She looks unhappy, terrible and exhausted.
Edit: especially between 0:08 and 0:16

Greta Thunberg faces media hysteria as she arrives in Madrid

Teenage activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Madrid on Friday after taking the overnight train to the Spanish capital from Lisbon, heading to a gathering of wo...

youtu.be

 

[polonium]

Why does she look 12 and yet shes 16?

Veganism. Not even once.

 

[Silence of the Troons]

How much does anyone actually listen to her in her own home country? Is this one of those situations where American clickbait likes writing sob stories about her but native swedes mostly go "who?"

Au contraire, she has been widely talked about ever since her school strike started back in August last year (so before she started receiving attention on an international scale). The newspapers absolutely love her. Case in point:

The screenshot is from Dagens Nyheter, which is a supposedly serious newspaper and not some tabloid rag. Yet they put up a huge article with a huge title, even going as far as translating it to English (funnily enough, the English article is available to non subscribers but not its Swedish counter part) about the "German train ruckus" as if it's extremely important. This is something one would expect to see as a small article at best or in Aftonbladet, not in a serious publication.

Meanwhile, recently, a free lance journalist who was visiting Kronogården (one of our no go zones) was assaulted multiple times by masked youth gangs that eventually went as far as stealing his camera equipment and the police was present but did nothing but Dagens Nyheter and other mainstream media outlets have been much quieter about that so far.