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.

 

[World's Smallest Violin]

Greta's nearing 18 and by the time she can't be treated as a delicate child by any legal system in the world, she'll be dropped as their "spokeswoman", look at what happened to that David Hogg guy.

 

[King Dead]

They have leveraged that too.
"Get rid of your old dirty car and buy a new cleaner one. It's for the environment. Look it even has a leaf on it!"
The Prius cult is the worst.

Cash for Clunkers was a stupid fucking idea. Plenty of cheap, working cars were pulled off the road and scrapped because "the government's paying me to get a new car, might as well!" This unfortunately had the side effect of removing a lot of used cars from the market, especially some that are prized by gearheads today. For someone who's on a very tight budget but desperately needs a car of their own, or for someone who wants a project car to work on, they're just not able to find what they need anymore because of Obama's "green" program. Ignore all the energy and materials that went into all those new cars, look at how shiny and clean they are!

And then Chuck Schumer recently said he wants to try and do another Cash for Clunkers, except to force people away from gas-powered cars and into electrics. I pray that doesn't go anywhere or the used car market is going to get even worse.

I don't understand people's desire to throw out seemingly everything they own and buy all-new replacements. I've had the same phone for about six years now, in part because I don't see the point in upgrading. It does what I need it to, it's not broken in any way, so why bother? I have no desire to replace my car, and I intend on driving it until it just can't be repaired. I grew up learning how to reuse and maintain all kinds of things, and in our house things were only thrown away when they completely wore out. There's so much perfectly usable stuff out there, if people would just learn to appreciate it.

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

They have leveraged that too.
"Get rid of your old dirty car and buy a new cleaner one. It's for the environment. Look it even has a leaf on it!"
The Prius cult is the worst.

I'm all for hybrid and electric car tech, but good Lord I hate the Prius. That egg shaped buttplug is smugness incarnate. The drivers range from obnoxious, driving below the speed limit to boost their car's efficiency, to asshole tier, which is that entitled "I have a Prius so I can cut your clunker off on the highway" mentality.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

Cash for Clunkers was a stupid fucking idea. Plenty of cheap, working cars were pulled off the road and scrapped because "the government's paying me to get a new car, might as well!" This unfortunately had the side effect of removing a lot of used cars from the market, especially some that are prized by gearheads today. For someone who's on a very tight budget but desperately needs a car of their own, or for someone who wants a project car to work on, they're just not able to find what they need anymore because of Obama's "green" program. Ignore all the energy and materials that went into all those new cars, look at how shiny and clean they are!

And then Chuck Schumer recently said he wants to try and do another Cash for Clunkers, except to force people away from gas-powered cars and into electrics. I pray that doesn't go anywhere or the used car market is going to get even worse.

I don't understand people's desire to throw out seemingly everything they own and buy all-new replacements. I've had the same phone for about six years now, in part because I don't see the point in upgrading. It does what I need it to, it's not broken in any way, so why bother? I have no desire to replace my car, and I intend on driving it until it just can't be repaired. I grew up learning how to reuse and maintain all kinds of things, and in our house things were only thrown away when they completely wore out. There's so much perfectly usable stuff out there, if people would just learn to appreciate it.

You and are of the same mind. My daily is a car I bought for $700 and I rebuilt the engine because I was bored.
Gotta watch the hanging onto shit because it has some value thing though. That's where hoarding comes from. You need to purge from time to time.

As for cash for clunkers, the worst bit was they crushed all of them whole. No secondary used parts market. How many rigs would still be on the road if cheap spares were available?
But it was an environmental thing... yeah sure.

 

[World's Smallest Violin]

I'm all for hybrid and electric car tech, but good Lord I hate the Prius. That egg shaped buttplug is smugness incarnate. The drivers range from obnoxious, driving below the speed limit to boost their car's efficiency, to asshole tier, which is that entitled "I have a Prius so I can cut your clunker off on the highway" mentality.

They say don't judge a book by its cover but a prius driver on the other hand, leer towards the urge anyway. I wonder how woke hippies feel knowing its lithium ion batteries come from African mine child labor.

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

They say don't judge a book by its cover but a prius driver on the other hand, leer towards the urge anyway. I wonder how woke hippies feel knowing its lithium ion batteries come from African mine child labor.

Most Prius drivers I've encountered are just awful drivers. Stereotypes stem from repeated observations, after all.
I hate seeing them pollute the highway with their gayness. Anecdotally most Priuses I remember when Prius drivers tried to make the plural of Prius "Prii" like the faggots they are I've seen also have bodywork damage, so take that for what you will.

 

[King Dead]

You and are of the same mind. My daily is a car I bought for $700 and I rebuilt the engine because I was bored.
Gotta watch the hanging onto shit because it has some value thing though. That's where hoarding comes from. You need to purge from time to time.

As for cash for clunkers, the worst bit was they crushed all of them whole. No secondary used parts market. How many rigs would still be on the road if cheap spares were available?
But it was an environmental thing... yeah sure.

True, and my parents do have a slight hoarding tendency, though not to the level of keeping every newspaper since 1973 or something like that. If push came to shove, they could let go of a lot, I'm sure. But when it comes to appliances and whatnot, keep it until it breaks down entirely. My parents' microwave they got as a wedding present lasted them for close to 30 years before it finally bit the big one. A toaster my grandparents got as a wedding present lasted over 50 years. Unfortunately, it's harder and harder to get anything that lasts remotely as long since you basically can't avoid cheap Chinese crap. You're frequently lucky if most of your appliances last five years.

I forgot about the fact they crushed the cars whole too. Such a fucking waste. They probably saw that as a feature, not a bug: "if we completely destroy these cars, then everyone who failed to give up their cars in the first place will be forced to when they can't get replacement parts!" Fucking micromanaging assholes.

 

[TowinKarz]

You and are of the same mind. My daily is a car I bought for $700 and I rebuilt the engine because I was bored.
Gotta watch the hanging onto shit because it has some value thing though. That's where hoarding comes from. You need to purge from time to time.

As for cash for clunkers, the worst bit was they crushed all of them whole. No secondary used parts market. How many rigs would still be on the road if cheap spares were available?
But it was an environmental thing... yeah sure.

C for C was the auto equivellant of gun buybacks..... perfectly working examples of something destroyed in a virtue signal that ultimately doesn't help as much as it hurts. Can't tell you how many people today are struggling to find a cheap but reliable secondhand car to give to their soon-to-be-driving kid because the kind of car they would've found easy for $2000 - $2500 on a used car lot and can survive them through college with a little maintenance and TLC is now a waffle iron thanks to C f C's forced destruction.

Also, I hated the absolute smugness of the promotion, - "Have you bought your new car yet? No? Why NOT?! EVERYONE likes buying a new car! And it's your duty to the planet and the economy! What are YOU waiting for? THEY'RE ON GOVERNMENT-MANDATED SALE! "

Like I have that kind of disposable income even with a credit that requires me to give up a working vehicle to get..... you could sense the hatred/dismissal of the "deplorable" element just under the surface that would bloom fully under the Clinton movement in 2016.... "If you can't afford to be a grade "A" consumer, just die already..... you're wasting resources by sustaining yourself if you can't keep up with the standard of the new "average" consumer". It was the same out-of-touch mentality that saw no problem with forcing you to buy Obamacare insurance or else you'd be fined: It's the 21st Century, Joe Average, and your best is no longer enough, time to either evolve to our level or die off.....


Besides, in practice the college professor types around here just traded in their 8-year-old "junk" Audis that ran goodand relatively clean for new gargantuan Q-series SUVs that didn't run all that cleaner and laughed all the way home. Meanwhile what did people with rusty old F-series pickups belching blue smoke from worn rings and valve guides and struggling to reach 9mpg downhill get? Nothing really. Not that they SHOULD have, but to claim C for C improved the environment in any way that could be detected outside of laboratory conditions is a joke.

Prime example of how the government, even when it means well, cannot solve shit.

 

[Radical Cadre]

Greta's nearing 18 and by the time she can't be treated as a delicate child by any legal system in the world, she'll be dropped as their "spokeswoman", look at what happened to that David Hogg guy.

Did anything ever come from those rumors that Greta's parents have been lying about her age?

 

[World's Smallest Violin]

Did anything ever come from those rumors that Greta's parents have been lying about her age?

The inevitable reality that perhaps the jig's up and the "shes a kid" defense don't work anymore.

Most Prius drivers I've encountered are just awful drivers. Stereotypes stem from repeated observations, after all.
I hate seeing them pollute the highway with their gayness. Anecdotally most Priuses I remember when Prius drivers tried to make the plural of Prius "Prii" like the faggots they are I've seen also have bodywork damage, so take that for what you will.

A decent Prius driver is an extreme rarity if not a total myth. But i don't expect the consoomers of the car world to understand basic manners it's plain to see that they buy (with their parents' money) whatever the media tells them to.

 

[TowinKarz]

Did anything ever come from those rumors that Greta's parents have been lying about her age?

I wouldn't be all that shocked to learn the near-permanent case of Trollface she has is a side-effect of them feeding her unspeakable pharmaceutical products in an effort to delay her growing up....

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

I wouldn't be all that shocked to learn the near-permanent case of Trollface she has is a side-effect of them feeding her unspeakable pharmaceutical products in an effort to delay her growing up....

She looks too young to be near 18, to be honest she looks like she's going on 15 or 16 at oldest.
Either her rétard special genetics are keeping her stunted or there's some external factor. Could be a vegetarian/vegan diet or unspeakable pharmaceuticals. I don't know and don't want to.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

True, and my parents do have a slight hoarding tendency, though not to the level of keeping every newspaper since 1973 or something like that. If push came to shove, they could let go of a lot, I'm sure. But when it comes to appliances and whatnot, keep it until it breaks down entirely. My parents' microwave they got as a wedding present lasted them for close to 30 years before it finally bit the big one. A toaster my grandparents got as a wedding present lasted over 50 years. Unfortunately, it's harder and harder to get anything that lasts remotely as long since you basically can't avoid cheap Chinese crap. You're frequently lucky if most of your appliances last five years.

I forgot about the fact they crushed the cars whole too. Such a fucking waste. They probably saw that as a feature, not a bug: "if we completely destroy these cars, then everyone who failed to give up their cars in the first place will be forced to when they can't get replacement parts!" Fucking micromanaging assholes.

Survivorship bias. Plenty of crib deaths on the old stuff. What has changed it the "value engineering" of it all. That is much more refined. Back then a cheap thing might be OK or good. Today it is crap, guaranteed.

 

[World's Smallest Violin]

She looks too young to be near 18, to be honest she looks like she's going on 15 or 16 at oldest.
Either her rétard special genetics are keeping her stunted or there's some external factor. Could be a vegetarian/vegan diet or unspeakable pharmaceuticals. I don't know and don't want to.

And "funny things" those parents and handlers of hers probably do to her in private to keep her anxious and complacent. The dark side of "saving the Earth bro" all while giving Xi the Pooh and his pajeet neighbours a free pass despite being the most reponsible for all the pollution.

 

[TowinKarz]

And "funny things" those parents and handlers of hers probably do to her in private to keep her anxious and complacent. The dark side of "saving the Earth bro" all while giving Xi the Pooh and his pajeet neighbours a free pass despite being the most reponsible for all the pollution.

And now I'm getting A Clockwork Orange vibes, imagining her being strapped in a chair and forced to watch images of baby seals being clubbed, skyscrapers sinking into the ocean, birds falling to the pavement gasping for air and the smiling face of President Trump..... all to the tune of cheery pop music.

 

[Turnip_Head]

And now I'm getting A Clockwork Orange vibes, imagining her being strapped in a chair and forced to watch images of baby seals being clubbed, skyscrapers sinking into the ocean, birds falling to the pavement gasping for air and the smiling face of President Trump..... all to the tune of cheery pop music.

We're at a stage where I could see a couple of educators I've met do that un-ironically.
Public school teachers already play John Green back to back without a hint of self reflection.

 

[teriyakiburns]

As for cash for clunkers, the worst bit was they crushed all of them whole. No secondary used parts market. How many rigs would still be on the road if cheap spares were available?

We had a similar thing over here. The number of Series landrovers that were junked and destroyed breaks my heart. Those things run literally forever, as long as the cam chain doesn't break and whipsaw the block in half.

The used car market has just about reached back to where it was at the turn of the century, in terms of affordability, but there aren't all that may easily maintained cars out there now. I got a decent little convertible for about 1200GBP recently, which would have cost three times that just a few years ago because of the demand. Only needed new shocks, brakes and tyres. It's basically a Corsa underneath everything, so it's relatively easy to maintain, but a lot of the used cars out there now are mid-2010s rustbuckets with failing ECUs, shitty performance, and impenetrable electronics everywhere that make servicing and maintenance nearly impossible. They won't last the way my old Mini did - and the only reason I traded that little roller-skate in back in the day was because entire floor and both doors rusted out on me.

Great, I'm all nostalgic now. Bring back the fucking 90s. I want a cosworth.

 

[Adamska]

I can't even use a shitty prius or a normal sedan; too tall and I hate falling into them. I HAVE to use vans, trucks, or SUVs to be comfy, so a new Cash for Clunkers means nothing for me.

 

[Goodbye Horses]

She looks too young to be near 18, to be honest she looks like she's going on 15 or 16 at oldest.
Either her rétard special genetics are keeping her stunted or there's some external factor. Could be a vegetarian/vegan diet or unspeakable pharmaceuticals. I don't know and don't want to.

She is or was anorexic. Eating disorders during puberty fuck you up.

 

[vertexwindi]

She is or was anorexic. Eating disorders during puberty fuck you up.

Weren't her parents hardcore vegans? It's probably malnutrition.