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.

 

[Oats12345]

So has there been any Greta news or has the left finally ditch her for Black Lives Matter?

 

[bippu_as_fuck_ls400]

So has there been any Greta news or has the left finally ditch her for Black Lives Matter?

Between covid and blm, her 15 minutes are up.

I wonder how she's holding up mentally. She went from being the center of attention and being whisked around the world, to sitting at home with zero attention.

 

[Mola Ram]

Between covid and blm, her 15 minutes are up.

I wonder how she's holding up mentally. She went from being the center of attention and being whisked around the world, to sitting at home with zero attention.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she's relieved. She's a disabled child being used as a pawn by ruthless activist groups and monstrous stage parents. She often had a deer in the headlights look about her, especially on those rare occasions she was asked off script questions.

 

[Juan's Sombrero]

There are few things more sad and pathetic than a washout trying to stay relevant. Especially when it is someone who is as young as Greta.

Her parents, and their allies in the leftist elite, crippled her far more than any amount of autism ever could.

So has there been any Greta news or has the left finally ditch her for Black Lives Matter?

Between covid and blm, her 15 minutes are up.

I wonder how she's holding up mentally. She went from being the center of attention and being whisked around the world, to sitting at home with zero attention.

I'm pretty sure Mark Dice got us covered on that. Observe:

 

[Pickle Dick]

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/greta-thunberg-hulu-doc-european-north-american-theatrical-release-dogwoof-1234759221/

what

i completely forgot about her until i saw this article

 

[Kerr Avon]

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/greta-thunberg-hulu-doc-european-north-american-theatrical-release-dogwoof-1234759221/

what

i completely forgot about her until i saw this article

UK sales agent Dogwoof ? And people say the man upstairs lacks a sense of humor.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/greta-thunberg-hulu-doc-european-north-american-theatrical-release-dogwoof-1234759221/

what

i completely forgot about her until i saw this article

If you wanted a final definite proof this whole Greta thing was getting a new political (autistic) face set up to push economic plans that make rich people richer. A documentary that treats the global warming aspect as a side attraction to this retarded representative of our overlords, and which release will cause more pollution than a group of people will in a lifetime.

 

[Adamska]

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/greta-thunberg-hulu-doc-european-north-american-theatrical-release-dogwoof-1234759221/

what

i completely forgot about her until i saw this article

Her shitstain parents and those grifters they collude with (like the creepy indian man) probably wasted a lot of money for this last gasp of attention. Because a retarded girl they forced to not have an education due to their own narcissism doesn't merit a documentary, it merits CPS involvement and prison.

I still don't get why children saying stuff = attention from progressives too by the by.

 

[AnOminous]

Her shitstain parents and those grifters they collude with (like the creepy indian man) probably wasted a lot of money for this last gasp of attention. Because a retarded girl they forced to not have an education due to their own narcissism doesn't merit a documentary, it merits CPS involvement and prison.

I still don't get why children saying stuff = attention from progressives too by the by.

Same reason soph was on every alt-right-adjacent pedo's stream from Ralph's to Dick's.

 

[Gangster Talk]

" The film is the latest high-profile bio doc from Dogwoof, which premiered “Hillary,” a four-part TV series about presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton, at the Sundance Film Festival in January. "

Jesus christ lol

 

[chainer]

Same reason soph was on every alt-right-adjacent pedo's stream from Ralph's to Dick's.

Hey, Soph was legit funny. I miss that lil’ nigga like you wouldn’t believe.

 

[Autistic lurker]

Greta is not happy with the film.

Toronto: Greta Thunberg Calls Out Celebrity Culture as "Absurd" | Hollywood Reporter

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[Gangster Talk]

Greta is not happy with the film.

Toronto: Greta Thunberg Calls Out Celebrity Culture as "Absurd" | Hollywood Reporter

www.hollywoodreporter.com

I actually respect this response, the creepy messiah cult around this little autist is so extreme that it's overshadowing any work she was trying to do, good on her for calling it out.

 

[Tootsie Bear]

Greta is not happy with the film.

Toronto: Greta Thunberg Calls Out Celebrity Culture as "Absurd" | Hollywood Reporter

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Hell, I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with her. No doubt there's a crisis with climate change but people are going to realize when the majority people who acknowledge climate change are worst then the deniers, because they just see it as a political viewpoint, not science, and love to present themselves as both more intelligent and moral than their conservative counterparts.

 

[／Ｏｕｒ Ｌａｄｄｉｅ／]

I'm not going to read this thread because it's length is almost as autistic as it's muse, but why the hell does anyone care what she thinks?

Spoiler: People caring, apparently

Toronto: Greta Thunberg Calls Out Celebrity Culture as "Absurd" | Hollywood Reporter

www.hollywoodreporter.com

You'd think that the cabal as obsessed with "democracy" as anyone ever wouldn't "signal boost" one voice over others and would rely on polling or something insted.

How did she even get traction? Was it really just staring at the Carotene Commander in Chief in a weird way and later having an exploitable soundbite?

 

[usernames can change now!]

Hell, I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with her. No doubt there's a crisis with climate change but people are going to realize when the majority people who acknowledge climate change are worst then the deniers, because they just see it as a political viewpoint, not science, and love to present themselves as both more intelligent and moral than their conservative counterparts.

This is a real problem with trying to make solutions happen. Mass producing safe scalable fission reactors is within our capabilities, but noooo, "glowy green rocks bad"

 

[Ginger Piglet]

This is a real problem with trying to make solutions happen. Mass producing safe scalable fission reactors is within our capabilities, but noooo, "glowy green rocks bad"

The fact that people still think nuclear reactors are glowy green rocks in current year is a sad reflection on how pathetic our science education in the West is. See also the anti-GMO and anti-vaccine movements.

(For the record, uranium is a dull silver and the glow from nuclear reactors is blue in the form of Cherenkov radiation, which is emitted when a particle exceeds the speed of light in a medium and "bleeds" the excess energy off into the environment as a whole. I blame uranium glass. U-238 has a half life of roughly the age of the solar system and is an alpha emitter, so is perfectly safe so long as you don't eat it or rub it on yourself, and that applies to a lot of non-radioactive heavy metals too.)

 

[AnimeAvatard]

If she did something to make her face look less like it has down syndrome, I would do her.

 

[TowinKarz]

The fact that people still think nuclear reactors are glowy green rocks in current year is a sad reflection on how pathetic our science education in the West is. See also the anti-GMO and anti-vaccine movements.

(For the record, uranium is a dull silver and the glow from nuclear reactors is blue in the form of Cherenkov radiation, which is emitted when a particle exceeds the speed of light in a medium and "bleeds" the excess energy off into the environment as a whole. I blame uranium glass. U-238 has a half life of roughly the age of the solar system and is an alpha emitter, so is perfectly safe so long as you don't eat it or rub it on yourself, and that applies to a lot of non-radioactive heavy metals too.)

Over-regulation of "nuclear hazards" and treating even smoke detectors as death-beam emitters due to the barely-meaningful amount of isotope in them means that people have a skewed idea of not only what's safe, but probably the only big commercial radioactive application anyone remembers (radium paint) glowed green in the dark and gave you cancer (if you were the one painting the dials and your bosses never warned you to not suck on the brushes) .... so, Radioactive = Green Glowing Death has stuck in our collective conscious.

And even then, the glow was a reaction from the zinc in the paint being bombarded by alpha particles, not the radium itself, if you dug up pure radium it too is just a silvery and nondescript metal. And radiation in open air is invisible, to MAKE it apparent to the naked eye, you'd have to have such a hot radiation source that you'd probably never get within a quarter mile of it due to conventional heat to even see.... and it'd be clear something was wrong long before that.

Cherenkov radiation is the blue lights on the police car driven by the light cops as they pull you over for breaking the speed limit


Anyway, it's no good moaning about it, nuclear will be the Devil incarnate until fossil fuels run out and the slack will HAVE to be picked up then because renewables aren't enough to handle the full load of the grid, anti-nuclear sentiment is stupid, but it's self-solving.

 

[Socrates]

Over-regulation of "nuclear hazards" and treating even smoke detectors as death-beam emitters due to the barely-meaningful amount of isotope in them means that people have a skewed idea of not only what's safe, but probably the only big commercial radioactive application anyone remembers (radium paint) glowed green in the dark and gave you cancer (if you were the one painting the dials and your bosses never warned you to not suck on the brushes) .... so, Radioactive = Green Glowing Death has stuck in our collective conscious.

And even then, the glow was a reaction from the zinc in the paint being bombarded by alpha particles, not the radium itself, if you dug up pure radium it too is just a silvery and nondescript metal. And radiation in open air is invisible, to MAKE it apparent to the naked eye, you'd have to have such a hot radiation source that you'd probably never get within a quarter mile of it due to conventional heat to even see.... and it'd be clear something was wrong long before that.

Cherenkov radiation is the blue lights on the police car driven by the light cops as they pull you over for breaking the speed limit


Anyway, it's no good moaning about it, nuclear will be the Devil incarnate until fossil fuels run out and the slack will HAVE to be picked up then because renewables aren't enough to handle the full load of the grid, anti-nuclear sentiment is stupid, but it's self-solving.

Pretty sure the smoke alarm thing came about because of that boy scout that ordered a fuckton of them to make a homemade reactor that melted down and gave a ton of people cancer