Greta Thunberg "♡♡♡" the Edinburgh bullyboys

There was some sort of tax expose, if I remember rightly. People were already pissed off with Bono's endless preaching, and then it turned out there were some offshore shenanigans.

That pretty much killed the whole thing.

The usual hypocritical megarich tax "efficiency" stuff, I think. Getting an album added to everyone's iTunes whether they wanted it or not certainly didn't help.

And I should add - I'm not sure that's a fair way to think of them, I suspect they are pretty normal people really.

It's interesting. I do think people get a bit turned off by the campaigning.

But I will also say that in some ways their music and style don't seem very in tune with the zeitgeist. They seem a bit try-hard and yet out of step with current trends.

Interesting piece.

Do you remember how suddenly Bono and U2 became unfashionable?

They went in a flash from being a slightly over the hill band whose biggest hits were behind them to suddenly everyone saying how awful and cringe they were. Why was that?

This by Ian Leslie is very interesting comparing the effectiveness of Bono's campaigning with the approach of people like Geta T. ianleslie.substack.com/p/how-to-be-good

Alas, it seems not.

I think it's a vague attempt to suggest that anyone who vaguely agreed with anyone on any subject is therefore 'making common cause' with said person and is therefore in agreement with them on every issue, ever. Unsure, though.

No, but it should be.

There is not a later time that it would be better for people to disagree with her.

We are talking about her attitude to basic civil liberties, if she talks absolute rubbish, adults should point this out to her. If she really is that unable to think for herself, that is all the more important.

Just catching up on this thread. I'd like to also ask about this "common cause" thing. That will be three people asking, and maybe that will be the magic number.

I've made common cause with whom? Where? Receipts, please.

I wonder to what extent the 'the most environmentally unfriendly thing you can do is have children' narrative (which is likely to be true) plays into the teenage activist carelessness about the loss of fertility that transitioning will probably entail?

Are you not listening? When most European countries had mask mandates, pretty much everyone was wearing the blue surgical ones, with a handful going for N95/FFP2. Virtually no one wore washable ones. It was the law, and unlike in this country where anyone could say "I'm exempt" with no further challenge, in Europe it was actually enforced.

I'm old enough to remember when a white South African runner, Zola Budd, came to the UK and competed for Great Britain as a way round the sporting boycott of apartheid South Africa. Budd, who was 18 at the time, had to put up with anti-apartheid activists protesting at every meeting she raced at.

There was an argument that, at 18, Budd was too young to be targeted by political activists. But my view was - and is - that she was old enough to engage in a deeply political act, namely breaking the sporting boycott. And, of course, she was old enough to vote - as is Thunberg.

Greta Thunberg is an influencer. She has an influential voice to many young people.

Her support, her enthusiastic support as it is three hearts, carries a lot of weight to those young people.

It is absolutely correct that she be held accountable for this tweet. She is supporting activists refusing to even address the documentary, activists who have not watched it, or attempted to debate adequately where they disagree.

Too young to criticize.
Old enough for surgery.

@publicsafetyRight there 5 posts above yours, and again by somebody else 3 or so below yours.

^ And that's being polite!

Don’t be stupid the mask she was wearing wasn’t even re-usable it was a throw away use once hobby and she wasn’t in Germany

On masks, I agree. Washable masks was nonsense; evidence didn’t so much as not back up their use but actually showed risk of increased infection.

What do you find common cause with.

Are you going to condemn the violent mob?

I agree but her status also means that her statements on this must be challenged. She isn’t an anonymous student where it might be reasonable to ignore and put down to youth.

As I'm not a supporter of those who committed the attacks I see no need to disassociate myself

You on the other hand make common cause with those who have mocked Thunberg.

A mask being one of those things that were required by law? In fact, in Germany N95/FFP2 masks are still compulsory on public transport, no one in Europe was using washable ones.

But the whole point of climate change is it is the cumulative effect of individual actions - take a bus or drive, buy new or recycle, leave lights on or turn them off - times seven billion. If you are condemning those individual choices others make then using a phone manufactured halfway around the world in a country with dubious human rights record IS hypocritical.