AIBU Greta Thunberg?

[onalongsabbatical]

AIBU to ask everyone who can to get behind Greta Thunberg, even if only online, as she's now getting a lot a lot a lot of hate. She clearly threatens people - especially her polar opposites, men, rich old men, powerful men (did I mention men?). Let's all give her the lurve and support she needs.
So on FB I challenged one just now - Why are you attacking a young woman? - and he disappeared. Funny, that.

I went on our local climate strike meeting and march.

The local Labour MP attended and gave a short speech.

There were about three thousand people there. This is very big and the MPs are going to be extinct if they don’t do something significant soon.

I cannot see any future for the Tory party at all as they are supporters of big business the companies mainly responsible for this extinction event.

I think YABU for the reasons I've stated above.

Is it a wasted day, though? You could be sat in a classroom paying lip service to climate change issues and not take anything away from that or you could plan a placard, paint it, work out a route to your nearest march (should you be driven or better to use public transport?), see peaceful activism and protest in action and meet lots of like minded children you’d never meet in school. Discuss the issues with your parents and peers, be part of the process of applying for an unauthorised absence at school and talk to your teachers about why you felt it important. Oh, and manage your time so you have any school work you missed, thus recognising that it was still important - just not as important as standing up for what you believe in.

Honestly! To those people who find Greta so annoying: you should take a good hard look at yourselves & give your heads a wobble!

Surely there are far worse people in this world than a young girl asking adults to save the planet?!

Golden flaps
Wow!! You are sooo brave to date to mention Greta!! !! I asked much the same thing on here yesterday and got 98% hate!! Some of it became personal and I was called all manner of lovely things!!
Glad it’s not just me asking questions about her prominence. The more I think about it, the more I’d like to know who (if anyone) is behind her, is anyone scripting her etc?
Also, teenagers in particular will agree with anything if it means a skive off school... would there be such an interest if they decided to stay in school on a Saturday/ Sunday as a protest? At the moment, theses so-called strikes just get them extra time off!! Saw an interview where some tweens were stuffing their faces with take-always and hadn’t been near the march or had a clue about it’s purpose

My dd looks very like Greta.
She has not found her 'special interest' yet, as she is only 12.
But I find that her bluntness, and sometimes blank expression
(she is also Autistic) seem to provoke an aggressive response at times.

Any woman who speaks up and refuses to be silenced is perceived as a threat, and more so, it seems, if she is young.

Middle aged white men are a pathetic bunch arent they? If they are not ranting about Brexit not going they want they are attacking a teenage girl. I suppose its what happens when you are so used to always getting your own way.

No problem with her personally, but will these protesting teenagers be giving up their smartphones and washing machines...or indeed ANYTHING to 'save the planet'?

YABU for making her a victim of just male hate.

agree op, i find the inadequates who hate her staggering.

I think it's weird that people, especially adults, are idolising a child and putting her on a pedestal. That's a lot of responsibility for someone so young, and it just feels bit odd; but then again I've never understood why people idolise people that they don't know.

Yeah, I tend to think this. It's lovely when 16YOs are passionate about stuff, but there are real experts out there we should be listening to.

I worry that the shouty, empty, approach to climate change campaigning will generate a lot of heat for a few months before all the virtue signallers get bored and move on.

the right are obviously scared of her power

I think reducing politics to simple narratives like this is a large part of why the UK is currently a mess. There is no 'the right'. In the UK most people accept that climate change is real. I can't imagine most people who don't think she's helpful are 'sacred of her power' because they really want more global warming.

Even if you don't particularly agree with her message, I think everyone should be happy that young people have some positive, great and vocal role model. Especially girls. There is never enough of them.

Even if you don't particularly agree with her message, I think everyone should be happy that young people have some positive, great and vocal role model. Especially girls.

This too. I'm sure there are some misogynist loons out there frothing because a young girl is successful and articulate. I'm just not convinced there are very many.

Any woman that speaks up and refuses to be silenced is perceived as a threat, and more so, it seems, if she is young.

^^This. Also, so much easier to challenge her on her age than her arguments.

I worry for her. She has spoken about her mental health issues (depression) in the past and I think the sheer volume of expectations being heaped on her now would be hard for even someone with robust mental health to deal with. There is great pressure on her to succeed - and equally there is huge pressure from those who want her to fail. I hope she's well-supported, protected and able to step back from it all if she needs to.

I also fear that she is not able to fully understand what she is asking of the world at large.It's great that she looks to the scientific consensus to direct her campaigning. But I don't know who her advisers are. If she's taking advice from the likes of George Monbiot, then her movement is going to fail. The proposals coming from writers like him are totally pie-in-the-sky, and unworkable and - short of the UK becoming some kind of eco-dictatorship - will never be actively chosen by people in the UK.

Climate heating is a global issue: it will need global solutions, and I haven't seen Greta and her merry band travelling to India, China, Indonesia, etc yet. . I also haven't seen any climate protestors or campaigners being honest about the drastic drop in standard of living in the West that is required, and dropping of expectations about increasing standards of living in the less developed world. Once that gets out, no one's going to vote for it.

The reaction of the 'Greta haters' is so extreme that they obviously feel threatened. This is because they know she is speaking a simple truth.
She hasn't done or said anything that isn't true or honest. She's encouraging children to protest because they are the ones who are going to be most affected by climate change.
I've probably got another 20 years on this earth - I'll be ok. My kids will have 60 years - what will life be like for them?
Go Greta!

Cantstopgrazing, I agree.

The pressure on that poor girl. Everyone seeing her as some kind of Jezus like saviour.

I worry about climate change, but don’t get why everyone focuses on this one girl.

Too much pressure. Not fair on her at all.

Yabu - she's all hype. I'm a youngish poor woman and worked on eco issues all my life. She and her protests are BS. Sorry.

I don't get what the hype is - she's not claiming to be the solution to climate change, merely that she is highlighting that action is needed. Where's the hype in that?

Surely there are far worse people in this world than a young girl asking adults to save the planet?!

She's not asking people to "save the planet": the planet doesn't give a rats arse what we do to it.

She is asking people to actively choose and vote for a massive drop in their standard of living based on a scientific theory that is still being denied in many places. She's asking people living in the third world to accept that they will never attain the standard of living that we in the West take for granted - that they will never have running water, nice houses, decent schools, good hospitals, reliable energy sources, opportunities for their children to attend school / go to university / travel and work and be able to buy all the shit that we do. That's what she is asking.

If anyone ever tells you that the planet can be "saved" by going vegan, cycling everywhere and using beeswax wrappers, they are talking mince. Radical change means just that: defined as: relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough. Radical change means a fundamental change in our entire way of life - not accommodating the little things that make us feel like a better person and that we are "doing our bit".

She is asking people to actively choose and vote for a massive drop in their standard of living based on a scientific theory that is still being denied in many places.

Not denied by scientists.

She's asking people living in the third world to accept that they will never attain the standard of living that we in the West take for granted - that they will never have running water, nice houses, decent schools, good hospitals, reliable energy sources, opportunities for their children to attend school / go to university / travel and work and be able to buy all the shit that we do. That's what she is asking.

How do you come to that conclusion?

I think she is strong, intelligent and successful at getting her message across. However, I don't think she'd get half the attention if she wasn't a schoolgirl.

I also view her in the light of Extinction Rebellion - perhaps she'd like to make some sensible suggestions about how their goals should be achieved? It's all very well stamping your feet and calling for strikes, I have yet to hear her or any of the XR activists come out with a reasonable plan of action.

I'm also fed up of her and XR picking nice, soft targets. Western countries do far more for the environment already than most developing nations but I don't see her sailing her way to Beijing or Delhi any time soon.

I wonder if it would be quite the same vitriol if it were a young man leading the same agenda. Like a poster mentioned before it’s a lot of men sending hate her way. I think we should fully support this amazing young lady who is really highlighting issues that are of the utmost importance.

Why does nobody ever say that this planet has always been so - periods of cold and periods of heat during which the population of the planet has been wiped out! This is a scientific fact. OK - it may be happening again, and who knows what species may inhabit the planet after us? All the weeping and wailing will not stop it happening!