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.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-35482839

I find her achievements amazing. Friday's global protests - incredible.

Her speech to Congress last week - perfectly pitched.

We should all be listening to young people's views on climate change, because they are the ones who will be most affected.

Greta and Extinction Rebellion are helping to galvanise the political response that's needed, and also raising awareness of our responsibility as individuals and the small things we can all do to make a difference.

I feel sorry for Greta tbh. I keep seeing pictures where she looks scared and out of her depth. I hope every day that she will come through this unscathed because the world is a ruthless place. Today she is the darling of the media, but tomorrow? Who knows? One slip up and she could quite literally be hounded to suicide or madness. It’s happened to numerous child celebrities before.

She's not a celebrity.

She's a campaigner & political activist.

We know that when people start abusing us, it means we are winning.

@onalongsabbatical

YANBU. I think she's wonderful, and I love her.

As you say, some people are threatened by her. Especially men. Some MEN don't like a woman to have an opinion, and speak up for what they believe in, let alone a very YOUNG woman.

The hate she has been getting is fucking disgusting. These are the same cunts who throw hate (online) at female MPs, and attractive women who have a big fan base.

Horrible, ugly (inside and out,) jealous little trolls who have failed in life, and cannot BEAR a mere woman (or girl!) to be successful and well-liked.

YANBU

She inspiring - she cared about an issue and she invested her time and energy in bringing it to the public's attention. She inspired millions worldwide this Friday. Good for her!

I worry for her emotional wellbeing - being cast as Joan Of Arc isn't a terribly stable path and people love to tear down those they build up.

She’s incredible good on her. So young and yes being female will bring her detractors.

I'm very uncomfortable with the whole Thunberg circus. She is a vulnerable young woman with mental health issues.

I dislike people on both sides projecting onto her.

This, in spades. I don't think it's a good think for anyone to be feted like a god(dess) which is what seems to be happening here, and I also find it immensly distatesful when polititicans almost seem to be queueing up to be chastised by a teenage girl.

By and large I don't disagree with her so this isn't a 'you're just threatened by her' thing (which seems to be the standard response to anyone who says anything less than complimentary) and I take my hat off to anyone of that age who is giving speeches to the UN etc. Hell, at her age I'd have barely had the confidence to give a speech to an empty room. But it is possible to have respect for what she does but still dislike the way it is done. I have seen a quote from her that said (in a nutshell) that campaigning was how she dealt with her mental health problems - I don't think that's really the right way to be going about things.

Greta and Extinction Rebellion are helping to galvanise the political response that's needed
Greta may be. Extinction Rebellion are doing as much harm as good to the cause. Their spokespersons don't seem to understand the issues. Their direct action is poorly focused and their demands lack detail.

(good thing, not good think!)

Whilst I find her inspiring I also feel I can't get behind her, as an individual.

1. Those who seek to canonise her are overly Evangelical

1. I worry that, once the spotlight moves on, she will be left unsupported, unable to process the change in her life

1. The leaping upon her bandwagon makes her a target for so much unpleasantness, as OP points out. Someone should love her enough to protect her more from such nastiness.

Basically I fear for her mental health and long term happiness. Malala was quite different, there is little to compare between the two of them, except for the spotlight shone upon them

I like her, and I hate the amount of abuse she gets over her autistic traits, but then loads of people on the right hate autistic people so I'm not surprised. I don't know why, but alt right types really have it in for us for some reason. Probably because we're not normal enough for them.

Whatever you think of her, ms y many young people (especially women) are being inspired by her and exacting their own locally-based form of change. My daughter and her school and several of the local secondaries have involved themselves in campaigns of their own, which are a direct result of seeing what a young unknown and powerless person (Greta) can do. This in itself is quite a wonderful thing. She has become a role model and a figurehead for young people to realise they are not powerless and they can instigate a change. However small.

Everyone concentrating on her and not the catastrophic situation we are in. My DGCs will probably have to live through mass migration when hot countries can no longer grow food or sustain their populations. We can't keep everyone out - the populationof India is 1.300,000,000.
A vague discussion about whether Greta is being manipulated or not is missing the point.
We all need to change our lifestyles now to have any hope of slowing this - but no one wants to (in the west) , it's not just powerful rich men.

I feel sorry for Greta tbh. I keep seeing pictures where she looks scared and out of her depth. I hope every day that she will come through this unscathed because the world is a ruthless place. Today she is the darling of the media, but tomorrow?

I just hope she will be guided into further education to establish a future formal career. She could do brilliantly if she does so. An ageing Grete Thunberg trying to eke out a living as a climate change protestor when the world has moved on 20 years from now isn't great without a formal university level education to back it up.

I must admit I'm not keen on the emphasis on encouraging children to avoid school and not to learn proper research skills and to critically analyse before making such wide sweeping judgements. Education is more important on understanding how progress can be make than joining protests.

Why would you assume that a 'vague discussion' is all posters are doing?

I just cannot and will not join in with the living hagiography, it makes me uncomfortable.

I will however continue with the multiple Rs in my life, repairing, reusing, recycling, refusing, etc etc.. as I have been since before Greta was born!

One action [particularly] western governments could make to have an immediate effect on the effects of car pollution would be restrict households to a maximum of one car registered to each address. It would cause uproar, and have a further impact on car manufacturers, put a major hole in oil producers profits, but it could probably halve pollution from transport.

I think she is a poster child who has caught the media attention. Her message isn’t unique and lots of people of all ages have been saying the same thing for many years but just haven’t been picked up. Yes I think there is sexism (and disabilism) involved but in a “look at the sweet young disabled girl: isn’t it amazing she can put together a coherent message?” kind of way. That is not to say she isn’t good and capable or that we don’t need an environmental celebrity to raise this cause. Just that there are thousands of others just a capable who have been working on climate change in many other ways who just haven’t caught the attention of media.

@QualCheckBot
I just hope she will be guided into further education to establish a future formal career. She could do brilliantly if she does so. An ageing Grete Thunberg trying to eke out a living as a climate change protestor when the world has moved on 20 years from now isn't great without a formal university level education to back it up.

Me too.

Not denied by scientists

Errrr ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_who_disagree_with_the_scientific_consensus_on_global_warming

I just hope she will be guided into further education to establish a future formal career. She could do brilliantly if she does so. An ageing Grete Thunberg trying to eke out a living as a climate change protestor when the world has moved on 20 years from now isn't great without a formal university level education to back it up

I must admit I'm not keen on the emphasis on encouraging children to avoid school and not to learn proper research skills and to critically analyse before making such wide sweeping judgements. Education is more important on understanding how progress can be make than joining protests

Sheer common sense as usual from QualCheckBot

Perhaps not so much fun as ooh-ing and aah-ing over the latest teenage "star", but common sense all the same ...

Everyone concentrating on her and not the catastrophic situation we are in
But ^^ that is the danger when you create a personality cult rather than a movement.
Yy it's common for students and young people (and I'm thinking about ER rather than Greta here) to think they're the first to have noticed anything but it's a tad ironic when they adopt a scorched earth policy to everything that has gone before.
People have been working hard to provide a platform for these discussions for years. And the simplistic approach of 'limit poor people to one car whilst our celebrity supporters fly in on private jets' is something that other campaigns have avoided because it's incoherent and counter-productive. In fact ER is doing so much to damage the climate change movement and alienate the general public, it almost seems deliberate. Or else they are just completely self-obsessed students and ignorant of the history of the movement they purport to represent.

An ageing Grete Thunberg trying to eke out a living as a climate change protestor when the world has moved on 20 years from now isn't great without a formal university level education to back it up.

Leaving aside the idea of a 36yo woman as "ageing", I'm intrigued by this because: what for the love of God makes you think that the world will have moved on, twenty years from now? What part of the climate emergency do you not get?

Or do you genuinely think that it's all a storm in a teacup? That's not a rude question, BTW, I am seriously asking whether you think the current discussion about global heating is just the latest Chicken Little craze that we'll all get over.

I’d like to know who (if anyone) is behind her, is anyone scripting her etc?

Because all teenagers are stupid?
Also, teenagers in particular will agree with anything if it means a skive off school

And because all teenagers hate school and are lazy?

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

I saw an interview with a Brexit supporter who said we need to get all the Indian immigrants out. Are all Brexit supporters racist and stupid?

Out of the thousands of people attending protests, they found a handful of kids who were clueless and put them on TV. Out of the undoubtedly hours of filming, this was the prevailing view? Doesn’t that strike you as odd? That they couldn’t find a single teenager who was clued up about climate change amongst the thousands?

Or, perhaps, were they looking for someone who supported the narrative that these strikes were meaningless and that nobody needed to worry about the issues raised because all teenagers are stupid and lazy. And you fell for it hook line and sinker because it feeds into your own biased view.

Also, teenagers in particular will agree with anything if it means a skive off school

FWIW I asked DS if he wanted to come to the strike with me and he didn't, because he didn't want to miss school.