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.

@opalinksi do you not watch/hear any news, or ever look at a news website/newspaper?

LaPeste with the best will in the world, it really isn't my place to spoonfeed everything. If you wish to enquire into scientific dishonesty there's more than enough info out there to convince even the strongest unbeliever ... a useful start might be Goodstein's Confronting Fraud in Science, which has a particularly good section on J F Schon among much else

Returning to the delightful Greta, though, I have to smile at the praise for the school strikes, even while wondering what the point is beyond a nice day off and a bit of fun at a "demo". There was one of these at a local park last Friday, and I asked what was being achieved which couldn't have been done just the same at the weekend

The looks of confused gormlessness were stunning

To be honest, I don't think my teen has even heard of her or the strikes...must ask

They must have been living under a rock for the last year then, I do think your faux ignorance on this thread is a bit pathetic tbh.

If Greta had done it on the weekend it probably wouldn’t be where it is today. Does Swedish parliament sit on weekend. Empty I suppose.

I find her annoying but I don’t understand why anyone would attack her personally. Obviously she doesn’t get it but she is extremely young (and mention privileged), you can’t expect her to really understand the situation when a lot of adults don’t.

These strikes will pass. Yes people will go and cheer the odd day with the support of teachers - like a fun day out. But there is very little sacrifice involved. Their parents won’t go to court to fight off fines for non-attendance, and the odd day won’t impact on their exams. But it doesn’t add any new knowledge to how to solve the problem, do anything to solve the problem, and very little political pressure as kids don’t vote. If she persuaded kids they must not upgrade their phones, they should wear a jumper at home rather turn the heating up, to consider second hand clothes and Christmas presents as cool, to persuade their parents not to fly on holiday, to walk or cycle rather tgan go places in a car (and foregoing activities that require this)...

@Independentcandidate hardly faux ignorance. I actually don't think a lot of school kids around here were aware of this

@onalongsabbatical no I don't ever watch the news or read papers. I realise how bad that sounds.
I get a lit of my information from twitter. That's quite bad, isn't it.

They’ll be voting soon and those amongst the oldies who don’t believe in climate change will be gone.

Someone said on R4 that it gave government mandate to do more. That sounded good.

with the best will in the world, it really isn't my place to spoonfeed everything

Lovely bit of sophistry there! I would rephrase your term "spoonfeeding" with the term "backing up my argument"

@cuteorangeelephant as I said in my previous post lots of 15 year olds have been used as protegees in their field without due care and attention being given to their lack of financial & emotional savvy
child actors, models, young musicians and sportspeople those ahead academically they make mistakes in public that other teenagers would get away with but it haunts them for a long time, as the media are ruthless in exploiting any apparent fall from grace
they lack the maturity to sometimes make the best decisions which is why there is such a variation between ages 15-18 as to what a young person can and can not consent to or make autonomous decisions about. So many people have regrets about some things they did between 16-20 but for the vast majority of us only a handful of people know about them but also if some silly comment or action from the past was brought to public attention now it could destroy someones career or dignity or reputation which is why I think young peoples achievements should be celebrated but afterwards they should be kept out of limelight and allowed to retreat home out of the public eye

Birdsfoottrefoil

I totally agree.

This is an long but interesting read about the people behind the movement of Greta. There are links to the different sections just beneath the first picture of the "Cat Girl".

www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/01/17/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/

They’ll be voting soon and those amongst the oldies who don’t believe in climate change will be gone

Yeah, that’s what they say about every generation but once they get used to having creature comforts they’ll vote accordingly. I just wish politicians were more honest about the limitations of green energy.

I dunno Pineapple ds (14) has changed his behaviour.

Plus the strikes are not just for school age, last Friday’s was biggest with all ages.

A fascinating article, Basil ... especially ominous, if it's true, is this:
"the very foundations which have financed the climate “movement” over the past decade are the same foundations now partnered with the Climate Finance Partnership looking to unlock 100 trillion dollars from pension funds"

Off to read it in full ...

She’s a puppet. Nothing more.

She’s an autistic child who made a few comments and now is the poster child for the climate change movement.

The media will eventually move on from this.

You say that as though people shouldn’t listen to her because she’s autistic. That she shouldn’t have a voice. Is that what you mean?

They’ll be voting soon and those amongst the oldies who don’t believe in climate change will be gone

I never understand this point of view. 'Us oldies' were recycling and wearing jumpers rather than central heating before most of you were born! No new stuff, nowhere near the plastic throwaway generation of today. String bags and paper bags and eco 'warriors'! People need greta thunberg and a day off work because they can't be arsed to make any real changes to their convenient, comfortable lives.

Does anyone know how to find out when climate strikes will happen?

Trewser yes it is bad today generally but the teens I know have a good attitude.

Ok found it.

ukscn.org/events/

She is a puppet and people have started to cotton onto this, especially as her look and speaking style has become more polished. She is a mouthpiece for a parents and nothing more. I want my kids to support climate change but not by idolizing her. I think those girls who convinced Burger King and Macdonalds to reduce plastic toys probably got more done for the environment.

You say that as though people shouldn’t listen to her because she’s autistic. That she shouldn’t have a voice. Is that what you mean?

Who has said that on this thread? Leaving out any arseholes who might have said so on Twitter?

Do you honestly not see any concern in making a child saviour for the environment from a 16 year old who didn't eat for three months and saw no point in living because of the environmental crisis? Who has suffered since her preteen years from debilitating depression?

Can you not see the huge, huge amount of pressure this puts on her?

Can you not imagine how damaging this will be to her mental health and wellbeing when she learns a few harsh truths about the reality of the world we live in, after a few inevitable setbacks - because climate change (and the rest) is not going to be neatly solved anytime soon.