Why do old white men hate Greta Thunberg so much?

[MotherOfDragonite]

My 65 year old uncle and friends of a similar age (and also white, though not necessarily all British -- others are American, German and Australian) seem to talk about her an awful lot with great vitriol and hatred.

They seem to have shared views about climate change, but I still can't understand why they hate Greta so much. Not only do they comment on her, but they post unpleasant memes about her. While I understand that they fundamentally disagree with the concept of climate change, I don't really understand why a 16 year old girl with Aspergers, who does not live in the UK and who clearly has good intentions even if they disagree with them, is the focus of so much of their ire.

What is it about Greta that older men find so very "triggering"?

‘She is doing what all the world leaders should be doing’

What is she actually doing? What should the world leaders be doing?

Taking out the passionate speeches and condemning the elder generation what is it she wants the elders to actually, practically do?

We let the oil producers, US and Saudi, Brazil call the shots, that is where their wealth comes from.

What is it about Greta that older men find so very "triggering"?

I doubt older men find anything "triggering". It's an MN thing.

Men don't like her because she's too confident for her gender and age and hence threatening to their masculinity and sense of self. Women don't like her because she doesn't feel the need to put on makeup, a fake smile and sweet demeanour, which is obviously jarring to women who are oppressed by having to keep up a certain feminine facade without knowing it.

While I sympathise with a lot of the views Thunberg holds, I do think she comes across as hectoring and obnoxious. The truth is that she has no more right than anyone else to judge other people but doesn’t seem to realise that. It’s also unarguable that she is an extremist, and that is almost always bad.

There is disdain for Thunberg across all kinds of demographics, but I suspect the OP felt there opportunity here to masturbate the “male, stale and pale” prejudices was just too good to pass up.

“ Men don't like her because she's too confident for her gender and age”

Female colleagues of mine literally use this same language.....for other female colleagues whom they dislike.

But I feel the environmentalists don't describe how the alternative lifestyles we need to adopt will work.
How will you get to work without a car, where will profit come from if we stop buying stuff, how will we earn money, will we be jobless except for a few largely automated software firms / AI firms running the show. I suppose there will be food producers, hospitals, ? Schools , where will everyone else earn a living?
It sounds like living back in the 50s but with internet access. Sounds fine to me as I remember it well, but people want to travel .........

@elfnsafe1y you can just start by cutting down on animal products, recycling and not buying so much stuff. It isn’t that hard

@StreetwiseHercules did you mean masturbate?

If we need a 16yr old to tell us to recycle, buy less shit and don't jet around the world then we've become brainless sheep.

IMO lots of men, even those who aren’t overtly misogynistic and would claim they’re all for equality, become actually quite angry about women who don’t fit into a stereotype. They can cope with strong women as long as they fit the strong and sexy stereotype because they can imagine shagging them. They can cope with intelligent women as long as those women also display traditionally “feminine” traits or demonstrate their intelligence in a way that also considers the ego of the male

What they can’t deal with is a young, confident, ordinary looking young women who speaks bluntly and doesn’t spend time flattering their egos. That results in anger and resentment and the need to put her in her place with belittling and derogatory comments

This. Exactly this.

The Op is not talking about people who simply disagree with Gretas views. She is talking about the mostly middle aged white men who make vitriolic personal attacks on her.

@howlsmovingbungalow I’ll reserve my views on the general populace , but the fact is it is governments that need to make coordinated change in order to make real impact; it’s not really about us as individuals “doing our bit” although of course we need to. Therefore she’s speaking to world leaders.

lots of people can't stand her myself included .
But having had a job where i worked in peoples house I did find the older they are the less they care about what they say. It as though being old is a licences to say what you want irrespective if politically correct or offensive.

Thing is, I think that a more sustainable way of life would benefit the vast majority of us all but there needs to be an infracstructure shift as well as a mind shift.
More tele-commuting, workplaces nearer people, the evolution of malls to more mixed-use environmnets.
Development of land for more natural parks for both conservation and leisure - inland beaches, woodland trail, upgraded farming stewardship for instance.

One of my colleagues suggested the end of private car ownership - radical but increasingly feasible in an era where robot cars and electric vehicles are emerging. This could be achieved by having AI cars on set routes for instance - you call a car when you need it.

There has to be the will to build the infrastructure and the mindset to to achieve this but our current politicians are still using a 20th century world view based in 19th century expansionism in turn based on 17th century philosophy on capitalism.

“
@StreetwiseHercules did you mean masturbate?”

Yes.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

It's helped me to see more clearly that lots of people from all demogaphics seem to dislike Greta, but I see a clear difference between how you are expressing your dislike and the kind of abusive, mocking, bullying language that my uncle and his friends are using (also their weird level of interest in her). Perhaps it is just this group of friends, and so I am going to be unfollowing them as I just don't feel comfortable with it.

In an ironic twist of fate, my uncle is about to be hit by another one of the typhoons that are currently becoming more regular and severe in the part of the world where he now lives (I'm not even joking - and no, he wouldn't see the irony because he doesn't believe it is connected to climate change).

@StreetwiseHercules but it literally makes no sense.

I think there has generally been a rise in abusive language and personal attacks, not just about Greta but about everything :-(

It's really interesting how many posters come out of the woodwork to call out racism when older white men are mentioned! I am fascinated. I am sure people of colour will be delighted at how keen you are to tackle it.

Jealousy and being challenged. She doesn't conform to 'little girls should be seen and not heard' so that obviously challenges their authority as patriarchs.

What John said.

How the climate is not #1 priority in politics and most people's lives is beyond me.

The climate change message is now new. I learned about human impact on the environment in grade school (primary school) in the 80s. We learned about the harms of CFCs, the importance of recycling, and the dangers of the increasing carbon footprint of modern life. Reusable coffee cups? They were in use in the 80s by people I knew and in the coffee chain I used to frequent in Boston before it was purchased by Starbucks. I am neither an eco warrior or a lentil weaving hippy - just a middle class, educated normal person.

None of this message is new and I have been living my life for the past 40 years conscientious of environmental impact of my actions. I don’t take it well by a bunch of children acting like they have discovered the environment and all the adults have lived their life in a callous and selfish manner. Particularly when the voices spewing off the aggressive message are themselves guilty of creating a huge carbon footprint to spout their message.

It's really interesting how many posters come out of the woodwork to call out racism when older white men are mentioned! I am fascinated. I am sure people of colour will be delighted at how keen you are to tackle it

We have had the technology to reduce our impact on climate change for years. This is not a technological issue but a political one.

This is why it's so important for young people to get behind reducing our consumption of greenhouse gases, reforestation etc. It IS political and when politicians start to realise that these people will very soon be voters, they might start dealing with the politics of climate change more responsibly.

If you had of put black men instead of white men you'd of had the racist tribe coming after you.