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"?

I'm not an old white man and I can't fucking stand her...or Malala for that matter.

Wow.

OkJamieso each individual person with AS is absolutely wonderful and if anyone says any different, it simplyhasto be due to their AS and never down to anything else at all?

Not what I said, but you carry on. So, how much experience of female Aspies did you say had again? I don't recall your answer.

Also - excellent post JohnMcCains

Greta Thunberg always reminded me of Jean of arc

I think a lot of older people don't like being told what to do and being criticized by young people, especially when a lot of young people are ferocious consumers of crap while many older people are of the 'mend and make do' school of thought. My DD was going to to an extinction rebellion demonstration with most of her schoolfriends, I suggested to her that if they all made a pledge to stop buying cheap crap for a month or two it might actually make a difference to the world, it fell on deaf ears though.

You don't recall my answer because I didn't give you one Jamie.

My answer is a fair bit, for work and personal reasons.

You are actually saying though that if someone finds someone else irritating and that person happens to have AS, that's the only reason they'll find them irritating.

Some people are just twats with or without AS coming into it, unless you think people are only defined by their AS?

People with AS are people - they have their strengths and weaknesses like everybody else. Thing is, if you have AS it is like there are invisible walls everywhere that an AS person walks through but a NT person just 'knows' that they are there.

It is like being aware of the fact that there are Very Important Things that are so important that no-one bothers to tell you about them unless you break them or transgress them in any way, even if they make no sense at all.

I would be interested in how many female AS people others do know here? I think I know of about 3-4 personally?

I respect any young person (of whatever gender, ethnicity, etc) who cares enough about something to stand up and talk about it. What gets on my tits is the hectoring and didactic style that she seems to employ, given that she’s a child of one of the most advanced and privileged societies on the planet. Someone who hasn’t lived long enough to know adult responsibility or had to compromise their ideals just to get by is bound to piss people off by lecturing them about things that they have little real control over. It’s lovely that she managed to cross the Atlantic in a yacht but is that something that everyone can do to save the planet? I think it’s shitty that a young girl should be attracting the sort of hate that she is, but she needs to accept that her message may be perceived as insensitive and precious by some people of all ages, genders, etc.

I don’t think it’s a white old men hating on her a lot of people don’t like her. I don’t think I dislike her but I find the memes etc funny. You can go yelling at people to change the world but then you’re being a hypocrite yourself.

If you attach very aggressively, the response will be aggressive, too.

This old chestnut has long been used to stop women from campaigning for equal treatment, but "playing nice" doesn't seem to engender meaningful change. All playing nice does is satisfy societal conventions and perpetuate the notion that women should be submissive, placatory, "sweet".

Why shouldn't a woman or girl be able to make demands without getting flack for it in the same way that a man or boy can?

In my group (30s and 40s) - she has been brought up as someone rather annoying.

This is a crappy analogy but thing about depression and other MH flare-ups. You can be a wonderful person with bad MH at a time. You can be a douchebag with crappy MH. But while nice person with MH will generally find that they are not as pleasant to be around and find it harder amongst other people compared to when they are well, douchbag with good MH is still douchebag.
So there are nice AS people, there are also douchy AS people. AS people have the same capacity to be assholes as much as NTs. But they are FAR more likely to be seen as douchy by NTs because of the communication issue.

Why shouldn't a woman or girl be able to make demands without getting flack for it in the same way that a man or boy can?

Because both men and women can be sexist dicks as this thread has proven very well.

Oh, and I have 3 x DDs who idolise GT as a young person standing up for the future, and quite right too. Same DDs will also cheerfully pour 20 gallons of hot water down the shower drain by taking 15 minute power showers and don’t seem to get the connection between that and the kerosene that we’ll have to burn to refill the tank. Just sayin...

I had no idea that she has AS. She irritates the utter crap out of me though. I'm female and in my forties. My father thinks that she should be in school rather than getting worked up about this. I tend to agree. I don't click into any link with her on it, but I wonder what sort of parents she has. I'm a lizard person but I don't believe in climate change - plastic in the ocean, yes, absolutely. Climate change? Give me a break. The climate is in a constant state of flux.

As an AS person my son has also embraced the fact that the day that someone does not seem him as weird and annoying will be the same day he draws his last breath. As it will be for me as trying to mask made me into a zombie doormat anyway - so it was like being dead only stressful.

Yes, Worra, it's called sarcasm. I'm v. good at it.

We can discuss to what extent particular individuals may be more or less irritating than another, when female Aspies aren't automatically perceived as irritating. Culturally, we are not at this point, and on an individual basis, nor are you, otherwise you wouldn't have taken such exception to it.

That last "it" stands for ny post.

Quite @stouffer.

It makes it an empty campaign - I have more respect for those quietly doing beach cleans without posting it all over IG and having days off of school to do so.

She's an irritating irrelevance.

Saltines - that's not for me to work out. But sombody involved in climate change needs to find a way because with conferences in places like NY, Paris, Kyoto etc their conferences look more like an instagram bucket list than people trying to save the planet. Until the ecco warriors stay at home I see no reason for anyone else to not travel.

I'm a lizard person but I don't believe in climate change - plastic in the ocean, yes, absolutely. Climate change? Give me a break. The climate is in a constant state of flux.

Fucking hell. I had no idea that there were people who genuinely thought this.

JohnMcCain So there are nice AS people, there are also douchy AS people. AS people have the same capacity to be assholes as much as NTs. But they are FAR more likely to be seen as douchy by NTs because of the communication issue.

Good on you for keeping trying. I'm feeling far too frustrated to bother.

It's actually a reason why I wasn't voting for Labour this year - my candidate wanted to 'really address climate change'.
I'll tell you about climate change.
Ireland had horrific snow for a week or so about 7 or 8 years ago. The whole place was covered. No buses/trains/shops open/shops that sold bread/cars that could drive/ran out of salt for the roads etc.
Then one morning, I went out and Mother Nature had melted all the snow. What we had spent a week, battling with our feeble minds and implements, nature melted overnight.

I think trying to stop mother nature is not a child with a finger against a hole in a dam, but a child with a finger trying to stop a wave coming in from the ocean.

Whatever you say Skidzer. You keep telling yourself that...