Greta Thunberg - why would she be regarded badly?

[StrawberryDream24]

I've just met someone who was extremely scathing of a woman dressing as Greta Thunberg for an "inspirational women" dress up type thing.

She didn't elaborate, other than that it was ridiculous for someone to have done that and she had to hold her tongue in telling them so (and the circumstances allowed for no further discussion for me to find out why she felt that way).

I don't know a great deal about GT but what is this lady on about? Has anyone any idea? Is there something I'm missing?

Personally I think she’s a spoilt indulged brat whose rich parents pandered to her every whim. Also find her a hypocrite with the size of her carbon footprint and uses her ND to justify her behaviour.

I don’t think she’s necessary to teach the younger generations about climate change, there is absolutely nothing about her I admire.

She reminds me of Varuna Salt having tantrums to get her own way.

She's the uneducated face of activism as given mention in Gervais famous Golden Gobes speech. Lots of shouty speeches and jollies all over the world protesting but no action or alternatives given. She is parroting other peoples words and it's not cute anymore now she is a grown up. "Just Stop Oil", so nuclear yeah? It's just irritating hearing people squeal doom and be listened to without providing meaningful alternatives (not that I expect her to solve the climate crisis as she isn't very educated). I'm not even dragging her lack of education but can we hear from someone who has done research into solutions instead please.

It will be the thinkers not the protesters who protect us again climate change. The scientists, the engineers and even the entrepreneurs. She is not a useful person.

This.

And also her stance on TWAW. Odd approach for someone who always talks about science and evidence.

Seriously? It's surely patently obvious what's been going on with her, an inspiration she's is most definitely not.

Considering his career spans about 80 years, I think that 60 years of flying about the place, probably first class, without a care in the World is a decent guess.

Announce a flounce?

🤣 I'm 50. That's a new one on me.

Do you have the picture of the antisemitic sign please? Where was she marching for terrorism?

I expect they are either sail boats or rowing boats!

She’s a terrorist loving gullible idiot

You are correct.

Well yes she does travel by sail boat sometimes. She took 2 weeks on some solar powered yachts to get get to a UN climate summit but she often just takes public ferries and trains.

I don’t have any major thoughts on Greta but I find it a bit wild that she gets so much mud thrown at her. You’d think we’d be more worried that the people in power aren’t doing enough about climate change.

I don't think professional activism is useful for the world, and those who think themselves so intellectual around their favoured topics should work on solutions instead. No objections to her happily getting on with it for climate change, but it's clearly harmful when she joins in with anti-Semitic chants. Eye rolling is a pretty mild response given her behaviour over the past year, she really should have been arrested at least twice.

The issue often is that people dismiss the message because they don't like the messenger.
Insulate Britain was right to focus on insulation, which is the single most effective way to quickly improve energy efficiency but some lobbies didn't like that and IB's methods were very unpopular. But sadly, who's heard about insulation since? Looks to me like the messenger killed the message.
GT has been a bit of a polarising figure and as a result people have turned away from the message. I don't know anything about the alleged Hamas pics so can't comment on that but it's clear that over time she became a poster girl for everything progressive and as a result is particularly loathed by right wingers.
That's a great shame because this is so much bigger than politics. We need to reduce our environmental impact on a large scale or we're toast.

Or people dismiss the message when it is delivered by someone unqualified to do more than chant a slogan.

This 100%. She’s just a stroppy, sulky young woman, who doesn’t appear to have ever worked.🙄

Do people know that there are solutions to climate change? Have you heard of the IPCC?

Greta’s goal is to put pressure on world leaders to put in policy changes required that will mitigate climate change and to encourage others to do the same.

It’s mad how many people think she should solve climate change. It’s definitely not a one person job.

Insulate Britain was right to focus on insulation, which is the single most effective way to quickly improve energy efficiency but some lobbies didn't like that and IB's methods were very unpopular. But sadly, who's heard about insulation since? Looks to me like the messenger killed
The largest barrier to insulating Britsin is the lack of qualified tradespeople. The demand is there but not the staff. Maybe if these kids were told to sack off their music and History of Art degrees and train to be heat pump engineers or to fit induction, they eould be more effective.

I think when a somewhat odious woman stands up to an odious man, there’s no real winner. A bit like if Katie Hopkins wins a battle.

GT always grated on me. It wasn’t that she was wrong—her facts were sound—but the way she delivered them felt like a sustained moral indictment. Her speeches were thick with fear and panic, her tone rigid and accusatory. When she said “How dare you,” it didn’t feel like a rallying cry—it felt like a judgment. Rather than drawing people in, it often pushed them into defensiveness or fatigue.
There was a kind of purity in her stance that left little space for complexity. Everything was urgent, everything catastrophic. The media turned her into a symbol, endlessly amplifying her anger and grief, until it became hard to separate her message from the performance of outrage.
What disturbed me most, though, was her effect on children. So many young people absorbed her panic without the tools to process it. They weren’t inspired to act—they were afraid. Climate anxiety spiked, and for many kids, the message became not “we can fix this,” but “we’re doomed and no one’s listening”.

This, and some teenager (as she was) going on and on and on about it in a repetitive, hectoring tone is every bit as annoying as any other teenager who's just discovered something the grown-ups already knew. Even worse when said irritating child gets a world stage and quasi-sainthood.

If I want to idolise an environmentalist (well, I don't, but anyway) I'll take Leo DeCaprio, thank you.

This. There are plenty of solutions to climate change, well-researched over decades. What's needed is for people to implement them.

Greta Thunberg is a meme. A caricature. Nothing more. And a bad one at that.

The fact that the luvvies were falling over themselves in praise of her for years probably makes them feel a bit stupid now. While they search for their next hero and cause.

You’re behind the times. They all want to be TikTokers.

I think she has been outed for telling some lies about being made to sit on the floor of a train, when she was actually first class seated. There has been a few porkies told at points since she became famous in an effort to look hard done by and maintain the “look” despite actually being quite wealthy off the back of her campaigning.