The socially acceptable hatred towards Greta Thunberg et al

[TeacakesFTW]

I’m not a fan of Greta per se (different generation and so on), but I hate the way that’s she treated.

It seems perfectly okay, applauded even, to mock her appearance, autism, advocacy, and anything else really. Why? Because she’s a young woman fighting for climate change?

Can anyone whack out their psychology/ sociology armchair and explain why so many people dislike her and why it’s socially acceptable to do so? I’d really like to hear some wise feminist thoughts on this.

I liked her to start with when she was a child energising other children about climate change.

However she's 22 now and her schtick doesn't appear to have changed, apart from adding in Omnicause issues.

At 22 she can't carry on saying to politicians 'this is a problem, you need to fix it'. Or think that Israel will change their policy just because a young woman has turned up.

She's become an irritating influencer, who it's very easy to tune out. Unfortunately she probably influences people against the causes she cares about.

Is she still an environmentalist? I thought she had switched to Gaza now.

@Dragonasaurus:

“I think she spent a lot of time saying ‘this is a problem you should solve it’ Great, she has a point, but now she’s just running around ‘campaigning’, and she’s not willing to do any of the hard work to actually find solutions.”

This is my problem with her precisely. When she first appeared, replying to questions like “What do you think we should do about the climate?” with “How should I know? I’m a child. The grown ups need to figure that out,” was perfectly reasonable.

However, she is no longer a child, and she still has nothing substantive to say except “This is bad! Someone fix it!” If you are a person who actually wants to make change happen, you would think that you would spend some time educating yourself on the intricacies of the issue and maybe even learning physics or engineering or socio-political history or something that might help to elucidate a solution. To carry on saying that is someone else’s job makes it seem like you are more interested in the attention and accolades than in the issue itself. The fact that she seems to have unquestioningly adopted the omnicause to my mind underlines the latter possibility.

She was just a kid indoctrinated by her parents and now a wee bit irrelevant.😐

I would like to know who is funding her.

In answer to your question OP, I thought she was cute but naive when she was younger. I still think she’s naive if she thinks she can make a difference in Gaza. I think the fact that she’s an omnicauser (I know it’s not a word) has put off a lot of people and it’s easy for people online to be nasty and make it personal.

I’m would never use anyone’s disability or looks to make fun of them but she is rather annoying . Her beliefs no longer make sense at all . Worse is I think this new generation of activists achieve nothing and teach younger ones it’s ok not to achieve nothing and waste years doing so .

The group behind the flotillas going to Gaza is mostly probably the Muslim brotherhood . They are still very active in a lot of countries despite being banned in lots too

Because famously you can only care about one issue at a time.

Yes. For me it’s a ‘Don’t put your daughter on the stage Mrs Robinson’ situation for the modern era.

What do you do as grown up when your childhood was spent travelling the world in the public eye and not getting a fully rounded education or learning how to interact/cooperate/conflict solve with your peers?
Difficult enough for kids who struggled to fit in to mainstream school/friendship groups to adjust to adulthood without having global fame (as a finger wagger) on top.
Better to continue campaigning (even for diminishing returns) than develop a drug/alcohol habit (common amongst celeb child stars) though!

IwantToRetire

If you want to see horrible comments about her looks, you need search no further than the Daily Mail comments sections. Along with her being a Nazi, anti-semite and that the IDF should burn her, or riddle her with bullets etc.

Not surprised.

The DM is just the sort of paper that will build someone up, then be happy to trample all over them

I suppose we need to be aware that although at the moment they will post artitcles that are pro women's sex based rights, there will come a time that they will turn against them.

Interesting.

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole about MB.

Anyway, the Telegraph’s headline in June was ‘London-Based "Hamas Operative" behind Greta Thunberg's Gaza Aid Boat’. The Israelis named him* as the Hamas operative in 2013 and he was spoken about in the Commons too in 2023.

ETA: *Zaher Birawi

I don’t like precocious children, especially those who don’t really have any significant skills or talent, but think they know everything. She was pushed into the limelight by a slavering media, who value youth over experience. Not her fault, perhaps, but I find the whole thing annoying.

Now she is pointlessly pushing herself into a war zone. And for what? Raising awareness? That particular war is already massively over-represented in our media. I accept what’s happening is bad, but don’t believe it’s uniquely so. There are other appalling things happening in the world, but she chose the cause that happens to be populist right now.

I don’t think it’s down to her sex or her “neurodiversity” on my part. I think it’s that she’s an overpromoted young person, fairly ignorant, who has been thrust into the limelight because of a zeitgeist that I dislike and that she believes in her own legend to the point where she simply seems smug.

He is affiliated with the Muslim brotherhood. Makes sense .

I don’t think it is because she is young and female, I think it is because she is the epitome of the shallow hypocritical thinking if so many of the left-wing campaigners.

Crazyworldmum · Today 19:35

The group behind the flotillas going to Gaza is mostly probably the Muslim brotherhood . They are still very active in a lot of countries despite being banned in lots too

Hmm. So she's a dupe of Hamas? Yes, makes sense, they're desperate for baby formula and basic medicines.

I find her incredibly annoying, but agree she is a target for misogynists and other hateful types to project their rage. It’s ugly.

I would take the allegations about Hamas funding the flotilla with a pinch of salt.

The Telegraph takes a lot of stories from Israeli sources which are disinformation.

Even an Israeli security service report says there is no proof of this.

And Chatgpt summarises that there is no proven evidence.

Quite honestly I think Hamas has more things to be worrying about in how to use its money than bothering with a bunch of western celebrities.

I find it really strange that somehow these sort of links need to be alleged, when anyone with any sense will be able to be critical.

Honestly, and not saying this to shock, but if any one on one of the flotilla boats got injured by Israeli forces, or worse died, will it change the situation?

No, but will distract from the coverage of the daily deaths in Gaza.

But will funding be coming from those who oppose Israel in some way or another.

Well of course.

And if it turns out it is Hamas then it would mean that effectively Israel is funding it!
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/

Hamas funding the flotilla or not is by the by. Hamas will clearly be spending money on its own propaganda and could well be funding it, or it could be funded by those that fund Hamas. You would have to be incredibly naive to think Hamas is not involved in a propaganda war at least as much as Israel. They were certainly geared up to fight such a war with protests before they attacked the music festival.

Back to Greta:
I’m educated up to my eyeballs and, as a result, tend to value education! Greta has few or no qualifications (as far as I know). However, when I listen to her I am so impressed. She has extremely high intelligence, has clearly educated herself extensively and employs excellent critical thinking skills. Added to this is her ability to articulate complex ideas clearly. Perhaps her autodidacticism and life experiences have been more beneficial for her intellectual development than the restricted views of life that formal education sometimes produces.

She famously doesn’t “jet” anywhere. She takes trains and boats (sail boats where possible). Whatever you may think of her, hypocrisy is not something she is guilty of.

She’s incredibly annoying as a person, but she’s also a bit of a figure head for the self righteous, preachy, lefty types who people are fed up of so she probably gets a lot of flack because of that.

We already know how to do solve it though. But we aren’t doing it. That’s what she is pointing out.

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

I'm so sick of hearing this platitude when applied to the particular issue of climate change.

Climate scientists have been gently trying to reason with people, with a gradually ascending pitch of urgency, for half a century now. And the outcome is widespread denial or apathy, failure of international institutions to meet even modest targets, a climate denialist in charge of the largest economy in the world determined to "drill, baby, drill" and certain catastrophic meltdown within our childrens' lifetimes.

Somehow the famous honey didn't work. I'm glad there are people like Greta willing to try vinegar, and if that still doesn't work maybe rocket fuel.

And I'm glad she irritates the denialists and morons. At least it indicates they're actually alive.