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.

As I said, an oversimplistic response.

Billionaires don’t just jet around the world on private planes. They also run business empires where they jet executives around, run factories that generate CO2, build large concrete buildings and knock down others (concrete is very CO2 producing), build cars and planes, invest in CO2 producing industries…. Their holidays are just the tip of an iceberg that says reducing CO2 is for other people.

I dare to say because she is doom and gloom?

Why would you WANT her to speak about any other issue is more to the point. Her credentials to speak about climate matters are no more than an average school child. I'd bet you don't take mortgage advice from an infant or take capital investment advice from someone averaging their GCSE's (now that's giving Greta credit). I can't fathom why, except for feeling sorry for her, you'd want her to participate in anything you feel actually matters. Unless you yourself want to put out an image of virtue and you couldn't actually give two shits about the subject matter regardless. That would make more sense. As usual typical narcissistic leftism we all need to combat.

Your ableism is disgusting.

Does she still speak about climate change? Her new obsession seems to be Gaza.

People like you always revert to your 'isms' when facts become inconvenient or when logic doesn't seem to sink in. Whatever ism or personal attack you feel like landing on me completely detracts away from the topic and shows how out of touch you may be with the reality of the situation.

You want to hear that it's because she's a young woman, but in this case, I don't think it is. If absolutely everything about Greta stayed the same, but her sex changed, I think she would be getting roasted online for all the same reasons she is now.

She wouldn't suddenly be more respected if she was a man with a bad haircut and a physical resemblance to various meme-worthy fictional characters. People would have made those Lord Farquard memes if she was a man. They would have called just as forcefully for her to shut up and stop lecturing people, if she was a man. They would have called out the hypocrisy of jumping on an entirely new cause when she's supposed to be all about environmentalism, if she was a man. They would have mocked her various flotillas to Israel - as attention-seeking behaviour that isn't actually doing much to help anyone - in just the same way they are now, if Greta was a man.

She might actually get more abuse, in some respects, if she was male, because people would be more likely to view her as a full-fledged adult. Many people do still see her as the little girl she used to be, and feel it's unfair to poke fun at her. You might be seeing a lot of Greta-bashing online, but I actually believe she could be catching a lot more flack in the culture, and would be even more viciously mocked if she was male.

There is a phenomenon where men hate women who don't perform to the standards of the patriarchy. I don't dispute that. But I think they're a minority in this case. The "if she was a man" litmus test suggests Greta is disliked for reasons that have nothing to do with her sex. She's managed it all on her own - which is, in a funny way, something of a win for feminism. So, er . . . good for her, I suppose?

I agree they shouldn't jet executives around. It's easy for people to communicate now with people in other countries.

Sometimes factories and buildings need to be built. You can't blame billionaires for that. There should be greater consideration though of how important they are in terms of creating jobs and environmental impact. There is too much knocking down buildings to put others in their place. Often concrete buildings have a limited lifespan and that should be looked at. I would like to see fewer cars and planes built.

You don't have to worry that anyone is going to stop you from having a holiday in Spain and flying there. Just the opposite there has been an enormous expansion of flying in recent decades. I would guess that poorer UK people such as factory workers started taking holidays in Spain in the 1970s. If it had stayed at that level then ordinary people would get a chance to go to the Med and we wouldn't have quite as much global warming as we do now. That would seem a sensible compromise. If it was up to me I would stop it because it is so important a problem, but I realise that's not achievable.

There have been a couple of people who have said that attempting to achieve net zero will result in people starving. Not so, it will be global warming that will do that.

She's like toothache. A terrible pain and if she was gone she wouldn't be missed.

I see a lot of posters saying she is annoying, but they don't explain what she does that is so annoying. If you find her irritating but can't explain why, it could just be that you find ND people irritating in general. It's a possibility and you might want to give it some thought.
My question would be; what specific behaviour are you annoyed by?

She's rather like one of those child saints. It's not surprising she and her supporters have been mocked.
Just realised she hasn't done a degree but has received 2 honorary degrees. I really don't think she should be encouraged along this path. She's believing her own hype, and that ends in tears.

Apparently things aren't going well on the flotilla.

x.com/WoodyWoodys/status/1968779623455494329?t=7zrAI3NxSgJIVF19oszj1A&s=19
'Italian media report even more infighting within the Gaza flotilla. Not only has Greta Thunberg stepped down from the steering committee and switched to another boat, but spokesperson and influencer Yusuf Omar has also left in a dispute. 😂'

#failure

That's an evasion. You were asked first, so it's customary that you answer first. Instead you turn it around on the questioner, presumably because you don't have an answer. So just admit it.

I think at the time she was a teen a lot of people found her screaming and crying about things which she knew nothing about annoying. And also I think quite exploitative.

The idea that we know how to "fix" climate change is ridiculous. Fixing would mean figuring out how to come to terms with the economic consequences and making the world agree to that new model.

So all these adults nodding about how great it is a young girl takes them to task while she tells them what they already know, but has zero answers or even awareness about the hard part of the problem. Are they playing along just to look good? Because they don't want to be seen to be mean to a little girl?

That's the problem, no one has managed that. Even countries that have supposedly reduced emissions have really just pushed them on to other countries. And it's not like emissions are the only environmental issue, by a long shot. Waste, mining, plastics, the sheer amount of junk the world produces, lack of food security, conservation....

She doesn't show signs of having become any kind of a deeper thinker than she was. It's all shallow omnicause platitudes. She hasn't come up with answers to any of the hard questions on her activist topics after all.

No one likes someone who is simplistic and a bit shallow lecturing them.

Ragging on someone's appearance is rude, but not uncommon with any kind of public celebrity. We all make fun of Boris's hair or Macon's May December marriage or David Tennant's bad false teeth chin, without it being very meaningful. Though I don't think she's actually unattractive at all, But she has kind of a very characteristic facial structure that will be noticed.

She's a woman who has opinions, and that annoys a lot of people. Now an ND woman with opinions, well that just won't do. It's particularly galling that the abuse, the mocking, the vilification, the threats roll off her like water off a duck's back. Why oh why can't she burst into confessional tears at the abuse that is heaped on her like a proper woman? Why won't she just GO AWAY?!

Electric cars are a massive scam. it is a good example of why this stuff is not simple.

Where I live, environmental organisation, largely funded through government, are really pushing these. Where I live this is crazy, for one thing, the power stations here are burning coal, so we are talking about coal powered cars. Secondly, the stations are all at nearly max capacity and trying to bring down overall electric usage has been a focus for years. If people start switching to electric cars, that is going to completely overwhelm the system. This is not an unusual situation, much of the power grid of eastern North America, which is integrated, is suffering capacity issues.

But then the cars themselves are massive, require massive extraction of materials through strip mining. These mines if they produced enough to replace most cars would be a huge environmental disaster in their own right, just as disastrous as oil extraction in places like the Alberta Tar Sands. They are also difficult to repair, a disaster when they catch on fire (many electric busses throughout canada have been recalled after a really scary bus fire recently,) and difficult to get rid of.

What about where renewables are a thing, does it make more sense to have electric cars - to some extent, but renewable are another thing that has been somewhat oversold by the modern environmental movement. It's a more complicated and difficult solution than people realise, they often require significant energy inputs compared to what they produce. That doesn't make them useless, but not the panacea they are often portrayed as either.

Without real reductions is energy use, there probably isn't a way forward, and that is going to impact consumerism. Consumerism is a way to prop up the economy, so it keeps growing, something no one has a good idea how to wean us off of.

Personally, I think the problem is usury, in the old fashioned medieval sense, but that's fairly eccentric of me and no national economies are going to take my advice on this, mainly because it would crash their economies.

Are women not allowed to have opinions that annoy people? Or do you think we should just say ‘of course dear, whatever you say’? Is that not misogynistic?

But then the cars themselves are massive

Electric cars can be small, and there are a lot of small electric cars available. But they are heavy. I recently picked up a leaflet on minimum mileage guarantee for tyres at my garage - for electric vehicles they lobbed 25% of the distance they would guarantee the tyre for because of this.

Even countries that have supposedly reduced emissions have really just pushed them on to other countries. And it's not like emissions are the only environmental issue, by a long shot. Waste, mining, plastics, the sheer amount of junk the world produces, lack of food security, conservation....

She doesn't show signs of having become any kind of a deeper thinker than she was. It's all shallow omnicause platitudes. She hasn't come up with answers to any of the hard questions on her activist topics after all.

This

I don’t see that it has anything to do with her being a woman, and I’ve never seen her appearance or autism mocked.

It might not be fair, but she comes across as so off-puttingly self-righteous and self-important. I didn’t really object to her advocacy about environmental causes, but I’m irritated by the Gaza dramatics. I don’t understand why she thinks that her opinion on the Gaza war is more worth hearing than anybody else's - she has very little life experience and people don’t appreciate being lectured by someone so young. Her change of protest focus just comes across as virtue-signalling and jumping on bandwagons.

(Not that I necessarily disagree with her views, just that I’m not interested in hearing them and don’t think her self-publicity will do any good whatsoever. Does she really think her antics will make any difference at all to Israel's actions?)

AS you will have seen if you have read the thread is that many of us think she may have opinions but in terms of being a sucessful campaigners she has no ideas and no suggestions of how to bring about change.

She thinks that's okay. And i have heard her say that is her function to campaign to get politicians to do something.

And then seems surprised as she has no substance and nothing but the fact she is a media personality they dont listen to her.

Overall I think she has had a detrimantal impact on green issues, because she is now a role model for a lot a younger people who think if they stamp their feet the grown ups will do what they want.

Whereas, although politicians are part of it, real changed will come when people start behaving differently (particularly in the west).

As I said up thread I feel sorry for her.

And partly blame her parents who let her sit outside her government buildings holding signs because in terms of her mental health it made her feel better.

Made worse that a friend in the media thought she made a cute news story.

And she took at face value that being in the media meant you are having an impact. Not realising that the media just takes up and drops people, without any attempt to do anything other than a superficial back ground story.

So like it or not, and her parents I am sure didn't do this deliberately, she now thinks this is what campaigning is.

Sadly, she is now just a media personality with not substance or practical and workable solutions.

Not that I think she should be insulted for her looks, but that is the price everyone, but particularly women in the media headlines are subjected to.