Greta Thunberg and circular ideology
Geta Thunberg became famous for some reason. She is a well-known symbol for anti-climate change activism. Person of the Year.
So why is Greta Thunberg so famous? Has she developed particularly new insights into climate change? Made discoveries proving it is manmade or what the best solutions are? Has she provided more in-depth arguments? Has she made big personal sacrifices? Chosen to live in poverty?
Not really. Instead she has made false statements about being seatless in a train, and travelled tot he US per boat while her team still flew by plane. Oh right, yeah, she has a team. Her appeal seems to be that she is a child, who protests climate change. But she doesn’t act independently Greta has enjoyed the support off her parents, journalists, NGO’s and so on. She is a teenage celebrity.
She started a supposed school strike in 2018, protesting in front of the Swedish parliament. But she went to a special school that doesn’t even punish children for that. Sweden’s government allows schools that allow children to roam free. Sweden outlawed home-schooling. In order to forbid parents from shielding their children from the school system, but does not require actual consistent education. Well, at least not for children with special needs. It is more a form of enforced emancipation from parents than a genuine protection of their educational opportunities.
Going on a school-strike with the de facto approval of your school is hardly a strike. Such school strikes have been repeated across the Western world, often with the support of teachers and sometimes children who opposed it got bullied. That sounds like children being radicalised not genuine child activism.
Greta has faced backlash and been mocked, which in terms resulted in backlash.
I don’t believe anyone should dismiss what she is saying because she is a child. But the fact that she’s a child (well a teenager really) isn’t an argument in favour of her position either. It’s irrelevant. But if it weren’t for her being a teen, no a really sad tragic teen, she’d just be one of millions protesting against climate change.
She isn’t the first teen to protest either. That a teen views something as a crisis and wants it stopped isn’t an argument. Are neo-Nazi teens an argument in favour of action against ‘’’’the Jewish problem’’’’’?
I am honestly surprised I am writing about this. Why is a teen from one of the most totalitarian European countries with one of the most ideological education systems being used as an argument? Will a teen from North Korea tell us why we’re cruel for being Liberal and Capitalist democratic societies?
Rollingstone tried to argue she developed these views all by herself and that the Right was scared of children spouting left-wing views. But is the Left scared of Right-wing children? If a teen from Hungary preaches about the catastrophic effects of immigration… I just gave Orbán an idea didn’t I?
Rolling stone referenced black children who protested segregation and got treated with violence. Did Greta ever suffer from being pepper sprayed? Did those black teens attend schools that actively preached against segregation and encouraged action? Did one of them get to travel with an entire team?
But since the article actually compared climate marches to children who partook in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising… the writer is clearly insane.
When I heard off the terrible bullying, she endured in school my instinct was to side with the Reactionaries who banned home-schooling in Sweden. When I heard of her mental disorders this didn’t make me dismiss her arguments (in as much as she had any) but it does make me question whether her apocalyptic proclamations are truly realistic.
Children and teens can sometimes form well informed opinions and protest because of them under the right circumstances. But Thunberg really isn’t arguing against the tide. She was bullied before she started her activism, not because off it.
Had she protested in front of the Swedish parliament to legalise home-schooling again, would she have become famous? In that case her suffering would have been a real argument.
Ramon Giralt
The very next time I read a blog, Hopefully it wont disappoint me as much as this one. After all, I know it was my choice to read through, nonetheless I really believed you would have something helpful to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of crying about something that you could possibly fix if you werent too busy searching for attention.