2 mins read

Leave Greta Thunberg alone

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish 16-year-old climate change activist. She is also  climate change deniers’ new punching bag. 

I’m not here to tell you why climate change is real, because I think Greta and the 97% of scientists who believe climate-warming is human-caused have a good handle on it. I’m here to tell you to leave the girl alone. 

From calling her mentally disturbed, accusing her parents and the political left for exploiting her, and circulating charged memes of her very little, yet very mean face, we’ve got some serious low-life bullying going on. 

I even saw the argument that kids are to blame if there did happen to be some sort of environmental crisis. I mean with their processed snacks, air-conditioned classrooms and those dang iPads, of course, the polar bears are dying! Interesting take from a generation that raised those very “spoiled” children. 

Apparently, young people can only be leaders when they’re spewing out the older generation’s force-fed information. Doesn’t seem to be the definition of leader I’m familiar with, but hey, what do I know? I’m only 19. 

It’s no secret that bullying stems from jealousy or fear. And that’s exactly it: she terrifies the deniers. It’s uncomfortable to witness someone live so vastly different from you and then have their lifestyle proposed to you. Your normalized view of luxury living feels threatened. Karen can’t imagine commuting without her gas-guzzling Suburban or Saturdays without steaks on the grill, so she slams a young girl on Facebook. 

But you don’t have to travel solely by boat or go cold vegan, you just have to pause to listen before you reach for your torches and pitchforks. We can learn from all ages and walks of life. Greta haters say she’s blindly accepting the left’s ideology, but they’re the same ones sharing Facebook memes instead of actual news articles. Someone hasn’t done their research here and I don’t think it’s Greta. 

You call her childish and ill-informed, yet who’s yelling into an angry internet void and who’s at least trying to make a better future? At the end of the day, she’s gotten your attention, hasn’t she?