Toot link; transcript:
Greta Thunberg could have, by now, carved out a very comfortable life for herself as a liberal grifter-celebrity offering platitudes about personal responsibility at Davos. Instead she connected the dots between ecocide, capital, and empire, aiming squarely at the heart of the beast. And now fresh out of captivity she downplays her own suffering to recenter the urgency of aid to the Palestinian people. No wonder she’s hated by the fascist+lib coalition that rules this world.
Author: JP (@jpbreton@mastodon.social)
Greta Thunberg is a good explanation of why someone like Joan of Arc could have been so transformative. Like, there is a war, and a peasant girl comes out of fucking nowhere and changes the whole course of history, how could something like that happen. Also the story of Joan of Arc tells of the hatred of the detractors and the lengths they will go to silence her AND how that completely backfires.
Imagine how much money she could make if she dyed her hair blonde and claimed to now understand that climate change is a hoax. She’d get her own show on Fox.
In a world of Charlie Kirks, be a Greta Thunberg.
I can’t believe I used to hate this woman. She’s so badass.
why did you hate her?
Nothing wrong with her. I was just sexist, ageist and a coward.
Saw a woman trying her best to make a change and getting praised for it. Decided she was somehow annoying and didn’t deserve all the attention she was getting.
Well, I’m not like I used to be.
Sick personal growth, dude. Love to see it
Abso-fucking-lutely well said. Codos to you for having the strength of character to admit your failings and be able to reflect on them. A willingness to say “I was wrong” without throwing a tantrum or doubling down is sorely needed in this world.
Thank you for sharng this. I really needed to see an example of being decent and growing today.
Congrats on the growth.
good on you for escaping your toxic past self.
I really really REALLY want to hear ONE sentient answer to this question. I cannot understand it. I can’t even understand the ROUTE your logic would take.
Yes, there are influencers out celebrating their own actions a bit too much for promotional purposes. The worst I’ll ever feel for them is rolling my eyes and not caring about them.
I want to believe I could be convinced otherwise, but I almost feel like regardless of what circumstances you were built up around or how you learned about a person like her, there has to be something fundamentally wrong with you to have hatred for someone showing concern for the world’s path of self destruction, and putting themselves at risk for everyone’s sake to try to resolve it.
It is taught and conditioned behavior, and that conditioning can be deep. The answer may never get any more satisfying than that.
I’m a middle aged white guy raised in 80s and 90s white conservative america. Looking at somebody trying to do something good for themselves or others and thinking “what a dumbass/asshole” feels as natural as breathing when that’s how the role models in your life have always acted.
And the fun part with that conditioning is that some of the knee-jerk reaction feelings still get sent out from those tangled old neurons.
Follow up question if you will: What changed for you?
As you say, the conditioning is there and deep. What triggered you to re-evaluate your stances on beliefs so deeply held?
I’m also a middle aged white guy raised in the 80’s. My parents were democratic, but even I fell for some of right-wing propaganda when I was old enough to vote, but didn’t have world experience. It’s insidious. I can only imagine I’d still be there, if not for my social structure guiding me towards a more progressive understanding of the world.
Not op but I can take a stab. How often do we see empty patronizing platitudes from those privileged enough to make them without consequence… often all it is are just words. So much so that when you see someone taking a public stand, especially someone as young as Greta was when she entered the public spotlight, it’s easy to just be a jaded bitter asshole, rolling your eyes at some foreign tween who thinks that she’s going to fix the world’s problems. How naive she is. There’s no way she’s actually going to make an actual impact other than bringing groans from those who would see her fail.
We often hate those who are closest to us we envy for having the conviction that we lack.
Not OP either, and I’ll take yet another stab. All I was exposed to of her early on are the “HOW DARE YOU” sound bite repeated ad nauseum and the headlines of how people responded to her UN speech in the in conservative-liberal msm news mill. Months or maybe a year later I’ve actually bothered to watch the full speech, and realize that she’s not talking to all of humanity as a whole but indeed the world leaders. They stole not just her childhood and future, but by all accounts my childhood and future as well, solely for their and their friends and their descendants gains. All of ours. If someone feels like “No! Not me! I’m fine!”, they are just deluding themselves.
It’s easy to get blinded by corpo owned media’s agenda. It’s harder to be empathetic and recognize the point of view of someone who has been portrayed as an endearing laughing stock and dismissed for being just a child.
Ah so it’s self hatred.
Yes, but you qualified that with “from those privileged enough”. Greta was never politically powerful by herself.
Besides, you also said your response is to roll your eyes; to ignore her, at absolute worst. I have done that too. I’ve gotten mail from dozens of charities about being SO CLOSE to fixing some problem like homelessness or bee colony collapse, and scoffed at their constant efforts for my attention. But I don’t HATE them. I don’t enlist efforts to burn down those charities. I don’t take time out of my day to try to prescribe harm to them.
You HAVE to have some truly despicable damaged core to do such a thing.
Don’t underestimate the power of the slur “westoid” and other similar ones. In much of the world, westerners are automatically coded as naive, idealistic and ultimately stupid. In Greece, we had our fair share of do-gooders who thought they new better than us trying to fix us. The classic cultural example is the film Never on Sunday, which is basically all about the comical journey of an American classicist from naivety to understanding. Even now, in 2025, a prevailing understanding of the 10 years of financial crisis is that austerity was about prudish narrow minded Germans and other westerners ruining our country by enforcing their naive protestant economic superstitions on us. And Greece is an EU & NATO country mind you. So, a swedish schoolgirl going around lecturing people fits the “westoid” stereotype a bit too much.
(I’m explaining, not endorsing. Greta is based as fuck.)
In my case, it was mostly sexism.
Yeah, given the amount of actual real insufferable assholes out there that even put work and intent into hurting others, I’m also curious why someone would take the kind of time out of their day to focus their ire on her.
I find her to be annoying, TBH. She still is, but that doesn’t mean I cannot give her credit where credit is due.
True G
The definition of a real hero.
The conversations I’ve had about her when she first made waves were all the same.
Them: I can’t stand her, who does that little pipsqueeck think she is telling adults what to do?
Me: What does her age have to do with what she is saying? Does it make the message any less true?
Them: well… erm… I mean
The OBVIOUS takeaway didn’t have the “obvious takeaway” sticker all over it I guess ffs.
It always bothered me how back then people were all “well, I don’t see her coming up with any solutions!”
She’s a kid my friend, she’s a kid using her free speech in a democratic manner to call for the powers that be to make change. She doesn’t need to have the answers, that’s not her job. Why are you expecting a child to do the work of adults? Fucking expect more from the adults that are doing fuck all to accomplish anything but fatten their pockets and hollow out our public properties.
Edit: I’m talking about then, not now. I know that she’s not a kid anymore.
This really makes my past thoughts about her make sense. I was kind of weirded out by always seeing her just crying and whining about things but without providing any real solutions. But 1. She was a kid as you said and 2. I wasn’t seeing her solutions because the media always showed me her whining, not her solutions… Guess I was just easily misdirected. I’m glad she’s a freedom fighter woman now.
Honestly, props to you. We’re all victims of propaganda, seeing as it’s pumped our way 24/7.
It’s the embodiment of ad hominem. She can’t be right because she’s (was) a kid.
In a way i really hate these “fuck greta” stickers. On the other hand it says so much about the person who would put them on their cars or motorcycles, that it’s hard to be mad about.
I was at my mechanic one day and some guy brought in his car, while a friend of his then picked him up with his bike. Both of them proudly sported a fuck greta sticker. It was very confusing and back then the first time i have ever seen them. That was when she was still under age, i think.
I asked him what the deal was with it. And he said: i hate that little green cunt, and she’s trying to tell me what to do? Hell nah. I didn’t want to engage in the conversation any more, but in hindsight i wish i asked him what talking points he hated the most. Because i don’t think she cares that you drive a 1.6l VW and probably doesn’t care about your friends motorcycle.
@jpbreton@mastodon.social is SO CLOSE to winning allies lol. Your superiority feels great friendo but won’t get your any closer to your goal. You should learn some humility. Crying about liberals is like throwing a tantrum on Christmas day because you got everything on your list except one item.
Learn to accept people where they are, so that when it’s time to ask for help you will have someone willing to show up in the fight against fascism.
Good luck. You are loved.
Greta is the real deal. She is unironically unfathomably based.
She legit deserves to be canonized as a saint, yet republicunts want to rape her.
Those two go hand-in-hand.
The woman has impeccable integrity and a worldwide audience. I cannot overstate how dangerous she is. No amount of money or manipulation can turn her sights off pollution and genocide.
Put yourself in the place of the wealthy. You can buy anything you want, nothing is out of bounds. Everyone kisses your ass and does as you say. But this pestiferous little woman can’t be bought, and failing that, she cannot be threatened. Carry her off to jail for the evening, your picture is placed alongside a picture of her smiling as the cops drag her off. Imagine your shock and fear! This is totally outside your experience. I’m rather surprised she hasn’t been quietly assassinated, made to look an accident.
“Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
Or not burn as the case may be. :)
Nothing short of killing her would work, and even then she would be a martyr
And that is why Israhell didn’t kill her.
“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
If she would be killed it would 100% make her a martyr. Literally any form of trying to suppress her achieves the same effect. She is too powerful for the elite to ignore her, but also to powerful to really act against her.
That interview she just put out was gut wrenching. She has every right to feel indignant at her treatment but she still wants to fight and reframe the discussion around those that are suffering more.
Shes basically The Shit.
Unsure if it’s the one you’re referring to, but she did an interview in Swedish and the frustration you hear from her is just as gut wrenching.
I could speak of all of the children who are no longer able to go to school, of all the children who required amputation, of all the children now orphaned. Of all of the houses and quarters that have been obliterated by bombs. I could also speak of the extreme physical abuse and the torture we were subjected to in prison. I could speak of the many bombings that our boats were attacked with on the way to Gaza. But nothing sticks! I could list all the international laws and UN conventions that Israel is breaking every day, of which we have seen a tiny, tiny piece. But this has already been said thousands of times. And like I said, it doesn’t stick.
She technically says “it doesn’t bite” rather than stick, but I don’t think that kind of phrasing works in English. In essence, it means to have an effect. She expresses that nothing she can say will have any sort of effect, so why bother talking about it? That it’s not like we’re unaware of what’s going on, but that we’re choosing to ignore it. How no matter what atrocities we’re exposed to, nothing has the effect of making those in power do something about it.
We’re pouring money to Ukraine in this proxy war against Russia, which obvs. isn’t a bad thing, Ukraine deserves the support. Yet our politicians are expressing none of that staunch humanitarian fervour for the Palestinians.
She is as bad ass as these right wing grifters wished they were. But if your audience is brain dead, you don’t actually have to do anything, you can just claim things.
the queen of protests, adored by the radical left, a purely protest based organization. life goal? that’s way too long term for you
Is your life goal being a lowly comment stooge for people that dont give a shit if you die tomorrow?
Hey, look…it’s jimmy90 the zionist, again! How ya doing, jimmy? Still in training to be a cunt?
It doesn’t look like they need any more training tbh
Tougher than you’ll ever be.
obvious troll above. For everyone else: Greta and the Flotilla team were illegally raided while providing life-saving food aid to the Palestinian victims of Israel’s starvation campaign. It’s far from “purely protest”
Get a job
EAD
She should win the Nobel Peace Prize.
How? She probably hasn’t even raped a child.
Also never dropped the United States’ surplus of WWII-era bombs on Asians.
She’s still young, so you never know.
That surplus is gone baby! Nothing but limbless Laotians now.
She doesn’t care about that.
The Nobel peace prize is reserved for war criminals. It’s a fucking joke.
She’s apparently been nominated several times
Not only does she deserve it, but the tantrum Mango Mussolini would throw about it would be so fucking funny.
And he has to hand it to her. Can you imagine?
That would be hilarious! Such an irony, lol!
When are they given out? I notice some Nobel prizes for science/whatever are already being announced.
She’s my hero
Ho Ho…ones opinion of Greta is, to make, a truly accurate barometer of your character. Funny how mainly assholes dislike her.
I originally disliked her whole thing because to me, it looked like she had been groomed and pushed by her parents for fame by proxy. Oh boy how have I been proved wrong, and I admire that brave woman.
She has amazing willpower, connections and fame, she could have a cushy job as a PR mascot or a CEO, But guess what? She still chooses to be on the trenches, fighting for all of us trapped under capitalism’s boot, so we can’t spread our message like her.
I truly admire her, her message and what she stands for.
It really is a simple litmus test. Why would you hate the girl that’s sometimes on the news, standing tall for what she believes in, if you aren’t a complete piece of shit? What reasonable explanation could there be for hating her? None.
I find that really interesting. My sister for example doesn’t particularly like her. She doesn’t really have a reason, other than other people in her life doesn’t like her and the newspaper she’s reading portraits her as the little privileged child who wants to make the world better. (Somehow this is a bad thing btw.) I know she’s not a bad person but every time her name comes up it’s basically her rolling her eyes and me cheering for her when she makes grown ass men look stupid.
There is something so perplexing about people who hate people who want to do the right thing. Like i wasn’t born vegan, but i always respected it. Yeah you can dislike it and call them annoying if that’s your thing, but everyone deep down should realise that they fo the right thing. Even if it’s just: good thing there are more and more vegans so i can eat more meat.
When i did turn vegan, i saw the other side of it and damn does it get old when you have to explain to everyone why you don’t do a thing. I never in my life asked anyone why they think it’s okay to eat meat/drink alcohol/like sports or whatever mainstream thing that i DON’T do.
If you mean the speedo clad waxed ape, he hates everyone smarter than him, which is basically everyone because the man has the IQ of a meat locker.
