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She’s always made that connection… since day one. The whole “How dare you!?” Speech was about people still only talking about making profits of climate change rather then doung Everything to prevent more change from happening.
The reason she’s not the center of media attention any more is because she’s been the center of attention for years already and viewers/readers aren’t as interested in her any more. Her name doesn’t pull as much attention any more.
It is kinda like with Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Hampton. It is very sus that they are killed once they started organising for class solidarity, regardless of colour, and speaking about wealth inequality.
Came here to say this.
What is the name of the Arab girl that advocated for girls education on the Arab world? She was also blocked out by the media the second she started talking about socialism and the injustices that the capitalist system brings in.
Malala Yousafzai
Edit: a couple corrections.
She’s Pashtun (Pakistani), not arab, but she is a practicing Muslim. She was fighting against the Taliban’s ban on girls from education, which is not a feature of the rest of the muslim world. It’s a feature of extreme fundamentalism, of any religion, not of Islam.
Thanks you.
Edit: adicional thanks for the further corrections.
Did you read her book? I have it on my TBR list but it is a long list. I usually like to read fiction but try to do a nonfiction/memoir in about every 3-4 books (I read about 5/wk which varies d/t length).
Indeed, first time I hear about this aspect of Malala Yousafzai’s activism. Thank you, wow.
For context: https://socialistworker.org/2014/10/15/the-malala-you-wont-hear-about (Compare also this thread, where someone makes clear that her being involved with socialism is no misunderstanding.)
Because governments were only using her for greenwashing and control public opinion.
As a ‘climate activist’ she started as a parody, passionate and articulate about a hot topic but dismissable as a child. But when you start to say certain things, you lose broad appeal. You can go out and rail against the ‘elites’ ‘rigging the system’ to ‘keep us down’ but the moment you say the ‘bourgeoisie’ are ‘exploiting the workers’ and ‘using capital to wage a class war,’ you are not getting broadcast, and not being listened to by many people. People love Marxism by other terms but if you use the Marxist words, you won’t be taken seriously.
Wasn’t she on those topics pretty much from the beginning? I think it really just boils down to the media (and people in general) just moved on to the next story. Greta’s initial appeal was that she was a kid who was effecting change and reactions. These days she’s just another 20-something that shows up at protests and people upvote on social media.
A lot of people in the comments are talking about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. as comparisons, but where they differ from Greta is that they started with protests but were able to successfully fold that into movements and action. X and King didn’t just protest, they didn’t just yell at the walls of the establishment and demand change. King was the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which organized protests, but also helped mobilize voters, lobbied congress, and helped to draft legislation. X was part of the Nation of Islam which was a particularly powerful group in the 1960’s which challenged Civil Rights issues in the court system.
For a long time Greta really hasn’t had much to add to the discussion on climate change other than to say stop doing what we are doing. She’s not part of some powerful organization, she’s not lobbying governments, she’s not challenging issues in the courts, and she’s not proposing solutions, she’s just pointing out the problems everyone already knows exists and powerful governments are already ignoring.
I think she’s closer to Rosa Parks - she’s a symbol fighting the good fight, but not the leader of the movement
FWIW Rosa Parks was part of an organization with a plan to achieve its goals. I wish the same were true of Greta.
True, the whole bus sit ins were planned. She wasn’t even the first one to do it.
That’s a great comparison.
It seems in general that attention isn’t even On climate change like it was before covid. The news platforms are filled with populist governments wars and genocides. Eve. Though climate change is the greatest existential threat it’s ability ro grab attention has faded
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Greta Thunberg’s name will be penned next to Malcolm X and Mahatma Gandhi in the history books of the future.
I wonder if those books will have a note how Thunberg’s name was one of the earlier examples of large-scale manufactured character lynching.
It was clear early on how capital felt about Thunberg that every media outlet seemed keenly interested in reporting not on what her message was, but about how people online hated her and were making memes about her, and the threats and backlash she received for doing things like… checks notes …traveling places.
She has been and continues to be objectively correct, her early messages where she said “shame on you” to the world’s economic giants have been made out to sound “cringe” in young people’s media circles and people still share and distribute images her making a funny face.
People are SO FUCKING SUSCEPTIBLE to this manufactured attitude, I had endless arguments on reddit on left-leaning, environmentalist communities with people who were like “Yeah we need to care about the environment, but do we really need her speaking for us? She’s all kinds of problematic” without being able to cite a single fucking thing she said that was wrong or bad.
You ALL need to understand this: When you see someone react to someone or something, you internalize that reaction whether you realize it or not. Your brain looks for patterns constantly. When you see things that repeat, when you see things that fit a pattern already establishing, your brain solidifies these associations.
When some right-wing chud shares an image of Thunberg or any activist making a weird face and say “total cringe” it doesn’t matter if you’re currently chained to a tree while you’re scrolling, your brain will attach to that association unless you make active efforts to de-conflate it in your mind. This is why so many people move right when we have a right-wing leader, this is why we have so many people dying on whatever hill Elon Musk points at. This is why most voters decided that it was “more interesting” to vote for Trump or just stay home. This is being done to you all on purpose.
We don’t want to actually fix the causes of climate change, that would be silly and harm to the poor billionaires.
We want you to think its your fault, and to stop using plastic straws.
I dunno but I think originally she was riding the “kid activist” clout. No offense but there are plenty of disaffected adults who dont have the media up their ass for no particular reason.
When Martin Luther King Jr. moved beyond equal rights for black people into protesting the Vietnam War and capitalism in general, he took a bullet to the face. I suppose Greta can consider herself lucky - so far.
Dr. King, Malcom, JFK, etc. etc.
There is no justice in this world. If youre out there believing in people I’m out here looking for you. Please give a sign.
Funny this gets brought up as about 4 weeks ago Elliot Sang released a 71 minute video asking that very same question.
I see her on reddit every month with whatever new thing she got arrested for. Those are news articles links.
What a mystery…
Seek the news sites telling the truth, not handing you what advertisers will pay for.
Is that when the Venn diagrams kiss?
