"How dare you!" Is what Greta Thunberg said, when she spoke at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019, earlier this week. Unfortunately this doesn't only apply to the economic policies surrounding the climate. It also applies to those, who blatantly started attacking the 16 year old Swedish girl, who is trying to make a difference in the world; in a battle to keep our own habitat liveable. The brutal ad hominem attack is nothing less than the complete and utter character assassination of Greta Thunberg.
How dare you!
Like Atlas, this young Swedish girl is taking on the weight of the world. It's a noble but necessary deed. Climate change is a big issue, action needs to take place now.
As Greta Thunberg, pointed out earlier this week during a speech to the UN, the governments of the large and economical thriving countries are doing next to nothing, to adress the issue and take countermeasures.
She firmly asked them "How dare you?", with regards to their lack of action and with regards to shoving it off to the next generation as a problem to solve. And she is right about this. In response however there was a lot of criticism.
Some criticism is justified, some criticism is just blatantly abhorrent. With prominent public figures, like conservative pundit Michael Knowles, calling her mentally ill. He even claimed she was being taken advantage of by the liberal leftists. To this too, I can only say "How dare you!". Even US President Donald Trump chipped in, with a snarky remark. I would like to say, atleast he should know better, but yeah...
When you watch her speak, you can see her genuine concern about the environment and the liveability of our planet. She is well spoken and she seems to know what she's talking about. She proved this when speaking to US Congressman Garrett Graves, by identifying his flawed analogy and responding to it properly.
Eventhough she has Aspergers syndrome, that doesn't mean she is incorrect or doesn't know what she is talking about. Her concern about the environment is real, the threat to the environment is real. People should listen to what she is saying. Listen to the topics she is adressing and judge that. They should not judge her as a person.
The ad hominem attack is nothing but a red herring, used to distract from the topic that she adresses and the blame she, so justly, is placing.
She adressed the attacks on her on social media in a very mature way. With that, she shows she's a lot more mature than the people attacking her. And she's even more mature than I am. If I were swedish and people would use an Ad Hominem attack on me as a Red Herring during a discussion or a debate, I would definitely open a can of horrible smelling Surströmming in the room, right there and then.
Justified criticism on Greta Thunberg
There is one bit of criticism I want to adress, that I can agree with. She is correct about the topic, she is sincere and above all she is direct and outspoken. People hate it, when you do that. They don't like to be confronted with facts if they experience them as negative. What you see happening because of this, is the resistance against her and that what she stands for is growing. People are putting their heels in the sand and are pushing back, in a disgusting way, as the Ad Hominem attack shows.
You could wonder, looking at this, if her approach the right one? Personally I use the same method. When you push people in to an emotion, they tend to respond honestly and they will show their true character or motives.
By causing a stir in the way she does, she is adressing the topic loud enough to not be ignored and she is drawing the climate skeptics out of their hiding places.
Unfortunately, by doing so, this also allows the climate skeptics to cause a stir. By using fallacies like a Red Herring or a Gish Gallop, they are clouding the judgement of those between climate skeptics and climate activists, This calls for additional action, to secure the continuation of the climate movement. I hope Greta Thunberg and the people around her, have their attention on this.
I truly hope that Greta Thunberg can and will continue to fight the good fight, as she seems to achieve more than most of us are achieving, right now.
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