Andrew, adding to your comment on radical Islamist movements understanding our psychology, I think it's worth reminding people that the Madleen – part of the Freedom Flotilla organization – has a direct line that can be traced back to the Mavi Marmara (2010), which was co-organized by the Turkish Islamist organization known as the “Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH)”, an organization that has proven links to terrorist activity and groups, including Hamas, and the Mavi Marmara itself had violent Islamists on board. Here we are, 15 years later, and not much of this adolescent, binary view of the world (and especially of Israel) has changed.
Yes, it's terrifying to see the extent to which Hamas and other Islamists continue to be embraced or at least viewed as "resistance" to "colonialism". The academy has a great deal to answer for, but I'm not optimistic that we'll see that occurring any time soon.
Well summed up. The moral vacuum posing as altruism is indeed alarming. Care and empathy often requires exemplars and mentors to lead and demonstrate but the noise around cheap stunts like hers takes over.
There are no individual causes to the left. Everything is related and connected. This is how a Greta Thernberg can call for a return to a medieval economy in the name of climate radicalism and then pirouette easily to Israel hatred.
Greta is absolutely not funny, in the same way that the Gestopo wasn’t funny and any prejudice is not funny and 9/11 was not funny and slavery is never funny! Perhaps good people everywhere can shut her vile stupidity up by totally throwing her into the trash bins of life… or into the vast ocean where she can join her cell phone!!! Bye, bye!
I don’t disagree about the meaninglessness of her actions, but I think that she and those who idolize her motivated by a simple, darker motivation: They hate Jews. If the news reports are to be believed, she and her fellow Jew-haters on that ship refused to watch actual Hamas video of October 7th. Why else would they do that unless they really despise Jews?
You have articulated this problem more clearly than anyone else I have heard! In a world where critical thinking is a lost art, thank you for thinking for all the lost masses!
To the extent that news items published online by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC, matters, the Madleen's publicity stunt has helped keep attention focused away such matters as the Israeli government's confirmation that Mohammed Sinwar's body was indeed among those who were killed in the mid-May airstrike upon the EU-funded and UNRWA managed European Hospital, underneath which Hamas had built and operated a command centre and hold for hostages. The BBC, Sky News and CNN, however, all covered this story.
This is why TikTok which, I believe, weaponizes young American minds on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party more than any other platform, must be sold or discontinued on our phones.
Greta predates TikTok’s rise, but she is emblematic of its malign influence.
I agree Grethe should not have entered into the Gaza arena at all. Your comments in regard to that are highly perceptive. She has made her name in climate activism and she did a remarkable job in drawing attention by and to the young generation who will be the bearers of all the suffering to come as we blithely destroy the stability of the world’s climate forever. I regard that as an admirable achievement and so I don’t feel she deserves a broadside of criticism about her youth and naivety except in so far as she should keep to her lane: climate. Being young doesn’t automatically mean having wrong judgment. The young are not the holders of power, money or institutional influence at the moment..it is my generation, the boomers who are behaving shamefully in regard to climate (in America), and in all other attitudes to the upcoming generations because there are still more of us than any other generation (so our politics holds sway). Therefore, for a young woman to have attained the ability to speak out and be on the front pages re climate is a salutary achievement. Almost anything to do with climate activism is open to cynicism and accusations of hypocrisy but that’s because our entire global economy runs on fossil fuels so if you go back far enough in the supply chain for anything you find it is founded on fossil fuels. I myself have to trade off spending my time trying to save municipal levels of CO2 because I’d literally have to knock my 100 year old house down and rebuild to reduce its excessive carbon footprint.
Grethe most certainly does take personal risks in championing climate. ( Of course, absolutely nobody has taken more personal risk than you in doing the bidding of the nation’s leaders). You are morally in a position to criticize most nations’ leaders on the personal risk scale.
I feel your criticism in warranted in regard to the superficial, uninformed support of Palestinians by most young people and that she has been influenced to do something she knows nothing about, that is unrelated to her climate credentials. But I don’t feel the accusations of climate hypocrisy are fair. She is as informed as almost any politician in the world about climate and has provided a voice from the generations who will suffer the impact, meanwhile young people are kept out of politics by the increasingly elderly boomers who refuse to make room yet understand nothing about the future, whether it be the nature of powerful artificial intelligence, gene manipulation for malign purposes or climate destruction. Look at the American party in power: almost all are over 70. Their heyday was in the 1950’s. They simply cannot comprehend the science or even economics of today’s businesses and so they deny their existence.
I’m afraid I disagree. In my opinion Thunberg embodies and epitomises everything that went wrong in the environmental movement. It was captured by activists who see everything as a social justice problem, and for whom all solutions come from driving social change. But climate change isn’t a social problem: it’s a physics problem. It needs technical and structural solutions. Not only can the activists not provide this, they actively reject and block any attempts at solutions if they do not align with social justice principles - if the poor would be disproportionally affected, for example. The fact that they prioritise ideology over pragmatism - on an issue of existential urgency - shows how dangerously misaligned their priorities are.
Fantastic piece Andrew it really is a sad day for democracy when an idiot gets more air time with cheap shots and shouts of Comrades. What does that little runt know abt comrades living off millions and destroying the ecosystem with her med cruise and throwing mobiles and laptops into the sea.
Andrew, adding to your comment on radical Islamist movements understanding our psychology, I think it's worth reminding people that the Madleen – part of the Freedom Flotilla organization – has a direct line that can be traced back to the Mavi Marmara (2010), which was co-organized by the Turkish Islamist organization known as the “Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH)”, an organization that has proven links to terrorist activity and groups, including Hamas, and the Mavi Marmara itself had violent Islamists on board. Here we are, 15 years later, and not much of this adolescent, binary view of the world (and especially of Israel) has changed.
It seems to become more widespread though.
Very true, Lynne. And that is a result of many social factors/reasons. The West has a long and complicated future to face.
Yes, it's terrifying to see the extent to which Hamas and other Islamists continue to be embraced or at least viewed as "resistance" to "colonialism". The academy has a great deal to answer for, but I'm not optimistic that we'll see that occurring any time soon.
Well summed up. The moral vacuum posing as altruism is indeed alarming. Care and empathy often requires exemplars and mentors to lead and demonstrate but the noise around cheap stunts like hers takes over.
Excellent explication of Greta's garbage: "Greta Thunberg is not the problem; she is a symptom of a civilisation in moral freefall."
I'm not sure if there's anything below the surface, Andrew
There are no individual causes to the left. Everything is related and connected. This is how a Greta Thernberg can call for a return to a medieval economy in the name of climate radicalism and then pirouette easily to Israel hatred.
Greta is absolutely not funny, in the same way that the Gestopo wasn’t funny and any prejudice is not funny and 9/11 was not funny and slavery is never funny! Perhaps good people everywhere can shut her vile stupidity up by totally throwing her into the trash bins of life… or into the vast ocean where she can join her cell phone!!! Bye, bye!
But what does it mean to defend reality? Especially in the context of the generation that is still young but has grown up this way?
A much bigger report that I’m currently working on…
Have an idea what maybe in this report. Urgently needs addressing. Seeing things clearly.
I don’t disagree about the meaninglessness of her actions, but I think that she and those who idolize her motivated by a simple, darker motivation: They hate Jews. If the news reports are to be believed, she and her fellow Jew-haters on that ship refused to watch actual Hamas video of October 7th. Why else would they do that unless they really despise Jews?
You have articulated this problem more clearly than anyone else I have heard! In a world where critical thinking is a lost art, thank you for thinking for all the lost masses!
To the extent that news items published online by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC, matters, the Madleen's publicity stunt has helped keep attention focused away such matters as the Israeli government's confirmation that Mohammed Sinwar's body was indeed among those who were killed in the mid-May airstrike upon the EU-funded and UNRWA managed European Hospital, underneath which Hamas had built and operated a command centre and hold for hostages. The BBC, Sky News and CNN, however, all covered this story.
This is why TikTok which, I believe, weaponizes young American minds on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party more than any other platform, must be sold or discontinued on our phones.
Greta predates TikTok’s rise, but she is emblematic of its malign influence.
I agree Grethe should not have entered into the Gaza arena at all. Your comments in regard to that are highly perceptive. She has made her name in climate activism and she did a remarkable job in drawing attention by and to the young generation who will be the bearers of all the suffering to come as we blithely destroy the stability of the world’s climate forever. I regard that as an admirable achievement and so I don’t feel she deserves a broadside of criticism about her youth and naivety except in so far as she should keep to her lane: climate. Being young doesn’t automatically mean having wrong judgment. The young are not the holders of power, money or institutional influence at the moment..it is my generation, the boomers who are behaving shamefully in regard to climate (in America), and in all other attitudes to the upcoming generations because there are still more of us than any other generation (so our politics holds sway). Therefore, for a young woman to have attained the ability to speak out and be on the front pages re climate is a salutary achievement. Almost anything to do with climate activism is open to cynicism and accusations of hypocrisy but that’s because our entire global economy runs on fossil fuels so if you go back far enough in the supply chain for anything you find it is founded on fossil fuels. I myself have to trade off spending my time trying to save municipal levels of CO2 because I’d literally have to knock my 100 year old house down and rebuild to reduce its excessive carbon footprint.
Grethe most certainly does take personal risks in championing climate. ( Of course, absolutely nobody has taken more personal risk than you in doing the bidding of the nation’s leaders). You are morally in a position to criticize most nations’ leaders on the personal risk scale.
I feel your criticism in warranted in regard to the superficial, uninformed support of Palestinians by most young people and that she has been influenced to do something she knows nothing about, that is unrelated to her climate credentials. But I don’t feel the accusations of climate hypocrisy are fair. She is as informed as almost any politician in the world about climate and has provided a voice from the generations who will suffer the impact, meanwhile young people are kept out of politics by the increasingly elderly boomers who refuse to make room yet understand nothing about the future, whether it be the nature of powerful artificial intelligence, gene manipulation for malign purposes or climate destruction. Look at the American party in power: almost all are over 70. Their heyday was in the 1950’s. They simply cannot comprehend the science or even economics of today’s businesses and so they deny their existence.
I’m afraid I disagree. In my opinion Thunberg embodies and epitomises everything that went wrong in the environmental movement. It was captured by activists who see everything as a social justice problem, and for whom all solutions come from driving social change. But climate change isn’t a social problem: it’s a physics problem. It needs technical and structural solutions. Not only can the activists not provide this, they actively reject and block any attempts at solutions if they do not align with social justice principles - if the poor would be disproportionally affected, for example. The fact that they prioritise ideology over pragmatism - on an issue of existential urgency - shows how dangerously misaligned their priorities are.
Clear and concise which I always appreciate Andrew.
Fantastic piece Andrew it really is a sad day for democracy when an idiot gets more air time with cheap shots and shouts of Comrades. What does that little runt know abt comrades living off millions and destroying the ecosystem with her med cruise and throwing mobiles and laptops into the sea.