There’s nothing quite like the passion with which a 16 year old can hold a belief. It is pure, it is unadulterated and it is uncompromising. And often, despite the way teenagers are accused of naivety, it is well-researched, and it is spot on.
And Greta Thunberg is spot on.
This autistic teenage girl has made it her mission to do everything she can to combat the devastating damage we are causing to the world we live in, and she is doing so without hesitation. It began with striking from school to protest outside parliament and it has resulted in international appearances, many people inspired by her words and actions, and now, a boat trip across the pond to the United States. Many people in the US had been keen to receive her but Thunberg refused to fly because of the environmental damage that would wreak. But, offered a place on a carbon neutral boat, she said yes and is now at sail.
You would think that people would look up to this girl. And many do – her social media following is awash with inspired fans who are keen to follow in her steps and take the action necessary to save the planet. But there are those who are put out by Thunberg. Perhaps by her fame or her dedication or perhaps because she challenges the things they hold dear (like international flights and coal fires?) and they feel threatened by the small but mighty girl.
This has been clearer than ever this week, as grown person after grown person seemed to be lining up to take a pot shot at Thunberg, just as she embarked on a not inconsiderable journey. And while they may frame it as legitimate criticism of her activism or a challenge to her opinions, it comes across very clearly as what it should be rightly called, and that is bullying.
Let’s take a look at Julia Hartley-Brewer, a grown-up journalist, who took pleasure in writing about the long-haul flights she had booked, guilt free.
She tweeted: Hi Greta, I’ve just booked some long haul flights for my family to enjoy some winter sun on the beach this Christmas. Level of guilt being felt: 0%
It got 1.6 thousand retweets and 11 thousand likes.
Then there’s Arron Banks, the impossibly rich grown-up funder of much of the Leave campaigners’ antics.
Quoting a tweet by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, wishing Thunberg luck on her zero-carbon crossing, he tweeted: Freak yachting accidents do happen in August …
It got 424 retweets and 2.7 thousand likes.
And let’s take a look at the grown-up former Member of the European Parliament Roger Helmer. He tweeted: I’ve just been on LBC [a radio station], defending Arron Banks’ Tweet re Greta Thunberg, which has generated a tsunami of synthetic outrage. But if the Swedish Pixie chooses to put herself in the public square, and to set up an absurd transatlantic stunt, she must expect legitimate comment.
It got 356 retweets and 1.7 thousand likes.
So what exactly are we dealing with here? Thunberg is certainly being patronised by these adults, but it goes further than that. She is being held up and laughed at. She is being borderline threatened. She is being mocked and derided.
It is no accident that this is happening to a young, autistic girl because there is ageism, there is disablism and there is misogyny hidden in this hatred. She is seen as different, as a bit peculiar, and the way she looks and speaks is ripped apart and analysed in a way that a non-disabled man, for instance, would not face.
This is a young woman who can communicate fluently in several languages, yet who is criticised for the tone of her voice when she does so. She can take in and process complex environmental science and speak about it in a way that people can understand, yet her intellect is questioned because of her autism. She is crossing the ocean and has crossed many countries to campaign, yet her ability to speak is ‘balanced’ by implications that she is being unduly influenced by the adults in her life, which is brought up again and again, as if she is incapable of thinking for herself.
If Thunberg had blonde curls, giggled profusely and modelled herself on her favourite Instagram models, she would not be taken seriously because of misogyny. As it is, she is a brunette with plaited hair and a serious disposition – arguably the opposite of the giggly blonde – and she is still not taken seriously. Girls and women cannot win, especially when they have added, intersecting oppressions as Thunberg does.
Greta Thunberg is not only a victim of very public bullying, she is also dead on when it comes to climate science. That is undoubtedly at least part of the reason people pick on her – their lifestyles are threatened – but it is also one of many reasons why decent members of the public should stick up for her at every opportunity.
Photo: European Parliament