Climate activist Greta Thunberg, center, joins a coalition of youth climate leaders and environmental groups during a climate strike outside the United Nations, Friday Aug. 30, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

I feel very sorry for the left’s current favorite toy, Greta Thunberg, and when I say “toy” I don’t mean that in a derogatory way toward the young teenage climate activist with Aspergers and OCD. I say “toy” because that’s exactly how the left looks at people like her.

Right now, the left, its media, and its activist army are treating Thunberg as some sort of saint. Like most children the left uses as a sword and shield, she is completely out of bounds for anyone to criticize. Should anyone dare speak out against her, the left will become morally indignant that anyone would bring harm in any way to a child, and call anyone who would do such a thing “heartless.”

Then they’ll go protest in support of abortion.

This is a classic tactic of the left, and one of their most cowardly. Oftentimes, their arguments can’t survive on their own in the court of public opinion and their arguments are losing ones, and so they wheel out someone you can’t criticize in the hopes that you do so that they can claim the moral high ground. They run the gambit too. It could be a child or a grieving mother, or a veteran. It doesn’t matter, so long as they can move the emotional needle and make people nervous about questioning them in public.

Like other child activists before her, the left will move mountains in order to put her front and center. Headlines will contain her name, discussions on cable news will display her image. She will be quoted incessantly and every single aspect of her will be celebrated as if she was the very image of perfection.

But this has a shelf life. Right now Thunberg is put center stage because she’s relevant, but that relevancy only lasts as long as the issue holds its popularity in the mind of the populace. Given the speed with which our society shifts from one subject to another with the speed of a puppy’s attention span, the topic that Thunberg finds herself the center of may be sidelined by the arrival of a different issue to the mainstream consciousness.

Today it’s the climate change issue thanks to all the climate events that have been occurring. Tomorrow it may be the border, or a Washington scandal — or God forbid — another shooting.

Once that happens, Thunberg will be pushed to the back where she will join the myriad of “people who were useful at the time.”

It happened to David Hogg and the Parkland kids, many of whom have had their names forgotten by now. For a time, the Parkland children were in front of a camera every time it was flipped on. They were consulted as “experts” and appeared behind podiums that took the national stage. The left made it clear that these kids were beyond important and should be listened to with rapt attention that borders on reverence.

And then the left moved on. In fact, I’d venture to say that the many on the left would rather you forget about Hogg who has gone on to create some of the more embarrassing moments for the left in recent history.

It extends to other children as well. The children at the border weren’t a grave concern until Trump was elected, and then suddenly it was the most tragic thing happening in America. TIME magazine put up the infamous cover that made Trump seem like an uncaring monster as he stared down at a crying child unmovingly.

If and when a Democrat takes control, they will be forgotten again.

The heartbreaking thing here is that Thunberg’s mental illness puts her in a difficult position. My colleague, Joe Cunningham, who works with children who suffer from conditions like Thunberg’s, put the consequences of her handler’s actions in plain words.

“I have long, LONG been an advocate against child political icons because it does so much damage to them socially and emotionally, but this child is on the spectrum and the people around her who are allowing this to happen to her are despicable,” tweeted Cunningham. “You are asking a kid who has developmental problems socially and emotionally, oftentimes leading them to not see the line between literal interpretation and rhetoric. So, to her, everything she is being fed is absolute fact, and it scares her.”

You are asking a kid who has developmental problems socially and emotionally, oftentimes leading them to not see the line between literal interpretation and rhetoric. So, to her, everything she is being fed is absolute fact, and it scares her.

— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) September 24, 2019

“Think about that. People who know what autism is and what its like to have it are feeding this girl lines that scare the hell out of her and are allowing her to skip school to show the world how scared she is. That isn’t right. That’s exploitation,” he continued. “This child believes what she is doing is right, and I can’t fault her for that. But I can fault the grown-ups pushing her along in this, letting her be exploited by the ravenous masses.”

This child believes what she is doing is right, and I can't fault her for that. But I can fault the grown-ups pushing her along in this, letting her be exploited by the ravenous masses.

— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) September 24, 2019

Thunberg clearly believes the lines she’s being fed as evidenced by the way she spoke during her latest speech.

Imagine having all this attention for something you have been told is a world-ending issue and you’re being held up as the key to making it all stop. Imagine believing in all your soul that you truly are changing the world and it all revolves around you to get it done.

The imagine the cameras disappearing, the invites ceasing to arrive, your name no longer appearing in the headlines, and the world seeming to just move on. You still believe that everyone is going to die and you don’t understand why everyone doesn’t care anymore. How would you feel? What would you do?

It’s heartbreaking to think of this happening to a child, but it is, and it has before. Only this time it will be much worse.

Thunberg’s future, if the pattern holds, will be abandonment and confusion.

The left should feel horribly ashamed of itself.