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If Greta Thunberg Isn't Up for Criticism Then the Left Should Stop Hiding Behind Her

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, addresses the Climate Action Summit in the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Monday, Sept. 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

As with most things that outrage the mob, the trouble started with a Tweet from President Donald Trump.

Actress Roma Downey was congratulating teenage eco-activist Greta Thunberg on her selection as TIME’s Person of the Year when Trump quote tweeted her with a message for Greta.

“So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” tweeted Trump.

Any of Trump’s most innocent of tweets would cause the mob to foam at the mouth in rage, but Trump just attacked the Church of Climate Change’s most holy of saints. The response from the mob, led by a deluge of blue checks, was almost immediate. In fact, I was hit repeatedly by these responses when I first logged on to Twitter.

Thunberg’s profile changes aside (which is actually kinda funny), the fact that the left is getting upset that Trump attacked Thunberg isn’t the problem, it’s the fact that they’re mad that Trump attacked a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome.

Look at the majority of the tweets above. They mention her age and mental illness quite a bit.

The goal here is simple. Make Trump look like he’s attacking a poor teenage girl with mental health issues, who is only trying to make the world better.

For the politically uninitiated and anyone living in the coastal bubble, this train of thought may reign supreme. They really do see Thunberg as this innocent angel and Trump as this arch-demon with an anger problem. For everyone else, though, this using Thunberg as a shield and sword should register as absolutely disgusting.

The most obvious problem is the fact that the left is putting the onus on Trump and the right for daring to attack a young girl with Asperger’s syndrome. They want to paint us as the originators of the problem. The truth is the exact opposite.

When you realize that this is just a strategy, you see Thunberg is a propaganda prop being used by people with a political agenda to push. They know the power of rolling out people who wouldn’t be criticized and fought against on any normal day and using them to spread their message. This has several benefits.

For one, it makes it seem like the most innocent and/or noble people back their cause and thus gives weight to their talking points and their agenda’s goals. Secondly, it makes people uneasy about arguing because most people are actually decent and don’t want to feel like they aren’t by arguing with someone so wrapped in moral cloth. Even people who don’t necessarily agree will feel a compulsion to defend said person or people when they’re attacked.

It’s an almost perfect scam, but it’s a scam nonetheless.

For anyone paying attention even a little, the ugliness of the strategy is glaring. They’re not really giving a platform to a meek voice who should be listened to, they’re using that person as a shield to hide behind in the same way terrorists use civilians in hospitals to prevent the actual good guys from bombing them.

The more “meek” the shield the more despicable it gets too. Thunberg, a teenage girl with a mental illness, fills so many qualifiers for a shield that the left can’t help but worship at her altar. The problem is that she’s more of a sacrifice than a saint. They’ve convinced her that it’s her responsibility to ditch her education and step out onto the world stage all in the name of saving the world, which they’ve convinced her is really going to end in a matter of years if she can’t convince everyone to turn it all around.

The sad thing is that she’s popular now, but as I’ve written before, her expiration date is coming soon and she’ll be abandoned by the fawning crowds, the adoring media, and many of her financial backers who no longer see the value in supporting her.

What would that do to a girl like Thunberg?

I’m going to repeat something I once said about Thunberg’s situation. 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?

(READ: Greta Thunberg’s Future)

When you stop to think about it, it’s sort of heartbreaking for Thunberg, but that’s her future, and it’s the same future that many political props faced before her. Think of how often David Hogg or any of the Parkland kids are mentioned in the media nowadays. Do you notice that the media and Democrats aren’t touching the kids at the border anymore? Does anyone remember Cindy Sheehan?

It’s disgusting to think that they’ve thrown Thunberg into a world of fear and desperation and told her to operate as their most valuable piece on the political stage when her destiny is to be eventually forgotten and discarded by the very people who are relying so heavily on her to push their politics. All this while directing anger, arguments, and denigrating attention toward her like a lightning rod all so they can score cheap points against their opponents with faux outrage. Again, she’s more of a child sacrifice than a hero to them.

But lastly, why would the left think that it’s okay to wheel her out as an expert in the first place? She’s a young girl with so little experience with the world around her and a very specific education based around falsehoods that thinking she should be considered some kind of foremost expert is ludicrous. In fact, as Jesse Kelly tweeted out, if she’s just this poor helpless girl who is mentally ill, then why are they holding her up as some great sign of an entire rearrangement of our economic system?

If she’s just a “teenager with Asperger’s Syndrome,” maybe she’s not the one we should let tell us how to remake the world’s economic system?

“Y’all need to decide if she’s some pioneer super genius or a special needs child who should be handled with kid gloves. Can’t be both,” said Kelly poignantly.

https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1205111715937034240

And he’s right. The left wants to have its cake and eat it too, but I wouldn’t take a teenager wracked with emotion and bad information and use them as someone to decide what we as a nation should be living our lives. That makes those using her look far more foolish and inept.

The left is mad at Trump and the right for going after Thunberg, but they’ve attached raw meat to her body and thrown her to the wolves and are horrified that she’s getting bit. That’s disgusting and the left should be the ones ashamed of themselves.

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