Particularly when she’s missed so much school, right?
Well, I suggested that you finding her annoying might be rooted in her disability - and we had a conversation about it, and I apologised for getting the wrong end of the stick. So I don’t really know who you are railing against.
But maybe when you described her as annoying, given the shit that gets thrown at her daily, it might have been helpful to be a bit clearer that you were talking in general terms and you weren’t making a personal attack on her.
I think she doesn’t give a shit about how she comes across, she now successfully inspires millions of young people around the world. Exactly how she is.
Of course, she is coached and has a team around her that takes care of everything. That was probably necessary so that she would have time to be a normal child between all the hustle and bustle.
But to expect her to be absolutely perfect in interviews in a foreign language and to have no more corners and edges would make her a “doll”, nothing else.
Question.
Is it because she speaks some uncomfortable truths that people find here annoying, dismiss her or simply even hate her?
I’d say so.
I don’t dismiss her or hate her. I actually admire her. I just find she can come across as annoying.
This letter to the Financial Times could have been written by me!
Quite a lot of people find Greta irritating
From James Preston, Madrid, Spain
October 18, 2019 9:03 pm
I am a middle-aged man and confess to disliking Greta Thunberg, but I have to take issue with Robert Shrimsley’s framing this as an exclusively middle-aged, rightwing issue (“Greta, guilt and how to defuse a Thunberging”, October 12). Greta provokes the same reaction from my wife, middle-aged and liberal, as well as my two sons (aged 16 and 15, apolitical as yet). And these views are shared widely across a spectrum of ages and politics based on my own “research” (yes, I began to feel guilty about not liking her, despite supporting her cause).
My conclusion is that, on the whole, people don’t like a petulant, precocious, holier-than-thou, preaching evangelist — whatever their age, gender, race etc.
Middle-aged white men take the rap for quite a lot these days, but please don’t single us out for finding Greta somewhat irritating in her manner. That’s far more general than you think.
I can see a number of posters here in the replies too… 
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Personally, my annoyance is rooted in the fact that the first COP I attended was Marrakech in 2001. Activists expressing frustration and outrage are not particularly new, and are as much a part of the whole stupid UNFCCC passion play done every November-December as a recalcitrant USA, desperate island-states, etc. Thunberg deserves a lot of credit for raising the public profile of climate change, but she is far more orthodox in her positions than is truly useful. The logjam isn’t going to break by pushing harder. But she is consuming a lot of the metaphorical oxygen in the room.
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Understood but should that really be an issue. Not you personally but it would be exactly the message that those that would want you to believe that there isn’t a climate issue or are reluctant to accept change would seek to push.
The very same people that would have you turn against GP’s for doing telephone appointments in lieu of face to face where they can actually do more consultations etc.
Ffs!
The world is going up in flames and we’re arguing about whether a teenager is annoying?
Insert gif of an exasperated person here
Vaguely entertaining, I suppose but sort of a mixed message she’s sending.
But why does Greta need to be in Glasgow at all? Wouldn’t it have been a more powerful and pertinent message for her to address people remotely?
Agreed. What a waste of time.
Ever see what they said about MLK and Ghandi in their lifetimes?
People who challenge the existing order are attacked in every possible way, but rarely on the substance of what they are saying.
I bet the kid who pointed out that the Emperor was naked got the same response.
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I’m not sure that’s equivalent. As with Mandela, MLK and Ghandi came at the issues with a far greater basis of authority and lived experience.
They were attacked by some for challenging the order of things at the time but their fight had clear and obvious solutions. Their objectives could be more clearly understood and pursued, with clearer defined end games, and within timetables within human control.
The climate problem is easily identifiable but the solutions are less so and the appropriate responses manifold, with varying degrees of viability and impact. As such, how this issue is tackled will naturally be open to greater debate and critique.
It is how it is, most adults do not like being criticized by children or made aware of their mistakes and wrongdoings. You just don’t want to hear it, but … what if the child just won’t “shut up”? Pointing the finger into the wound over and over again? That can then be quite annoying tbf, and… if the child then also makes other children complain and then step by step more and more of them are walking on the streets etc.
Can’t they just be good children, doing school, homework etc. so that everyone can just carry on as we have got used to it? After all, everything still has to be convenient and profitable, why don’t the children understand that? And besides, as long as the others don’t start doing more … they are much worse than us etc.
did I forget something?
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That definitely made me laugh this morning.
I may have missed something, but is there a reason why Greta Thunberg has not been invited to speak at COP26? Politicians are usually falling over themselves to be seen with her.
Interesting you say that; I do a fifteen minute row before work and a half hour one afterwards. Much better than the daily commute.
If my employer says that we have to return to the office (we’ve been WFH since March 2020), I’d be sorely tempted to leave.
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Shit. I hope we’re not going to be judged for our historical contributions.
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Would she say anything different from what she said in COP24?
The brutal truth is that politicians are generally not falling all over each other to be seen with her at COP 26 because the quiet consensus is that this COP is going to fail, just a question of whether it is Copenhagen level failure, or Cancun level that can sort of get dressed up as some kind of success.
As a friend who still attends these things put it, the world is trusting in the same diplomatic geniuses as the Hosts (critical role) that have made the open Irish border problematic and managed to make about three truckloads of fish from the Channel a major episode.
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No idea? I was just wondering why.
See above. Photo OPs with angry young Swede won’t play well.
It is not much of an accident that the big hitter leaders came at the beginning of the COP (showing intention and effort) rather than at the end (‘to be there to make the final push’, i.e. take credit).