The Greta Thunberg Debate

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google her parents, it will all make sense.

Repeating what I said in another thread

"As a person who has and continues to put herself in the public eye as an activist for a cause she is fair game for criticism. It is fair game to ask why the media is making a teenager the face of climate change activism. That is FAIR game. Attacking her in such a personal way is not a fair game. Newspapers allowing autism to be described as a hideous mental disorder is a step backwords 10 years back to Autism Speaks at its worst period. The idea that being autistic makes one fear climate change is going to be news to the Autistic members of Wrong Planet who are skeptical to hostile to the human caused Global Warming is going to end the world as we know it consensus."


Greta Thunberg Helpline (Sarcasm)

"The future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed."

We already have millions of people seeking to migrate because the lands where they were born are no longer supporting them. Bengalis in the Sundarban islands and the Ganges river delta are moving away from rising seas. Polynesians are abandoning atolls and crowding into the larger islands. In the Central American republics, a belt of drought-stricken farmland is the main source of asylum seekers whose situation is being made worse by Trump's malice.

Their world has already ended.

If you're wondering why Greta Thunberg's latest media appearance was so emotional compared to her previous ones, well, this one is right after she actually met people with first hand experience of what's going on.

Sixteen years old is not a child!

I tried telling that to the judge, Anne.

bastard still sent me down.

You should have been okay in Scotland?

In the book: Living Well On The Spectrum by Valerie Gaus PhD, the author talks about a typical autism characteristic known as "Catastrophizing". I know I have this characteristic. If something bothers me I'm prone to mentally exaggerate the issue. The adage: "Making a mountain out of a molehill" comes to mind. In this context, "catastrophizing" doesn't mean being able to recognize a catastrophe, it's about irrational exaggeration.

I'm not saying the climate isn't changing. Nor am I saying that I disbelieve that humans may have some impact in the climate that undoubtedly is changing irrespective of human involvement just as it has for eons.

I just hope beyond hope that her assertion that humanity will literally be extinct due to climate change in a bit more than a decade isn't true. Not only for the obvious reason that I'd like to live longer than that, but also if the claim ends up being very inaccurate like many previous prognostications have been, her credibility will be shattered. That would further damage the credibility of environmentalists as a whole, but also fear that if her autism is emphasized, that could damage the credibility of autistics as a whole in the matter of public opinion.

I have seen numerous articles about Thunberg that don't mention her autism at all. I think that is best. View her based on her opinions as a person. Don't judge her based on her autism.

I have also seen articles that have not only mentioned her autism, but also have said things like her autism has allowed her to have this as a special interest in ways that NT people couldn't making her into a wunderkind.

A wunderkind is a very precarious label. She's human and therefore fallible. If she falls for any number of reasons, people could just as easily equate fallibility with autism in general. Bottom line: I want to be taken seriously. I want all people with autism to be taken seriously. I hope that all people with autism take the utmost care to represent themselves in ways that will be valued and well regarded.

From a climate change perspective it seems to be working. Its getting a lot of media coverage and people are being mobilized.

My thoughts in order:

1) 16 year olds are generally not knowledgeable about world events to offer substantive additions to the conversations. This applies to neurotypicals, autistics, males, females, etc. When I was 16 I thought I was smart and knew a lot. I didn't know s**t. Putting a 16 year old on the world stage is not smart.

2) The climate debate as a whole is whack. I could and have written pages and pages on this before, but suffice to say people are way oversimplifying a very complicated scientific/economic/social problem.

3) Regardless of who is speaking, any attacks should be on the substance of what they say not on the speaker. In this regard Greta Thunberg has been treated very unfairly, especially since many of these attacks are idiotic in nature.

Nice...

So we should be judged by who our parents are? Why don't you post your parents' info so we can google them?

That's interesting. I am prone to catastrophising ,but had never thought of it as an autism characteristic. I tend to fixate on worst case scenarios. It almost always isn't as bad as I'd expected it to be. Does that stop me catastrophising again over something? No-it doesn't .

He was referring them to being professional actors.

When I was 16 I knew nothing about mental conditions and thought anyone with a symptom had a disorder and then I thought Asperger's was BS because I didn't see students keeping their eyes glued to the teacher while teaching and kids would rock in their seats and I also thought ODD was a label doctors gave kids who get their way and beat their parents and break stuff and throw tantrums when they don't want to do things they are told. I thought it was a disorder kids chose to have to get their way to have an easier life and I had to be tougher and be mean to get what I want and I wasn't trying hard enough. No, my parents just didn't give in to me and my mom threatened to send me away if I didn't stop hitting her.

I even thought personality disorders were just labels doctors made up for people who are annoying and mean and bad.

16 was when I also thought being special needs and having a disability and having Asperger's meant I must get my way and get these special privileges special ed kids always get such as rules not applying to them.

I was pretty ignorant and was using my disability as an excuse. But the difference was I was 16, not 27 and not 34. 16 year olds are excused for being as*holes and jerks and being ignorant. They are only excused for their actions unless they have done murder or harmed a pet or harmed another child or human. Then people never forget and let it go past you, even if you are released ten years later for good behavior or got a second chance by the judge due to your effed up life so you were given help instead.

And her mother is a climate activist.

ROFL! Excellent satire.