By David Futrelle
There have been a lot of terrible things said in recent days about environmentalists in general and Greta Thunberg in particular. Even our dear impeachable president got into the action, mocking the 16-year-old climate activist in a tweet that Thunberg quickly appropriated ahs her new Twitter bio. Meanwhile, a host of creepy online commenters suggested that Thunberg just needed a good spanking.
But the most unhinged attack on Thunberg I’ve seen so far comes not from some anonymous Tweeter with four followers and an anime avatar but from a writer for The Federalist, Sumantra Maitra, who argues that “Saint Greta” has become the Joan of Arc of a new pagan cult of environmentalism that is trying “not only to turn back time but essentially to destroy the entire current edifice” of Judeo-Christian civilization itself. “The pagan barbarians from the north,” he writes ominously, “are back circling outside the citadel.”
He’s especially perturbed by the protest group “Extinction Rebellion,” which he describes as
an apocalyptic cult that wants to radically end every thing around you, from your private cars to the burgers you eat and the plastic chairs in your yard. It is a cult that was formed after its founder took psychedelic drugs … Members have blocked D.C. and London intersections, “twerking” the way people in a pre-civilized era would perform a fertility dance to pray to Gaia.
And above it all, Maitra writes, floats the spirit of the pagan “Saint Greta, our perpetual teen of sorrow,” whom he compares, in what he sees as a devastating blow, to Joan of Arc — apparently forgetting that Joan wasn’t the product of paganism but of the Judea-Christian civilization he is purportedly defending.
To Maitra , the anger in her voice during her recent speech to the United Nations was evidence of an “emotional meltdown.” Yet, he laments, she was “hailed … as a brave savior as well as a vulnerable, autistic teen who shouldn’t be bullied.” (Evidently he’s a bit chagrined that anyone would speak up against bullying.)
And so, Maitra complains, the allegedly rational forces of climate change denial — sorry, “skepticism” — find themselves up against “barbarians” engaged in
Sexualized dances, psychedelic hallucinogens, worshiping nature, confessing sins in pagan animism, worshiping purified teen saints, and throwing them up on an altar, bereft of their childhood, to promote a greater cause. …
The strangest part of the whole rant is Maitra’s weird paean to old-timey Stalinism. Unlike the new environmentalist pagans, Maitra notes, the old left understood that the earth was there for humans to exploit as ruthlessly as they could. And there’s no way that Stalin would have put up with those awful environmentalist twerkers!
For all the Marxists’ faults, the old left at least wanted to conquer nature instead of turning subservient to it. Of course, that went to its own extremes, but one can imagine Joseph Stalin putting all twerking climate fanatics as mentally ill people in a forced labor camp to build railroads in Siberia.
Apparently Maitra wishes he could do the same. Why is it always the ones who rant about the barbarians who turn out to be the least civilized?
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We get rid of religious fundamentalism and capitalism, we treat the environment better. Simple as that.
Setting aside the fact that alleged adults have been losing their shit, stumbling over each other to lob ad hominem attacks against a teenager, how is it that the people wanting to protect the human species from extinction are the crazy ones but the people putting profit over people and excessively exploiting our natural resources and pushing our species to the brink of extinction are seen as the rational ones?
I just keep thinking of that comic; the man speaking up at a climate conference: “But what if it’s all a hoax and we built a better world for nothing?!”
the three worst things we ever invented are:
1. money
2. metal weapons
3. church
@Mexican Hot Chocolate
It’s pretty simple, sadly. They have the influence and power.
That’s pretty much the hobbies and interests bit from my CV.
Wait, now Northern European traditions are bad? I thought they were the master race and responsible for all of civilization. Ok. Ok.
Not that this is anything new. I just find it hilarious how so many racist white conservatives don’t see the irony in worshipping European culture but rejecting large parts of their actual culture in the service of a religion that was started by the Middle Eastern people they otherwise fund so inferior and barbaric. As loathsome as the Norse mythology worshipping subset of white supremacists are, at least they are consistent.
The thing I find utterly fascinating about the attacks on Thunberg that I’m seeing on Twitter is their fixation on the idea that they’re ‘not allowed’ to criticize her, or in some cases that SHE won’t ‘allow’ them to disagree with her. Like, dude, she’s a teenage girl. She got to talk at the UN, which is a big deal, but not THAT big a deal. She hasn’t been named God-Empress of the universe or anything. How the hell is she doing anything TO you?
The Joan D’Arc comparison may be nicked from Swedish historian Dick Harrison who discussed it seriously in last December.
ttps://www.svd.se/ar-greta-thunberg-var-tids-jeanne-darc
@Podkayne Lives
What they mean is they cannot just say “she’s an autistic little girl” and “””””win””””” the argument. They have to actually respond to what she said, and they can’t, so they whine about not being “allowed” to engage in ad hominems.
The Joan D’Arc comparison may be nicked from Swedish historian Dick Harrison, who discussed it seriously last December, in the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
(The article in question is paywalled and in Swedish, and also the Mammoth gods don’t seem to accept any links in my comments)
WWTH:
True fact: The movie Midsommar is a documentary of Swedish climate protests earlier this year.
Leaving this bit of joy here… 🙂
Maitra just made environmentalism sound soooooo much cooler than he intended to.
Actually, he has a point there. I actually encountered Greta recently at Occult Con.
There I was, checking out the new edition of the Testament of Solomon, seeing the latest bit of innovation Vapula and his legions have come up with, when I passed the ritual dance section and – there she was! She was quite interesting in the topic of seidr runic casting and how to hybridizing it with Indian dance rituals. My experience with dancing consists of “I took ballroom lessons for fun in my teens”, so I wasn’t much help, but she possessed very interesting insights into Geasa, always a hobby of a goetic summoner like myself.
I do hope we’ll be able to meet again, presumably after reducing Focus on the Family HQ to rubble to pay off some irritating soul debts.
Finally, a commenter assigning credit where credit is due. So few commenters have the courage to praise Stalin and his controversial policies.
And how about that guy who is the current president of Russia, Vladimir Putin — Trump’s best friend, former KGB agent, a man who is unafraid to be photographed shirtless, and a leader who is courageous enough to bring his dog to a meeting with Angela Merkel, who is known to have a phobia of dogs.
@Kat
Interesting. I did not know that before.
@Naglfar
Yeah, when I read about the incident, all I could think was, “KGB tactic.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/07/03/g-20-germany-angela-merkel-russia-vladimir-putin/438376001/
OT — but you should’ve heard the evil laughter in my household
Donald Trump just threw Mike Pence under the bus in the Ukraine whistleblower scandal
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/mike-pence-under-bus-donald-trump-ukraine-threw/21124/
I… can these people sound any more unhinged? They’re completely unmoored from reality.
Uhh, yeah – Lysenko did a great job of conquering nature for Stalin. Fantastic success.
Really.
@Kat – I can’t wait for Giulaini to join Pence under that bus.
Apparently the German press was about ready to murder Putin after that thing with the dog. Reporters having to be prevented from going to punch him personally.
K. & Leliel – ?
Sadly, it turns out I can’t go to the march at Mount Royal. I have to be at work or else my supervisors will be working long hours and stressed. If they’d planned things so that the centre was closed that afternoon, it’d be great, but they didn’t. We even have new students taking classes at that time.
It’s not like my presence will magically end global warming, but I wanted to be there. … 🙁
@Lumipuna,
Thank you for reminding me of that… movie. I’ve been trying to stop thinking about it since I saw it Tuesday night. I was so close…
@Hippodameia
Me too. There are quite a few others I’d like to see under that bus (the one that will drive them to prison). Kellyanne Conway springs to mind.