this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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I've seen a lot of posts on Lemmy today arguing that Greta Thunberg is privileged, self-obsessed or self-promoting, that her actions are merely symbolic and useless, etc. I have to wonder whether these are part of a coordinated campaign. I hope we can all recognize someone who cares enough to put themselves in danger for the sake of others.
Sone of us are older and take issue with how much attention she is drawing while not really organizing anything. She's a useful figurehead but there are people making her out to be akin to the American civil rights leaders of the past and she's not doing what they did in terms of grassroots organization. She's more Oprah, without the baggage she brings, than MLK.
She's neither the second coming of Christ nor is she a huckster. I think she's a sometimes media darling who does work herself but does not seem to be building a movement but rather shows up to be the face of it.
Huh? She's done nothing but organize grassroot movements and civil disobedience since she was 15? MLK was 28 when he helped form the SCLC, Greta is 22 - give her some credit.
She has shown up. She hasn’t organized. Other people are doing that. Her foundation writes cheques.
I am giving her credit for what she is actually doing
I'm certainly no expert on what she's been doing, but how can you possibly make that assertion with that kind of conviction? How could you possibly know what she does vs what the people surrounding her are doing?
More importantly, do you actually think past revolutionary figures were doing everything themselves? If she's getting the people surrounding her to organize, then she is organizing them. That's leadership. Plenty of historical figures of note are the figureheads because they were the ones writing the checks, that's how things get done.