Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been accused of many things: causing “needless anxiety”; promoting “doomsday waffle talk”, and ruining air travel with her “flight shaming”.
But now, she’s been accused of something entirely different: destroying a sacked Top Gear presenter’s beloved car shows.
In an interview with The Sun, Clarkson complained the Swedish teen had taught children that “cars are evil”.
“She’s an idiot,” he added.
It’s not clear whether school students were deeply interested in vintage car shows before Thunburg rose to climate fame.
He had previously criticised her in an op-ed in The Sun, clinging to her age as a criticism of her actions. “So be a good girl, shut up and let them get on with it. And no. You cannot stay out past 10. And you cannot go out in a skirt that short,” he wrote, because there’s nothing more appropriate than a 59-year-old man ranting about an adolescent’s rhetorical outfit. Clarkson’s comments come just weeks after he finally recognised the climate crisis during a trip to Asia, catching up on a concept several decades old.
Blaming the youth for failed enterprises is nothing new: Millennials have been blamed for killing napkins, fabric softener and golf. And let’s not forget when marketers lashed out at the generation for killing canned tuna, thanks to their inability to purchase a can opener.
Thunberg stopped Coldplay touring, so not even her fiercest critics can say she’s all bad.
Ok Boomer….
I don’t understand how anyone can think there’s a connection. Did the numbers fall dramatically over the last 12 months, and if so, did those who declined to continue participating in car shows cite climate change as the reason, and was the reason their consciousness on the issue caused by the young Swede? If not, such claims are spurious and should be laughed down. There’s nothing in them to take seriously, and only repeated because Jeremy Clarkson is a celebrity.
“Celebrity, without evidence, attacks activist” should have been the only headline we see on this matter. But we are in a society where one person’s ignorance is as good as another’s knowledge, and a celebrity is echoed even when talking complete nonsense. It gets the clicks, it generates the outrage, and thus creates the need for reactionary and analytical pieces – all of which come from someone making an assertion without evidence.
So why is Crikey reporting on what a 59 year old man with a bad reputation says about anything? Why do other outlets puff it up? In 5 years Thunberg will be older and more sophisticated. In 5 years Clarkson will probably be just the same only older. Give it a rest and report actual news rather that snide gotchas.
We owe Greta Thunberg plenty. Not least because she has rubbed our noses in our failure to take climate-effective action in the few years she has been judging our performance. If it takes an autistic 16-year-old to tell us our home truths, then by God, we need more of ’em.
…. by Crikey, we need more of ’em.
@wait, how is this not the onion?