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By now you know that TIME Magazine has chosen 16-year-old Greta Thunberg as their "Person of the Year" for 2019.
Greta no longer goes to school, because she is traveling the world screaming at adults, calling them murderers, because they are not fighting the "climate crises."
Should we be using our children in these ways? Particularly those with emotional and mental issues?
Be informed.
Note. I will be talking about this and the continuing attempt to impeach President Trump on our live radio program this morning. We are expanding. Check here to see if our program "Straight Talk" is available on the radio in your area. However, you can listen from anywhere in the world on the radio, your iPhone or your computer. Here's how.
TIME Magazine opens their featured person edition with this:
"Greta Thunberg sits in silence in the cabin of the boat that will take her across the Atlantic Ocean. Inside, there's a cow skull hanging on the wall, a faded globe, a child's yellow raincoat. Outside, it's a tempest: rain pelts the boat, ice coats the decks, and the sea batters the vessel that will take this slight girl, her father and a few companions from Virginia to Portugal. For a moment, it's as if Thunberg were the eye of the hurricane, a pool of resolve at the center of swirling chaos. In here, she speaks quietly. Out there, the entire natural world seems to amplify her small voice, screaming along with her."
It seems ironic to me, at least, --- that as we approach Christmas, billions of Christians around the world will be singing "Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let heaven and earth rejoice." while climate activists are screaming in anger, declaring that the natural world is also screaming in anger.
Has the "climate change" movement become a new religion, with little Greta their messiah?
Why a child?
Jonathan Tobin wrote in the Federalist last summer that Greta is being used because "they [children] are credited with the best possible motives and not asked to fully or coherently explain their goals or how they might achieve them without doing more harm than good."
He says when journalists point out the flaws in these kids arguments, the inconsistency of their behavior, or ponder whether children should be skipping school to pursue a political agenda, progressives denounce them as bullies picking on nice kids.
To begin, Greta began skipping school every Friday for the last year (she has dropped out of school for this 2019-2020 year) and held a weekly vigil outside the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm. Reports say tens of thousands of other kids started following her lead and started skipping school---playing hooky---some as a pretense of protesting for "climate crises."
Progressive extremists have created "Greta".
Greta's and her friend's behavior is a product of the apocalyptic rhetoric of environmental extremists. It's a tactic learned from grandpa Al Gore and the other disciples who would follow---Ocasio-Cortez, etc.
They have discovered they got more attention with wild predictions of planetary doom only loosely, if at all connected to science.
Tobin writes,
"No one should be surprised that children are behaving in this way when extremists are teaching them that the world is basically coming to an end and that we're all going to fry as a punishment for the sin of benefiting from the prosperity the Industrial Revolution and capitalism created."
And Tobin says,
"Many Americans mocked Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal plans. But Thunberg and her fans see it as a messianic blueprint to save humanity that must take priority over a lowered standard of living for humanity, economic development, individual rights, and the basics of democracy."
The grown-up extremists see Greta as the newest, best way to advance an agenda that has made many of them millions and millions of dollars.
The onlookers cheer these children on as righteous crusaders for a noble cause.
What bothers me most--as a father and grandfather-- is the fact that Greta is dealing with devastating personal problems.
Are the climate extremists abusing Greta?
I believe they are. Here's why.
An article published by the New York Times earlier this year gave a revealing profile of Greta. The child's personal story is not a happy one.
The daughter of an opera star and an actor, she was a bright student until she fell victim to the pressures of adolescence and bullying at school.
The Times says that at age 11, she had fallen into a deep funk. She stopped going to school. She stopped eating. She stopped growing. And she spoke only to family, and at school, only to one teacher.
She was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and selective mutism.
She eventually pulled herself out of some of the depression, by focusing on the "climate crises."
The Times notes that she has an absolutist attitude, will not discuss things--anything, with anybody about anything. She bullied her mother to give up her career because it involved air travel, and forced her parents to adopt a vegan diet, although she often says publicly that her mother sneaks cheese into the house and eats it late at night for snacks.
The Times also noted she doesn't smile much, but is happier now that she has become a well-known climate crisis advocate.
Greta told the British press "being on the spectrum" of autism is an advantage where she sees the world only in "black and white" and can be more effective in her advocacy.
For example, she won't discuss with anyone whether or not science really predicts the imminent doom of the planet if we don't stop eating cows and using airplanes.
Eric Erickson, with whom I disagree much on many issues---particularly involving President Trump, said: "The left is cheering this on and questions anyone who raises questions, concerns or doubts."
This is an abusive situation and this child doesn't realize it, her parents have not had the courage or will to stand for what is right for the child. This will not end well for Greta.
Yet grown-ups are capitalizing on her irrational fears and then letting her run their lives. While the Left cheers her on.
TIME sells copies, the environmental extremists advance their agenda through a child that cannot be questioned by adults, while the climate industry fraud continues to make millions of dollars for the activists.
Pathetic. But not surprising.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful.