April 13, 2020

"In the fall of 2014, Greta stopped eating....Greta had her first panic attack one day in September, when the family was baking cinnamon buns..."

"... and her parents encouraged her to eat some. When Greta refused, Svante and Malena yelled at her to obey. Their daughter, Malena writes, let out 'an abysmal howl that lasts for over forty minutes.'... On the recommendation of doctors, the family started keeping a list on the wall of how much she ate every day and how long it took her to eat it. ('Breakfast: 1/3 banana. Time: 53 minutes.') If the consistency of Greta’s gnocchi wasn’t perfect, she rejected it. Too many gnocchi on a plate and she was overwhelmed. ('Lunch: 5 gnocchi. Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes.') Greta stopped speaking with anyone but the members of her immediate family... In early 2015, Greta finally received a set of diagnoses: Asperger’s, high-functioning autism, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as selective mutism. She started taking an antidepressant called sertraline. But, Malena writes, 'What happened to our daughter can’t be explained simply by a medical acronym.' Instead, Greta was simply exhibiting the only rational response to the world around her: 'In the end, she simply couldn’t reconcile the contradictions of modern life.'... Malena does not pinpoint the moment when climate change became Greta’s particular obsession; nor does she question the rightness of her daughter’s response. 'Greta has a diagnosis, but it doesn’t rule out that she’s right and the rest of us have got it all wrong,' she concludes. Greta sees our carbon dioxide 'transforming the atmosphere into a gigantic, visible garbage dump.' The hamburger on her plate is no longer food but 'a ground up muscle from a living being with feelings, awareness and a soul.'"

From "How Greta Thunberg Transformed Existential Dread Into a Movement" by Emily Witt (in The New Yorker).

156 comments:

AustinRoth said...

They forgot the part about her parents brainwashing her then pimping her out for monies paid to them.

pious agnostic said...

It's very sad to see someone so young abused so profoundly.

Unknown said...

By all means lets all listen to a utter loon.

WisRich said...

But she has moral authority, can't you see.

zipity said...


OK. So, the cheese has slipped off her cracker.

Gone around the bend. Not playing with a full deck.

A few bricks short of a load. Five cans short of a six-pack.

So clearly, we should turn the world upside down because of her opinion.

Eric said...

Most people raised by idiots turn out okay. Unfortunately ...

Skeptical Voter said...

Hard to say what to make of the young woman's mental condition, I do prefer to take my advice from people whose mental eggs aren't quite so scrambled. Say somebody like AOC (sarc).

RNB said...

Not that many years ago, 'The Children's Crusade' was considered a regrettable incident in medieval history, an example of religious insanity. Nowadays, it's treated more like an instruction manual.

Hoss said...

Lordy

LordSomber said...

'Greta has a diagnosis, but it doesn’t rule out that she’s right and the rest of us have got it all wrong.'

Great "logic" there, Mom.

dreams said...

Yeah, we need to look to her to lead us, she's really got her shit together.

rhhardin said...

The Bridge (danish/swedish version) has a very nice Aspergers female detective part.

It's like what a woman would be like if she were an observant sociologist as well as not being crazy like a woman. More a guy than the guys.

Greta's got it a little wrong: she's got her own selected goal as well, so is back into crazy. Not curious enough.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Greta's 15 minutes are over. She was dethroned by the corona virus.

DavidUW said...

I hope she gets help for her mental illness

BarrySanders20 said...

Not concede her Absolute Moral Authority?

How dare you!

This is a child millions would give the power to decide who to send to the camps, and who to the ovens.

doctrev said...

Greta should take the opportunity to slink off into the shadows. If she's still going on about her economy-killing plans when tens of millions have felt the lash of furloughs or layoffs, the consequences might please even my black heart.

Ann Althouse said...

There is a sister who also has had some terrible problems -- that emerged at the same age (9 or 10).

chickelit said...

Food shaming does make sense when surrounded by obesity. Plus think of losing weight as removing oneself from the sights of COVID-20.

P.S. My Midwestern mother would have said say Greta "is going to dry up and blow away."

chickelit said...

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...Greta's 15 minutes are over. She was dethroned by the corona virus.

Corona virus stole her crown.

Todd said...

'Greta has a diagnosis, but it doesn’t rule out that she’s right and the rest of us have got it all wrong.'

And a stopped clock is right twice a day.

There are serious issues when adults take their lead from "children". Children are still being "formed" mentally and physically. They lack experience. Have a limited frame of reference. Do not "know" as much as most adults.

The girl has ISSUES and the way she was used by her parents and that entire green movement is a crime that unfortunately, no one will be called to account for. The child needs help, not the lime-light.

hawkeyedjb said...

And a little child shall lead them. A little, mentally ill child. And if you follow her, don't complain about where you end up.

rhhardin said...

A stopped clock is right one to three times a day.

Chris N said...

Rhhardin.

I'm from the 1.5--2.5 school. We're quite advanced.

rhhardin said...

Experts Agree Restructuring World Economy Best Way to Treat Child’s Anxiety

The Derringer

Jamie said...

Sure. No problem with writing a record on the wall of what a child who isn't eating properly actually does eat, and how long they have to sit there haranguing her to eat it. And hey, if your child doesn't jump at the chance to eat a cinnamon roll, what better sportscaster than to yell at her and force her to?

rhhardin said...

The exceptions occur with spring ahead and fall back.

buwaya said...

A more apt comparison, possibly, is Joan of Arc. The parallels are interesting.
Both were disturbed girls. Both were willing tools used by worldly political players for their own ends.
I hope this poor girl does not end as badly.

Thunberg is not St. Joan because her illness is not of the traditionally justifiable sort, a holy madness. Her problem is the disprovable basis for her demands. "Science" is weak, facts are inconvenient, logic works pro and con, a lack of information is obvious and disqualifying. "God wills it" is a better one.

And St. Joan had that astonishing knack for military success, or maybe it really was that God was with her.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Comedian Will Franken presents Greta and her sister at a London comedy cafe. It's perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=golAjKMDuVk

Chris N said...

There are often underlying neurological/physiological nervous system issues going on.

Anxiety/depression, OCD, repetitive behavior and severe shyness and rigidity when it comes to new food and sensory experience are often symptoms of similar causes.

They're often hereditary, and the parents could be dealing with some of their own underlying issues through the children.

More broadly, the politicization of climate science by activist actors onto to their neurologically challenged children is more a symptom of the age.

A lot of extreme, anti-human environmentalism is for losers, and a lot of well-paid sorts don't want to look at the clay feet of their movements, the people nor the ideas.

Mark said...

Clearly some of these beliefs and ideas are learned. That is, someONE put these ideas into her head. It isn't all attributable to some medical/psychological condition.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

So is she going to continue to scold us for using plastic bags? For driving instead of using public transportation?

Some environmental virtue-signaling isn't looking too good in the era of Wuhan Flu.

Rob said...

If Greta wanted to start a movement, she should have tried more bulk.

rcocean said...

And a little child -with some big mental problems - shall lead them.

Chris N said...

This may sound crude, but she needs to look into a bowel movement.

Get away from the limelight and into a path towards proper physiological growth and puberty.

This will likely be much better for her long-term.

rcocean said...

Tell Greta that Joe Biden plans on spending $500 Billion on Climate Change AND destroy the US Coal Industry. that should cheer her up!

gilbar said...

she's not crazy! you're the one that's crazy!

back in the 80's we thought people were joking, when they sang about this
ALL i wanted, was a Pepsi!!! Just One Pepsi! And SHE WOULDN'T GIVE IT TO ME!!!
Suicidal Tendencies - "Institutionalized"

Sometimes I try to do things and it just doesn't work out the way I want it to
I get real frustrated and I try hard to do it and I take my time and it doesn't work out the way I want it to
It's like I concentrate real hard and it doesn't work out
Everything I do and everything I try never turns out
It's like I need time to figure these things out
But there's always someone there going

I'm not crazy - Institutionalized
You're the one that's crazy - Institutionalized
You're driving me crazy - Institutionalized
They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution,
to give me the needed professional help
to protect me from the enemy - Myself

I was in my room and I was just like staring at the wall thinking about everything
But then again I was thinking about nothing
And then my mom came in and I didn't even know she was there
She called my name and I didn't hear her and then she started screaming: MIKE! MIKE!
And I go:....What, what's the matter?
She goes:....What's the matter with you?
I go:....There's nothing wrong mom
She's all:....Don't tell me that, you're on drugs!
I go:....No mom I'm not on drugs I'm okay, I was just thinking you know, why don't you get me a Pepsi
She goes:....NO you're on drugs!
I go:...Mom I'm okay, I'm just thinking
She goes:....No you're not thinking, you're on drugs! Normal people don't be acting that way!
I go:....Mom just get me a Pepsi, please
All I want is a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me
All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me
Just a Pepsi

Dave Begley said...

This poor girl was made mentally ill by the CAGW scam. I hope those people are happy now; scaring little kids and making Greta sick.

rhhardin said...

Films with Aspergers featured characters
The Bridge (2011-2018) Sofia Helin
The Accountant (2016) Ben Affleck
The Night Clerk (2020) Tye Sheridan

The latter is a little too pathetic but the former two are take-charge. They all rule their own fates though.

Greta would be even more pathetic, fate rules her.

Krumhorn said...

By all means, we should restructure the planet so that Greta-the-Pest will eat her gnocchi and cinnamon rolls.

It such an odd world today where so many have a widely distributed voice who, in Dickensian times, would have been sweeping horse poo from the streets with their straw brooms for a ha'penny.

- Krumhorn

Greg Hlatky said...

Even a blind clock can find a truffle twice a day.

Fernandinande said...

This may sound crude, but she needs to look into a bowel movement.

When you look into a bowel movement, the bowel movement also looks into you.

I'll have to look into that.

Chris N said...

Let's not make this a fecal matter.

Paul said...

OK.. ok... so she is a real messed up kid from day one of her life.

Big deal.

So she can't distinguish reality from fantasy.

That could happen to anyone!

But still, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right?

You can be paranoid but that does not mean someone is not trying to kill you, right?

So, nuts or not, SHE STANDS WITH BERNIE!!!!

mockturtle said...

In other words, she's nuttier than a fruitcake and has been all her life. And I suspected some times ago that her parents were enablers to her wacky demands.

Earnest Prole said...

The parents' exploitation of a poor child who exhibits clear signs of mental illness is unconscionable.

Arashi said...

Her and her entire family need a serious intervention by whatever group in her country takes care of childrens issues in the home. The whole lot of them are a lot of bricks shy of a load. All of the people pimping her to make buck$$$ of he CAGW hoax are criminal and should be held accountable. They won't but they should.

Maybe Greta and Cindy Sheehan can do a gig together going forward doing group shaming for weddings and birthday parties for socialists.

gilbar said...

Who Better, than a 15 year old girl from Sweden, to tell the World WHAT THEY NEED TO DO?

a mentally ill, 15 year old girl from Sweden, that's who!

Fernandinande said...

"Climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, addressed the U.N.'s Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday."

Excerpts:

"My message is that we'll be watching my bowel movements."

"You have stolen my bowel movements with your empty toilets. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are constipated. Entire ecosystems are constipated. We are in the beginning of a mass defecation, and all you can talk about is fairy tales of eternal exponential growth."

"The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years gives us a 50% chance of chain reactions beyond human control."

Fernandinande said...

Let's not make this a fecal matter.

It's self-defecating humor.

Lurker21 said...

Hey, who doesn't hate cinnamon buns?

Who doesn't get panic attacks from pastry?

"AAAAHHHH!! KREPLACH!!"

Lurker21 said...

The Swedish/Danish Bridge was very good.

The US/Mexican one wasn't that great.

The British/French one? The Tunnel? Don't even ask.

Other versions are out there, too: Estonia/Russia, Malaysia/Singapore, Austria/Germany.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I have selective give-a-shit-ism, and Greta’s problems don’t rate.

Seriously, she should be put out of her misery, and ours.

Ken B said...

Medieval. Child seers and prophets.

wendybar said...

Somebody get some help for that whole family.

Wince said...

Grandpa, what's for supper?!

Ass burgers!

Anne-I-Am said...

I read the “40-minute howl” and decided that this problem pre-dated the convenient story her mother tells. No child past a 2-year-old should be letting out howls of any length, let alone 40 minutes. I suspect her parents indulged the first Munchian scream emitted by this child, and it has been a train-wreck-in-slow-motion ever since.

The first time a child throws a minutes-long tantrum like that, you walk away, close the door, and leave her to keep herself company. Never allow once—in a child or a dog—what you do not intend to allow for always.

She may be Aspergers, but she exhibits some characteristics of just garden-variety autism.

narciso said...

the second season was a little byzantine, but the third season lost the plot, it was ostensibly about immigrant smuggling, across the channel,

n.n said...

selective give-a-shit-ism

Once you go Pro-Choice, you can't go back. Say Gaia is gay, shred a seal, whack a bird, and scalp three [human] babies. Let us bray. In Stork They Trust.

Chris N said...

Shit happens. Then you die.

At Peace Pavilion West, Ludmilla had not eaten for a week. She sighed. She screamed. She listlessly trailed behind her mother during field duties.

Was it a parasite? Was it ennui?

We put her into the Sunshine Youth Brigade, and there she came alive. Fiery oratory. Global fever dreams and visions. Political and rhetorical impact.

Come see Ludmilla, whereever the hell her family's from.

Raspberry bug-paste!

Ralph L said...

What? Greta is nuts?

Josephbleau said...

Now that we have had a brief crono precipitated introduction to the green new deal there is no use talking about it anymore. It’s an ex deal.

Known Unknown said...

Let's parade around a mentally-ill young person for our own ends. Disgusting.

Michael said...

Well perhaps the sister will be in favor of oil and fast cars.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Yes! a glimmer of hope!
Like the swallows returning to Capistrano,
'Climate Change, etc' returning to the headlines is,
albeit ironically, a good sign.

however-- not looking forward to all the 'eco-sermons' re: lockdown

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Never go full Gretard"

gilbar said...

Anne said...
No child past a 2-year-old should be letting out howls of any length, let alone 40 minutes

but what about.. Woman lets out agonising screams as Trump is sworn in as President???

Greta's Crazy... But; she's NOT THE ONLY ONE

Maillard Reactionary said...

zipty @3:22 PM: Not only that, she or she's also:

Not wrapped too tight
Has a screw loose
Has bats in her belfry
Away with the fairies
As crazy as a bedbug
As crazy as a coot
A day late and a dollar short
Lost her marbles
Off her rocker
Has her lights on, but nobody's home
Only has one oar in the water
Is crazy as an outhouse rat
Is nuttier than a portapotty at a peanut festival

Plus, her elevator doesn't make it to the top floor, but if it did, she wouldn't notice that her roof isn't nailed on tight. Sadly, the wheel is still turning, but the hamster is dead.

In other words, she's an opinion-leader for the modern age.

Chris N said...

Also, we sing 'Raspberry bug-paste' to the tune of Prince's 'Raspberry Beret.'

If you want to see some hip old white ladies getting down to the beat, Peace Pavilion West is your thing, dawg.

Tomcc said...

I should know better than to expect shame from shameless people, but I've always been an optimist.
For the few minutes that I watched the last debate between Mr.'s Biden and Sanders, they were both in agreement about the "existential threat" that is CAGW. Yup, shameless.

Ralph L said...

What I didn't like most about the Tunnel were the paltry motives for horrible, complicated crimes.

traditionalguy said...

She is one big eating disorder and she demands that we starve when she orders us to starve like her....or she will refuse to eat.

All you have there is a suicidal bully that demands we al die with her. Every brainless person who fell for her schtick deserves the death she wishes upon them.

Rory said...

"Never allow once—in a child or a dog—what you do not intend to allow for always."

Now she tells me.

cubanbob said...

This girl is obviously disturbed. But what is really disturbing is the great number of people who take her seriously. That's the scary part.

Birkel said...

My days of paying attention to teenage girls are long since over.
I think I stopped when I was 18.

WGAF what she says?

Francisco D said...

The Watermelon Left is desperate for heroes.

Obama is gone without healing the planet.

The MSM could not drag Hillary over the finish line, no matter how hard they tried.

Bernie fizzled out and Joe's brain is still fizzing and fizzling.

Who's next? An autistic teenager.

Why didn't I think of that?

Social JusticeIsGay said...

Mentally retarded spoiled brat acts like mentally retarded spoiled brat.

Color me shocked.

Temujin said...

What a horrifying family.

How dare us, indeed.

rhhardin said...

The Tunnel (2013-2018) was okay except the finale ending. Just ignore it in remembering the series. The swedish/danish was the best though, as far as the acting. The lady said she had to really study to get the inappropriate reactions right.

I couldn't watch the American/Mexican version, too stupid. The acting matters.

All the versions of the story have the same season 1, then diverge once the common existing plot is wrapped up.

narciso said...

I caught part of Gillian Fallows (the downton abbey guy) Victorian era drama Belgravia it felt a little slow,

Well Diane kruger was in that version, still didn't save it,

MadTownGuy said...

Munchausen by proxy?

Paul Zrimsek said...

tl;dr: Monty Python's 'Most Awful Family in Britain' sketch, only in Swedish.

M said...

Greta is mentally ill. Seriously mentally ill. While it is most likely genetic I would not doubt the pushing of hysterical, apocalyptic greenie propaganda from the media, her schools and her own parents has made her MUCH WORSE than she would be in a rational world. She should sue the green movement, the media and her parents for child abuse.

Xmas said...

This sounds familiar, I can't quite put my finger on it...

Dr. Evil's childhood.

Fernandinande said...

The Nut Bragger

Nancy Reyes said...

in medical school, we were taught one of the problems with working with the mentally ill is that we might end up sympathizing with their delusions, so we were instructed to apply the "taxi driver" rule of insanity:
If the average taxi driver would see the person's actions as insane, maybe they are.
Greta fits into this category, but alas, people are too intimidated by peer pressure and political correctness to whisper the truth.

FullMoon said...

Mentally retarded spoiled brat acts like mentally retarded spoiled brat.

I thought asbergers and autism was mental retards until I was around a few children like that. One mom was crying while explaining to me that her young son, who showed no emotion when when I casually complimented his singing, can play any instrument and sing like a bird but does not have any emotion and is incapable of loving her or anyone else.

Howard said...

She's not wrong. Where is flood of christian love for the girl who can't help to cares too much? Sounds like a modern Easter story to me. Part of the globalism dodge is to offshore pollution to cheap India and China manufacturing flooding the northern hemisphere with black carbon laced with hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. The slowdown is the biggest experiment done on climate ever, so for you con spiracy folks, there you go. The green new deal brought to you by the deep state via 5g.

Future humans will look down at our environmental pollution tolerance and eating of factory farmed animals as a primitive indulgence.

Yancey Ward said...

All I can hear is the voice of the late Bill Paxton.

Lurker21 said...

She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!

rcocean said...

The problem isn't Greta, the problem is the liberal/left that worships her, and treats her mental illness as something admirable.

THAT is the problem. The shame if on the NYT and other leftists that exploit this loon.

Limited blogger said...

1/3 of a banana in 45 minutes? That's impossible.

Bob Boyd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dgstock said...

Andie McDowell. Sex, lies, videotape.

“I can’t stop thinking about the garbage.”

Bob Boyd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob Boyd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
William said...

Remember the Dionne quintuplets and how we later learned things weren't what they seemed?

Joan said...

On the recommendation of doctors, the family started keeping a list on the wall of how much she ate every day and how long it took her to eat it.

Who in their right mind would recommend this as a way to help a child who is obsessing over food? Yes, keep a food diary of how much and when the child eats, but it shouldn't be posted on the wall like an indictment. When you know your kid obsesses, you keep trying until you find a way to deliver calories that is obsession-proof, like perhaps a rice protein shake that delivers calories with a nice taste and texture and is easy to drink. When your kid freaks out about the gas composition of the atmosphere, you redirect their attention to something less fraught with terror, like paleontology (dinosaurs) -- and coincidentally they might learn that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere in the Cretaceous was 20x what it is now. And then maybe they'll realize the planet is a huge system that has been self-regulating for billions of years and be able to calm down about it. But since neither of these approaches fit the parents' apparent desire to use their daughter's condition for their own political ends, they let "the child lead" them.

As pious agnostic said way at the top, "It's very sad to see someone so young abused so profoundly."

Phil 314 said...

Nancy said “we might end up sympathizing with their delusions, so we were instructed to apply the "taxi driver" rule of insanity:”

Damn! I was hoping the “Taxi Driver” rule involved the phrase “you taklin’ to me!”

Clyde said...

Modern First World problems. If Greta had been born in some Third World country where women are chattel, or even a century ago in Western country, she wouldn't have received that kind of coddling. She would have been working in the fields and would have been glad to eat whatever was fed to her rather than go hungry. I think that some damaged people are only damaged because others allow them to be damaged, and cater to their neuroticism.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Bob Boyd said: "I know, I know. That's not funny."

I disagree, I think it is. In fact I wish I'd thought of it first, you son of a bitch.

Is your avatar a grilled banana by any chance? I've been wondering about that.

ALP said...

in medical school, we were taught one of the problems with working with the mentally ill is that we might end up sympathizing with their delusions, so we were instructed to apply the "taxi driver" rule of insanity:
If the average taxi driver would see the person's actions as insane, maybe they are.
*********
Except if the taxi driver's name is Travis Bickle.

Maillard Reactionary said...

buwaya: Good to see you back. Maybe you were back before but it's nice to know you're still out there. Stay well.

Clyde said...

Funny thing, Gilbar, this whole discussion had made me think of that song, and then you had posted it already. Perfect. It was on the "Repo Man" soundtrack, so I've heard it a few times. The blue-label generic food cans in the video and the Latino guys in the old car called back to the movie.

Bob Boyd said...

Is your avatar a grilled banana by any chance?

No, it's an emergency escape hatch bolted shut.

Drago said...

Howard: "She's not wrong. Where is flood of christian love for the girl who can't help to cares too much?"


Gretas policy requirements would consign hundreds of millions to permanent poverty and death.

But at least Greta and Howard would get to feel better about themselves.

If hundreds of millions have to die to make Howard and Greta feel better, it will have been worth it.

Maillard Reactionary said...

"Greta stopped eating..."

They stop eating, but never long enough to die. Just long enough to get Mom or Dad upset. Live entertainment, who can beat it?

Danno said...

Greta would have fit in perfectly with the girls of the Salem witchcraft era.

FullMoon said...

1/3 of a banana in 45 minutes? That's impossible.

Goin' out on a limb here, ima say Gretea does not like bananas.

Bob Boyd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

Yea, she could be right about everything. Anybody wanna bet?

Pianoman said...

I've seen the light. We should definitely restructure the entire global economy based upon the opinions of a teenager with a mental disorder.

What a fool I've been.

bagoh20 said...

I mean, when you hear all that, it is very compelling that she must be taken seriously. Amiright?

Leland said...

"How Greta Thunberg Transformed Existential Dread Into a Movement"

She did no such thing. If it was up to Greta Thunberg, she'd have starved to death due to the existential dread hoisted upon her by her parents.

Greta has a diagnosis, but it doesn’t rule out that she’s right and the rest of us have got it all wrong,

It doesn't rule it in either. The poor girl is a Rorschach test. She refuses to eat because she is upset, and the left graft onto her all the reasons they want her to be upset. Here's the thing, a neonatal child can actually hold their breath until they die, because their brain hasn't developed the concept that not breathing is death. No one looks at a blue premature baby and think "oh my, they are upset about global warming". They recognize that attention is needed and simply provide it.

brio said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lewis Wetzel said...

Some conservative talking head (Michael Knowles, I believe) got banned from CNN for pointing out that Thunberg was mentally ill.

rcocean said...

"She's not wrong. Where is flood of christian love for the girl who can't help to cares too much?"


OR the Jewish love, for that matter. Or the Buddhist love.

rcocean said...

Greta is mentally ill, and has been exploited. David Hogg, OTOH, is just a young asshole.

rcocean said...

Howard: Where's the Christian Love for President Trump?

A Voice of Reason said...

TL;DR

She's bat shit crazy.

brio said...

Sounds like Greta has food issues. If so, then how are we supposed to deal with that photo of her from last December on a train? She was shown sitting at a table on the train with a whole loaf of bread, two bananas, a tub of salad, some sort of ham, some sort of spread, some sort of snack chips and who knows what else.

Go back and look at that photo again. She is shown alone but was someone seated opposite her? There was enough food for a whole family on that table. According to this latest article, it would have taken her days just to eat those two bananas on the table.

Joan said...

Sorry, but every time my eye skips over that headline I instinctively recoil. Greta did NOT create "a movement." She is a pawn in a game she cannot even perceive. It's disgusting.

Bob Boyd said...

I deleted my mean comments and I apologize for them.
The whole story is terribly sad.

stephen cooper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
stephen cooper said...

Of course she is mentally ill, and her parents appear to have victimized her.

If a human being is vicious enough to mock another human being by timing the length of their meals, it is fair for me to say

that they are cold-hearted, and probably evil.

And yes, they were mocking her.
They should be tried in a court of law.

This is my expression of compassion for the poor young woman, who, in my opinion, could have thrived if her parents and not been criminally negligent, or just plain bad people.

stephen cooper said...

I am going to go with "if her parents had not been criminally negligent", rather than "if her parents were not just plain bad people".

I hope her parents are not cold-hearted bullies, and in the one or two pictures I have seen of them, they seem nice.

I would not hire them to watch my cat for ten minutes, though. I would not turn my back on them if we were in a dog park, just them, me, and my dog.

By the way while I think that the climate change issue is not one any of us are informed enough to have a solid opinion about, the destruction of biodiversity is a similar crisis, one I wish would get more attention.

D 2 said...

Howard, perhaps you may test the measure of your professed love.

Would you look as kindly on a child being used in the manner that she is, if she was delivered to the UN to scold nations over, say, individual gun rights? The need for all to bow to Christ/submit to Islam/take up Buddhism? Choose whatever issue that you have a less than kindly view, whatever that would be, and see if you would be so charitable to the adults in her life.

The way I see it, if Greta was delivered to the UN to say “how dare you!” to an issue I take as bedrock, say - - -, I’d be mighty disturbed by the clear Parade / propaganda nature of it all.

Kevin said...

Boy that “bananas” tag has never been used more appropriately.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Robin Carre supported Karofsky. He also supported the negro who shot him in the back of the head.

walter said...

It must be hard on her to have world so distracted from her concerns.

Bilwick said...

Isn't that pretty much the story of Leftism--transforming "existential dread" or other neuroses into a movement?

MB said...

Sounds like she has suffered from depression (who wouldn't, with this upbringing).
Hopefully all the exciting stuff she has been a part of has cured her and now she is just keeping it up for other reasons.
Hopefully she'll move on with her life soon.

GingerBeer said...

If she ate as little as this article suggests, she'd be skeletal. The photo posted w/ The New Yorker's headline shows a pretty typical amount of baby fat for a girl her age.

Andy said...

This suggest to me that her parents don't love her. It takes a lot of love to discipline your child and this sounds like the child disciplined the parents instead. It's as if Anne Sullivan had told the Kellers that the solution for Helen was for them to gouge out their own eyes, so that they could live in her world instead of working to bring her into ours.

mockturtle said...

Yay! Buwaya is back! I was genuinely worried about him, with Spain being a hotbed for the virus. Plus, I missed his comments.

M Jordan said...

Greta Thunberg is the Marjoe Gortner of this generation.

mockturtle said...

This suggest to me that her parents don't love her. It takes a lot of love to discipline your child and this sounds like the child disciplined the parents instead. It's as if Anne Sullivan had told the Kellers that the solution for Helen was for them to gouge out their own eyes, so that they could live in her world instead of working to bring her into ours.

Good parallel, Andy. And a little like some of the hearing impaired who reject the surgical device that would let them hear, preferring to revel in their silence.

Andy said...

mockturtle

Except the deaf aren't trying to impose their culture on everyone else.

Andy said...

“Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.” G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

h said...

The New Yorker was in my youth held up as a paragon of "good writing." In the year 2020, is this good writing? "Every speech that Thunberg has given has prodded at the delusion that everything will work out in the end."

narciso said...

Is based on the delusion?

narciso said...

That was a pretty grim ending.

PresbyPoet said...

OCD is the fear disease. I facilitated a support group for parents of kids with OCD. Son had it. You start with unattached fear. It latches onto something "fearful" to make "sense". "If i step on a crack I will break my mother's back". I didn't say "sense" is true, but that it makes sense to the brain trying to cope with OCD. The free floating fear finds something to fear. The rational part of the brain tries to find a reason to fear.

That is why you have obsessions. "If I count the right # of numbers, the bad thing will not happen". "If I wash my hands"... So having a child with OCD attach their fear to something, is not irrational. The kid is not crazy. The fear is real. Having something to attach it to confirms they are "not crazy". So for Greta, attaching her fear to "CLIMATE CHANGE", makes the fear rational, not just crazy worry.

Howard Hughes had OCD. It seems a disease of smart people. Perhaps, because the smarter person can imagine more to fear. Remember, fear is non-rational. It is very real, but not subject to rational thought.

I have a fear of heights. Falls can kill you, so a good thing to fear. But, in a totally safe high place, my reptile brain still fears. No amount of intellectual info that it is perfectly safe can console it.

MAJMike said...

Greta needs to get back on her meds and back into school

gilbar said...

It latches onto something "fearful" to make "sense". "If i step on a crack I will break my mother's back". I didn't say "sense" is true, but that it makes sense to the brain

as Robert Heinlein wrote: Man is Not a rational animal... he is a Rationalizing Animal

Yancey Ward said...

"It was on the "Repo Man" soundtrack, so I've heard it a few times."

It is also heard in one of the Iron Man films in the background, but I forget which one- the first one, I think. At the time, I had heard the song in twenty years, but I recognized it instantly. I had seen "Repo Man" about a dozen times my first year in college- my friends and I were crazy for that movies.

Carter Wood said...

A diagnosis, Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex Girlfriend. RIP Adam Schlesinger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uic_3vlI5BE

Known Unknown said...

If you sing the Althouse tags on this, it kind of sounds like some of The End of the World as We Know it. by REM.

Rick said...

'What happened to our daughter can’t be explained simply by a medical acronym.'

Yes, parental incompetence needs to be spelled out.

Rick said...

rcocean said...
David Hogg, OTOH, is just a young asshole.


He learned how to get on the gravy train at an age where most kids believe in earning their own way and think cronyism is embarrassing. Amusingly he'll spend the rest of his life lecturing others on their privilege.

Bilwick said...

I have an existential dread of statism. My reason? History.

David-2 said...

@rhhardin - Ben Affleck in The Accountant wasn't pathetic until Anna Kendrick was putting the moves on him on that couch. That's when I started feeling sorry for him.

Bunkypotatohead said...

If only she had taken up the cause of infectious diseases...

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

rcocean said...

David Hogg, OTOH, is just a young asshole.

David Hogg is a Jim Acosta wannabe.

I have a step son who was diagnosed with Asperger's (and that's Asperger's with a 'p', not a 'b'). A lot of the behavior described in the article is common among Aspies, but I have found out over the years that there is a line between Asperger's driven behavior and just plain brattyness. Alot of Greta's behavior is bratty because she has been coddled by a pair of over-educate, new age, idiots.

Douglas B. Levene said...

What are we to make of people who would follow, indeed, worship, such a proudly messed-up young lady?

Blair said...

Corona virus stole her crown.

It stole her Kroners. And everyone else's too.