[First published 25 November 2019.]
Greta Thunberg, a child who is currently trotting around the world in a persona based on the Swedish cartoon character “Pippi Longstocking”, is getting enormous media exposure for being used as a conduit for loony ideas about the possibility of an imminent “mass extinction” similar to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. I actually know where these ideas come from, but this is not the time and place to discuss that.
Even if it weren’t for her art manager father and her former Eurovision song contestant mother who cashed in on her own recognition to “author” a heavily marketed Swedish bestselling book about “the environment”, Greta Thunberg is bound to get a big book contract soon. One imagines that meetings have been held in New York on that very matter. Certainly book and talent agents in that city will admire how the image has been built.
But it is not just that this ludicrous figure talks a bucketful of utter excrement about the environment and natural history.
It is also that she is a child who has a known history of mental illness. One wonders what effect this revolting cartoon role might have on her other than bringing her a big pile of money.
Politicians in numerous countries have associated themselves with her act, usually wearing big grins on their cynical faces as if they are doing something so people-helpy. In fact they are scraping the bottom of the barrel and they appear to have no shame about it.
Would those who eagerly consume this person’s performance all rush out and get vaccinated or microchipped if a boy dressed as Mickey Mouse told them to?