The level of based she is on would suggest otherwise, but I appreciate the message.
Check out how she smiled when he said it. She knows she’s doing something special, and she appreciates when people notice. She is only human, it is okay to feel proud when you do something like this. She is just trying hard to also frame things to keep the focus on the Palestinian people instead of being self indulgent about it, which I think is as it should be.
We are not heroes. We are doing the bare minimum
What an immensely privileged thing to say.
I wish Greta and the cause of Palestinian liberation the best, but she is tone-deaf in consistently saying such things.
You could easily interpret it as “We are doing the bare minimum [relative to our position and capacity for action]”.
I get your instinct is to be iconoclastic, but this is just an objectively bullshit take.
I disagree that it’s somehow a bullshit take.
Greta is young. Young people are wonderfully idealistic. I don’t conaider myself young anymore, but I haven’t gotten rid of the ideals I have. However, holding them and standing up to principles has made my life unnecessarily fucked.
So while I want to agree with Greta, it feels like she’s saying I’m morally to blame for not being on a flotilla in the Mediterranean. If someone pays for my travel and gives me a credit card to use for expenses I’d go there myself, right now.
But as things are, there’s no way for me to engage on the same level as a world famous activist. So her saying she’s doing the “bare mimimum” feels like it’s throwing a little bit of (unintended) shade for those of us with less resources.
Greta herself has a net worth around $100 000 and her parents are modest millionaires. (Like combined their net value is somewhere in single millions.)
So yeah, it’s not objectively bullshit to call her out on a little bit of a privileged take. Like I wouldn’t pick up on that in a conversation, but we’re not having a conversation, we’re on Lemmy.
So I stand behind it being slightly privileged of a take due to her being quite idealistic. Nothing wrong in that level of idealism, and I don’t want to quenchcoal her at all, but even if she isn’t an out-of-touch rich person (yet at least), it can feel a bit as if she’s blaming everyone else for not having the same level of devotion. I think I do, though. But she’s there and I’m not and I can’t deny that. But if someone pays for my trip I’ll go. All the way to the same IDF holding if necessary.
Yeah, like I said - it’s tone-deaf. That’s all I’m saying. It is a pattern, and it is not ideal, but if I found ‘not ideal’ was a reason to not support people doing legitimate good in the world, I would be an even shittier person than I already am.
I legitimately wish her the best, and have been in support of her actions for a long time. But the immediate group-think of defending every word out of her mouth is not helpful - rhetoric has influence, and it’s overwhelmingly not the politically involved like us who need to be convinced by the message, but ordinary, everyday, struggling people who are unlikely to respond well to being chided for not dropping the entirety of their lives to do the ‘bare minimum’. It is a privileged thing to say, and it unfortunately will be seen as such by many who need to hear the importance of opposing the genocide in Palestine and the abuses of the Israeli government.
Honestly, if it wasn’t the title, I probably wouldn’t have picked up on it. What we choose to amplify and emphasize as those who are involved in spreading the message is also part of rhetoric. And also honestly, if I wasn’t in a place as left-wing as the Fediverse, I probably wouldn’t have brought it up on my own - audience matters.
On the flip side, imagine yourself being praised worldwide as a hero, feeling somewhat uncomfortable about it, and wanting to make sure attention is not derailed from the cause. What are you supposed to say?
“I’m fully aware I’m the bravest person on earth, but that’s not the point here”?
If she is in a privileged position it’s more than anything the privileged position of moral authority, and it can be a double edged sword. I think she’s manageing well.
Again, that it is a pattern in her rhetoric is part of the concern - and that it is a common issue with many other middle-class leftist activists suggests that it is not some extreme abnormality that should be just ignored.
And again, like I said, Greta Thunberg is doing legitimate good in the world, and a hell of a lot more than I probably would manage in her position.
It is certainly a double-edged sword that she has found herself wielding, and a broad condemnation for being imperfect would be unfair, especially as she’s still at college age - fuck, the number of unfortunate implications in my own words at that age would shame me, not for malice, but simply for lack of exposure to why they had shitty implications. At the same time, the refusal of many left-wing audiences to acknowledge problems with this style of rhetoric, and with anything Greta has said or done in particular, is a problem. Speaking from a position of privilege to a largely unprivileged audience is a very delicate position, and online communities trying to paper over any raised eyebrows with “You’re just jealous” is the kind of lunacy results in echo chambers and a detachment from the actual conditions and opinions of the general population, which is key to rational and effective political action.
This isn’t the first time she’s made such comments, and she has explicitly directed them at the mass of ordinary people before.
What an immensely privileged thing to say.
What an immensely poor take.
She is overtly stating that much more needs to be done.
How is a call to do more privilege?
How is putting your ass on the line against the IDF twice privilege?
As with most Greta Thunberg critics, you’re just nonplussed that she’s accomplished more for humanity in her short life, than you ever will for the remainder of yours.
What an immensely poor take.
She is overtly stating that much more needs to be done.
She pretty consistently excoriates the great mass of people for not doing what she’s doing, which, again, she consistently characterizes as the bare minimum or in like terms.
For some reason, it’s common for leftists to recognize that most workers are struggling simply to survive under capitalism, until their political topic du jour comes up.
How is a call to do more privilege?
Do you…
… do you really not understand how the capacity to do more is, itself, reflective of privilege?
How is putting your ass on the line against the IDF twice privilege?
… considering that most people don’t have the money, time, or connections to join a flotilla going to another country in protest of genocide?
It’s… pretty inherently the product of privilege. Using that privilege for a good cause is commendable - characterizing it as the only moral form of existence, not so much.
As with most Greta Thunberg critics, you’re just nonplussed that she’s accomplished more for humanity in her short life, than you ever will for the remainder of yours.
I mean, other than her being immensely more privileged than I am, I probably wouldn’t accomplish as much as she has in her life even if I had her privilege.
That’s not the same as unconditionally praising every word out of her mouth as God’s own wisdom.
To be honest, I tried reading your retort, but it just makes me think less of you.
You seem to want to shit on her for not coming from poverty.
She risks her life, you don’t. You bitch about it.
You’re unimpressive, and you sound petty, but in a deliberate and targeted way.
Almost contrived.
You seem to want to shit on her for not coming from poverty.
… no?
I’m pointing out that characterizing a life of political activism - and it is certainly dedicating her life to it - as the bare minimum of morality is an extremely tone-deaf statement. I don’t really know how much clearer I can phrase this.
This is not, furthermore, a one-off statement, but consistently tone-deaf rhetoric of this sort she has used - a style of rhetoric which, as mentioned, is common amongst some other leftists who seem capable of understanding that the core idea is absurd until their current political crisis du jour comes up.
She risks her life, you don’t. You bitch about it.
What.
So it’s not so much that she’s risking her life, using herself as a human shield in hopes of delivering aid, or helping to undermine Israel’s propaganda in the face of crimes against humanity…
It’s her style that you’re fixated on.
You’re just disappointing as a human.
This is just his known track record. If you want to help someone, he calls you a fascist/tankie/whatever insult it is this time, and then swear him posting Rome memes is the real way of helping people.
Who’s tone deaf? I can’t hear you?
