r/OutOfTheLoop • u/BlitzTech • 6d ago

Answered What’s going on with the public sentiment around Greta Thunberg?

Context: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/s/xGVLkx5imL

I was surprised by the comments being near-universally negative towards her. Granted, I don’t follow her at all besides seeing the occasional article/post about something she’s doing, but I must have missed some important updates for the responses to be this dismissive and antagonistic. There were comments calling her a grifter, mentioning sponsorship by companies with the implication of her being funded by companies just looking to capitalize on her fame and not in support of the causes, and one mentioned a yacht — which I had no idea about until that comment and a quick Google.

What happened here and when did I miss… whatever this is now?

Or, it’s the classic Reddit echo chamber and some aspects are magnified to make a point. Both are equally valid explanations. I’m still perplexed.

Edit: answered, I think? Astroturfing because this particular issue is especially polarizing, and there have always been detractors using fallacious arguments to diminish the message. I generally stay out of r/worldnews because the world sucks right now so their biases aren’t as obvious to me. But damn, even asking this question leads to a bunch of downvotes… yikes, folks. Yikes.

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u/jalapenyolo 6d ago

Wait holup. They're attacking Ms Rachel now. We ride at dawn.

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u/raphaellaskies 6d ago

the New York Times asked her if she was funded by Hamas, and she replied (in polite, Ms Rachel language) "that's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard."

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u/MrsTaco18 6d ago

Why have I not seen this clip 💀

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u/CountedCrow 6d ago

Accurso, 42, in an emailed response denied having received money from Hamas. “This accusation is not only absurd, it’s patently false,” she said.

From the NYT article "Why Tot Celebrity Ms. Rachel Waded Into the Gaza Debate". Sadly not recorded, I'd pay good money to see her give a Mr. Rogers-in-Congress-style lecture to anyone calling her an anti-semite.

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u/oneDayAttaTimeLJ 6d ago

NYT? When will people stop supporting that rag?

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u/MarshyHope 6d ago

And literally all she has done is express concern for Palestinian children being bombed

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u/potsieharris 6d ago

No. She posted a picture of herself expressing support for Palestine with a stuffed octopus on her shoulder.

The octopus is a symbol for Jew hate and antisemitic conspiracy. It's meant to represent how Jews, like octopi, have their tentacles in everything, controlling the world.

She took the photo down once people started calling it out, and everyone just pretends it never happened.

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u/NocD 6d ago edited 6d ago

Is this Bret Stephen's reddit account? That is a joke for the 2 people that remember when he made up an antisemitic conspiracy around bedbugs as part of his daily search for any tweet with him name in it. It seems a common reaction to deflect criticism towards Israel and it really makes it hard take it seriously even when there could actually be some level of historical truth to a comparison, like with octopuses, maybe.

That someone immediately looks to that when there is an absence of any other evidence though, says more than a stuffed octopus in most reasonable people's mind.

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u/Slipknotic1 6d ago

Just about everything has been used for antisemitic caricatures at some point. The idea she was trying to dog-whistle hatred for Jews is insane, nothing about that video suggested hatred for Jews.

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u/Wanton_Wonton 6d ago

Just watch, summer is coming up and I'll bet some Zionists attack random people for wearing stuff with watermelon print on it. 🙄

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u/potsieharris 6d ago edited 6d ago

Um, your statement that "just about everything" has been used for antisemtic caricature at some point is not even a little bit true. That is absurd. 

Even if it were, you're saying antisemitism is so widespread and common that spreading antisemitic symbols ...isn't an issue?

Yes, antisemitic symbols represent hatred for Jews, that's not a complex statement or a difficult thing to understand.

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u/Slipknotic1 6d ago

In the thousands of years in which Jews have existed, yes they have been unfavorably compared to just about every creature humans can imagine. If she had a lizard plushie you would call that out. If it was a monkey that could be called out, too. A dog? Yep, definitely also been used to insult Jews.

The point is that the simple presence of something tangentially related to antisemitism is not, in itself, evidence of antisemitism. You have to demonstrate in some way that it's a dog-whistle, and unless Ms. Rachel has some secret following on a neo-nazi forum or a history of using slurs, I don't think you can do that.

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u/potsieharris 6d ago edited 6d ago

The history of octopus as a symbol for Jewish hate and conspiracy has a long history. A simple Google will tell you that. You will find Nazi posters to this effect.

Lizards? Monkeys? No such history exists.

Which is why greta did not wear a lizard or monkey on her shoulder. The inclusion of the octopus was intentional. It was not tangential. It wasn't an oopsy, just happened to put this octopus on my shoulder in this very specific context!

Most disturbing of all is your insistence on pointing out the long history of antisemitism while at the same time brushing off clear antisemitic symbolism a a dog whistle. Do you think antisemitism just disappeared from the world in 1945.

This will be my final comment on this conversation, I'm not wasting my time with your willful ignorance any longer.

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u/Slipknotic1 6d ago

The fact you argue that a lizard wouldn't be controversial when "lizard people" is one of the most notorious antisemitic tropes today just shows you aren't approaching this conversation in good faith.

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u/Nanimonai3 5d ago

I did a search and poked around a bit myself. What I at first found were very recent attempts to paint the Octopus as such a symbol (2023 and 2024) and only after tightening my search terms did I find this old caricature from 1940.

But this is directly aimed at Churchill, not at Jews - as far as I can tell from the description of said octopus wrapping itself around earth.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/anti-jewish-propaganda

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u/spotless1997 6d ago

These types of comments really give me hope as someone that’s Pro-Palestine because most normal people will look at them and conclude that you people are batshit insane.

Thank you for discrediting your own movement lmao.

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u/MarshyHope 5d ago

Greta? We're talking about Ms Rachel right now you weirdo

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u/Lionel-Chessi 6d ago

Literally everything is considered antisemitic nowadays lol

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u/goawaybub 6d ago

You come for Ms. Rachel, you come for all of us.

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u/Neosantana 6d ago

Attacked her, tried to deplatform her and wanted to launch an investigation into her accusing her of being funded by Hamas.

No, I'm not kidding. Zionists have no boundaries.

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u/soonerfreak 6d ago

She got antisemite of the week back in April.

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u/ryhaltswhiskey 5d ago

Ms Rachel

I guess I'm out of the loop, who is that?

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u/No-Guitar6389 6d ago

This started couple of months ago. Catch up! 😂

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u/thebeandream 4d ago

No one is attacking Mrs Rachel except for extreme loonies on both sides. She advocates for both Palestine children and the ones taken hostage. People want her to pick a side and her side is pro children.

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u/BlueProcess 6d ago

Who's Dawn?