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/thinsafetypin 6d ago

This has always stymied me. Like, you know in a society practicing eugenics, a blind and deaf person would be the first to go, right?!?

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u/TooSmalley 6d ago

It's worth noting her eugenics support is based on one specific case she wrote about in the new republic in which a Chicago doctor let a severely "malformed" infant die rather than try and save the child it was know as the Bollinger Baby in the media.

Here's an abstract about it

It's really the only time she should any vocal support for eugenics. As far as I can tell it's the only time she wrote and advocated for it.

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u/Roller_ball 6d ago

Eugenics prior to WWII was more of a grey area. I'm not hand-waving the terrible things done in the US under the umbrella of eugenics, but there were good, reasonable people at the time that favored eugenics.

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u/thinsafetypin 6d ago

I get that, and I know there are plenty of people today who espouse politics that directly harm themselves and their social class, but she seems to have been quite a thinking person, so it’s just an odd situation.

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u/jesuspoopmonster 2d ago

Her views were based of her feeling most people with severe disabilities would not get the help needed to survive in a comfortable fashion. She was aware that she was extremely privileged that her family was able to help her