Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, immortalized a phrase we can always count on when dealing with the left around the world. As a former mayor of Chicago, he had experience in deception and political maneuvering.
“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that: it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Rahm Emanuel
After Emanuel’s time in the White House ended, his statement and mantra have lived on in the hearts, minds, and actions of the political left. Liberals know that children’s pliability and gullibility can be valuable in pursuing their goals. Big money and political influence are tied to almost any crisis, manufactured or real.
The Making of an Advocate
On September 23, 2019, Swedish-born Greta Thunberg debuted as a worldwide spokesperson for climate change. She sat and castigated the UN audience for their lack of concern for the end of the world. She went on to explain how her generation was doomed to a horrible death if immediate action were not taken to slow the world’s warming.
"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!”
Being the UN, the UN delegates stood, gave her thunderous applause, and vowed to do better. After all, as the world’s most remarkable freeloading assemblage, how could they do any less? The UN has sponged off Western nations for decades and ignored its obligations. For most, it was another chance to point the finger at the developed countries and scream discrimination. Thunberg played right into their narrative and became the poster child for climate activism.
Maybe the UN was looking for climate leadership, but it is more likely that they were looking for the next free lunch. Clapping for Greta after she called them names seemed like the way to get some fancy hors d’oeuvres. Greta, being young, mistakenly thought the UN was there to get something done. However, she was right about one thing: she should not have been there. Sixteen-year-old children barely know where the exit door is, let alone how to change the world. They know how to bankrupt the world, not save it.
But the UN was not alone. Politicians worldwide fell in line to look relevant and gather votes from the next generation of voters. After all, billions, in some cases trillions, were to be doled out and controlled. Politicians love giving out our money, and climate change is the perfect ruse. Corporate giants also fell like dominoes under boardroom, governmental, and Wall Street threats. The invention of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores further enhanced the false credibility of these narratives. However, stock prices can rise and fall on nebulous and unprovable concepts, so most fell in line.
A Crisis Running out of Steam
But what do you do when the crisis you manufactured runs out of steam? Even worse, where is your relevance when your identity is tied to a crisis that the public has moved on from? Well, you progress to blocking streets, defacing paintings, and storefronts, and best of all, supergluing yourself to various roads, walls, and buildings. Even this seems to be a dying stunt and only relevant in Europe. Try gluing yourself to a wall in China, North Korea, or Russia. They will likely leave you there until you are skeletonized. Superglue will become the modern-day gibbet unless these deranged climate pirates get themselves under control.
Person of the Year
As the Time Person of the Year for 2019, you have responsibilities. You join some great notable personalities, but the list also includes Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Putin, and Richard Nixon. It is not clear that when you win, your legacy will bring laudatory praise for all time. The award is often for recognition, influence, and activity, not achievement. In Greta’s case, this is especially true since she chose a cause that cannot be measured, or if measured, the success or failure is beyond our lifetime.
You can manufacture or join an existing crisis. Still, the danger in this strategy is that you expose yourself as a professional protester, not a person with genuine concern for a cause. Greta Thunberg is not a mythical historical figure like Mahatma Gandhi or Joan of Arc. Nor is she someone with a long list of technical successes like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. She appears to be a sixteen-year-old child who was manipulated into becoming a spokesperson for the “climate crisis” and learned the business of crisis as a profession. She may have received the Time award, but let’s get serious.
President Trump’s rejection of most, if not all, of the climate agenda places people like Thunberg in a position of political irrelevance. She and her army of protesters found themselves suddenly in a political never-never land where no pretend celebrity wants to be for long. Like Hollywood luminaries, these minions are only relevant if they are in the news. Their egos feed off adoration and self-aggrandizement. Like Hollywood actors and actresses, they cannot stand to be ignored, so they looked for a new cause.
Voters have also awakened to the truth: children have no “skin in the game.” They are neither taxpayers nor wage earners. They are ideologues with no real experience. With the help of politicians and the UN, children have now manipulated nations into financial ruin to drive an unattainable agenda.
Fortunate But Unfortunate
Where to get a new cause? For Thunberg and her army of devotees, a new crisis conveniently emerged as her climate agenda began to deliquesce. Campus protests over Israeli actions to protect their country seemed like a good place to go. After all, college students were protesting all over the world about Israeli actions, no matter how justified. We all know how intelligent and well-informed college students are today. And we all know that our colleges and universities lean so far left that there is no room for a balanced discussion or opinion.
The challenge for Greta and her followers is that if you choose the wrong cause, you can tarnish all your efforts and quickly become labeled irrelevant. A Swedish woman dressed in a Palestinian hijab and chanting “From the river to the sea” screams hypocrisy, not relevance. It is as credible as the “LGBTQ++ for Palestine” or “Fatties for Palestine.”
“For whatever reason, Ms. Thunberg aligned herself with the intersectionality that claims somehow that there can be no moving forward environmentally without Palestinian independence, possibly at the expense of the Jewish state. As the Palestinians have no real record of environmental stewardship, it was difficult to understand the connection.”
The connection between Palestine and the “Climate Crisis” is irrelevant. The profession of oppression is big business. People who connect imaginary dots between LGBTQ++ rights and filming murders for social media are unhinged from any form of reality.
If You See Me Getting Smaller, I’m Leavin’
Nothing is more appropriate to sum up the relevance of the climate movement and its prophets than the old Waylon Jennings song, If You See Me Getting Smaller.
If you see me gettin’ smaller, I’m leavin’
Don’t be grieving
Just got to get away from here
If you see me gettin’ smaller, don’t worry
I’m in no hurry
I’ve got the right to disappear
Waylon Jennings
Thus, Greta Thunberg may have a short career. Lacking relevance in a post-climate change world and mistakenly grabbing the mantra of Free Palestine, she may have condemned herself to the ash heap of history.
References and Further Reading
Fatties for Palestine’: Humiliating new low for unhinged pro-Palestine activists, By Sky News Australia, YouTube.com, youtube.com, June 5, 2024.
Greta Thunberg speaks at pro-Palestinian rally in Milan: “You cannot be neutral in a genocide”, By Global News, YouTube.com, youtube.com, October 11, 2024.
How Jane Fonda Became The Most-Hated Woman Among Vietnam Veterans, By Ward Carroll, We Are The Mighty, wearethemighty.com, October 21, 2o2o.
If You See Me Getting Smaller, By Waylon Jennings, Genius, genius.com, April 1, 1977.
The Contradictions of ‘Queers for Palestine’, By Billy Binion, Reason: Free Minds and Free Markets, reason.com, October 27, 2023.
The Sad Tragedy Of Greta Thunberg, By Daniel Markind, Forbes, forbes.com, June 20, 2024.
The Sudden But Well-Deserved Fall of Rahm Emanuel, By The Rainbow, The Nigerian Voice, thenigerianvoice.com, January 2, 2016.
TIME’s Editor-in-chief on why Greta Thunberg is the Person of the Year, By Edward Felsenthal, Time, time.com, ~January 2020.
Transcript: Greta Thunberg’s Speech At The U.N. Climate Action Summit, By NPR Staff, NPR, npr.org, September 23. 2019.
