By - Syed Hasan Zaidi
Politics is a two-faced sword that can both, either make you heroes or villains.
Greta Thunberg after the initial praise, has consistently faced widespread criticism, with many dubbing her a shallow face with little or no knowledge at all, just being a pretty face and rehearsed voice for various political lobbies. Of course, she has her share of supporters, as well.
Is Greta really a dimwit mouthpiece for propagandists? This article analyzes, if Thunberg has to be taken seriously at all.
For the uninitiated Greta Thunberg, first got her 15-minutes of fame as a teenager in 2018; ever-since, her legacy is mixed.
She has faced widespread criticism for several aspects including - that she uses high-pitched dramatics to connect with people at large, example her speech, "you have stolen my dreams and my childhood", at the UN. Critics contend that her "yelling" and scolding of political leaders attract only the opponents of those leaders rather than audience at large. Another argument is her, superficial knowledge of much deeper issues, like a policy-maker highlighted that the simplistic solutions she offers to complex global problems are not solutions, rather just impractical solutions that can't be effectively executed.
As per reports, critics, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, have suggested she lacks the experience to propose real-world solutions. This criticism often includes the allegation that she is a puppet of her parents and other adults. This statement is augmented by the fact that a huge section of Swedes believe that Thunberg's movement is more like a cult or religion driven by emotion and fear than a rational, scientific movement.
For her part, Thunberg has consistently framed herself as a messenger for climate science, stating that the criticism stems from her opponents' discomfort with the scientific consensus and the inconvenient truths she presents.
However, a growing view across the world is that while reportedly, Thunberg claims and has positioned both her movement and herself as non-partisan, her critics argue that her campaign implicitly aligns with left-wing anti-capitalist politics. Her actions in the recent past bear a striking testimony to this statement. Her critics say that the fact that Thunberg has extended her activism beyond climate change to politics with her comments on various issues that she doesn't even know in entirety, show a bigger design - that has diminished, almost to oblivion, her activism on environmental work - that gave her more than 15-minutes of her fame.