Anti-Greta

Climate activist Greta Thunberg from Sweden is only 17 years old. That has not stopped conservatives from attacking her. They are attacking and bullying a child for saying something they don’t want to hear. Even the president (sic) of the United States has engaged in bullying her. She’s a child. Now get this: An energy company distributed a sexually graphic image of Greta.

X Site Energy Services from Alberta, Canada initially claimed they were not responsible for the image of a child being sexually attacked. But after it was reported that an employee of the company was handing out the image on stickers, they’ve accepted full responsibility and have apologized. In a statement, the company says, “Oh my God! Who knew that depicting a child being sexually assaulted could burn us? We totally lost our minds in this new era were being cruel and acting like depraved, troglodyte assholes amount to humor and is the new thing for conservatives and climate denialists. Maybe in this era of Trumpism, we got carried away. Also, sorry we lied about it too. Our bad. We’ll try to stop being dicks.”

OK. I made that up. That’s what their statement should have said. It actually said that it’s “committed to recovering and destroying the decals we distributed.” Note that “we” in there. The statement added, “Management (dicks) accepts full responsibility and effective immediately, has made organizational changes to reflect this.” Now, the company is discussing a code of conduct with its employees as it seeks to maintain a “safe and respectful workplace.”

Here’s a free tip for oil companies: If you have to educate your employees that distributing child pornography, with or without your company’s logo on it, is bad, then you’re probably fishing in the wrong talent pool.

Greta visited Alberta last year and Edmonton-based artist Aja Louden painted a mural of her on a wall…which was later defaced with a slur and a pro-oil message.

At least the right-wing, oil-company funded think tank, Heartland Institute, didn’t resort to child porn to attack Great. Nope. They went out and got their own Greta. She’s the anti-Greta.

Her name is Naomi Seibt and she’s from Germany, where people used to goose-step (this is about to come up again, so pay attention). Naomi isn’t just on the same side as the Heartland Institute. She’s being paid by them. The heavy thinkers at Heartland have always been anti-science because they’re a financial tool for fossil fuel companies. Think tanks are businesses set up where billionaires and companies hire them to write their dogma, thus giving the appearance it’s coming from elsewhere and has credibility (and nobody hires me to write anything). Heartland hired Naomi to produce YouTube videos and to be the anti-Greta. It’s not my viewpoint they market her as the anti-Greta. They literally describe her as the anti-Greta.

Naomi is 19 and she said her interest in activism began out of concern about a wave of migration into Germany in recent years (people who aren’t white and Christian). This may come as a big surprise to you but Naomi is white. Last weekend (this will be less of a surprise) she was speaking as CPAC (Conservative Political Asshole Committee) where the Heartland Institute sponsors a bunch of anti-science shit and Donald Trump speaks. At this asshole event, she praised a white nationalist (Nazi).

She praised Canadian alt-right commentator Stefan Molyneux and said his prior racist comments have been taken out of context.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, says Molyneux “amplifies ‘scientific racism,’ eugenics and white supremacism,” has hundreds of thousands of YouTube followers, and “has encouraged thousands of people to adopt his belief in biological determinism, social Darwinism and non-white racial inferiority.” Basically, he’s a Nazi.

I’m kinda getting tired of all these descriptions. Alt-right, white nationalist, Trump supporter, Donald Trump…let’s just call them all Nazis.

Seibt said Molyneux is an “inspiration” for her work. When asked at the conference by a reporter if that still holds true, she said, “I’ve always been skeptical of the ideas of white nationalism, of identitarianism and white identity. However, I am an empiricist, and I could not help but notice that I could have peaceful, free, easy, civilized, and safe discussions in what is essentially an all-white country.” She may as well have started her sentence, “I don’t mean to sound like a racist but…”

She said, “I am still a fan, absolutely.”

Did the Heartland Institute hire a Nazi to be their anti-Greta? Absolutely.

I’m starting to think that Naomi’s concern for immigrants entering her nation doesn’t have anything to do with economics, the climate, or science. She describes herself as an “empiricist,” which is that you can’t have knowledge without experience. That probably means she had a run-in with a brown person that freaked her out (like one cut in line at a movie and she was all like, “Oh, my God, they’re everywhere. They probably have cousins!”). The knowledge I’ve gained from my experience (and I have a few years of that stuff on Naomi) is that nations and societies are richer and much better off with diversity of cultures. I believe in melting pots and I know it’s the greatest strength and asset of our nation.

Seriously, Heartland? You couldn’t find an anti-Greta who’s not a Nazi? Germany is a very progressive nation now and while their alt-right, anti-immigrant movement (Nazis) is loud, they’re small. Yet, somehow, you found a Nazi in present-day Germany. Now, before the CPAC thing is over, you may want to let Naomi go before she goosesteps all over the place…unless you plan to goosestep with her.

Heartland knows that to confront science, then you have to lie. You have to lie a lot. They’ve been doing it for years. In fact, it’s their business model. They’re comfortable with being liars. The question is, are you comfortable with being racist? Actually, it’s probably not your first time.

To sum up, don’t hire people who will distribute child porn with your company’s logo on it (and maybe not any child porn. A conservative might be reading and that should probably be clear). Also, pay attention, Heartland…

…DON’T HIRE NAZIS!

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