Don’t like Greta Thunberg’s eco-agenda? Well then you’re an angry, triggered manchild who should feel ashamed. At least that’s the message spat with disdain by the media, and endorsed by Thunberg herself.

Thunberg’s meteoric rise to global climate change spokeswoman at the age of sixteen has been a polarizing one. On one hand, she’s a voice for disaffected youth speaking truth to power. On the other, she’s a doomsday preacher, whipping up the masses with far-fetched tales of the looming eco-apocalypse and shaming car drivers, plane travelers, and meat eaters for their sins.

Her message seems to be a personal one, as demonstrated in the excoriating speech to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit on Monday.

“How dare you...all you can talk about is money...you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is...we will not let you get away with this...change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

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Reaction has therefore been fairly mixed, not least because Thunberg calls for more radical carbon reduction goals than those recommended by UN scientists and green lawmakers. Her advice to governments to eliminate – not merely reduce – emissions would completely reshape the lives, work, travel and diet of everyone in the world, were it heeded. To many, Greta Thunberg can pry their hamburgers and internal combustion engines from their cold, dead hands.

But criticize her, and you’re Satan incarnate. “Why is Greta Thunberg so triggering for certain men?,” newspaper columnists ask, as if being critical is being “triggered,” and as if men alone are critical of Thunberg. Critics are“gender reactionaries,” “kid bashers,”“cowards,” and “morally bankrupt.”

They’re also manchildren who “get irrationally angry at a Swedish girl who wants to save the planet,” according to a satirical video from ABC News Australia. “If you’re a grown adult who needs to yell at a child for some reason,” the video recommends you call a specialized helpline before “going full caps lock in an article comment section.”

Thunberg herself tweeted a link to the video on Thursday, telling critics to “Hang in there! Help is available.”

Hang in there! Help is available. https://t.co/aenieXxVut — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) September 26, 2019

To be fair, personally attacking a child is not something that should be encouraged. But to say that her opinions, broadcast on the world stage with the backing of millions of supporters in the public, in government and in the media, are off limits is counterproductive.

Just like making fun of her appearance or her asperger’s syndrome harms the arguments of climate skeptics and Thunberg critics, labelling critics as ignorant, hate-filled incels does the climate lobby no favors. Hillary Clinton tried to shame and berate half of the American electorate into voting for her in 2016, a spectacular misstep that cost her the presidency. As it turned out, rural voters didn’t like being called a “basket of deplorables,” and Thunberg’s critics will hardly be won over by shame.

Building Thunberg up as an untouchable figurehead makes reasonable disagreement impossible. But then again, her side has no interest in disagreement. In the words of New York Times columnist Christopher Caldwell, a supporter of the climate movement, “People have had enough of balance and perspective. They want single-minded devotion to the task at hand.”

So basically, shut up and get with the program, incel.

By Graham Dockery, RT

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