I agree with my friend Stephen Green: What the left is doing to Greta Thunberg is gross. Even if you agree with her vituperative, apocalyptic predictions about the weather killing us all, even if you believe she believes it, anyone with a conscience can’t watch her go on like this without feeling bad that she’s being exploited. It’s shabby and cruel. Fortunately for leftists, they’re unburdened by anything as politically inconvenient as a conscience. They’re more than happy to use a frightened child with Asperger’s syndrome as a human shield, and any feelings of guilt they might experience can be projected onto anybody who criticizes them. We’re all supposed to listen to her and do what she says, and we’re not supposed to think about any of it. Anything other than joyous applause is a hate crime.

But I can remember a time when our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters weren’t so concerned with the welfare of a child. It was just a few months ago. Remember Nick Sandmann?

Last January, this young man went on a class trip to D.C. and ended up becoming an object of hate for the entire left. They all convinced themselves this kid was emblematic of everything they hate about America under President Trump, and they let him have it. All because he wore a MAGA hat while smiling awkwardly at a Native American man who was banging a drum in his face.

Honest question. Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s? pic.twitter.com/jolQ7BZQPD — Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) January 20, 2019

Opinion | Noah Berlatsky: Covington Catholic kid Nick Sandmann said he was an silent bystander. But his MAGA hat spoke for him. https://t.co/Nly1Xl0niR – @NBCNewsTHINK — NBC News (@NBCNews) January 23, 2019

They actually expected him to apologize just for standing there:

“As far as standing there, I had every right to do so. My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him. I’d like to talk to him…But I can’t say that I’m sorry for listening to him and standing there.” Nick Sandmann on if he owes anyone an apology pic.twitter.com/iiVqPtltjf — TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 23, 2019

But then it turned out Sandmann didn’t do anything:

So what did all those fine journalists do when they were proven wrong? Nothing. No correction, no apology. They just pretended it never happened. They moved right along and sought out another target to mindlessly destroy, like a swarm of locusts.

And unlike the left’s treatment of Thunberg, nobody on the right was pushing Sandmann as a representative of their cause. The left sought him out. The left wanted to destroy him just for wearing the wrong hat.

I don’t think Thunberg is right about a looming climate apocalypse. I reserve the right to disagree, and I won’t be emotionally manipulated into shutting up. But I don’t blame her for being wrong. Lots of teenagers are wrong about lots of things, and I’m not expected to have an opinion about it. I blame the people who are exploiting her. They don’t have her best interests at heart, and they’ll abandon her the minute she’s no longer helpful to their agenda.

They didn’t care about Nick Sandmann, and they don’t care about Greta Thunberg. They don’t care about anybody as an individual. We’re all just pawns to them. If we can’t or won’t do what they demand, they have no use for us.

No wonder they’re always so angry.