I’ve Been Kidnapped! – HotAir

Greta Thunberg has been “kidnapped,” and she is making a plea for Liam Neeson to save her from the clutches of the mean Israelis. 





Well, not Liam Neeson exactly–that would be too much like the Israeli soldiers trying to free the Israeli hostages that Greta and her companions don’t care a whit about. 

Greta and company claim, absurdly, that they are on a rescue mission, bringing aid to starving Gazans on their relatively small sailboat. Given the size of the boat, the number of passengers who are crammed into it, and the fact that they are taking their time reaching Gaza, they will be delivering not more than a few bags of rice and flour. As the Israelis and Americans deliver thousands of trucks of food and supplies to Gaza civilians, Greta is delivering a few pounds and filming TikTok videos beamed over Starlink to the world.

In other words, this is a PR stunt, and the left loves PR stunts more than anything.

For the Left, everything is performative. Any action they take is aimed at creating and sustaining a narrative, even if they also strive to achieve other objectives. Their goal is to create images and feelings that distract from the messy realities of the world. 





By now, we are all familiar with Greta Thunberg and her rise to prominence. Her one notable achievement before bursting onto the world stage was refusing to attend school. This one act of defiance was enough to turn her into a Joan of Arc figure for the left, not because anybody admired her for being a spoiled brat, but because the left believed that children are an effective propaganda tool. 

In other words, Greta is nothing but a symbol. She has never accomplished a thing of note, yet every camera is turned on her, and every left-wing activist and politician acts as if she is the conscience of the world. She is Joan of Arc, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela all rolled up into the body of a child. 

Rational people look at this and wonder, “Why should I care what a young Swedish girl thinks about…anything?” And they would be right to wonder because the idea that we should care is insane.”

But the point is to short-circuit rationality–to generate feelings, and it apparently works. We wouldn’t be subjected to endless stories about Greta Thunberg and her mission of mercy unless this sort of thing works. 





The problem isn’t Greta–there are countless emotionally incontinent children. 

It’s the fact that so many people are susceptible to the Narrative™, and that our intellectual and political leaders have made it their mission to cultivate irrationality for their political purposes. 

For liberalism to work, people have to use their rational faculties. That is why liberal societies have, from their very inception, promoted education. Self-government doesn’t work well if people can just be led around by their noses. 

If you have ever wondered why our public schools churn out students who are ever more poorly educated and who are being indoctrinated into becoming angry activists, this is the reason why. The whole point is to undermine the capacity for independent thought and rational calculation. 

During COVID, the spell was broken for many people, but for some people–the most “educated,” in fact–the spell was reinforced. Appeals to their emotions–fear and hatred, in particular–turned them into compliant followers, and that spell has yet to be broken. 

Look at who celebrates Greta–do you know any working-class people who are just trying to get along in the world and live a better life who care what Greta thinks? 





I don’t. It is the “educated” who should be called the “indoctrinated,” who do. Their frontal cortices seem atrophied. 

Why else would anyone care what Greta thinks? 

Greta, the Just Stop Oil people, Pallywood, and all the other performers exist to move people and make them susceptible to being led. The point is to short-circuit reason. 

What’s scary is that it works. 







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