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Greta Thunberg Blasted for the Most 'I Hate Capitalism Unless It Benefits Me' Tweet of All Time - But Then It Gets Worse

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In her new book on the “climate crisis,” Greta Thunberg — the horror-movie Pippi Longstocking ventriloquist doll that simply won’t. go. away. — says that relying on capitalism and market economics to stop climate change is a “terrible idea.”

“Leaving capitalist consumerism and market economics as the dominant stewards of the only known civilization in the universe will most likely seem, in retrospect, to have been a terrible idea,” Thunberg (or a competent ghostwriter, whatever the case may be) wrote in “The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions,” which features 105 essays on how we’re all doomed unless the rich embrace austerity, according to MarketWatch.

“If you are one of the 19 million U.S. citizens or the 4 million citizens of China who belong to the [wealthiest] top 1 percent — along with everyone else who has a net worth of $1,055,337 or more — then hope is perhaps not what you need the most. At least not from an objective perspective,” Thunberg wrote.

And you can get this piece of rich, white, Prius-driver self-flagellation for the low, low price of $25.99 in hardcover or $15.99 on Kindle at Amazon!

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Which raises a certain question, best put by UFC fighter, former Special Forces member and conservative pundit Tim Kennedy: “Is this the most ‘I hate capitalism unless it benefits me’ tweet of all time?”

Now, let’s be fair — Thunberg makes it clear she “will not earn money from this book as my copyright belongs to the Greta Thunberg Foundation, so all royalties go to charity.”

Do you think Greta Thunberg has been used to push an agenda?

That said, Thunberg’s charities are pretty much used to amplify her message and increase her visibility — so while pure profit motive in the traditional monetary sense might not necessarily apply here, it’d be foolish to say she isn’t accruing other forms of abstract capital from this book.

Furthermore, the whole “using the system to destroy the system” argument doesn’t hold water here. For instance, why release the book in paper form at all?

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And, indeed, there’s another question: How exactly are these books getting to their destination?

But, author John Hawkins may have raised the best point: What’s more capitalist than selling a book with Greta Thunberg’s name on it that contains almost no content by Thunberg herself?

Thunberg is basically advertising a collection of essays where she had minimal authorial input. What could be more capitalistic than that? I mean, aside from buying it on Amazon.

Perhaps the arrant hypocrisy is for the best, however, inasmuch as it serves as an object lesson. In a piece for Politico Europe when Thunberg’s tome was published on the Continent last year, Michael Bröning argued that Greta’s “open break with the capitalist system,” while popular with millennials, wouldn’t accomplish anything.

“Capitalism doesn’t have a foundational document or a philosophical magnum opus enshrining its confessions of faith. Rather, it’s a set of historically evolved practices including, but not limited to, competition, growth, private initiative, individual choice and property rights,” he wrote.

“Abandoning these principles and replacing them with degrowth, the redistribution of diminishing wealth, and comprehensive government control to manage a permanent state of emergency would be guaranteed to make a dire situation worse and undermine civil liberties. Competition would be replaced with unprecedented battles for resource allocation — not to mention, any attempt at implementing such changes by way of democracy would be unlikely to survive electoral challenges, regardless of efforts to celebrate the alleged virtues of enlightened post-materialism.”

Bröning is correct — and still manages to miss the point. He talks about “degrowth,” “unprecedented battles for resource allocation,” a “permanent state of emergency” and the undermining of civil liberties as if these are things the Greta Thunbergs of the world wish to avoid. From all available evidence, however, the loudest voices in the room embrace these eventualities — just so long as it doesn’t affect them, their visibility, or the distribution of their latest book.

Remember, only $25.99 in hardcover at Amazon. Order now to save the planet and destroy capitalism.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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