So...Greta Thunberg is being manipulated?

[Marco]

@rowland

Blame the people who put her into the spotlight in the first place.

I say it’s cowardly and shameful to use children and the disabled as human shields for questionable political agendas.

As for mocking her, that was a foregone conclusion. Just putting her on front pages in the first place was the real abuse. I would have had the decency to let her have her privacy. In fact, I would have insisted on it, but that’s another flamewar.

So she’s being manipulated.

@rowland

SHE SIGNED ON. If she didn’t know what she would get, then she’s as stupid as her worst critics say she is.

So she’s not being manipulated.

Make up your mind. Looks like you’re moving the goalposts IMO.

@rowland

You can’t have it both ways. If she’s not playing with a full deck, then she’s not a super genius who knows better than the rest of us about global warming or anything else.

And you’re playing with a full deck? Sorry. If you have all the answers, then you’ll have my vote for Parliament.

@rowland

If we can’t judge people’s right to be taken seriously on that basis, why not just take policy advice from alleged winos on the street?

I don’t have a problem if you disagree with her opinion. But that’s not what you’re doing. You’re mocking uncontrollable and irrelevant aspects of a person who, disagree or not, is particularly brave to go and speak out for what she believes in. I’m a coward compared to her, as all I’ve been able to do at this moment is sit behind the protection of the computer monitor. We, as a species, once thought Women, Black people, East Asians, Hispanics, First Nations, Gay People, South Asians and Jewish People were of inferior intelligence and were unable to think for themselves. We once thought that voting might be too hard for women and it was better to exclude them because they might be overwhelmed by the choice. It’s extremely bigoted to think so today. We thought it was OK to hold other humans as possessions, and some still think that way today. They don’t think of them as human, but as animals. In many ways, we are past that. Fair game doesn’t mean you should be mocking someone’s appearance, mental health and implying they’re not fully there in lieu of a good argument of what she’s saying. Fair game is giving her ideas that are brought to the table fair and open criticism. You’re not criticising her, you’re mocking her, you’re dismissing her as less than you because she has autism, despite proof that autism or alleged foetal alcohol syndrome is not necessarily a proverbial mental death sentence. If she is coherently expressing her freedom of speech in the form of an opinion, then she has more than enough facilities to do so. You have provided us with ZERO coherent arguments about her opinion, instead choosing to try to tell everyone she’s, as you say ‘not playing with a full deck of cards’. That’s not an argument. You don’t have an argument, because if you did, you would be talking about it, sourcing your talking points and offering evidence and proof. You’ve done none of that. What you are saying is bigotry, and I’m calling it out.

And, by the way, So-called ‘Winos’ have just as much a right to freedom of speech as anyone else, and are not incapable of expressing their opinions either.