By now you have more than likely encountered someone online ranting about 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. And, chances are, that person was a middle-to-late-aged adult with very few nice things to say about anyone.
Well now there’s a number those people can call, and better yet, it’s been endorsed by Greta herself!
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Adults everywhere have taken to the internet to share their opinions on Greta Thunberg, with few being positive.
The young climate activist has stirred up quite a maelstrom of controversy over her bold, yet truthful, claims that the world is essentially ending.
And, while a lot of people have shared their praise for Greta’s efforts, quite a few older people have been quite irritated by Greta’s penchant for explaining reality to them.
One comedian responded to the backlash against her by posting a satirical video advertising a Greta Thunberg helpline.
According to Mashable , the man behind the viral video is Australian comedian and well-known satirist Mark Humphries.
Since it was posted yesterday, the fake helpline ad has totally blown up online and currently has over 10 million views.
The infomercial claims this brand new helpline is “for adults angry at a child.”
The video features callers waxing lyrical about how awful Greta is, in the vein of many actual arguments put forward by ignorant internet trolls.
“We shouldn’t be listening to a child, we should be listening to an expert,” one man rants, but hangs up when offered to be put through to an actual expert.
Another man is seen saying, “She’s just fueling needless anxiety, she’s making the end of the world sound like the end of the world!”
Since seeing the video, Greta herself has shared her own thoughts on the spoof commercial.
It is hard to imagine being in her position. Regardless of your opinions on climate change, seeing a young girl being ripped to shreds by fully grown adults for the simple act of standing up for what she believes in is truly unsettling.
Greta approved of the video, and even shared it to her own Twitter account so all her fans (and haters) can see it, too.
“Hang in there,” she wrote . “Help is available.”
As funny as it is to see the video, and to see Greta sharing it with an apparent smile, the reality of the video’s existence is hard to stomach. We live in a world where adults are so viciously bullying a child, that it has become the necessary subject of satire.
This is not an invented scenario, it is really happening, and a 16-year-old child is making light of the abuse she is receiving from adults because that is the only thing that can be done to move forward.
However, there are still those who have taken to the comments of the video to drag Greta.
And look, the sad thing is that it is understandable that some older people would be irritated. At the end of the day they are being called out for a mistake, and no one likes being called out for a mistake they’ve made.
However, if your response is to scream abuse at a child with caps lock on, and moan about how people shouldn’t be listening to a child when she probably knows more than you, it is a sad indictment of people’s propensity for pig-headedness even in the face of world-changing consequences. We should be opening a civilized dialogue, at the very least, in regards to climate change, not bullying a child.
Comments from people also accused the left of using Greta as a political ploy.
It is mind-bogglingly insane, however, that the conversation has so quickly changed from actually being about climate change, to being about her. At the end of the day, the purpose of all of her activism was to get us talking about climate change; so, can we actually start talking about it instead of how old Greta Thunberg is, or whether you like her or not?
The above comment is a redundant and asinine point. What Thunberg is saying is that we should be taking climate change seriously. Regardless of what political points you think are being scored, climate change will affect everyone, not just the left.
Check out the full video below.
Hopefully, the satirical video will help people to realize the insanity of bullying a child.
Although, something tells me that it won’t. If I know the internet, this video will simply inspire more fury from climate-change-denying, couch-bound people who resent a young child for standing up for what they believe in instead of sticking their head in the sand.
h/t: Mashable
