I’m not a tree-hugging environmentalist but I have voted for the Green Party in the past, mostly to send a message to the winning party that I and other constituents care about the environment. Sure, like most people I compost and sort my garbage and I try not to buy things with too much single use plastic packaging. I won’t shed a tear when plastic grocery bags disappear and can’t wait to have the old brown paper grocery bags return. I think I’m like the majority of people who are just trying their best to be better global citizens.
So I’m scratching my head at my unfriending a very old friend on Facebook last week. We haven’t seen each other in years as he moved out West around twenty years ago, but I do find that his posts have slowly been moving to the right and that movement has been increasing rapidly the last year. And that’s OK, I rarely pay attention to political posts on Facebook because most of it is just exaggerated hot air. But he sent me something that really offended me, and trust me, it takes a lot to offend me. I tend to have a very dark humour and can handle the most offensive memes if they’re done well. What was the post that got him unfriended?
It was a collage of Greta Thunberg headshots with Hitler moustaches.
Greta Thunberg is the 16 year old Swedish environmental activist who has been getting in the faces of the rich powerful white men who run most of the biggest polluting countries in the world. The world needs more Greta Thunbergs, not more rich old white men belittling the poster child for the generations who are going to have to live through a world that we’ve ruined.
Now if someone would just send me a red hat with “Make America Greta Again” I’d be a happy camper.
