Why Do People Feel So Threatened By Greta Thunberg? The Reaction To Her Potential Kidnapping Is Unsettling

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Activists on board the aid boat to Gaza, including Greta Thunberg and Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham, will be deported today after being diverted by Israeli forces. The ship was on course to deliver supplies to Gaza with Israel warning ahead of the voyage that they would take ‘whatever measures are necessary’ to prevent it reaching its destination.

This morning, after three days at sail, Thunberg tweeted a video saying, ‘If you see this video we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel.’ Immediately, ‘Has Greta Thunberg been kidnapped?’ began to trend on Google, with breakout search for whether or not she’d been arrested or detained.

Now, Israel’s foreign ministry says the ship carrying 12 activists is being diverted to an Israeli port where ‘arrangements will be made for their return to their respective home countries.’

Amnesty International have released a statement in response, saying that Israel has shown a ‘chilling contempt’ for international law by blocking aid getting into Gaza. ‘[It has] an international obligation to ensure safe access to food and essential supplies for Gaza’s civilians,’ Secretary General Agnes Callamard says. ‘Activists would not have had to risk their lives if Israel’s allies had turned their words into forceful action to allow aid into Gaza.’

The online reaction to the news has also been concerning. Namely, the jokes made at Thunberg’s expense when reports first emerged that she could have been kidnapped. According to Google Trends, ‘Greta Thunberg meme’ is a breakout search term for the 22-year-old, with a picture of her being handed a sandwich by Israeli forces quickly going viral in the wake of the ship being intercepted.

‘I always let my hostages make selfie videos and post them on the internet too,’ one person responded to her video. ‘She caved at the first free snack,’ another said. ‘So brave! So courageous! Greta Thunberg and the Madleen Freedom Flotilla bravely shat their pants and surrendered today,’ a third added.

GB News host Andrew Pierce branded Thunberg ‘appalling’, saying ‘She’s so appalling, isn’t she?… I loved the response to the Israeli military, that it is a boat full of virtue signalling, celebrities taking selfies.’ In reporting the news of Thunberg’s potential kidnap this morning, The Sun went with the headline ‘Learn A Lesson: Greta to be made to watch Oct 7 atrocity vid after Israel stop boat stunt’.

None of the same vitriol shared above was aimed at the other 11 activists on board the ship. For example Cunningham, who has also been used to publicise the voyage, is not named in any headlines about the ship being diverted apart from one straight news story by the Irish Star.

Yet there’s a unique level of anger that’s saved for Thunberg whenever she attempts to raise awareness of various humanitarian crises. Her age, gender, appearance and neurodivergence are consistently used as an insult against her by those who seek to invalidate her opinions or diminish her cause.

In 2019, aged just 16, she was forced to respond to a viral article about her by the Herald Sun’s Andrew Bolt after he called Thunberg ‘deeply disturbed’ – referring to her Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis, as well as having OCD. ‘I have never seen a girl so young with so many mental disorders treated by so many adults as a guru,’ he wrote, calling her a ‘strange girl’.

‘I am indeed “deeply disturbed” about the fact that these hate and conspiracy campaigns are allowed to go on and on and on just because we children communicate and act on the science,’ Thunberg responded. ‘Where are the adults?’

Years later, she still faces abuse, targeted with fake photos, conspiracy theories and outright death threats. But what is it about the psyche of these largely older male trolls who feel so threatened by Thunberg? Clearly the fact she’s a young, passionate, atypical woman is something they can’t stand.

One Twitter user said it best. ‘Gotta love all the 40yr olds whose only contribution to the world is paying their HOA fees on time losing their minds on a girl who takes action for what she believes, and *wow*, thinks civilians should have food and water. Brave people they sure are.’

Whatever comes of this haunting story is certainly nothing to joke about. Rather than jumping to insult her endeavour, or to diminish the bravery Thunberg’s shown, should we not all be hoping for her safe onward journey – and the aid to get to Gaza? To see an effort of such courage turned into a joke, merely because some corners of the internet can’t stand to see a young woman with strong opinions, when so many lives are at stake is horrendous. If there were ever a time to resist making a meme of a global crisis, it’s now.