Greta Thunberg has rejected accolades for her activism, saying awards are not what the environmental movement needs.
But on Wednesday, the Swedish 16-year-old, who has mobilized millions of people to fight climate change and condemned leaders’ inaction, was awarded the honor of Time’s Person of the Year – the magazine’s youngest ever.
“She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement,” Time Editor in Chief Edward Felsenthal said on NBC’s “Today” show.
Thunberg represents a broader phenomenon of young people pushing for change, Felsenthal said, pointing to the Parkland, Florida, high school students who became a leading voice on gun control as well as another finalist for 2019 Person of the Year, the Hong Kong protesters who have spent months in the streets urging democratic reform.
Time’s other finalists were three people at the center of the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump: The president himself, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint helped set the impeachment inquiry in motion.
Thunberg – who scolded a United Nations assembly of the powerful in the fall, declaring “How dare you” – was named Person of the Year while she was giving another speech at a U.N. climate summit in Madrid.
This time, she did not reject the accolade, but shared credit with “climate activists everywhere.”
Time’s Person of the Year distinction is not necessarily a positive award. Rather, it is one that recognizes “the man, woman, group or concept that has had the most influence on the world during the previous 12 months.” Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, for instance, was named Time’s Man of the Year in 1938.
Felsenthal wrote that Time’s choice of Thunberg “says as much about the moment as it does about her,” describing the Person of the Year tradition as springing from a historical lens that emphasizes people at the top of major organizations and “at home in the corridors of power.”
“But in this moment when so many traditional institutions seem to be failing us, amid staggering inequality and social upheaval and political paralysis, we are seeing new kinds of influence take hold,” he said.
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Hannah Knowles
{Matzav.com}
Why is it “pathetic”? AT least there is a teenager somewhere in the world who is serious and is not wrapped up in herself.
There is a lot of gaava involved.
She posted for that picture on the cover. She agreed to it.
The big brats are sponsoring and manipulating the little brats.
Please change the headline. You can disagree all you want, but I think a 16 year old who is trying to make a difference deserves respect, no matter how misguided you think she is. I wish frum news outlets would change to a more professional tone rather than the tabloid sensationalism they seem to prefer. Aren’t we better than this?
Agreed, 100%
Exactly my thoughts – thanks for saving me the typing 🙂
They said it is a pathetic choice not that she is pathetic, although I think she is pathetic, she has ZERO emotional control.
Her holier than thou attitude is super annoying. Any kid that doesn’t GO to school, has parents that will support traveling, by boat for weeks or months on end could travel and complain, give dirty looks and bitch at people.
I believe that she is just a mouth piece for her obnoxious activist parents, but I have been told that that is not true, that Gretta has pushed them to do this, that they don’t want to travel this way and such, so are they just indulging a spoiled brat or is it what I think, that they are pushing and brainwashing her
If Time Magazine was Hitler’s choice as “the person of the year” (I believe) in 1938, why not someone working for the Global Warming / Climate Change hoax? Didn’t Obama receive a Nobel Prize for being a good puppet of the CIA and Deep State?
Not only was Hitler ym”sh Time’s choice in 1938, Stalin was their choice twice!!!
A young woman who takes things seriously, tries to do something to make a difference in this world and is not spending her days glued to an iphone seeing how many “friends” she has on Facebook; why is this choice pathetic?
Well put.
She has 3 million Twitter followers. She is well connected to the internet.
If Hitler can be named as the Man of the Year, we must thank G-d that Trump was not their choice as Trump-Haters would liken him to Hitler.
Actually Pathetic: The title of this article.
Pathetic: The Title of this Article
Disclaimer: The opinions of the editor do not represent those of “Torah Jews” in general and are those of his own.
beikvesa demashicha- chutzpa yasgi , the whole message of “youth” snubbing seniority, adults, wisdom…what an example of binyan nearim setirah.. it infiltrates us as well reb chaim epstien zatzl once said at an asifas chinuch that the hagada tells the story of reb elazar ben azaria cben shivim shono that a nes min hashomayim his BEARD TURNED WHITE REB CHAIM SAID to the mechanchim in the room ” heint dar men mispallel zein az der bord zul “BLEIEBEN SHVARTZ”
Not surprised at all!
Time’s criteria for “PERSON OF THE YEAR” is they have to be a VOCAL LIBERAL/INSANE person. She fits the profile.
The personification of the last mishnah in sotah
@Anonymous: Why assume her to be liberal/insane? Is she promoting ideas that are counterproductive to humanity? Is she pushing an anti-life agenda? I see exactly the opposite. She is being vocal about her concerns with the future of humans and the earth we inhabit. Don’t just jump on a bandwagon, think for yourself.
Yes she is. “Pro choice” activists promote death for those who ask for it. “Climate change” wants human life and its propagation to be reduced, whether the humans involved agree or not, I do not know whether she is evil or mentally impaired, but her opinions are well positioned next to hitler. The fact that some readers here, obviously with not much scientific background, buy into her stuff, speaks for itself. The fact that scientists, including people ideologically very distant from Torah, privately laugh loudly at the stuff, but will get a photo-op at Fridays for Patheticism or at least stay quiet (those who spoke up were wiped out from academia) speaks for itself.
By the way, Time is naming the supposedly most influential person of the year, and she (no different than hitler) fits the definition.
it’s not about agree or disagree with her message. It’s the in your face, chutzbdig attitude these young liberals have. I say “HOW DARE YOU” get up and yell at an assembly of leaders and statesmen “HOW DARE YOU.” it’s even more pathetic that she was applauded for it.
like rav avigdor miller said 50 years ago. liberals are reshaim gemoorim she is a product of liberal indoctrination. this is time magazine propaganda. pathetic at best rishus in actuality.
when I was a kid , we anxiously awaited the announcement of man of the year. Now time and all the other leftist libtard G-d despising liberals are irrelevant! no one cares about time magazine!
And that’s a fact