(Arron Banks tweeting about
Greta Thunberg)
My initial reaction was the same as Julia Hartley-Brewer's. She is a child and it is quite a tasteless joke to make. He probably shouldn't have posted it. However, it was a joke. That's pretty clear to anyone reading it, whatever their thoughts on it. So it's hardly crime of the century.
Arron Banks is someone who speaks quite bluntly. Having followed him on Twitter for a while it's clear he doesn't pander to people with his language. This is something I normally quite like. Most the people on Twitter, on all sides of the argument (probably including me half the time), are quite fake. So it's quite refreshing at times when people just say what they think, or joke about what they feel like joking about. Regardless of the wider perception.
In fact, it reminds me a little bit of certain family members I have. Of course, normally that's just in the safety of your own living room. A family member makes a mildly tasteless joke about someone on TV, and you react with "you can't say that !".
Anyway, needless to say, it has blown up a bit. It's currently trending on Twitter (admittedly just in the UK where every minor political soap opera story trends). The much in the media at the moment Caroline Lucas has made a complaint to Twitter about it. Saying it made her "sick to the stomach". Which in turn has led to it appearing on the BBC and elsewhere.
Now, as I've mentioned on here before. Greta Thunberg has been put into the media spotlight by adults. She's essentially being used as a political prop to push a certain worldview. These people are putting her front and centre of this campaign knowing full well that she'll be the focus of any criticism. Be it political or personal in nature. This is something that's a great deal more tasteless than the joke made by Banks in my opinion. Though again, his joke was a little too far across the line for my own tastes.
Julia Hartley-Brewer summed it all up fairly succinctly in another tweet.
(JHB tweet)
So this is the game really. In fact, it reminds me of an image of Greta Thunberg that appeared earlier this year. An image perhaps worth sharing. Where she really does look like a child surrounded by adults. The single image says more than my entire article and all the other media coverage combined ever could in a way.
(Greta Thunberg with politicians, including
Caroline Lucas)
In the long run it'll be very interesting though. Greta Thunberg is clearly a very intelligent, lovely young girl. She'll be much more difficult to manage when she gets older and starts forming her own opinions.
Although the mainstream media will no doubt conveniently get bored of her when that happens.
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