Greta Thunberg’s attackers are morally bankrupt, but her deification isn’t helpful | Julian Baggini

The climate-crisis activist has made it clear herself that she wants the focus to be on the message, not the messenger

As Greta Thunberg sets sail across the Atlantic to the United Nations in New York, the backlash against her has been as vicious as it is has been inevitable. According to the Australian conservative climate-change denier Andrew Bolt, she is "deeply disturbed", "freakishly influential" and "strange". In a nasty, brutish and short tweet, the former Ukip funder, Arron Banks, simply said, "Freak yachting accidents do happen in August "" Controversialist columnist Brendan O'Neill wrote that there was "something chilling" about Thunberg, who "increasingly looks and sounds like a cult member".

The attacks on Thunberg look like a kind of displacement activity rooted in fear that what she says might be true

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