A Republican congressman tried to minimise Greta Thunberg’s argument with a flawed analogy at yesterday’s climate change hearing – and ended up getting completely destroyed by the teenage activist.
Representative Garret Graves from Louisiana asked:
If you were sailing across the ocean and you’re picking up trash along the way, and for every one piece of trash that you pick up there is a boat right next to you dumping out five pieces. How would that make you feel?
His point was presumably to try and suggest that the US’s environmental responsibility is minimised by other countries’ actions, but Thunberg was having none of it, pointing out that according to his analogy, they were all doing damage, and it doesn’t cancel itself out.
If you use that logic, then I am also dumping a lot of trash in the ocean. And then I would stop dumping my trash in the ocean and tell the other boat to stop dumping their trash in the ocean as well.
The straightforward rationale of her response has only served to cement her official status as an absolute icon, and people are living for it.
You go girl!! pic.twitter.com/jAYxqIEd9w
— PatriotBoy2020 (@Boy2020Patriot) September 18, 2019
And here's Greta Thunberg subtly refuting @RepGarretGraves's self-defeating logic that the US doesn't need to do more to address the climate crisis because other countries are lagging behind pic.twitter.com/4WH9iirSXN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 18, 2019
.@GretaThunberg has more humanity, grace, empathy, compassion and brains in her little finger than the specimen in the Oval Office or his party of Neanderthals. She is our hope for today & the future.
— Phyllis Silver (@PhyllisSilver) September 18, 2019
This young women makes so much more sense than an asshole voted for by Americans who doesn't even understand her response because he thinks he's superior and doesn't listen….SMH
— Cheryl Begy (@clbegy) September 18, 2019
His logic is…China isn't behaving well so we don't need to either. Her's is…everyone should behave better and be called out on it. I'm with her.
— JEM (@haguediva) September 18, 2019
