In “New Brand of Activist Takes Aim at Ukraine War and Climate Crisis, Together,” New York Times’ international correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman allowed undereducated youth to spout socialist nonsense, while cheering them as they confronted world leaders face to face, acts that would be condemned if performed by, say, anti-vaccine mandate activists.
Emmanuel Macron (the president of France) had just finished a speech in a conference on Europe.
As he stood onstage, enjoying the praise and snapping pictures of fans, he did not realize that two young girls were looking at him from the back.
Gettleman was certainly on hand to report the Leftist Activism in Action.
“There are no metal barriers,” Dominika Lasota whispered. “Now’s our chance.”
Her activist friend, Wiktoria Jaroszkowiak stood fast for her. They snapped on a digital camera. They marched up to Mr. Macron and were greeted with charming smiles.
But then they blasted him with questions about a controversial new pipeline in Uganda (which the French oil company Total is helping build) and the war in Ukraine.
“My point is …” Mr. Macron tried to say.
“I know what your point is,” Ms. Lasota, 20, said, cutting him off. “But we are living in a climate crisis, and you must stop it.”
Ms. Jedroszkowiak, also 20, then jumped in, saying, “You can stop the war in Ukraine by stopping buying fossil fuels from Russia.”
…. Ms. Lasota and Ms. Jedroszkowiak have emerged as leaders in a dynamic new wing of the antiwar movement….
Gettleman gushed:
….While perhaps not as famous as Greta Thunberg, they are cut from the same hardy cloth and work closely with her Fridays for Future movement.
He played along with the activists’ fantastical demands for a total embargo on Russian oil Gettleman forwarded the girls’ solution “to accelerate the transition to renewables, like wind and solar.” (Evidently nuclear energy is still a bad word on the left.)
….
Born a month apart and from middle-class Polish families, Ms. Lasota and Ms. Jedroszkowiak met two years ago at an activist summer camp in Poland Where they were taught how to peacefully get arrested and create human blocksades.
The two recently put those skills to use, joining a blockade outside Total’s headquarters in Paris….
It is so much better than a job that pays the rent.
It Times can’t get enough of human pests with disruptive tactics, like gluing oneself to an oil company’s headquarters, a tactic favored by the group Extinction Rebellion.
Gettleman laughed at the ignorance of the activists. Jobs? Economy? These are the most important?
Officials in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, have said they could lose a half-million jobs if they suddenly banned Russian gas, which powers many German industries.
Ms. Jedroszkowiak’s response: “We can create green jobs. That’s the whole point. We have to change the entire system.”
There were no moral quandaries about the iPhone and laptop use, as they rely on mining for their production.
They have created their own community with their smartphones and trains tickets. Although many of them have stopped formal education, they continue to write essays about social justice and climate science. It’s also fun.
Gettleman created an online video package from the Brussels protest three weeks ago, complete with fawning captions, before following up with this story to celebrate the young lefties in a “news” story in print.
About Post Author
