THIS IS NOT A DRILL! The Dark Side of Youth Activism
Activists shape our world and make history. They stand for what they believe, fight for justice against oppression and tyranny, and dedicate their lives in service of worthy causes and to help others.
They’re real-life heroes whose stories we grew up with. People like suffragist Susan Anthony, American abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman, anti-colonial civil rights activist Mahatma Gandhi, anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer, anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu, civil rights leaders Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., feminist leader Gloria Steinem, and the first democratic leader of South Africa Nelson Mandela.
Today, millions of activists around the world are fighting for everything from democratic representation in Hong Kong and Iran, to economic reform in Europe and Chile, ending corruption in Iraq and Lebanon, indigenous rights in the Amazon, women’s rights in Saudi, children’s rights in Gaza and on the US-Mexico border.
These remarkable activists inspire hope with their stories, mobilize people with their movements, successfully creating pressure, and causing world leaders to act.
That’s why we celebrate activism, we’re inspired by it, and we rightfully encourage young people to be engaged and active from an early age. But we may have mistaken the rise of youth activism as a positive sign when it’s not, and we may be wilfully ignoring the dark side to youth activism.
Little Miss’ big hit
When Flint changed its water source to the Flint River, ageing pipes caused extremely elevated levels of lead, impacting over 100,000 residents.
Mari Copeny, only eight years old at the time, wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, which prompted a response and a visit to Flint. That visit resulted in the declaration of a federal state of emergency.
Copeny became known as “Little Miss Flint” and continues to draw awareness to places in need of clean water and looks for ways to help those in her community and beyond.
Six minutes
On February 14, 2018, using a semi-automatic rifle, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 17 others.
Investigations later revealed that the FBI and the police received multiple warnings about the perpetrator who was 19 years old with anger management issues and often joked about gun violence. They could’ve taken action long before the shooting. Instead, he was allowed to legally buy a weapon powerful enough to kill 17 people in less than six minutes!!
Survivors of the shooting criticized the response from politicians. They asked them not to offer condolences but to take action to prevent more students from being killed in school shootings.
David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez, along with other survivors, launched the #NeverAgain movement calling for stricter gun regulation, youth participation in politics and policy. In addition to exposing and condemning lawmakers who receive political contributions from the National Rifle Association.
From march to strike
When her teacher played a video about the impact of climate change depicting extreme weather, flooding, people and animals suffering, 11 years old Greta Thunberg fell into a deep depression, stopped speaking and eating and was nearly hospitalized.
Her father tried to no avail to reassure her that things will be ok. For the next two years, Greta challenged her parents to lower the family’s carbon footprint by making significant changes in their habits, becoming vegan, upcycling and eventually giving up flying at the expense of her mother’s singing career.
Inspired by the March for Our Lives organized by the Parkland shooting survivors, she came up with the idea of a climate strike.
On August 20, 2018, after failing to persuade other young people to get involved, she went ahead with the strike by herself after Sweden experienced heatwaves and wildfires during the hottest summer in over 260 years.
Sitting outside the Swedish parliament every day for three weeks during school hours with the sign Skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for the climate), she demanded the Swedish government reduce carbon emissions following the Paris Agreement.
Her strike began attracting public attention, and she continued to strike on Fridays. She inspired school students across the globe to take part in student strikes, and by December 2018, more than 20,000 students had held strikes in at least 270 cities.
A year later, school strikes for climate attracted over four million people.
Oh the fairy tales they sell
For decades Exxon was not only aware of climate change but predicted with high accuracy the devastating impact it would have on the planet today.
In a congressional public hearing before the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned Dr. Martin Hoffert, a former Exxon scientist whose work focused on the carbon cycle and climate modelling.
He confirmed that a graph drawn up in 1982 showing “a projection into the future of carbon dioxide levels and climate change associated with those carbon dioxide levels, coming from fossil fuels” is “a very accurate representation of what today’s climate change actually is.”
But even though Exxon knew, they refused to acknowledge climate change publicly. They spent decades actively promoting climate misinformation using the same consultants the tobacco industry used to develop communication strategies to confuse the public.
The Exxon example is only one of many. Johnson & Johnson knew their Talcum powder caused cancer in women. DuPont knew for decades they were contaminating water supplies. Purdue Pharma helped spark the opioid epidemic under the leadership of the Sackler family, who made billions in the process off of the suffering of millions.
Today’s activists are not fighting against clearly evil, malicious, and immoral people, organizations, or regimes. Instead, they are facing off with amoral people and organizations driven by self-interest and profit, hiding in plain sight, spreading propaganda, and manipulating the public.
These people and organizations have the money, power, and access to infiltrate and corrupt the media and the highest levels of government. All while keeping an “everything is ok” facade, successfully sedating us into inaction with “fairy tales of eternal economic growth.”
Stolen childhoods
At 12 years old, Malala Yousafzai started speaking out publicly on the right of every girl to learn. Two years later, she was shot in the head on her way back from school by the Taliban, who wanted to silence her.
Malala survived, became the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history in 2014, co-founded the non-profit Malala Fund with Shiza Shahid, and today she continues her fight for the right of every girl to get an education.
The more vocal and visible activists become, the more scrutiny they invite. Followed everywhere by swarms of reporters and cameras and asked to meet world leaders. And that’s the bright side.
The Parkland shooting survivors were viciously attacked, falsely called crisis actors of a shooting that did not happen paid by billionaire George Soros and supported by Antifa!
Some of the survivors of the massacre and their relatives were targeted by online harassment that included death threats.
David Hogg was ridiculed by Laura Ingraham of Fox News on her show. He was also threatened by a Sinclair Broadcast Group TV host Jamie Allman, who wrote a tweet threatening to insert a hot poker in David Hogg anus!
Greta Thunberg also receives death threats against her and her family. She is constantly attacked, not only by regular online trolls but some of the most powerful people in the world.
Vladimir Putin dismissed her. Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, tweeted that she’s “clearly mentally unstable.” Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called her a “little brat.” Donald Trump, the most powerful man in the world, mocked her twice.
It’s no wonder Greta reminds people all the time what she is doing today is not what she wants or supposed to be doing.
In her iconic United Nations public address, she passionately calls out world leaders for their failure to act on climate change.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood.”
In her scathing address, she says to those leaders, “how dare you!” for hanging their hopes on young people that “should be at school.”
We can agree or disagree with these young activists or their opinions. Still, we can’t deny their immense courage in the face of the dark side of taking action and standing up for what one believes.
We, the adults, must acknowledge that we’ve accepted the current state of affairs, settled for and solidified the status quo.
We have forced teenagers to abandon their dreams and fight for their lives because we have stopped fighting for them.
Every time we shrug our shoulders, look the other way, or leave it to someone else to speak up or do something, we become culpable to the gun violence, unjust wars, lack of representation, gender inequality, crony capitalism, homelessness, and the rights violations and inhumanity of our world.
It’s time to support them, guide them, and join them in the fight today for a better world tomorrow.
Resources
Eight Young Leaders on How They Want to Shape the Decade Ahead https://time.com/collection/davos-2019/5502593/making-change-young-leaders/
These 10 young activists are trying to move the needle on climate change, gun control, and other global issues https://www.insider.com/young-activists-climate-change-guns-greta-thunberg-2019-9
Most Famous Activists in History https://vocal.media/theSwamp/most-famous-activists-in-history
Time 2019 Person of The Year Greta Thunberg https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2019-greta-thunberg/
Greta Thunberg, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg
2 Parkland school shooting survivors have died https://www.vox.com/2019/3/24/18279706/parkland-shooting-survivors-die-suicide
Exxon Knew about Climate Change almost 40 years ago https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/
Malala’s story https://www.malala.org/malalas-story
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoneman_Douglas_High_School_shooting
Exxon Sowed Doubt About Climate Science for Decades by Stressing Uncertainty https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22102015/Exxon-Sowed-Doubt-about-Climate-Science-for-Decades-by-Stressing-Uncertainty
Exxon’s ‘Excellent Scientists’ Knew Back in 1982 Exactly How Bad Climate Change Would Be Now https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/7x5qkx/exxons-excellent-scientists-knew-exactly-how-bad-climate-change-would-be-back-in-1982
Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its Baby Powder https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/johnsonandjohnson-cancer/
Oxycontin: How Purdue Pharma Helped Spark The Opioid Epidemic https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/oxycontin-how-purdue-pharma-helped-spark-opioid-epidemic/
