Greta Thunberg is the time's person of the year 2019

[tsaroz]

Swedish teen who started by protesting in from of the Swedish parliament for action against climate change now is the major attraction for media around the world. Time like every year selects one of the most influencing person in the year as Time's person of the year.

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[iluvbitcoins]

Kind of ironic. 30% of votes ain't little..

https://time.com/5747261/person-of-the-year-2019-reader-poll-results/

[squatz1]

.... Times is just trying to sell more magazines, they don't really care about who the best person in the world was for 2019. Just trying to stir up some controversy and bring people to their site and to buy their magazines.

The HK protesters should've won this one. They're the people who are truly fighting against an oppressive government that doesn't care about them. People are literally being shot by police, while protesting, and the news barely covers it.

Shows what side the media, the big corporations, and the politicians are truly on (even Trump)

[Oxstone]

Don't see the problem here. A kid who managed to reach UN, talked to all leaders in the world and became the face of the scientific consensus on climate change doesn't deserve to be person of the year?

I mean, she's at the age well all of you (and myself) were mainly interested in porn and that's all.

At 16 my biggest achievement would probably be my first sex ever. Her achievement is to have travelled the whole world to uphold what she believes (and the vast majority of people who got an education) is the most important political question of the century.

Who am I to disagree?

HK is nothing. Litterally nothing. Just a poor population fighting its government. We get that every year. Nothing new.
US is trying to make it political against China but that's not even the first revendication for HK protesters. There first revendication is on rents and life cost. It's just that the West likes to make them fighters for freedom, which they are not.

[guy369]

Should have been the HK protesters, JMHO

[squatz1]

Don't see the problem here. A kid who managed to reach UN, talked to all leaders in the world and became the face of the scientific consensus on climate change doesn't deserve to be person of the year?

I mean, she's at the age well all of you (and myself) were mainly interested in porn and that's all.

At 16 my biggest achievement would probably be my first sex ever. Her achievement is to have travelled the whole world to uphold what she believes (and the vast majority of people who got an education) is the most important political question of the century.

Who am I to disagree?

HK is nothing. Litterally nothing. Just a poor population fighting its government. We get that every year. Nothing new.
US is trying to make it political against China but that's not even the first revendication for HK protesters. There first revendication is on rents and life cost. It's just that the West likes to make them fighters for freedom, which they are not.

I'm not saying what she did isn't great. It is, she's fighting for the climate. Great.

But there are people in Hong Kong who have been protesting since -- June? -- against China and have been standing their ground. The Chinese government has had to admit that they were shooting live ammunition at the protests -- THEY'RE SHOOTING LIVE AMMUNITION AT THE PROTESTORS -- I HOPE SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT  THAT MEANS.

In the US we barely get 50 percent of people out to vote (Averaging presidential and non pres years) but in Hong Kong they currently have about 30 percent of the population protesting.

[PrimeNumber7]

.... Times is just trying to sell more magazines, they don't really care about who the best person in the world was for 2019. Just trying to stir up some controversy and bring people to their site and to buy their magazines.

I think Greta winning person of the year is a major blow to the credibility of this award.

Greta is clearly being taken advantage of by someone on the left trying to push an agenda that gives the left more political power and more control over citizens' lives. This is true even if she is getting rich in the process.

Further, her only qualifications are that she 'believes' in a certain viewpoint, and would not have been able to speak in front of Congress, nor the UN if not for her specific stances.

China is, by far, the industrialized country that is doing the most harm to the environment on a per capita basis (and they have the largest population), yet Greta (nor any other environmental "activists") is not calling to put pressure on China to reduce its emissions.

The HK protesters should've won this one.

They are much more qualified for person of the year.  +1

[Jet Cash]

Another misguided kid who has been manipulated by the politically correct educational system. She is a prime example of why the voting age should be increased and not lowered.

[Professional Spammer]

Another misguided kid who has been manipulated by the politically correct educational system. She is a prime example of why the voting age should be increased and not lowered.

Given that the brain doesn't finish (significant) developments until your 20s, this is an agreeable opinion.

[TwitchySeal]

.... Times is just trying to sell more magazines, they don't really care about who the best person in the world was for 2019. Just trying to stir up some controversy and bring people to their site and to buy their magazines.

The HK protesters should've won this one. They're the people who are truly fighting against an oppressive government that doesn't care about them. People are literally being shot by police, while protesting, and the news barely covers it.

Shows what side the media, the big corporations, and the politicians are truly on (even Trump)

I think putting Hong Kong protestors on the cover would do the most good. (they need all the support they can get, plus a great way to shame China).

But they decide based on who's had the most influence.

Hong Kong is just something that the world is kind of just watching with interest.

Trump or Putin probably deserve the cover most imo.  Would be boring if they just picked world leaders every year though.

[Rikafip]

I think Greta winning person of the year is a major blow to the credibility of this award.

This award had some credibility to start with?

Afterall, this is not award for "best person" or whatever, this is simply about those that had influenced world  the most. That's why Hitler, Stalin (won it 2 times), Khomeini, Chiang Kai-shek won that . Even though Times stopped with that practice of choosing obvious bad guys , after fiasco and criticism for choosing Khomeini.

I agree that what people in HK are doing is admirable, and that Greta Thurnberg is obviously manipulated, but she got shit load of  (undeserved) attention.

[squatz1]

.... Times is just trying to sell more magazines, they don't really care about who the best person in the world was for 2019. Just trying to stir up some controversy and bring people to their site and to buy their magazines.

The HK protesters should've won this one. They're the people who are truly fighting against an oppressive government that doesn't care about them. People are literally being shot by police, while protesting, and the news barely covers it.

Shows what side the media, the big corporations, and the politicians are truly on (even Trump)

I think putting Hong Kong protestors on the cover would do the most good. (they need all the support they can get, plus a great way to shame China).

But they decide based on who's had the most influence.

Hong Kong is just something that the world is kind of just watching with interest.

Trump or Putin probably deserve the cover most imo.  Would be boring if they just picked world leaders every year though.

I mean if we're talking about influence or the person who's been in the news the most : Trump.

But yes, I think the HK protestors truly do need a win like this. People may not fully understand it, but being on the cover of something like the Times brings people to research a topic that they may not know much about. HK needs that. Most people don't even know whats going on there. As world leaders, politicans, news, corporations, and so on ignore it.

[countryfree]

Very stupid!
Bad move from Time!
Don't we expect the person of the year to be some kind of an innovator, or at least to do or say new things?

Everything that Greta girl says, environmentalists all over the world have been saying if for years... Nothing new.
What I've yet to understand, though, is why are there people believing her than respected scientists.

[gabmen]

Well the prestige of this award has certainly gone down recently but hey, the kid did get a lot of attention and that fierce speech a couple of months ago did place her on the spotlight, along with what seems to be her advocacy. So i don't have anything against her being named Person of the Year, though i also don't consider this award something to look up to anymore.

[star7dust]

Well done. I'm not sure if it's good or bad. I have doubts about Greta... A lot of doubts. But she talks about important issues, so who cares

[franky1]

she is from a country where her supposed 'school strike' was not a strike at all. at that age she can voluntarily not go school and it was the summer, and when she later went school she always got permission not to attend... (not much of a strike then huh)

yet she demands other kids to do actual strikes in actual schools that dont have this leeway

id have probably preffered a african/indian kid who's family were struggling farmers due to desertification become the youth spokesmen and do actual campaigns of getting countries to agree to hard numbers of actual action and not the flimsy
'do something'

greta lives in a county with a cool climate a healthy land growth environment. clean air. and her family life shows she has never experienced real struggles.

if her message is just to obide by the paris agreement then many countries dont have to do anything extra. infact many countries already for decades had town/city plans that certain amount of area's had to have X green area (parks and recreation) and X trees and could easily show they planted them X tree's and class that as their contribution.
in the UK for instance. many towns that used to be called 'market towns' are being rebranded 'green towns' .. no real big changes done but just a branding decision of councils
there may be more tree's panted but at the same time old woodland has been made into housing estates so it is not any more tree numbers than before just the tree's are scattered along roadsides at calculated distances to make it appear more spread

same goes with power plants. with many being outdated and crumbing anyway by just standard renovation practice and demand concerns that had nothing to do with environmental agenda. they could then class it as being an environmental agenda that triggered their renovation/upgrades just to tick a box
EG underground stocks of coal are depleted so they move to fracked gas to stay in business, without it being an environmental climate change decision, the power company can pretend later it was purely climate driven decision and(just happens to) have a positive climate change impact to get their new power plant built for them for free using government environment, technology innovation and R&D grants

america school meal budgets get cut and the FDA approved suppliers churn out crap frozen meals at ever increasing prices so schools are forced into making 'food growth' part of their curriculum where students grow lettuce tomato's and stuff on school property that subsidises the school meals. this then later translates to schools being declared green schools and thats used politically as reducing food waste, carbon footprint of food delivery and other stuff to show as a ticked box. even when al the 'farming' would still e done without any paris agreement involvement. but now they just mark it off as if they doing it to then not have to do extra

same goes for real estate. buy up cheap flood risk land. threaten their investment is at risk to climate change. then get grants to build flood resistant properties. and tick a box about securing a legacy of flood resistance towns all for cheap real estate

to me greta's message is just a parody of the lyrics to
'say something' im giving up on you, featuring christina aguilera. just changing 'say' to 'do'

maybe the next youth environment ambassador has actual experience of struggles due to environmental change, and actually tries to set numbers countries have to hit, have laws changed where in 10 years coal and gas is illegal. thus forcing energy companies to change plans.
then let the scientists work on other remedies like the water cycle. just to keep scientists busy instead of just doing tours with reports that are now outdated

[Oxstone]

Don't see the problem here. A kid who managed to reach UN, talked to all leaders in the world and became the face of the scientific consensus on climate change doesn't deserve to be person of the year?

I mean, she's at the age well all of you (and myself) were mainly interested in porn and that's all.

At 16 my biggest achievement would probably be my first sex ever. Her achievement is to have travelled the whole world to uphold what she believes (and the vast majority of people who got an education) is the most important political question of the century.

Who am I to disagree?

HK is nothing. Litterally nothing. Just a poor population fighting its government. We get that every year. Nothing new.
US is trying to make it political against China but that's not even the first revendication for HK protesters. There first revendication is on rents and life cost. It's just that the West likes to make them fighters for freedom, which they are not.

I'm not saying what she did isn't great. It is, she's fighting for the climate. Great.

But there are people in Hong Kong who have been protesting since -- June? -- against China and have been standing their ground. The Chinese government has had to admit that they were shooting live ammunition at the protests -- THEY'RE SHOOTING LIVE AMMUNITION AT THE PROTESTORS -- I HOPE SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT  THAT MEANS.

In the US we barely get 50 percent of people out to vote (Averaging presidential and non pres years) but in Hong Kong they currently have about 30 percent of the population protesting.

Wtf? You're completely out of your mind xD

HK protests are not against China they're against life conditions in HK at the moment. People are getting more and more poor it's more or less the same protests than in Europe right now.
And China never shot live munition on HK protests for the very simple reason China hasn't done anything there yet, it's one HK police officer who panicked and shot live munition.

What's happening in HK is just a population getting tired of the inequalities and cost of life that's all. And their government suppressing them.

haven't you seen that in all the Western world governments are using more and more force against their own people? If HK protestors should be "person of the year" as you say then what about the Europeans fighting every week? What about Chile?

It's just that USA put the spotlight on HK to blame China. Nothing more.

[target]

Time magazine even featured Maria Ressa who had been harassing Duterte administration since election days, Time Magazine had lost it all and turned it all for being paid tabloid. Often times the people they feature are the ones managed by oligarchs who has the ulterior motives. You just can't trust any media today. But Congrats to Greta.

.... Times is just trying to sell more magazines, they don't really care about who the best person in the world was for 2019. Just trying to stir up some controversy and bring people to their site and to buy their magazines.

The HK protesters should've won this one. They're the people who are truly fighting against an oppressive government that doesn't care about them. People are literally being shot by police, while protesting, and the news barely covers it.

Shows what side the media, the big corporations, and the politicians are truly on (even Trump)

HK protesters are the worse. You are misinformed. For all we know, its funded by bigger parties wanting China's economy to slip.

[Spendulus]

Another misguided kid who has been manipulated by the politically correct educational system. She is a prime example of why the voting age should be increased and not lowered.

Given that the brain doesn't finish (significant) developments until your 20s, this is an agreeable opinion.

So... she's been smoking some of that really good stuff?

[coins4commies]

Hong kong protests are not a person, they are a political movement.  Greta is a person.  Also, they don't use political biases when choosing the person of the year.  As stated in this thread, people want to promote HK protesters "to shame china" and not because they have done something so great. 

Their cause is to not be held accountable by the Chinese government.  The whole protest started because they didn't want extradition from Hong Kong to China to be possible.  Meanwhile, most people in the world can be extridited from their local authority by their federal authority. 

Imagine if people in Portland didn't have to pay taxes and wanted to be exempt from all federal laws.