11The video rocketed around the inter-
net, generating memes and quips, none
of them especially clever: ‘‘Make America
Greta Again’’; ‘‘This Greta Thunberg stare-
down is life goals’’; ‘‘Find yourself some-
one who looks upon your worst enemy
the way Greta Thunberg looks at Trump.’’
Julián Castro, the Democratic presidential
candidate, tweeted out the GIF under the
caption ‘‘I think a lot of us can relate.’’
The eagerness of so many to claim
Thunberg as their glowering proxy was
curious. That withering ‘‘death stare’’ was
directed at Trump — but was it direct-
ed only at Trump? Thunberg’s message,
reiterated that day in her speech at the
United Nations, is a broad generational
indictment that spares no one, at least
no one over 18, for their empty words
and inaction on the climate crisis. The
countless thousands who have crammed
social media feeds with variations on the
theme ‘‘We are all Greta Thunberg’’ are
seeking an absolution that Thunberg is
not off ering.
In fact, the viral popularity of this
video may have little to do with climate
change, or with the scouring power of
Thunberg’s gaze. The clip concisely
encapsulates an experience to which,
as Castro suggests, millions of us can
relate. The key moment comes with
that abrupt shift in focal point, when
the camera seems to jump up and fl ee,zooming away from Thunberg to doc-
ument the arrival of the president. It is
a jarring bait and switch, a visual joke
with a grim punch line. Thunberg is a
small person but a mighty moral force;
Trump, it seems fair to assert, is in both
respects Thunberg’s antithesis. Yet the
camera is drawn away, and Thunberg
recedes from view, her sharp features
and bright magenta blouse reduced to
indistinct splotches. She is eclipsed by
the person of Trump, who heaves into
the center of the frame like one of those
giant cruise ships that arrive in the har-
bor to blot out the sun.
Famous, powerful people are known
to make grand entrances. It is part of the‘‘If you really
understood the
situation and
still kept on failing
to act, then you
would be evil.’’ —
Greta Thunberg
in her speech to the
United Nations