World-famous motor journalist, Jeremy Clarkson, resorts to insulting a 16-year-old for greater exposure
It’s hard to say, as any kind of motor enthusiast, that Jeremey Clarkson isn’t an icon of the industry. Although he’s renowned for being the face of the greatest car show on Earth, he’s equally renowned for being a bit of an awful person.
From punching an assistant producer for not having food laid out for him, to saying that workers on strike should be executed in front of their families, Mr Clarkson has proven time and time again that he’s just pretty horrible.
His most recent headline-grabbing behaviour has been to simply say bad things about Greta Thunberg. In case you don’t yet know about young Greta, she’s a 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden who became famous for her UN Climate Action Summit speech where she scorned politicians and world leaders for their great inaction towards the climate change crisis.
Although her speech wasn’t quite as fluent and smooth as the kind of speeches we’re used to hearing at these kinds of important events, it held an important message and has already had great effect in raising awareness to her cause.
Clarkson, however, thinks she’s a spoilt idiot child who needs to be shut up. That may sound overly dramatic, but those words are actually quoting what he has said in several different instances.
To get a good idea of what kind of nastiness we’re dealing with, here are just some of the main quotes from Clarkson’s ongoing hatred of young Thunberg:
In his article on The Sun he says “how dare you stand there and lecture us, you spoilt brat.” and “be a good girl, shut up and let them [scientists] get on with it”.
In an interview with The Independent Clarkson refers to Thunberg as ‘a stupid idiot’ and said “I think she’s a weird Swede with a bad temper”.
In an Australian interview, he said “She’s mad and she’s dangerous and she’s causing young children sleepless nights with her idiocy,” and “I think she needs to go back to school and shut up.”
In another interview he proclaimed “I’m a farmer, I plant woods, thousands of trees every year. So I’m not taking a lecture from Greta Thunberg who does sweet fuck all but wave her arms around…”
“So no, I can drive as many Range Rovers as I want because I’m completely carbon negative.”
A very astute point, Mr Clarkson. You’re absolutely correct in saying planting woods make up for the thousands of private flights, travelling the world to promote cars, hosting car events and shows for decades and driving the most environmentally unfriendly cars for your entire life. We’ve all got to take responsibility at some point. Everyone except Jeremy, that is.
He also told The Sun that ‘Greta Thunberg has killed the car show’. “They’re taught at school, before they say ‘Mummy and Daddy’, that cars are evil, and it’s in their heads.”
Oddly enough, a few of these headline-worthy quotes came directly from a series of interviews he did to promote The Grand Tour. Perhaps it’s all part of his marketing plan – say outrageous things, get headline coverage, get more people watching The Grand Tour. Who knows?
It gets even stranger. Turns out, Jeremy isn’t even a climate change denier, at least not any more. After travelling to Cambodia and seeing some dried-up lakes, he suddenly had a change of heart about the whole climate change debate. After shrugging it off his entire life, he suddenly comes around after his boat got stuck in a dried-up body of water in the midst of the rainy season in Cambodia. I don’t buy it.
In 2005, Clarkson said “the world is warming up” but it “isn’t even worthy of a shrug”. Soon after, at another event where he was to accept his honorary degree from Oxford Brookes University, Clarkson was hit in the face with a pie thrown by climate activists.
In 2009, climate activists laid manure on Jeremy’s front garden with a banner flying above reading ‘this is what you’re landing us in’.
In 2012, he said in a column for The Times that “Science fiction is thriving; only today it’s all being written by global warming enthusiasts”.
In 2016, Clarkson said in an interview with Gizmodo, that Margaret Thatcher was one of the first people to mention climate change and she was using it as an excuse for killing the mining industry. From that same interview, we also have one of the greatest, most laughable Clarkson quotes of all time:
“Unlike most people I’ve actually been to the North Pole, and the polar bears have a great deal of space to roam around in. A huge amount of space. And it’s really cold, so even if it warms up by 400 degrees it’ll still be really cold up there, so they’ll be fine.”
And now, he’s trying to tell us that all of a sudden, after seeing a single dried-up lake, he’s done a full 180 and now accepts climate change as something that is real?
Perhaps, with this new episode and change in attitudes towards the environment, he’ll leave poor little Greta alone. After several tweets, interview mentions and an entire article written on her, he’ll leave the poor girl alone. And with any luck, in a few years time, he may even look back in reflection and realise just how awful he was when he called a 16-year-old all kinds of names.
His ranting got so out of hand that at one point, even his own daughter had to put him back in check. Through a series of tweets, after Clarkson said that Greta should learn some manners, Em Clarkson quickly fired back saying “A woman doesn’t need to be polite to make a point”.
Here we go again…
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) 25 September 2019
As you may have noticed, the haters are as active as ever – going after me, my looks, my clothes, my behaviour and my differences.
They come up with every thinkable lie and conspiracy theory. (Thread->) pic.twitter.com/5rS2VpZj00
You are an inspirational person. You have breathed life into the climate debate that was failing to get the attention it deserved. Whatever happens with the world it is a better place with you in it .
— John Bishop (@JohnBishop100) 25 September 2019
@JohnBishop100 @GretaThunberg Wouldn’t it be nice if she learned some manners.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) 29 September 2019
A woman doesn’t need to be polite to make a point 🙃
— Em Clarkson (@EmilyClarkson) 29 September 2019
There’s respectfully disagreeing with someone and then there’s calling them a child whose opinions should not be taken seriously. Unfortunately, it’s probably only going to get more interesting from here one, so be sure to keep an eye on this pointless, one-sided argument between Clarkson and Thunberg.
Let us know what you think of the whole Clarkson vs Thunberg squabble. Should he just put a sock in it or do you think his abuse is just?
If you enjoyed this, why not read about how the Cybertruck is just an overhyped concept car?
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