By P Gosselin
Sina, aged 14, used to be active as a spokesperson for Fridays for Future in a city in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia.
But she quickly became disenchanted by the movement’s “cult-like” structures which did not tolerate questions. Recently she revealed her story.
Hat-tip: EIKE
Sina began her environmental activism by joining a demonstration against coal power plants, organized by Greenpeace and WWF, before getting involved as a press spokesperson in the FFF movement in March; 2019.
In the interview, she reports on cult-like control, censorship, hostility and left-wing infiltration.
By November, 2019, she began questioning the movement. As press spokesperson, she says she recalls having an older organizer constantly standing at her side at the demonstrations to make sure she said “the right things” when interviewed by radio or television.
“No matter what was asked, it had to be answered like this or like that” and we had to “sound dramatic and to not express any doubts about it,” Sina tells GROSSE FREIHEIT TV (Great Freedom TV) in the interview.
Constantly watched
“We have to act immediately, otherwise things will go like so, and the world will fall apart if you don’t take to the streets, and those who don’t are to blame for the world collapsing and all such things that put pressure on people,” said Sina, explaining what the organizers expected the press spokeschildren to say to the media.
According to Sina:
One question from the press has always been very popular, and that is what you do yourself for climate protection. A very clear guideline was the answer that one should live vegan, plastic-free, seasonal and regional, as well as avoid car journeys and flights as far as possible. I believe, that is also the first thing I learned there.”
Began to have doubts
In the interview, the sharp-witted teen explains how she began to have doubts about the movement when the question of a CO2 tax came up and her father had doubts about it. This made Sina think about the implications of shutting down the coal power plants and the financial implications.
“The demands were so dogmatic and radical” that “they they could not really be implemented,” she says in the interview. She then explains how she researched the subject and found out that the 97% claimed consensus was bogus.
Insults and attacks…”Nazi” …”climate denier”
When her doubts and skepticism became known, she recounts how immediately she was accused of acting like a Nazi, and getting labelled a “climate denier” and “future destroyer”. At that point she had had enough and ditched the movement.
“Cult character”
At the 20:35-mark, having been asked to describe how she sees the FFF movement, shes says: “In my view, it has a sort of cult character because you have to have that opinion. Otherwise you’ll be insulted out, if you will.”
She then adds: “They make demands without even thinking about solutions and thinking about the consequences of immediately exiting coal power.”
She adds: “High taxes isn’t going to buy the CO2 out of the air.”
Her advice: “Do a little research”
Later she describes how dissent is absolutely not tolerated by the movement in any way. At school some of the more extreme teachers “couldn’t understand” why she exited the movement and how she was confronted by other radical classmates: “If you don’t take part, then it will be your fault that none of us will have a future and we’ll all die.” She responded to them: “Just do a little research!”
