 20-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested in Germany while protesting the expansion of an open pit coal mine and for absolutely No reason whatsoever right-wing influencers are choosing to turn this arrest into a conspiracy theory So on Twitter yesterday the word staged was trending and Individuals like Ian Miles Chong made tweets like this saying yes The Greta Thunberg arrest was staged for the establishment media And this is the video that supposedly proves that her arrest was staged. Let's watch The video that he shared debunks his own claim because after she was done talking to the press They took her away. She was actually arrested now. I'll admit that the video is bizarre It's weird to see somebody who the police arrested stop and let the press get photographs of them But this is a celebrity. Do you think that the police are gonna crack skulls while a bunch of cameras are watching? I mean sure in the United States they are that brazen to do that But when you have a celebrity in custody, this is why they allow this to happen. I'm not making excuses for it I think that this behavior is really weird and they should treat everyone who they arrest Equally not that they should be arrested in the first place But this doesn't prove that the event was staged But somebody tried to explain this to Ian and as you can see it didn't go too well They wrote it wasn't a staged arrest. They just let the press take photos. I'll agree. It's odd But the arrest was real. They knew this footage would also get out But Ian just responded by saying the entire protest was staged So that's what happens when you try to engage in good faith with a right winger it goes in one ear and out the other and I just feel like these right-wing influencers don't really understand how power works because Ian claimed that this whole arrest was staged for establishment media But what's the core function of establishment media? Their goal is to make money if we're talking about these capitalist institutions right mainstream media So the only reason why they talk about Greta is because she brings eyeballs because she's popular with young people Right and they want to draw in more viewers But ultimately if push comes to shove they're siding with the fossil fuel industry that Greta Thunberg is speaking out Against because those are the individuals who pay for advertising dollars on these networks So I just don't understand if he understands the way that power works and who sighed the establishment media is on Because I promise you it's not on the side of climate activists Maybe some individual activists like Greta Thunberg can successfully draw in eyeballs But that doesn't mean that they're on her side either way. That's besides the point these police officers They were absolutely brutal as police often are and even though you didn't see it Greta Thunberg Experienced at first hand as common dreams explains Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was among the demonstrators Detained by German police on Tuesday while protesting the destruction of the village Lutzurroth to expand an open pit coal mine after arriving in Germany last week to support local campaigners battling the expansion 20 year old Thunberg joined activists staging a sit-in nearly six miles from the Lutzurroth at the edge of the mine owned by energy utility RWE Greta Thunberg was part of a group of activists who rushed towards the edge However, she was then stopped and carried by us with this group out of the immediate danger area to establish their identity a Spokesperson for Aiken police told Reuters noting that one activist jumped into the mine as common dreams previously reported while visiting Lutzurroth on Friday Thunberg said it was horrible to see what's happening here and called out the outrageous police violence occurring in the area Quote we expect to show what people power looks like what democracy looks like she vowed when governments and corporations are acting like this Destroying the environment putting countless people at risk the people step up now to demonstrate what she's talking about here Police were shoving activists when they were binded together Including Greta Thunberg because they were trying to forcibly remove them from this area where they were staging this protest. Let's watch Now what you saw there didn't even scratch the surface as the New York Times reports on Saturday and estimated 15,000 climate activists including Greta Thunberg staged a march in the area with police using water cannons and nightsticks To prevent protesters from charging the site so police Expectedly brutalized peaceful protesters and this is a common phenomenon around the globe We often see indigenous people who are protesting protecting their own water like at Standing Rock and people of color They bear the brunt of the brutalization now Greta Thunberg saw that herself But I'm assuming that because she brought a lot of eyeballs to this protest and got people to talk about this Maybe when the cameras were on the police were more restrained Knowing that this would be broadcasted and knowing that it would be a scandal So contrary to popular belief these protesters were brutalized and the police were absolutely ruthless But in spite of that the protesters were relentless despite knowing what they would be met with What's interesting about this is in order to expand the coal pit They had to hollow out a small town and the protesters were trying to prevent that from happening and their tactics had been successful Only up until a certain point as the New York Times explains in a matter of days this past week more than 1,000 police officers cleared out the hundreds of climate activists who had sworn to protect the small village Once home to 90 people but no church which was scheduled to be raised as part of a sprawling open pit coal mine in western Germany For years environmental activists had hoped to forestall the fate of Lutserath Possibly the last of hundreds of villages in Germany to fall to open pit mining since World War two for a while It seemed that the activists would succeed but this sheared the political wins and public sentiment shifted against them Europe's energy crisis ushered in by the war in Ukraine and the end of cheap Russia gas made coal too hard to quit for now Even a government that includes the environmentalist minded Green Party turned its back on them now Because the last farmer from that village moved out months ago a court had reaffirmed The right of the authorities to forcibly remove these protesters So they knew what was coming and yet they stayed there. Why because unlike these right-wingers. They actually care They actually care about the environment They care about protecting these small towns in Germany and we see these fossil fuel companies around the globe Continue to throw their weight around and completely violate Tribal sovereignty here in the United States for indigenous people the water rights of citizens around the globe with fracking and For people to stand up and take a stand knowing that there would be consequences I think that that's really commendable. So rather than trying to turn this into some weird conspiracy I wish that right-wingers would maybe do a little bit of research before making all of this conjecture online but Real people who care about these things know that what the activists did it was Commendable for example Steven Donziger tweeted out this type of state repression of climate activists only strengthens the movement Solidarity Greta and he knows he saw firsthand how these companies how these fossil fuel giants Will destroy you if you get in their way. So what Greta Thunberg did here is commendable She got arrested put her body on the line all to draw attention to this cause and some people might even try to defend German authorities and say well look I mean they had their cheap coal from Russia taken away as an option So now they have to do this at least temporarily but I'm sorry I don't buy that and this is kind of what the leader of the Green Party in Germany is Making in defense of this open coal pit expansion. That's the case that he's making anyways to be clear but You all had decades these these governments had decades to understand that the current Way that we run our economy on fossil fuels and coal. It's not sustainable So you don't just get to say oh my god We had the rug pulled out from under us So we have to do this now you knew that you had to get off of fossil fuels and yet you did nothing and Now they're desperate and they're rushing but these activists are trying to Speak truth to power and remind them that this is not sustainable So I don't know what else to say about this story I think that Greta Thunberg did a great thing and even though a lot of Right-wingers hate her for some reason I think that that's honestly evidence that she's very effective because they wouldn't spend so much time Trying to tear her down had she not been such an effective communicator for the cause of climate activists It's because she's so influential that they make her a target and that's why they're gonna continue to concoct these bizarre conspiracy theories about her It's because unlike these right-wing influencers Greta Thunberg is Actually a threat to the status quo whereas they're the individuals who are licking the boots of these fossil fuel companies who want to continue to Ravage the planet for their own personal gain. So the person who's speaking out against that That's the person who's being subversive That's the person who's going against the establishment not the tools who are defending these powerful interests