Greta Thunberg
Role at the time: Climate activist who started the school climate strike, in a statement posted on Instagram
Defended or excused
Statement summary
Thunberg says that when she laughed in the interview, she had been blocking a weapons manufacturer in Germany and had just learned of a police-permitted climate demonstration by the German climate movement that had cut ties with her over her statements on Palestinians.
“For context, this was the same days as we were blocking a weapons manufacturer there, and just found out there simultaneously was a police permitted climate demonstration in a famously white middleclass area by the very same German climate movement who cancelled and 'distanced themselves' from me for saying that Palestinians are humans too and that when we call for justice, Palestinians have to be included in those calls too.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)VT: Greta Thunberg explains why she laughed at fellow climate protesters in viral video that sparked backlashArticle text
Why we used this label
Thunberg explains her laugh as a reaction to a police-permitted protest by the movement that had distanced itself from her, and she does not apologize for it, so we labeled it a defense.