Dore is, first and foremost, an entertainer and comic, who also happens to ask a lot of uncomfortable questions. There's a great deal of satire in his style. I don't think one can demand that Dore, a kind of court jester, follows the strict journalistic rules some people on the left think are appropriate. That, surely, is found elsewhere.

Also, I think one needs to separate Thunberg the individual young woman with a... condition, and the massive media personality she has willingly become. That giant media persona needs to be examined and analysed, because she occupies an important space and is rather influential. What is she even doing in Davos, among the people who rule the world?

I think her role is multifacited, but primarily it's about creating the impression that the ruling class of the world, is willing to listen and can, in fact, empathize with her views, and would like to do more, but, well, it's difficult, you see? Is a real dialogue possible between climate activism and industrial capitalism? Is some kind of 'compromse' between the needs of the economy, welfare, and the 'free market', doable?

She's become, in the affulent West, a 'vetted' and 'santioned' activist. The pure and innocent voice of a child, who occupies the moralisitc role of a 'saint' and therefore appeals to liberals, precisely because she understands almost nothing about economics and power relationships under global capitalism. Liberals don't want to hear that capitalism is at the core of our problems and has to be drastically, structurally, changed. They prefer the conversation to focus on 'moral questions' about why individuals are unable or unwilling to accept responsibility for climate change. Simply put, Thunberg is demanding that people wake up and become good and virtuous and do what is right to stop the climate catastrophe.

This is ridiculous and childish,a nd completely ignores the central structure of capitalism and the inescapable rules and function of the 'class struggle.' This stance and ignorance, is prescisely why the BBC adores her and why she's so harmless.