Summary
Overview
Lucy Viggers, a former climate activist and influencer, shares her journey from being deeply embedded in progressive activism to questioning and ultimately leaving the movement. She discusses how social media, group identity, and institutional pressure shaped her worldview in her twenties, leading her to become a climate influencer who interviewed figures like Greta Thunberg and AOC. Through having children, living through COVID, and educating herself on alternative perspectives, she began to see contradictions in the climate movement and now works to expose what she considers misinformation about climate science and the destructive nature of climate activism on young people.
From Video Producer to Climate Activist
Lucy describes how she fell into climate activism while working at the left-wing news company Now This News starting in 2016. As a 25-year-old scrolling through social media feeds, she became exposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and began creating viral content about climate change. The professional success and social validation she received created a feedback loop that made climate activism her entire identity, despite lacking deep scientific understanding.
- Lucy worked as a video producer at Now This News, one of the first companies to get videos to autoplay on Facebook with subtitles
- She was exposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline protest in 2016, which went viral with the hashtag #CoverDAPL
- Her climate videos went viral, leading to professional success and a following of 50,000 on Instagram by 2019
- She interviewed Greta Thunberg and gave AOC one of her first interviews in 2017
- In 2019, she learned CO2 was only 0.04% of the atmosphere despite covering climate for four years
" I truly was the definition of a useful idiot. "
" I gave AOC one of her first interviews. I interviewed Greta Thunberg. And look at her now. I mean, I feel like she's lost the thought. "
The Psychology of Progressive Group Think
Lucy explains how identity politics and social pressure in her newsroom shaped her worldview. She describes how the ideology positioned white, privileged Americans as needing to atone for historical sins, making climate activism a way to be "on the right side of history." The culture of her workplace made it clear which opinions were acceptable, leading her to suppress critical thinking to fit in with the group.
- In the newsroom, ideas emerged that all white people are white supremacists even if they don't know it, creating pressure to constantly question oneself
- Climate activism became a way to atone for being privileged and descended from oppressive groups
- The Slack channel at work made it clear which opinions were acceptable through public messaging and vocal employees
- She stopped feeling pride in her American heritage and family history, instead adopting guilt and a need to apologize
" I'm on the right side of history. I'm atoning for being descended from this oppressive group of people. And so it was all in my psychology a way to be a good person. "
" I didn't know, like, how bad Stalin and Mao were. I did not know. I didn't know. I really thought that, like, we were just the worst country, which is really, it's so, it's so sad. "
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