If you haven't read any of my annual lists before, each year I choose my favorite thing from a variety of categories, ranging from entertainment to MMA to science to current events. I do it partially because I'm just a doofus on the internet who likes to find excuses to write. But, also, I don't find a lot of lists like this online- usually most year in review type lists are limited to a single category.
I personally like a variety of things, though, and I figure a lot of people out there do, too. Hence this list. I imagine if you're reading, you agree. Or maybe you just wanna scroll to one particular section on this list so you can just see my pick for Best Meme of 2019 and talk shit. Either way, enjoy!
MOVIE: The Irishman
Mafia movies usually aren't my thing. It's not that I think they're bad movies, but I usually don't find their themes to be that interesting. Usually it's either "being a criminal will eventually catch up to you" or "hey, have you noticed that sometimes the underworld and mainstream society are BOTH corrupt?" Those are fine themes, don't get me wrong. But just not ones I personally need to see portrayed for the thousandth time on screen.
But a movie that shows the organized crime connection between politics, unions, celebrity culture, and US history itself? I'm in.
The Irishman follows Frank Sheeran, played by Robert De Niro, a World War 2 veteran who rises from being a delivery truck driver to a mob hitman and prominent Teamster Union member. There are a number of other characters in the story, but the two most important are Russell Bufalino, played by Joe Pesci, who is the mob boss who takes Frank under his wing, and Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino, the Teamsters leader who dramatically grows the Teamsters Union and helps countless people, but also is an arrogant, temperamental man with connections to the mob.
What I found most interesting about this movie was how it (accurately) shows the connection organized crime had to the Teamsters Union, the Kennedy family, Cuba, and a number of other important figures, institutions, and places in US history. In a way, the mob can be seen as a stand-in for many of the ugly truths the US is built on. Just as the Teamsters Union legitimately helped its workers but did so in part due to its connections with the mob, so has the US reached its current prosperity and power thanks to some ugly and often ignored truths.
De Niro does a good job as Frank, though the real stand outs of this movie are Pesci and Pacino. Pesci's most famous roles have him playing boisterous, loud, and openly unhinged characters, but here Pesci has a quiet, composed power that is way more terrifying than any previous role I've seen him in. Pacino's Hoffa, on the other hand, is a brash, egotistical man who wants to be in charge no matter the cost, but also genuinely believes in the message and power of his union. Between these great performances and the thematic depth of this movie, The Irishman is another great movie from one of today's greatest living directors.
COMEDY: Jojo Rabbit
A lot of the choices on here are ones I'd generally recommend to anyone. Part of why I write this list is to help give visibility to things I enjoyed so that others can enjoy them, too. But this movie is not a movie I'd recommend to everyone. Frankly, if you're not down for a dark comedy that features a naive young boy with Hitler as an imaginary best friend, that's fair. Jojo Rabbit is not for everyone.
But, if you're willing to take that step in exchange for a heartfelt dramedy about Nazi Germany, then this is a movie worth watching. The boy this movie follows is a young Nazi who imagines Hitler as his best friend. His understanding of the world around him gradually shifts as he gets to know a young Jewish girl that his mom (played wonderfully by Scarlett Johansson) is hiding away in their home.
A lot of the comedy comes from the utter oafishness of the Nazis. Sometimes we forget how truly corny and boneheaded the Nazis were. They were also literal geeks who loved rituals and just generally were the opposite of badass noble warriors the way they envisioned themselves to be. This movie is full of moments that expertly take the piss out of Nazis, who are much more similar to their modern internet troll equivalent than one might think.
Jojo Rabbit isn't perfect in its handling of everything. To quote Matthew Lickona of the San Diego Reader: "There's a deep and sincere sweetness in the work of writer-director Taika Waititi. It's a kind of relentless and innocent good cheer that persists in the face of horror - to the point where the horror is obscured, or maybe defanged." This movie tries its best to balance a coming of age story for the main character with the realities of the Holocaust, and it doesn't always work. But when it does, this movie is brilliant.
ANIMATED MOVIE: Frozen 2
This is basically the G-rated Disney version of a Final Fantasy film, so that's pretty cool.
But, moving past that, Frozen 2 is a sequel that is more ambitious than the first movie. Long story short, the main cast must go on a magical quest into enchanted, unknown lands in order to help two warring societies make peace while also uncovering the real story behind their family, kingdom, and Elsa's powers. So, yeah, definitely a lot to take on.
For me, when it comes to some of the bigger picture stuff, this movie succeeds wonderfully. Basically, in the enchanted forest, there are remnants of an old guard of Elsa's/Anna's kingdom who are in conflict with a group of forest people who are basically a stand-in for Indigenous people. Long story short, the big picture theme of the movie is about how kingdoms are often built on the backs of exploitation and violence, and I was impressed with how a Disney movie handled this theme.
When it came to the personal stuff, though, things were a little less coherent. The movie emphasizes change, and everyone's situation changes by the end of the movie, but few of the characters truly change internally. Elsa, for instance, tries to do everything alone. This includes running off alone to try to uncover secrets about her powers, and... she ends up being right? She makes it to the island in a way that never would've worked if she brought her power-less friends with her, and helps set things in motion so that Anna can later help make things right. Anna meanwhile is upset that Elsa does this, but also leaves Kristoff behind, and it just sorta... never really ends up mattering?
Still, those hiccups aside, the movie is a fun, interesting, and thematically thoughtful movie. Elsa is one of my favorite Disney characters, and I had a good time watching her and the rest of the crew go on an RPG-like quest to get to the bottom of everything. While I enjoyed Toy Story 4, ultimately I both enjoyed Frozen 2 a little more and found it a little more substantive.
ACTOR: Brad Pitt
Before this year, I don't think I've give Pitt the credit he deserves. I never had anything against the guy- in fact, I've always liked him- but for some reason I've never considered him a "great" actor. This is despite the fact that he's played some of my favorite characters in film, from Tyler Durden in Fight Club to Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds. So, consider this something of a Pitt appreciation post.
Pitt starred in two movies I saw this year. Both were movies I ultimately had mixed feelings about, but thoroughly enjoyed Pitt's performances in. The first was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I enjoyed the movie, but wasn't blown away by it. Pitt, however, knocked it out of the park. Yes, he played a cool guy, which at first seems pretty comfortably within his repertoire. But upon closer look, aging stuntman Cliff Booth has more going on.
Rather than being aloof, he's a loyal friend with a quiet need for connection that can be easy to miss. Yes, he's laid back throughout the film, but he is loyal to Rick Dalton (Leonardo Dicaprio) in a way that he wouldn't necessarily need to be if he only cared about financial security. There are multiple times where he could've packed up and left, but didn't. Mix in his aforementioned charisma, as well as looks, and you get the impression he'd be fine wherever he went. Yet he does care about Dalton, even during times when Dalton isn't the best friend. It's a surprisingly layered role that Pitt absolutely nails.
The other movie I saw him in is, in some ways, the opposite of his Cliff Booth role. In Ad Astra he plays Major Roy McBride, an astronaut with major father issues. Like his father, he puts his love of reaching for the stars before his need for human connection. He has spent his life pushing others away while focusing on the mission. This movie is incredibly introspective and character focused, which demands a lot of Pitt. There are countless quiet, poignant closeups that Pitt absolutely nails. Even if the overall movie is less memorable than I hoped, I remember being fully engaged with Pitt's performance.
These roles show that Pitt has presence and range. Whatever Pitt does, it's usually memorable, and almost always good. He may be my favorite current actor in Hollywood- the only people really stopping him are Michael B Jordan and Oscar Isaac (also, Chris Hemsworth's abs). Whoever is truly my favorite actor, though, I respect the hell out of Pitt's abilities and can't wait to see what he does next.
ACTRESS: Ana de Armas
Ana de Armas first stood out to me in Blade Runner 2049, where she did the most with what she was given in her role as Joi, the main character's AI girlfriend. So it was nice to see her again in 2019 with a bigger role. She starred in Knives Out as Marta Cabrera, the caretaker of a famous old author played by Christopher Plummer.
What's great about this movie as a whole is its fresh approach to the mystery genre. The movie gives you an incredible amount of information toward the beginning, including information that may make it seem like almost every question has been answered by the end of the first hour, from the alibis of every family member to who was there for the author's death. But it's those little missing details that make all the difference.
What this movie is about at its core, though, is that being a kind, empathetic human being can save you from needing to worry about the tangle of lies, deceit, and regret that less caring people can get caught in. Ana de Armas anchors that theme by being a beacon of empathy and humility as Marta, who is literally incapable of lying without throwing up. She is kind to the point of only wanting to look out for herself due to her family's immigration status- but even then, she isn't a perfect person, and that helps make her character still feel like a human being, rather than a flawless angle.
This movie comes together because of smart writing and memorable performances all around (especially Chris Evans and Daniel Craig), but ultimately it's Ana de Armas who stood out to me. I hope this is the beginning of her rise, because she brings a vulnerability and kindness to the screen that I think we could use more of in Hollywood.
TV SHOW: The Good Place
For the second time ever, I have a repeat choice from a previous year (the first time was giving Michael B Jordan actor of the year in both 2015 and 2018). The producers of the show are welcome to send me a giant check for giving such generous praise and publicity for the show; I will accept payments in normal US dollars, gold bars, or Iraqi dinars.
But in all seriousness, The Good Place is a brilliant show that takes ideas from the philosophy of ethics and packages them in a show that is hilarious, witty, and charming. I truly don't understand how they do it. By the end of watching this series you'll be able to explain complex philosophical concepts without even realizing you were learning along the way thanks to the show's entertainment value.
There's more I could say, but to avoid writing as much as I did for last year's Good Place entry, I'll stop there. All I'll say is that if you love shows that can make you laugh and think at the same time, complete with well-realized characters and a constantly forward-moving plot, you must check out this show.
MMA FIGHTER I'D LIKE TO SEE BOUNCE BACK:
Renato Moicano
Renato Moicano is a grappler by trade, but he has the jab, leg kicks, feints, and footwork of a striker. He uses all of those to set up stronger punches, fancier kicks, and the occasional intercepting knee. In 2018, that brought him success against both Calvin Kattar and Cub Swanson, both of whom are top level fighters.
Unfortunately, in 2019, those attributes weren't enough to keep him in the win column. In February he fought Jose Aldo, who likes to rely on some of the same fundamental moves as Moicano, but in a stockier body and more offense-minded style. In a first round that saw a battle of feints, counters, feinted counters, and counters to counters, both fighters seemed even. Aldo, however, being more experienced, began winning these mind battles in the beginning of the second round, thanks in part to punches to the body and better timing. The knockout came when Aldo wobbled Moicano, threw to the body to distract Moicano, and went in with some beautiful combinations to get the W.
The knockout from Korean Zombie in June came only thirty seconds into the first round, so there isn't too much of a detailed story to tell. Zombie weaved one of Moicano's punches and came up with a right hand that Moicano didn't see coming. Moicano dropped and Korean Zombie did a beautiful job staying on him in order to get the finish another thirty or seconds later.
Moicano is still young, however, like a lot of the featherweight division. He has incredible grappling and great striking fundamentals. I'd like to see him sharpen his feinting abilities, choose one more strike to hone as strong as his jabs & leg kicks, and maybe even mix in some wrestling. Lanky strikers like Alexander Gustafasson have shown the occasional shot can help throw your opponent off.
Whatever he does to improve, though, I can't wait to see him back in the cage. With a division full of young, exciting names like current champion Alexander Volkanovski, former champion Max Holloway, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Brian Ortega, and of course Korean "incapable of a boring fight" Zombie, the featherweight has a bright future ahead. I can't wait to see it, and Moicano's part in it.
MALE MMA FIGHTER: Kamaru Usman
While Usman only had two fights this year, but they were two of the most significant fights of the year. The first was against Tyrone Woodley, considered by many to be the best welterweight champion of all time next to Georges St-Pierre (and, depending on who you ask, Matt Hughes). In that fight Usman used his incredible pace, toughness, and wrestling ability to dominate Woodley from the beginning to the end of the fight, winning basically every round.
His next fight, of course, is the one that really got everyone- even those outside the MMA world- talking. His fight against interim champion and dipshit troll Colby Covington became culturally significant and symbolic in a way that few MMA fights have. Covington wears a MAGA hat, uses racism to get in the headlines, calls everyone things like "virgins" as a form of trash talk, and just generally acts like an obnoxious dipshit. Usman, on the other hand, is an immigrant from Nigeria who rarely trash talks his opponents.
So, yeah, it was one of those kinds of fights.
Usman won with a combination of grit, great conditioning, straight punches, and ultimately minding his defensive Ps and Qs better than Covington. The end came when Usman dropped Covington multiple times in the final round, beating the paste out of him long enough for the referee to stop it with about a minute left. Since then, much of the post-fight coverage has portrayed the fight as Usman's strength and athleticism against Colby's grit and determination, an ugly historical remnant of racist 20th Century sports coverage where every black fighter always won due to some combination of sneakiness and/or natural physical gifts, whereas white athletes won because of intellect and toughness.
But, as my friend Elias Cepeda points out in his own article about the fight, Usman deserves heaps of praise for his toughness that he simply hasn't been receiving. He also showed a great fight IQ in the fight, making little adjustments to his approach the further into the fight they got. He deserves credit for both his toughness in living in US society as a black immigrant who has to endure "USA!" chants against him despite being an American and for his toughness inside the cage, because keeping up that pace isn't easy. For defeating the two best welterweights in the world and becoming something of a symbol in the process, Usman was one of the easiest picks for me of this entire post.
FEMALE MMA FIGHTER: Amanda Nunes
Then, in 2019, she beat both Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie. In other words, she had now beaten every single women's champion of both the 135lbs and 145lbs divisions. Most of them she had finished. I normally don't think it makes sense to state an opinion as a fact, but in this case, it's pretty clear Nunes is the greatest female fighter of all time.
We've also seen Nunes round out her game in the process. In the fight against Holm, Nunes mixed her kicks and punches well, and feinted more than I've seen her feint in the past (seriously, if you have the ability to, rewatch the fight at a lower speed and see just how much Nunes pretends she's about to hit). Holm, a counter-fighter, was often left swinging at air. She didn't know how to respond with so many faked movements from Nunes; her reactions began to dull, which is trouble against someone who hits as strong as Nunes.
After Nunes began to hurt Holm she started throwing a lot of punches with the occasional body kick. It's normally bad to lower your attack variety, but Nunes had a specific strategy in mind. She got Holm thinking about punches and body kicks. The end came when Nunes feinted a right hand, Holm reacted to block, Nunes feinted another attack, Holm half-heartedly tried to both block and counter with a lead leg side kick, reconsidered, then relaxed just as Nunes threw the headkick.
It only takes one strategic miscalculation to lose a fight. Especially against Nunes.
Frankly, I only saw her later fight against de Randamie once, and it was at a party, so I wasn't paying the closest attention. But, as everyone has discussed since, it had Nunes bring back her wrestling game. It was nice to see Nunes mix it up more and land some strong ground and pound. Going into 2020, I can't wait to see a true great of the sport continue setting records and impressing everyone. Just as there was the Anderson Silva era, the Georges St-Pierre era, and many more for the sport, we are currently in the Nunes era. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.
MMA FIGHT: Adesanya vs Gastelum
My favorite fights are always those that have both adrenaline-pumping fireworks and technique, and this fight had both. Kelvin Gastelum played the bull while Israel Adesanya played the matador, yet both came with an excellent bag of tricks. Both of them made good use of their lead hands despite being in a southpaw vs orthodox matchup, both had good head movement, both had good footwork for what they were trying to do, and both used constant feints to disguise their attacks (seriously, watch this fight slowed down for a bit and take note of how many feints they use vs actual attacks).
Each of them had their own special tricks, too, and it's how they put everything together that really made it all click. Striking in MMA has come a loooong way from the days when Anderson Silva could just dance around brawlers who walked forward in a straight line and didn't know how to feint. Gastelum may have been swinging his powerful left overhand, but in addition to the aforementioned thing both fighters did well, he was using intelligent pressure and punches to the body to attack. Any offensive-minded fighters should study his performance here.
Adesanya had his bag of tricks as well. He switched stances constantly, throwing off Gastelum. He not only threw kicks to a variety of places, but also threw kicks that changed direction mid-attack. For example, a few times he threw a kick that looked to be a snap kick up the middle, but then changed direction into a sidekick halfway through. He used a full variety of strikes, even a few knees and a beautiful spinning elbow thrown from a feinted takedown attempt.
Toward the championship rounds, Gastelum began to wilt under Adesanya's more well-rounded arsenal. He didn't fold by any means, but he attacked to the body less. His footwork became less sophisticated. His intelligent pressure slowed down. These changes allowed Adesanya to get the upperhand, though Gastelum did regain momentum in the fourth round by feinting a punch and throwing a headkick that Adesanya didn't see coming.
Still, it wasn't to be. Adesanya recovered in the fifth round, where the two fighters had an all or nothing war that Adesanya emerged the victor of. Both fighters looked excellent, though, and had their moments. The fact that striking in MMA can rise to this level while still being entertaining is a beautiful thing to see.
SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY:
Ancient Human Environmental Change
See, before human beings figured out how to industrialize, we had to figure out how to create societies. We had to figure out how to come together in a large, organized way. That began with agriculture, which allowed human beings the ability to mass produce food in a way that they couldn't simply as hunter-gatherers. We started agriculture on a large scale about ten thousand years ago, which allowed enough food to be produced by farmers that other roles previously held by various community members could become full-time occupations.
If humanity were a thirty year old person, we only started agriculture about a year ago, and only started industrializing a week ago.
All of this is to say that agriculture was a super, super important step between where we are now and where we were when we first emerged from our ancestors. Now evidence is coming out that agriculture had a much larger environmental impact than we previously imagined. In fact, by around 3,000 years ago we had what scientists are now calling a "significant" impact on the Earth.
This breakthrough is important both because it drastically challenges our understanding of the past while also giving us potential new opportunities to learn things that can help us in the present. What exactly were these impacts? What was the good and bad that came from it? What agricultural practices had a better environmental effect than others? I'm no expert in the field of agriculture or archaeology, so I have no idea what the answers will be. But I'm excited to learn, and to see what that knowledge can do to help our planet.
SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT: Black Hole Picture
Scientists had always toyed with the idea of solving that problem by taking a picture of a black hole's silhouette, but it was a task far easier said than done. Over the last decade, they built a series of telescopes that together they called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to try to capture the image. The EHT is so sophisticated that it works about 4,000 times better than the Hubble Telescope.
This year they finally used it to snap a picture of the silhouette of black hole M87*, which is the black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87. M87* is 6.5 billion times the size of our sun, so to call it big is an understatement. With the EHT and a team of dedicated scientists from around the world, we finally achieved the impossible. It's pretty cool what we can accomplish when we work together as a species when we're not busy being shitty to each other.
BULLSHIT NEWS STORY:
Just... Everything About Ilhan Omar
For anyone unfamiliar with Abrams, he's an absolute ghoul of a human being who helped illegally give aid to Nicaraguan death squads in what came to be known as the Iran Contra Scandal. He also covered for the extreme human rights abuses of the military dictatorships of Guatemala and El Salvador. He's responsible for immense human suffering in Central America, but because Republicans and most Democrats don't care about that, he's never faced any consequences. He currently serves as an envoy to Venezuela to continue his legacy of harming Latin America. Omar's grilling of Abrams is probably the closest he'll ever get to answering for the death, violence, and poverty he helped create.
Unfortunately, being a female refugee of color who speaks up for labor, immigrant, and human rights means that much of the world will be against you. Omar has faced an onslaught of conspiracy theories, vitriol, and outright threats against her. Most of this has come from the right, but that hasn't also stopped Democrats like Nancy Pelosi from passive aggressively taking jabs at her, either. All year I've seen bullshit on my Facebook feed from my few right-leaning friends, but also stuff from those toward the center, too.
These conspiracies and attacks against Omar show the depths people will plunge to against a refugee woman of color taking a courageous stand. Normally I use this category on my end of year lists to focus less on politics and more on society as a whole. But, with so much gross information against Omar, choosing anything else wouldn't seem right. I don't normally argue in favor of politicians on this blog, but I stand with Ilhan Omar.
ACTUAL NEWS STORY: Protests Around the World
Protest in Colombia
For the world as a whole, things are changing. The post-World War 2 order is melding away as increasingly powerful multinational corporations continue to drain the wealth from previously well-off countries. Though this is a shame, the post-WW2 order was also built on the suffering of many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and even left a lot of people from well-off countries in the dark, too. Still, the current decline of the post-WW2 order means some ugly things are coming back. Xenophobia and authoritarianism are on the rise everywhere.
But people aren't helpless. Historically, change has always come from people coming together and demanding more. From various South American countries (whose protests I dedicated an entire blog post to) to Hong Kong, from France to Iraq, 2019 truly was a year of protests. I cannot make a general claim about what each of these protests are about, as each place has their own unique set of issues rising from their own circumstances.
What is important, though, is to be reminded that politics isn't something you passively participate in when elections come around. It's something you should participate in whenever you can, as politics is part of society, and society is ever-going. That's not to say you should always be involved in politics, of course, but at least go to the occasional rally, sign the occasional petition, volunteer or donate to the occasional community organization. Because pressuring those in power gets results- the protests a couple months back in Ecuador, for example, succeeded completely.
We all have that power. We all have the ability to win. The only uncertainty is if we are able to realize and harness that power, not if it's there. People from all over the world continue to show us the way. It's up to us to decide if and when we'll use it. With so many issues plaguing both our country and our world right now- climate change, wealth inequality, debt, xenophobia, even democracy itself- our choices will impact generations to come.
MEME: Helpful Buff Guys Meme
I mean, what's not to love about counter-intuitive, wholesome memes that make people feel good?
VIDEO: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Episodes 25 & 26 Are Good, Actually
Part of me understands. I would've liked a lot more plot resolution. But, at the same time, the series finale is wonderful in that it gets to the core of who our main characters are and what is holding them back from finding inner peace. For all the abstract weirdness contained within, at its core the last two episodes are about understanding who our main characters are. The last episode focuses on our main character, Shinji, entirely. By the end he finally achieves self-acceptance, and is even ready to try liking himself and to try connecting more with other people. It's complicated, it's simple, it's messy, it's beautiful.
CodexEntry, which is a really good video essay channel that everyone should check out, has an incredible video that makes basically the same argument I am making, but with real depth. This video isn't for everyone- it's an hour long- but if you want a really thoughtful exploration of the show, both overall and its last two episodes in particular, there isn't a better video you can find.
You may be asking yourself: even if it's an impressive video, why choose a video about an anime when there's more important fish to fry? Well, in a world where we're increasingly feeling lonely and alienated, and depression and anxiety are up as a result, a lot of people can probably relate to Shinji's feelings of isolation and low self-worth. I chose this video hoping both to encourage people to check Evangelion and to defend its ending. Because in a world where so many people feel disconnected, a character reaffirming their desire to like themselves and reach out to others is something to celebrate.
PHOTO: Protester Taking Down Riot Officer
A picture-perfect double leg takedown from the Chilean protests. I already wrote about protests around the world a couple entries above. If you'd like to know more about the South American protests in particular and how they fit into the region's history, check out this post I did a month or so back. Long story short, they're protesting cuts to public programs and corporate regulations that powerful international financial institutions are pressuring South American countries to implement.
BADASS: Indigenous Climate Activists
Artemisa Xakriaba, a 19 year old Indigenous climate activist from Brazil
Let me just start by saying I love Greta Thunberg. It's awesome that she's raised such a high profile at such a young age fighting against climate change, which is arguably the most pressing issue of our time. She tries her best to put her money where her mouth is, taking public transit instead of cars and even boating over the water instead of flying. Her highly visible advocacy is really important and deserves praise.
However, it's a shame that young climate activists of color have been largely ignored, or at least not given much attention, despite a lot of the great work being done. This is especially true of young Indigenous activists. Indigenous people generally have some of the most sustainable ways of living off the land out of most human societies on Earth. A lot of people instinctively think "well that's just because they used to literally live off the land. They didn't really shape their environment the way Europeans and other large civilizations did."
What people miss (or, rather, aren't taught) is that many Indigenous people actually did actively transform the lands in which they lived. Many have engaged in sophisticated agricultural practices that have shaped the land around them to make it more suited to human need. The book "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" talks about this in depth. This is partially why the Americas the pilgrims landed upon was so bountiful. The pilgrims thought it was a natural bounty, but it was actually the result of thousands of years of hard, dedicated work by the people of that land.
All of this is to say that we have a lot to learn from Indigenous people. Even today, from Standing Rock to the Indigenous-led protests in South America, Indigenous people do what they can to make sure we live off of the Earth in a sustainable, just way. To Greta's credit, she has tried to point this out, but the media hasn't really obliged. As even the UN points out, Indigenous people both suffer disproportionately from climate change while also holding many keys to taking it on.
So, here's to the young Indigenous activists doing everything they can to keep our planet safe. We must do what we can to make sure powerful people are forced to listen.
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