Amidst the hallowed halls of academia, where young minds are meant to be molded with facts and reason, actress Jane Fonda took center stage at the University of Southern California Annenberg. Known not just for her roles on screen but for her off-screen theatrics, Fonda, a fervent climate activist, delivered a performance of her own, casting blame for the so-called “climate crisis” on what she dubbed as the unholy trinity of modern woes: racism, misogyny, and patriarchy.
In her impassioned address, Fonda reminisced about her days of dissent, proudly recounting her arrest during a 2019 climate protest in the heart of Washington, D.C. Even as she marked her 82nd birthday behind bars, she exulted in the crowd’s naivety, reveling in the fact that many had never before tasted the bitter sting of handcuffs. Such is the allure of activism for the privileged elite.
But Fonda’s rhetoric wasn’t confined to her own exploits; she sought to imbue her youthful audience with a sense of collective guilt, apologizing on behalf of generations past for the impending doom of climate catastrophe. Yet, in the same breath, she peddled hope, urging swift action and heightened awareness as the antidote to our environmental sins.
Her most audacious claim, however, lay in her indictment of society itself. With a flourish of dramatic flair, Fonda proclaimed the climate crisis as not merely a product of industrial excess but a symptom of our collective moral decay. “It’s a mindset,” she declared, as if the fumes of factories were but a manifestation of our inner demons.
In her call to arms, Fonda urged her audience to harness the power of emotion, to weave narratives that would stoke the fires of fury and indignation. For in the battlefield of ideas, it is not facts that prevail, but feelings—sentiments carefully crafted to sway hearts rather than minds.
And yet, amidst the fervor of her rhetoric, Fonda offered a glimmer of pragmatism, acknowledging the disproportionate burden borne by women in the face of environmental calamity. With a nod to the Green New Deal, she championed the inclusion of women in decision-making, presenting them not just as victims but as vanguards of environmental justice.
This was not Fonda’s first foray into the realm of environmental activism, nor, one suspects, will it be her last. For in a world where virtue signaling is currency and outrage is the lingua franca of the elite, Fonda has found her stage, her spotlight, and her audience—all eager to applaud her performance, no matter how outlandish the script may be.
