This article critiques Violet Affleck's essay on the LA wildfires, published in the Yale Global Health Review. The author argues that Affleck's perspective is detached from the realities faced by those affected by the fires, emphasizing her privileged background and seeming lack of understanding of the situation.
The essay details Affleck's experience during the wildfires, where she spent time arguing with her mother in a hotel room. Affleck's stated concern was primarily about the inevitability of the wildfires based on climate change, downplaying the immediate concerns of rebuilding and housing for those displaced. This attitude is contrasted with her mother's volunteer work at the World Central Kitchen to aid wildfire victims.
The author criticizes Affleck for her seemingly smug attitude, lack of awareness, and failure to acknowledge the mismanagement of fire resources by California officials, notably Governor Gavin Newsom. The author also points out the role of nepotism in getting her essay published, suggesting its content wouldn't have been considered without her parents' fame.
The article concludes that Affleck's essay lacks substance and perspective, and her views on climate change are dismissed as uninformed. The author suggests that Affleck should engage with those directly affected by the fires to gain a more realistic understanding of the situation.
A Hollywood nepo baby strikes again!
Desperate to ditch the silver spoons from their veneer-filled mouths, these Tinseltown toddlers somehow end up being even more insufferable than their parents.
Take Violet Affleck, the daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.
Violet, 19, has decided to atone for the sin of being born to rich, beautiful parents by doing her best Greta Thunberg impression.
In a recent essay published in the Yale Global Health Review, Violet shared her half-baked musings about climate change and the LA wildfires.
âI spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room,â Violet writes, noting that her mother was âshell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction.â
Violet Affleck, 19, has decided to atone for the sin of being born to rich, beautiful parents by doing her best Greta Thunberg impression. (Violet is pictured with her father Ben Affleck).Â
âI spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room,â Violet writes, noting that her mother was âshell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction.â (Violet is pictured with her mother Jennifer Garner at the White House in 2022).Â
Violet, meanwhile, was filled with exactly the ennui you might expect from a privileged, woke Gen Zer.
In fact, Violet is downright smug. You see, she knew LA would burn because she believes in climate change.
âMy question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when,â Violet said.
California gets wildfires?! Gosh, call her Nostradamus.
Violet goes on to casually dismiss concerns about rebuilding, suggesting itâs far less important than addressing global warming.
âAs I chatted with adults in the hotel where weâd gone to escape the smoke, though, I found my position to be an uncommon one: people spoke of how long rebuilding would take, how much it would cost, and how tragically odd the whole situation had been,â Violet recalls.
Unsurprisingly, the adults â who were almost certainly paying for Violetâs stay in the assuredly luxurious hotel room â focused on the important, immediate and controllable things: like where everyone who was displaced by the fires is going to live.
Meanwhile, the arrogant first-year college student was clearly more interested in winning a political debate against her elders.
But why should housing be a concern for Violet? Sheâs never had to worry her pretty little head about the thread count in her sheets, never mind where the next meal is coming from or if she will have a roof over her head.
Privileged young people seem to think that going woke will make them appear sensitive to the needs of those less fortunate. In fact, it just proves how out of touch with the average American they are.
Of course, Violet is utterly oblivious to this.
The adults Violet complains about in her essay, who were probably paying for Violetâs stay in the assuredly luxurious hotel room, focused on the important, immediate and controllable things during the LA fires. (Pictured: Violet with Garner and younger siblings Fin and Samuel).
With a lack of self-awareness rivalled only by her worthiness, the pious teen warns that the âclimate crisisâ will soon be impossible for even societyâs âmost insulatedâ to ignore. As if she werenât wholeheartedly one of them.
And if wildfires are inevitable, as Violet claims, then perhaps it makes more sense to ask our local and state leaders to prepare accordingly.
But nowhere in her rambling essay does Violet address the woeful mismanagement of water and fire resources by California officials and how it directly contributed to the devastation wreaked by the January blazes.
Despite promising to overhaul Californiaâs wildfire prevention programs, Gov. Gavin Newsom failed to meet goals in the number of acres treated with fuel breaks (strategically cleared areas designed to reduce wildfiresâ spread) or prescribed burns (in which fire is literally fought with fire with the same goal).
In fact, the 2028 presidential hopeful overstated his prevention efforts by a whopping 690%, according to CapRadio and NPRâs California Newsroom.
The teenager is similarly silent about her motherâs conduct during the blazes.
Nowhere in her stroppy rant does she acknowledge that Garner didnât just sit in a hotel room, stuck in an endless argument with a teen she would have been forgiven for wanting to throttle.
She participated in efforts to help Los Angelesâ recovery. Among other things Garner volunteered at the World Central Kitchen.
So, while Violet was feverishly tapping out a polemic that amounts to little more than a tiresome, âI told you so,â her mother was actually helping - dishing out dinners to displaced Angelenos.
Maybe we shouldnât expect too much wisdom from Violet and her woke warblings.
Letâs face it, this first year student at Davenport College, as sheâs described at the end of the essay, didnât get published for her searing insights.
Despite promising to overhaul Californiaâs wildfire prevention programs, Gov. Gavin Newsom (pictured in the Pacific Palisades during the wildfires) failed to meet goals in the number of acres treated with fuel breaks or prescribed burns.
Nowhere in her stroppy teenage rant does she acknowledge that Garner didnât just sit in a hotel room. She participated in efforts to help Los Angelesâ recovery. Among other things Garner volunteered at the World Central Kitchen (pictured).
Her immature musings would never have seen the light of day if she werenât the daughter of two Hollywood megastars.
But thanks to the leftâs obsession with climate change, we have to hear the myopic reflections of someone unqualified to comment and completely missing the point.
Perhaps if Violet left her five-star hotel room with her wealthy comrades and spoke to the people she purports to represent â those who lost everything in the fire and donât have the resources to rebuild â sheâd have a more informed take.
Too bad sheâs at Yale where she wonât learn a damn thing.
As things stand, Iâd give as much weight to Violetâs views on climate change as I would to her motherâs advice on credit cards.Â
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