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There’s a particularly toxic genre of writing (and speaking) called “concern trolling” where someone wishing you ill feigns concern by offering advice that is not in your interest.

A perfect example of this is the conservative reaction to 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, a Swedish native born with Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Thunberg traveled to the United States a few weeks ago and has spearheaded the school walkout effort here and around the world, encouraging other children to leave the classroom and protest their governments’ inaction.

Thunberg’s role is to motivate and inspire, to shake things up and hope the consequence is change. She doesn’t have practical proposals to offer. In fact, the policies she’s signed onto in the Youth Climate Action manifesto have been repeatedly debunked by the scientists she repeatedly invokes.

It’s relatively easy to dismiss Thunberg on the merit of her claims. (Rich Lowry and Noah Rothman do so well here and here.) Instead, many on the Right have taken to concern-trolling over Thunberg’s age and mental well-being.

Take, for example, the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, who took to Fox News last night to describe Thunberg as a “mentally ill Swedish child.” Fox News offered an apology for Knowles’ comments, but Knowles has doubled down, insisting that by definition she is indeed mentally ill and should not be thrust onto the national stage. Knowles’ argument would be fair (and true!) if it wasn’t dripping with feigned concern.

Then there was Laura Ingraham, who compared Thunberg’s speech before the United Nations to a clip from Children of the Corn, a Stephen King thriller in which children sacrifice adults to their demonic deity. And what about Dinesh D’Souza? He shared a picture of Thunberg alongside an image of Nazi propaganda, as if the two were somehow related.

The right-wing reaction is as hysterical as Thunberg’s doomsday activism. Let’s start with her age: Yes, Thunberg is a child, and adults should know better than to put her in front of hundreds of cameras over and over again. But she’s not the only one who has been forced to grow up on the national stage.

And have Knowles, Ingraham, D’Souza, and the rest expressed the same concern for CJ Pearson? He’s a 17-year-old conservative activist who began making appearances on Fox News when he was just 12 years old. Is he also a pawn in this game? What about Kyle Kashuv? The Parklander-turned-gun rights activist made a name for himself shortly after the shooting at his high school, along with several of his former classmates, and conservatives said nothing.

And why should they? Pearson and Kashuv made the independent choice to fight for what they believe. If anything, their youth makes them stronger: They have passion, drive, and they’ll do great things. As will Greta.

All of this suggests the Right’s “concern” for Thunberg has less to do with her age than it does with the message she’s spreading. The same goes for Thunberg’s mental well-being. Knowles and the like have argued Thunberg’s Asperger’s makes her vulnerable to manipulation and abuse. They’re right, and her parents should know better. The governments of the world haven’t stolen Thunberg’s childhood, as she told the U.N. yesterday; her parents have.

But Thunberg’s mental well-being should not be held against her. If anything, like her age, it makes Thunberg all the more impressive. She fights for change — wrongheaded and foolish as it is — not because of her Asperger’s but in spite of it.

I disagree with Thunberg on just about everything. Not because she’s young or because she has Asperger’s, but because her proposals are unrealistic and unscientific. Unfortunately, too many on the Right have decided to use Thunberg’s personal qualities as a means to undermine her rhetoric. It’s lazy, hypocritical, and it makes only one person look bad. And that person is not Greta Thunberg.