Climate activist Greta Thunberg exchanged blows with controversial influencer Andrew Tate on Twitter. Tate, a former kickboxer, posted a photo to the social network Tuesday of himself refueling a sports car. He has 33 cars, he wrote, including a Bugatti and two Ferraris. The tweet was addressed to Thunberg. “This is just the beginning,” Tate continued. “Please give me your email address so I can send you a complete list of my car collection and their enormous emissions.”
Anyone who knows Tate shouldn’t have been surprised by the provocative tweet. The 36-year-old regularly appears on social networks with misogynist posts. Among other things, he claimed that women could not drive and belonged “in the house”. He taunted rape victims, saying they must “be responsible” for sexual assaults.
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have blocked Tate for such statements. Twitter recently restored his profile, which had previously been blocked for years. Since then, he’s continued to rant about women and spread confusing theses about CNN viewers who “live in the Matrix.” His post to Greta Thunberg was liked more than 170,000 times.
The Swedish activist countered a little later – and aimed her tweet below the belt. “Yes, please enlighten me. Write me to my email address kleinpenisenergie@hastdunichtsbessereszutun.com,” Thunberg tweeted on Wednesday and received more than two million likes for it. Tate responded with a video in which he smokes a cigar and insinuates that Thunberg is “a slave to the Matrix”. There was no further counterattack by the Swede for the time being.
It was not the first time that Thunberg reacted sarcastically to an attack on the Internet. In 2019, then-US President Donald Trump tweeted that Thunberg appeared to be “a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.” Thunberg copied the description to her Twitter bio – and her followers celebrated it for it. In November 2020, Trump accused her of having an “anger management issue” and needing to relax. Again, the activist adopted the wording in her bio.