Climate activist Greta Thunberg had a fiery response to controversial influencer Andrew Tate's attempt to boast about his carbon-dioxide-emitting cars.
Tate, a self-described “success coach” who has been criticized online for a brand that many people describe as misogynistic, tweeted an image of himself with a car Tuesday. He addressed Thunberg directly, tagging her and writing: “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”
Thunberg — who is known for her signature no-nonsense, blunt style of speaking — quipped back Wednesday. She wrote, "yes, please do enlighten me." She then shared a fake email address at which to reach her: "smalldickenergy@getalife.com."
Tate recently topped Google’s 2022 most-searched list in the “who is …” question category. He has been active in far-right circles for years, but he began gaining mainstream attention this year after clips from his appearances on multiple podcast episodes and Twitch streams went viral.
He has attracted attention in large part due to his extreme statements: comparing women to property, graphically describing how he would assault a woman for accusing him of cheating and claiming that men would rather date 18- and 19-year-olds over women in their mid-20s because the younger women would have had sex with fewer men.
In a statement provided to NBC News in August, Tate pushed back against the claim that he's misogynistic, saying he has created “many videos praising women” and that he encourages his audience to avoid “toxic men.”
Later in August, he was banned from Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube for violating each platform’s community guidelines.
He also received backlash in 2017 when, at the height of the #MeToo movement, he tweeted that women should “bare some responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, amid other widely criticized statements appearing to blame women for the abuse and harassment they receive. Twitter had permanently suspended his account that year. He appeared to return to the platform last month.
Online, many people praised Thunberg for her response.
"Greta charging in late with a very strong entry for tweet of the year," one person wrote on Twitter.
"Beautiful — Greta Thunberg just effortlessly owned Andrew Tate," another Twitter user wrote.
"It’s winter time in Sweden but apparently still hot enough for Greta to deliver a burn like this!" one person joked.
On Wednesday morning, "Greta" was trending on Twitter.
Neither Thunberg nor Tate immediately responded to requests for comment.
On Wednesday afternoon, Tate responded to Thunberg with a video message on Twitter.
"Thank you for confirming via your email address ..." he wrote, tagging her Twitter handle. "The world was curious. And I do agree you should get a life."
