Former kickboxer Andrew Tate is a social media personality and former reality show contestant whose brand reeks of toxic masculinity.
This week, Tate inexplicably threw a figurative punch at climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter. The Swedish teen’s NSFW reply was a TKO (technical knockout).
On Tuesday, Tate tagged Thunberg in a tweet naming a few of the 33 cars he purportedly owns and told her to provide him with her email address for a complete list.
It’s not entirely clear why Tate felt compelled to tell the 19-year-old about his collection of vehicles. He included the size of three of his cars’ engines, so it seems he was attempting to provoke a rebuke about his consumption of fossil fuels, or, as he puts it, “their respective enormous emissions.”
Thunberg didn’t take the bait.
Instead, she replied, “Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”
The internet went wild. People said that Thunberg had “bodied,” “murdered,” and “owned.”
Replies and quote tweets rolled in.
“Trying to beef w teenagers instead of adults and still losing is wild,” @hasanabi replied.
A few people rushed to Tate’s digital aid.
Transphobic right-wing commentator Matt Walsh pretended that Thunberg had actually owned herself “by saying that this is her own email address.” Journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer inexplicably said that she’d choose Tate’s life over Thunberg’s “every single time.”
“And the only car I own is a diesel Tiguan,” Hartley-Brewer added unhelpfully.
Tate tried an alternative defense.
He retweeted a claim that the 1.5 million (and counting) likes on Thunberg’s quote tweet clapback were bots.
Mostly people just laughed at him.
“She knocked him out in the opening seconds of the first round,” @curtisstigers tweeted.
Some even thought that Thunberg invented an entirely new category of digital burn.
“This isn’t a ratio or a murder. Or even a nuke. Just a plain old Exterminatus,” @mrbreadmond opined.
