- Greta Thunberg responded to Andrew Tate on Twitter after he taunted her about his car emissions.
- The climate activist tweeted back making a joke about "small dick energy."
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg responded to Andrew Tate, a self-stylized tip guru with a history of making misogynistic comments online, after he called her out on social media.
Tate's original tweet, posted Tuesday, addressed the 19-year-old and asked whether she would provide her email address so he could send her a "complete list" of his 33 cars "and their respective enormous emissions."
Thunberg replied on Wednesday morning, saying Tate could enlighten her by emailing the list to "smalldickenergy@getalife.com."
—Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 28, 2022
Thunberg's barb quickly went viral on Wednesday, amassing over a million likes and 250,000 retweets in a matter of hours. Many people called the response "iconic" and applauded her for firing at Tate, who's become known online for his "alpha male" aesthetic and ridiculing of other influencers like Adin Ross.
"Andrew Tate will now be forever known as 'that guy who got absolutely wrecked by Greta Thunberg on Twitter' and nothing else," the writer and commentator Owen Jones tweeted.
While many lauded Thunberg's response, there was also a contingent of people who argued the dig was problematic in nature — using the phrase "small dick energy" as an insult to put down men has been criticized in the past as a form of body shaming.
Various articles in recent years have said these narratives feed into patriarchal notions of masculinity, transphobia, and are anti-feminist.
Many Twitter users who appeared to support Thunberg overall called out her choice of phrase, and the normalization of these types of comments as insults. Others argued that as Thunberg was referring to Tate's "energy" rather than his anatomy, it shouldn't be read as body-shaming.
Tate responded to Thunberg's quote tweet writing, "How dare you!?"
The Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker replied to Tate's response, saying it was "wild" that the influencer was beefing with "teenagers instead of adults" and still lost.
Thunberg has a history of clapping back at high-profile figures who criticize her on Twitter. In 2019, after former President Donald Trump accused her of having an "anger management problem," she changed her Twitter bio to mock his suggestion. She used the same tactic in response to disparaging comments made about her by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Tate was previously banned from Twitter before Elon Musk took over the company in October. He originally went viral in the summer of 2022 after clips where he made misogynistic remarks were reshared across social media by his fans.