Opinion | Greta Takes Down Andrew Tate

Disclaimer: The following is an Opinion Piece from The Echo’s Editorial Section. An opinion piece is one in which a writer expresses a firmly developed opinion that is supported by study, reasoning, and circumstantial evidence. It’s a writer’s approach of expressing both what they believe and why they believe it. As a result, any opinions stated in by-lined editorials reflect the author’s views, not the administration or student body of GALA.

On December 27th, influencer Andrew Tate, widely labeled as misogynistic and sexist, started a Twitter war with teen Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg. He began by tweeting:

“Hello @GretaThunberg

I have 33 cars.

My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo.

My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s.

This is just the start.

Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”

Greta responded the next day, which Tate then countered by tweeting a video of him near a table that had a pizza box. In the video, he told Thunberg to “Please bring [him] pizza and make sure that these boxes are not recycled.” But, Tate’s comments ultimately backfired.

It turns out that Andrew Tate was a suspect for rape and human trafficking in Romania and the pizza boxes featured in his video were from a Romanian pizza chain. This showed the Romanian police that he was in the country, and soon after, his house was raided and he was arrested on December 30th. However, Thunberg was not done there. She tweeted the same day of Tate’s arrest, “This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”

For those who don’t know about Andrew Tate and his past, his comments have been so damaging that, according to the BBC, he is banned on numerous social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. He’s frequently made extremely sexist remarks such as saying, “there is no such thing as an independent female.” He was also banned on Twitter for saying that women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, though Musk has since reinstated Tate’s account. Not only that but, according to Vox, Tate moved from the UK to Romania because “rape laws are more lenient there.” He also said that he would punish a woman that cheated on him by “bang out the machete, boom in her face, and grip her by the neck.”

So as a teenager, a feminist, and an environmentalist, I am very happy that Greta’s actions led to Tate’s arrest. As one Twitter user put it “Andrew Tate owns 33 cars. Greta owns 1 Andrew Tate.” He, however, might not even own 33 cars anymore because when he was arrested, the Romanian authorities confiscated 15 of his sports cars.