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Sometimes, insults can backfire.

That certainly seems to be the case in the support being expressed for a world-famous Swedish teenager after she said that efforts to stigmatize her are a sign she's winning the climate fight.

Right wingers in the media, including recently departed Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente, have tried to make an issue of Thunberg's Asperger diagnosis to diminish her influence on readers.

The most recent attack came from Australian columnist Andrew Bolt, who called Thunberg, 16, "deeply disturbed" in a Rupert Murdoch–owned paper.

Thunberg tweeted that she is "indeed deeply disturbed" about hate and conspiracy campaigns that crop up because children communicate and act on science.

"When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go," Thunberg also tweeted. "And then you know you're winning! I have Aspergers and that means I'm sometimes a bit different from the norm. And—given the right circumstances—being different is a superpower."