People have just discovered Kyle Rittenhouse and Greta Thunberg were born on exactly the same day

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg and teenage gunman Kyle Rittenhouse share the same birthday and it’s safe to say the internet has some thoughts.

Swedish campaigner Thunberg was born on 3 January 2003 in Stockholm, while Rittenhouse was born on that same date in Antioch in Illinois.

The two 18-year-old teenagers share a birthday, but it may be one of the few things they have in common as their young lives have taken them in very different directions.

In August 2020, Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two of them, during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The protests were sparked by the police shooting of Black man Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse became somewhat of a hero among Republicans and conservative commentators. He was controversially acquitted on all five counts – including homicide and attempted homicide – last month.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Thunberg, meanwhile, has helped lead a global climate activism campaign and started the School Strike for Climate in 2018 at 15 years old which has become a worldwide movement.

On finding out about their shared birthdays, people took to Twitter to compare just how different the pair are.

Republican candidate Lavern Spicer wrote: “Kyle Rittenhouse and Greta Thunberg were both born on the exact same day: January 3, 2003.

“One became a hero and one became a zero.”

Another joked: “Kyle Rittenhouse and Greta Thunberg being born on the exact same day really destroys the whole zodiac system.”

Someone else commented: “Kyle Rittenhouse: born Jan 3, 2003–the... hero of right-wing and white supremacists.

“Meanwhile Greta Thunberg, also born January 3, 2003,  devotes her life to saving the world from climate disaster.”

Another person who also shares their birthday compared the reaction to discovering these facts.

It’s hard to see how the two 18 year olds could be any more opposite.