I'm trying to imagine how insecure one has to be in life to do that? It's a gtr though so it's okay. At least they didn't do that to their 911 or something.
I was just listening to a discussion about this on a news show and they brought up a good point. For how ridiculous and pathetic Andrew Tate might seem he did benefit from this. Many people like myself had never heard of Andrew Tate but now his name is out there and for every 50 people who think he is sad and pathetic a few probably liked what he did and if just one out of those 50 go his website and sign up for his program that could translate into a lot of money for him. Andrew Tate is essentially a professional troll who like Alex Jones and Milo Yannoupoulis have found a way to monetize being a troll. That a lot of people hate them just adds to their success. Given how reactionary our culture is hate isn't actually a bad thing as if someone is really hated there is a good chance that there are those who will like them and support them even more. Of course though this only works if you haven't committed something criminal like Andrew Tate appears to have or fraud like Alex Jones. Given how that might be part of the appeal of them that might be a risk they are willing to take or don't think about.
I hate Tate because he targets impressionable teenagers. The reason people above age 25 don't know him is because he initially blew up on TikTok half a year ago. His "program" tells the "students" to make a million accounts on TikTok that would spam Andrew Tate contents. If someone signs up for for his program through one of these TikTok videos, the creator gets a cut of the tuition through an affiliated link. You couldn't swipe through TikTok without seeing these spam accounts. That's why TikTok banned him, not so much for his content, but it's literally flooding the platform with bot spam. Think about it, 15 year olds were paying him 50 dollars a month to get the privilege of spaming TikTok with his videos so more 15 year olds can pay him 50 dollars a month. It's actually insanity.
It shows the power of telling teenage boys looking for a purpose how society is against them and the woke feminists want them to turn into life long incels who let women walk all over them. It's a powerfully addictive narrative that teenage boys latch on to. Hence why that rhetoric is so popular with YouTube gaming channels. The combo of gaming and anti-woke rage bait makes for very addictive content for that demographics.
Just asked my 14 yo stepson if he knew who Andrew Tate was and he told me all about it. He personally doesn’t agree with his message but he knows kids who do. He described the positive as there are a lot of lazy, video game playing teen boys out there and the message is trying to make them more alpha, take charge etc. He said there is too much toxicity to him but others “worship” him.
As a coach to teenage and college age boys I agree there is lot of lazy video game playing teen age boys. The problem with people like Tate is that they are selling a message as if you're either a fat loser who plays video games all day or you're an alpha male full of himself who doesn't respect women. This is a message we frequently hear from many that there is a crisis in masculinity and the only response is a very narrow view of masculinity. I agree there is a crisis in masulinity but masculinity isn't just about ego and dominating others. It is also about having mental and emotional toughness. About being willing to not just be a fighter but also a protector. You can be in great shape, have a lot of confidence and still treat women and others well. Part of what women like is confidence and self-assuredness. That doesnt have to be cockiness or or an act.
Don't think that's a problem with Tate. He's selling confidence and assuredness to insecure and inexperienced youths. You'd expect any experience will eventually turn into success with many tries, but we're at a point in our economy where men have given up trying to find jobs or even collect unemployment checks. Glam worship turns random folks into multimillionaires so why can't it be you?? Twenty years ago, Fight Club (and Matrix to a lesser extent) was a big cultural point to describe male angst of the era. Well Ed Norton in the move had a good paying job. Can't assume that much nowadays. Youths now also have to deal with postmodern shifts on how men fit and represent society. Fight Club is "simply" too toxic and one could even make a case it's too dangerous to incite that kind of destructive energy among disaffected dead end youths with no outlets of meaning. Shoot a parody show like Married With Children would now be the American Dream for a lot of folks out there. Without that outward drive to feel alive, it can internalize into a more corrosive self destructive energy. Video game addiction, one night stands, substance abuse... Tate is offering the latter an out with "guaranteed formulas". It's not necessarily the lifestyle he promises (as they likely realize it's not as simple) but the meaning and purposefulness he excudes in his delivery to his followers. A side topic is the relationships some influencers have with their followers where they're strongly encouraged to be their best friends who love each and everyone in their audience. I wonder how gpt-psychologist will unravel that for future folks... Taco Bell coupons as a date suggestion?
apparently the Greta Thunberg story is bullshit Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because Of His Greta Thunberg Video This is a lesson in media failure and misinformation. https://www.calmdownben.com/p/romanian-cops-did-not-find-andrew
Yes confidence and self-assuredness are needed among today's young men but from what little I've seen of Andrew Tate is that he's basically peddling those in the form of being an @sshole. He's basically selling the same attitude as in the Wolf of Wall Street commercial. Look at all the money, fast cars and beautiful women I can get. It's not something new and the same type of lifestyles that those of us old enough to remember were peddled on late night ads on local TV in the '80's. Fight Club was about how modern materialistic society emasculated men. It was about how the pursuit of material goods meant men were willing to subsume their egos and aggression to fit into a corporate system. It's resonance was the same as the Matrix in the idea that our consumer and material culture was blinding us from our humanity. In the case of the Fight Club it was that men are inherently nihlistic and men had to reclaim that even if it meant massive destruction. American Psycho took this idea to an extreme. There is a lot to that idea and martial arts not only recognizes that but embraces that idea. Martial arts though isn't about nihlism but understanding that the destructive trait needs to be guided and directed towards something productive. That is why discipline and humility is so important to martial arts. What people like Tate are peddling is opposite of that. They are peddling that through aggression and assertiveness that men should be getting far more material gain. That cockiness and attitude are the path to meaningless sex and that women are not much more than property like sports cars to satisfy male pleasure. in other words rather than Fight Club message that material society is a trap for men that men should instead seek out material pleasure as much as possible. Leaving aside the shallowness and immaturity of such attitudes it is dangerous. It not only encourages misogyny and misanthropy, for most young men it will lead to disillusion and dissapointment. The unfornate truth is not all men can be alpha males at the same time being an alpha male that is only out for their own gratification leads to many other problems. An alpha male from the biological understanding of a pack or a herd is one who does get the most sex but also has the responsiblity of protecting the pack while constantly being on guard from being overthrown by another male. Having to constantly fight to defend your position in life isn't necessarily a good life and the lifestyle that people like Tate are peddling comes with a lot of insecurity. So yes young men / boys should be taught to more confidence and that there is much more to life than video games and streaming media. They should also be taught that being a man isn't about getting a bunch of sports cars and fawning women. It is about hard work, sacrifice and dedication. That there is a destructive aggressive side to manhood but that side can be marshalled to greater goals such as helping one's friend's, family and communtiy. THis is the message of most sports. Where you work and fight together as a team. Where you're not just the lone alpha male but part of a pack. That's the message that we should be getting out to young men.
A piece from the Guardian about the danger of Andrew Tate's influence on boys. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/07/andrew-tate-misogyny-schools-vulnerable-boys ‘Vulnerable boys are drawn in’: schools fear spread of Andrew Tate’s misogyny The notorious TikTok ‘influencer’ may be in jail, but his ‘terrifying’ ideology has already taken hold in classrooms, teachers say When Abbie Marsh (not her real name) overheard a 15-year-old boy in the West Midlands school she works in praising Andrew Tate, the social influencer known as the “king of misogyny”, she asked him if he understood Tate’s views on women. The boy replied: “Well, men are better than women, so he’s right.” His friends all nodded in agreement. Marsh reported the conversation to her school’s head of safeguarding. She says misogyny is rife, even among students as young as 12, and is convinced Tate’s videos are fuelling it. “I heard one student in the playground introduce his girlfriend and as soon as she was out of earshot he was asked by several friends if they could ‘have a go’ with her,” she says. “I don’t think the staff are fully aware who Tate is and what he stands for,” she adds. “I worry for these boys’ girlfriends.” The 36-year-old British American is in custody in Romania after being arrested with his brother, Tristan, on 29 December as part of an investigation into human trafficking, rape and organised crime. But while the spotlight has switched to his activities in eastern Europe, schools in the UK are fearful Tate’s boosted media profile in the last few weeks could make his influence stronger than ever. Many parents may be hearing about Tate for the first time, but schools across the country say he is already a hugely familiar figure to many of their pupils. Many are giving teachers training on how to talk to students about him. Some are holding special assemblies, or using personal social and health education lessons to encourage students to question the content he puts out. Teachers say boys are often sucked into his “glamorous” ultra-macho world by more benign content on fast cars or fitness. But in his videos he also says women are a man’s property, cannot do jobs as well as men, and belong at home. He thinks rape victims should “bear responsibility” for their attacks and boasts about seeking out 18-year-old girls because they are “fresh”. Michael Conway, whose company Men at Work trains school staff on talking to boys about these issues, says: “Algorithms make it possible for someone like Tate to be hugely well known to 14- to 18-year-old boys” Conway has run sessions in 50 schools on online misogyny. Teachers have raised Tate’s influence in every one. One teacher talked about a lesson on sexual consent in which a boy quoted Tate, saying if a woman went out alone at night and was attacked it was her fault. Conway says teenagers also mention Tate as a form of “micro-aggression” towards female teachers. In one session Conway discussed the sexist meme “make me a sandwich”, used by some men on social media to belittle women. “A female teacher said: ‘I’ve got a lad in year 10 who always writes MMAS at the bottom of my homework,’” he says. “She hadn’t known what it meant until then. But he was trying to humiliate her.” Conway believes Tate is “grooming” young men in a similar way to terrorist groups or gangs, and his image of “conspicuous success” woos boys desperate for a connection. A teacher at a primary school in north London agrees. “It’s the most vulnerable and socially awkward boys that are drawn in and given a sense of belonging to something that is very dangerous.” She describes an “extremely vulnerable” 10-year-old “praising Tate and parroting his vile ideas” as “terrifying”. The school’s lessons on respect “can’t compete with the tidal wave of misogyny online”, she adds. Helen Hinde, assistant head at Meols Cop high school in Southport, has shared training resources on Tate with other schools, and asked her staff to be alert to any mention of him. “Boys are attracted to him because he tells them he is successful and rich. He is selling a lifestyle,” she says. “When we mention his hatefulness towards women, some excuse it as simply creating a successful life for yourself.” But she is “determined” to educate her pupils about the darker implications of what he is saying. “We don’t want to blame young people. We want them to learn to question the attitudes they encounter online.” Ben Karlin, who advises teachers on Twitter about how to counter Tate’s influence, says: “It’s important to try to explain what he’s doing and why. Yes, he’s successful and rich, but he made his money off you. Acknowledge that not everything he says is hateful: that’s his whole tactic.” Karlin describes Tate’s influence as “grooming on a massive scale” and insists schools must talk about him, as well as explaining how he has “gamed” the social media platforms and exploited their algorithms. “He may go to prison, but there will be another one playing the same game,” he adds. Thomas Michael, deputy safeguarding lead at a school in the West Midlands, says schools must have open conversations with boys about the issues Tate champions. “I told our year 9 boys that I grew up in a male-dominated family where aggression was celebrated. I got into fights. Then I realised I had to change. I asked them ‘Does that make me less of a man?’” But he warns that some well-meaning schools are only boosting Tate’s popularity. “There are lots of videos on TikTok of kids recording assemblies on Andrew Tate and they are loving making fun of it,” he says. “He tells them teachers don’t want them to hear the truth. Schools are doing his job for him.”
