I have issues with my dad. He wasnae around much when I was wee, and when he was it could be pretty turbulent.
I was left to follow around all sorts of substitute father figures, suitable and less suitable, in real life and online.
That’s how I understand the appeal of the likes of Andrew Tate – the sort of guy that better-adjusted types write off on sight.
He offers an easy-to-follow guide to being a man.
And there are plenty of people looking for that.
Andrew Tate is the latest in the line of hyper right wing, hyper masculine, male podcasters to be banned from Youtube, Instagram, Facebook etc.
He has been a kickboxing champion, a Big Brother contestant, a Bitcoin hype man, a Youtuber, a TikTok icon…
He is also a prominent hater of women, and radicaliser of young men and boys.
I hate to bring him to your attention, as you likely won’t have heard of him.
But many of the young men and boys in Tayside and Fife will definitely be listening to Andrew Tate and his fellow chauvinist charlatans.
So it’s better to be informed.
Andrew Tate targeted young men like me
Andrew Tate expresses the idea that “if you give a man true free rein to be who you want to be and you don’t let society programme you, he’s going to drive a fast car, he’s going to have a bunch of women, he’s going to want to have a bunch of money; he’s going to do whatever he wants.”
TikTok now joins Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook in permanently banning accounts ran by Andrew Tate 😳‼️ pic.twitter.com/6bpUsRqbce
— RapTV (@Rap) August 22, 2022
He talks about beating up women, and of targeting 18 year-olds for sex, despite being in his late 30s, because they are more impressionable.
He says these things to shock.
Maybe he believes them, maybe he doesn’t.
My suspicion is that he has a knack for creating memes that travel well, and build up his brand.
And he has had a further knack for monetising them.
Tate, from Luton, has also run an online programme he calls “Hustlers University”, claiming he could coach members into making tens of thousands of dollars a month, regardless of where they lived on the globe, and regardless of their skill or education level.
He has effectively recruited impressionable young men into being his standard bearers in exchange for perks.
Andrew Tate will move on – but young men will look for a replacement
My hope, dear reader, is that you can once again forget Andrew Tate.
He is ephemeral, and his time has passed.
He milked a lonely, broken online male audience for all he could take from it.
And now he’ll go off and do some other hellish thing elsewhere.
I couldnae fulfil the tenets of masculinity because I was too wee to win a fist fight and too odd to be a ladies man
Con men move on.
But the vast mass of lonely young men and boys remain.
And another shyster will be along soon to sell them snake oil and seduce them to violence.
Internet soaked up my anger and energy
As I said at the outset of the article, I was a bit rudderless when I was younger.
I needed a father figure and was a bit scattershot in my process of finding one.
I idolised the guys in my village. My primary school headmaster, my neighbours.
I had a grandad, an uncle, a big brother who were all able to provide guidance.
But as soon as the internet became accessible to me at the age of about 13, I discovered these hyper masculine guys, who were demanding I listen to them.
They had secret information about how the world Really worked.
Alex Jones was the one for me.
He’s a shock jock, a burly Texan conspiracy theorist. He’s also very rich.
He told me – broke and half-educated and angry – there was a planetary conspiracy against the likes of him and me.
September 11. The July 7 London bombings. Fluoride in the tap water. It was all part of a global plan to keep people like me down.
I believed it. It made me feel significant, like I mattered.
I had so much anger. So much energy. And so little purpose.
I couldnae get a job. Couldnae earn a bean.
I couldnae fulfil the tenets of masculinity because I was too wee to win a fist fight and too odd to be a ladies man.
I was spare. And there were men out there online looking to recruit and radicalise me.
And in a lot of ways I was lucky.
Young minds poisoned in internet chatrooms
Fife’s Sam Imrie was a similar demographic to me. And he was turned into a monster by what he engaged with online.
The white nationalist was jailed for seven and a half years last year after he posted messages on social media saying he was planning to attack Fife Islamic Centre in Glenrothes.
Imrie’s sense of spareness, of worthlessness, was easy poisoned in chatrooms into a hatred pointed at Jews, at Muslims.
There are many online who push hatred of women in the same way.
And a key part of the danger is in how we present masculinity to young men.
They are meant to be providers, leaders, bold and confident sexually, and potent financially.
I didn't know who Andrew Tate was but my 12yo son did.
Parents, they're coming for your boys. They market misogyny and racism to cishet white boys, in a package that seems appealing. Talk to your kids, have hard conversations. It's important.
— The Bard 💗💜💙 (@Dragonfly_Darcy) August 20, 2022
But the reality for most of us is we’re broke and deeply unsure of ourselves, trying to find a way to be in an uncertain world.
We are increasingly good at talking about male mental health, around suicide and depression.
This is saving male lives.
But let’s keep working.
Let’s try to talk about what we’re seeing online, and challenging the orthodoxies around masculinity.
Because lives here in Tayside, both male and female, are likely depending on it.
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