Influencer of the misogynist movement Andrew Tate, who has said that he had left his home in the UK to Romania due to the fact that “rape laws are more lenient there,” was detained in Romania by Romanian officials on the 29th of December in connection with human trafficking and rape.
The nation’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, also known as DIICOT has confirmed they believe Tate as well as his twin brother Tristan are believed to have hired victims to participate in a criminal online porn fraud. In the translation of a press statement, DIICOT said that Tate and Tristan Tates were able to lure victims into a trap by convincing them that they were looking for genuine relationships. They then took to homes in which they were monitored constantly and forced to perform porn-related videos under threat of violence. The porn videos would later be offered for sale online.
Tate has proudly confessed to a version of this before: The self-declared “king of toxic masculinity” revealed to in the Daily Mirror that he along with his brother ran the “total scam” business in which ladies were paid to speak to men at a rate of 4 cents per minute and the Tate brothers were the ones to pocket the majority of the cash. This type of conduct is a key part of Tate’s brand of self-promotion, is that of Tate, the “straight-talking” hustler who films himself with extravagant sports cars and sexily dressed models, in bathrobes and smoking cigars meaning that if you followed his guidelines you could also live the same lifestyle.
While Tate has been pursuing fame for many years, his YouTube videos started to gain traction in the this year, when videos of his violent diatribes as well as unsavory entrepreneurial advice frequently were viewed by millions on TikTok. A lot of the debate about him is a result of a panic about the health of young and males at the time. During that period, both high and middle school teachers reported seeing an increase on sexual harassation and hatred in their classes from male students. In response, all prominent social networks have banned his accounts. However, under Elon Musk’s management, Twitter reinstated his account in November.
The brazenness of his brutality and luxurious-yet-trashy style has resulted in Tate the subject of a variety of negative stereotypes that are prevalent in modern internet culture, including the anti-feminist who capitalizes upon his position in the Me Too backlash, the unpopular dude who has a radio mic, and the person who promotes scam pyramid schemes that are connected to companies. This makes him easy to ridicule and that’s exactly what happened on the 27th of December the eco-activist Greta Thunberg to try to boast about how bad his cars can be for the planet. “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions,” to Thunberg, to which Thunberg responded, “yes, please do inform me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”
This exchange happened only two days prior to his arrest is purely coincidental however, conspiracy theories abound afterward: Tate responded to Thunberg with a photo of himself sitting next to a pizza container and many speculated that since the place of the pizza restaurant was clearly visible, it could be an indication of where he was. Romanian officials have rejected the existence of the situation and have been investigating the properties of Tate from April 2022 onwards, but Thunberg joked about the reports in a tweet, which stated, “this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”
In an arrest video, Tate can be heard declaring, “The Matrix has attacked me.” As people who have been familiar with “manosphere” or QAnon will be aware of, the sci-fi film’s notion that of”the “red pill” has become synonymous with the right-wing neoreactionary ideas that feminists have taken it too far and it is believed that “wokeism” is a serious moral threat to freedom of the individual and democracy, and that important democratic institutions are inherently untrustworthy.
DIICOT has thus far identified six victims that are said to have been sexually victimized by Tate’s group. the report did not mention who was charged with sexual assault. Tate and his brother is currently being held within the prison system for 30 consecutive days, and is not yet released despite false claims on TikTok.
The incident has put Andrew Tate’s name in the spotlight and the issue of how best to handle the young and boys who have embraced his stances. The popular Leftist streaming channel Vaush, “I cannot stress enough how important it is to understand that twelve year old white boys on twitch are not being pulled into fascism because of some Machiavellian desire to preserve and expand their privileges, it’s because the right talks to them and the left doesn’t.” It’s not clear the exact definition of an “leftist Andrew Tate for teen boys” will be like and whether left-leaning or mainstream culture truly ignores teens, who are continuing to be among the most important demographics for films and music, television, and video games.
Experts suggest that parents or supervisors who are concerned discuss with children their knowledge of Tate and what their thoughts are about Tate. “It’s good for parents to remind kids that it might be funny to them, but it might actually have a negative impact on people because it’s threatening, it’s scary, it’s upsetting,” one psychologist who is also a cybersecurity safety expert said to ABC Radio Australia. “What you can teach that child is how to build up your own confidence and security without necessarily embodying these really toxic traits, because there is a difference between masculinity and toxic masculinity.”
There are always creepy, charismatic reactionaries that are eager to take advantage of algorithms which reward anger and target young people, children who are still trying to figure out how the world functions and what their role is in it. Tate isn’t a unique genius and we shouldn’t be considering him a genius. It’s more important that when people stumble upon content that is similar to Tate’s — as captivating even as controversial it might be, they will discern the truth from the nonsense.