Lucy Nichols looks at why everyone is talking about the right-wing demagogue, and what’s wrong with his views on women 

Andrew Tate is the most famous man you’ve never heard of. The British-American millionaire influencer has an enormous online following. A right-wing, self-proclaimed misogynist, Tate uses a variety of platforms to spread his largely very hateful and dangerous philosophy.

His short and snappy videos often feature large houses, supercars, and Cuban cigars. He overcuts snappy graphics with short, fast, sentences crammed with buzzwords. His content is incredibly easy to digest, which is probably why he is so popular.

On 29^th December, after a Twitter spat with Greta Thunberg, Tate and his brother were arrested in Romania on charges of human trafficking and rape. A Romanian official told the BBC that Tate, his brother, and two others ‘appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content’. The investigation is ongoing, with Tate remanded in custody, and just about everyone is talking about Tate.

The former kickboxer was thrown off Big Brother by Channel 5 after a video emerged where he appeared to be beating a woman with a belt, while threatening to kill her. Since then, he has remained more or less away from the limelight, although in 2022 he became one of the most well-known influencers in the world. He has been banned from Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, interviewed by Piers Morgan (twice), cancelled, uncancelled and he even converted to Islam. He loves Dubai, and rather bizarrely, supports the recent strikes by the RCN. He has met with Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, and Donald Trump, and loves Elon Musk. If you haven’t heard of him, ask your teenage son.

Tate calls himself a ‘self-made’ millionaire, encouraging his followers to work harder, earn more money, and most importantly: subscribe to his variety of online programs that help men (and only men) become rich and powerful alpha-males, just like he is.

Dangerous

Tate has an opinion on everything, from breakfast, which he argues is ‘the worst thing to ever happen to humanity’ to how a man ought to treat his girlfriend. He is a Covid-truther, who believes that the elites have ruined the world by ‘destroying masculinity’ through the nuclear family and monogamy.

His politics are largely based around an ultra-individualistic approach towards self-improvement and how this is tied to the creation and maintenance of wealth, rather than any intelligent analysis. His attitudes towards women are worrying, as he appears to believe that women are nothing more than objects that exist for men’s sexual gratification. He was initially banned from Twitter for saying that woman ought to ‘bear responsibility’ for being sexually assaulted.

While his politics do not exactly represent mainstream political thought in Britain, his ideas are dangerous. Those who support him do so with immense enthusiasm, as the horribly sexist recent attacks on Greta Thunberg have demonstrated. Tate is immensely popular amongst teenage boys, who are often at risk of being radicalised online.

Populism

Tate is not the first of his kind and is unlikely to be the last. Since around 2016, and the emergence of Donald Trump and his nightmare populism, there have been a number of hate-spouting YouTubers and influencers whose content is largely aimed at teenage boys and young men. Most people may not have heard of right-wing influencers like Ben Shapiro, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Jordan Peterson, but they are well known on corners of the internet frequented by many young people, especially young men.

This new kind of right-wing populism, the alt-right, has dangerous consequences, and has previously resulted in racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and extreme violence. While Tate is far from a white supremacist (he is mixed-race himself) and doesn’t necessarily align with the far-right, his views on women certainly do. Women are the primary recipients of his hate, although he does not shy away from attacking men he doesn’t consider ‘masculine’ enough, for instance, any man that uses E-cigarettes, spends excessive amounts of time with his children, or is a ‘dork’. Tate’s version of hypermasculinity therefore hurts men too, as he attempts to persuade his following that they ought to treat women a certain way in order to become a ‘real’ man.

Sexism remains rife and often fatal. What starts as a derogatory joke can easily turn into harassment, and the last few years have proven that women are certainly not safe from horrific sexual violence. Tate’s words should not be ignored, especially given his fantastic grasp of social media and huge reach. It is of course up to the left to counter sexism wherever it crops up, rather than hoping for support from the establishment. This does not mean engaging in Twitter spats with Tate trolls, but taking to the streets to target misogyny and hate.