I don’t know anything about it except that I have seen memes where he seems to be selling self-help kits to young men, on the basis of his owning luxury cars and having muscles. I also heard that he recently converted to Islam. So, it was interested to read an article from one of the lady writers at The Federalist, and ask: what is the church’s strategy for giving young men a decent value proposition?
The article is by Evita Duffy-Alfonso, and she writes:
Andrew Tate is public enemy No. 1, and not because of the seriously flawed human trafficking charges he’s facing in Romania. Tate is hated because he speaks to disaffected men, and not just any disaffected men — he speaks to young disaffected men. Despite his moral pitfalls, which I have already identified and rebuked, Tate has a unique ability to comprehensively explain the stakes behind the West’s war against masculinity in a highly engaging manner to middle- and high-school boys.
There are some links in there that I removed, specifically where she talks about the charges he’s facing, and his moral pitfalls.
But the part that’s interesting is his appeal to young men:
For adolescent males in 2023, life has never been more dissatisfying and confusing. As Tucker Carlson put it in his viral interview with Tate this week, our culture’s message to young boys today is: “Stop being yourself. Sit still. Stop joking. Suppress your aggression. Share your feelings. Obey. Female qualities are virtuous, masculine qualities are oppressive.”
Tate speaks to young boys. He helps them pinpoint all their frustrations in our hyper-feminized society and gives them concrete ways to resist “the matrix” and embrace their masculinity. Tate might not be a perfect figure, but his larger argument that our elite’s version of masculinity is poisonous is something boys desperately need to hear.
I’m really suspicious of people who have majored in muscles and self-defense. To me, if you are putting time into meathead behaviors, then you don’t really know anything about how the universe works, or how to solve problems. I would rather listen to a scientist or a doctor or an economist or a garage mechanic talk. I value men who have real knowledge, and who earn money by doing work for other people in the competitive private sector. I like men who save and invest money, not men who display wealth for vanity. Especially when that vanity involves wasting money on depreciating assets like cars. I’ll take a T-bill over a Bugati any day, yes I will. But apparently, people prefer to listen to muscled, tattooed men.
But maybe there’s more to Andrew Tate than meets the eye, according to Evita. I can see why young men would resonate with thoughts like this:
One example of something people have found wildly offensive is Tate’s insistence that “depression isn’t real.” Tate explains that most cases of “depression” are natural human emotions irresponsibly treated with prescription drugs. “I don’t believe in depression, I believe in feeling depressed,” said Tate. “If you have to install software, in your own mind … why not adopt a mindset that makes me as competent and as fearsome as possible?”
I certainly agree that much of what passes for “mental illness” today is just a broken worldview. People who don’t know the truth tend to look inward at their own feelings and desires. They worry about comparing themselves to other people. Christianity has a lot to say about what our purpose is, but in the absence of a true worldview that teaches people to focus on telling the truth and self-sacrificially doing good to others, we are seeing a lot of navel-gazing narcissism, that leads to unnecessary mental illness and drug use.
More:
“If you feel a degree of uncomfortableness inside of your mind, I think it’s just your mind telling you that something about your life needs to change,” Tate told Carlson, emphasizing mental toughness and conditioning your mind to train, study, and go to work, even when you’re feeling unhappy. “I was in a Romanian jail cell, with cockroaches crawling all over me as I slept,” said Tate. “I never missed a day of training. I wouldn’t say I was particularly happy, but push-ups must be done, so they got done.”
Tate also stresses the importance of overall physical health for one’s mental health. He instructs men to boost their testosterone by working out, eating foods high in protein, and quitting porn. “Happiness and strength go hand in hand,” said Tate. “If you’re weak, you’re going to be miserable.”
Again, why would anyone think that physical training is a sign of competence? What knowledge do you gain doing push-ups? Do push-ups allow you to solve problems? Do you know how to write code or fix a car or do surgery after doing push-ups? What about getting a tattoo? Seems to me that this man is really a confused, unintelligent, low-value man. Not the kind of person I trust to do anything of value in the free market. Does this guy have a good marriage and intelligent, moral children who have good jobs, and serve others? I would be impressed if he did. I’m not impressed by men who can attract women with their looks and money. I don’t see the honor in getting women to like you for appearances. Would Tate’s women read a book for him, in order to learn about the moral issues that we’re facing in the world? I don’t think so. He’s not a leader of women. He doesn’t lead women to fight evil.
But this part I like:
He described the hypocrisy of the globalist, climate activists who galavant across the world in private jets and own beach homes that, according to their own calculations, will be underwater in a few years.
[…]Ultimately, Tate tells his young audience that everything comes down to authoritarianism. “Every government on earth — all of them … they all want to be as controlling as possible over their citizens.” He theorizes that things like the radical transgender movement are a “deliberate attack on … our senses” and serve the government by conditioning us to “ignore our eyes.” He says depression “is a fantastic way to subdue a population” because “if everybody’s depressed, it’s hard to have a revolution.”
“The reason men died on the Titanic was for self-respect and dignity. They went into the icy cold water and died because they would feel honorless if they jumped on the boat and left the women to die,” said Tate. “When you have self-respect and dignity … you’ll do things which are deemed crazy or insane, because you believe in them, and you stick up for yourself.” Authoritarian governments fear that level of agency and personal conviction.
That’s not wrong, but again, why listen to one man’s opinions? The reason I listen to someone like Stephen C. Meyer or Thomas Sowell is because their opinions are based on research and evidence. If we’re looking for an example of strength in the Christian community, I would pick William Lane Craig, who, with his 2 PhDs and loads of academic publications, has had great success debating and defeating enemies of the faith on university campuses in front of thousands of people. So I’m still not seeing why young men would be interested in the words of a meathead, however nice they may be, rather than finding out the truth about big questions. Maybe one reason why so many young men are interested in a meathead’s thoughts and opinions is because the church has done such a poor job of promoting dangerous, effective men like William Lane Craig.
Also, he can’t be very intelligent if he is a Muslim. I’m not saying that to be mean, but he didn’t adopt that view because he knows that it is true. It’s a very obviously false religion, when you look at it historically. Andrew Tate did not do any intellectual work in order to choose a true religion. So why think that he has done any intellectual work to arrive at his other beliefs? I don’t think you can find the history books in a gym, in a tattoo parlor, or in a luxury car. You don’t expect someone who majors in muscles and tattoos and (fast-depreciating) luxury cars to have a true worldview. He might be able to attract attention, but he doesn’t have the answers to life.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
Young men are interested in sex, money, and status and Andrew Tate purports to offer them a path. It really isn’t a mystery.
The depth of this appeal as well is that many, many young men are facing a future where the path to sex, money, and status is getting very restricted for them. Late stage sexual revolution meant sex only got easier for the very top percentage of men, for the rest of men it got much harder. Socialism continues to wreck the economy through regulation and taxation, so now money is harder to come by, and status is a tricky business in an apostate degenerating civilization.
Not saying any of that to be negative, nor am I defending Andrew Tate. If we lived in a time of real plague and a man showed up selling a snake oil cure, it wouldn’t be great but you’d understand why desperate people would buy his wares.
Also, it may be low intelligence, but we kind of are a low IQ society with low IQ problems.
And honestly we have screwed up when it comes to young men. When men “break the rules” and are rewarded with money, fame, and women, many men who follow the rules feel like suckers.
Of course the only way out is always through Christ because ironically the sinful way always ends badly that’s its nature. The wages of sin are death and any pleasure being offered is bait in a trap. We’ve got everything on our side we’re just allergic to using it for some reason.
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I first learned about Andrew right before Covid when Fresh and Fit had him on for an interview. The title of the show was “The King of Toxic Masculinity”. That interview gave me a lot of insight into the man before he really blew up and just took that title into new heights.
IMO, Tate is definitely flawed. But he came at a time when men like him and Kevin Samuels were needed. So many came before him and were eventually shamed, canceled, and blacklisted into silence. Essentially, anything that goes against the mainstream’s push to make the “Future Female” is demonized. And Tate just doesn’t care. He’s great in the more serious interviews to stick to his views.
And let’s be even more honest. Most of our young men are growing up without father’s in the household, or the fathers are so emasculated and watered down from the way father’s used to be. Where if you push your kid off his bike to teach him “a little pain is not death so you can overcome your fears…” that’s toxic and evil.
So, the young men latch onto these male figures who are giving them the fatherly advice they sorely needed. They didn’t/don’t even know WHY they need it, because they aren’t taught the Scriptures or the roles God designed for men and women.
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I think the problem is that we are not shaming women for choosing men based on appearance and feelings, instead of commitment. Commitment ability is what gives a man value. But we don’t have the balls to tell women to control themselves. No one does, not even the church.
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Agreed. They’ve effectively found a way to demonize that as “bashing women” or they’ll call you a misogynist.
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He also knows how to play on men’s frustrations. They know their disadvantages on society, and they resent them, and rightly so. The men are fed up. That’s why the red pill types keep growing in number.
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And Christian leaders have no answer except to blame men, shame men, and make more demands from men.
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Exactly. And they will see more and more young as well as older men telling them to stuff their worthless advice, because worthless is exactly what it is.
It would help if they got out of their ivory towers once in a while and saw what happens in the real world. But they won’t. It’s far easier to sit and yell at men for not committing than to examine what’s happening. Men are prudent to avoid women who cannot or will not commit and stay committed. This is 2023, not 1953.
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I can’t think of a single Christian leader except Matt Walsh and Clay Jones who is not stuck in 1953. They are all ignoring feminism and waiting for men to “step up” and wife up radical feminists. It’s “servant leadership”. And they will go down with that ship. No concern for the incentives facing men whatsoever.
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And most importantly, no concerns for the men affected either. That’s one huge reason the church is dying. Where are all these people like Al Mohler and Kevin DeYoung and others like them when men take their bad advice and end up in a royal mess? Nowhere, that’s where. Men are waking up to the fact these wannabe leaders couldn’t care less about them, and they rightly resent it.
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Given the problems we face and the response from Christian leaders, it nakes more sense up look to people like Tucker Carlson and Matt Walsh.
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I’m going to divert from you slightly on the issue of physical training Wintery. You are absolutely correct that one’s ability to build muscles does not in and of itself prove that a person is competent, useful to society, or a good husband and father.
However, regular physical training does promote good health, physical strength (which is unquestionably useful), and discipline. All three of these things are useful characteristics that apply to other aspects of life such as professional success and being a good husband and father. That’s why I usually find it rare that people who go to the gym on a regular basis are not similarly successful in other areas of their lives.
That being said, Andrew Tate is a scam artist, preying on young men in an effort to make money. However, what people often forget is that the best scams are the ones that are 90% true. Truly outrageous scams don’t catch on, but if you can hook your targets in with some good information, you can then gradually attach more and more extreme ideas to it until the victim can no longer distinguish between the true and false aspects of your pitch.
Tate starts with a premise that is unquestionably true, namely that modern feminism is harmful to both men and women and that if men want to avoid depression, they need to take action. Getting a job, working hard, having discipline, and training your body physically are all healthy and productive ways to improve your self-esteem. Young men will see the results if they do this, and afterwards, they’ll see Tate as a man with credibility. He did help them overcome their depression did he not?
Tate then, however, takes it a step further, promising these same men that for $50 per month (or more in some cases), he can let you into an exclusive community where you’ll learn hidden secrets by which you can become as rich and successful as he is. Once in, he and his employees will use all the standard cult techniques to keep you in the scheme, shaming you for not working hard enough if you don’t become as wealthy and successful as Tate. Those that have gone undercover into Tate’s scheme have revealed that it is functionally no different from any other cult.
What young men need is real leaders who encourage them to embrace their masculinity for the right reasons and not demand that they fork over outrageous amounts of money for a lifestyle that is unrealistic and unsatisfying anyways. They also need leaders who teach them how to think and not what to think.
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I happy to be corrected about the strength training. I do it 2-4 times a week and have been doing it since mid 20s.
The other stuff you wrote about the cult is very disturbing. You’re always way ahead of me on the badness of people like Pearly Things and Andrew Tate.
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One final thing that I think is worth noting:
I don’t think Tate’s conversion to Islam has anything to do with him being convinced that Islam is true. However, I think Tate likes the idea of Muhammad, since Tate is in many ways the spiritual descendant of Muhammad. Unlike other Muslims who are limited to 4 wives in this life, Muhammad had a special exemption from Allah that allowed him to have as many wives as he wanted. He also snagged the wife of his adopted son and slept with the handmaiden of another of his wives.
Why did this happen? According to the Qur’an, it was because God was so pleased with Muhammad that he wanted nothing more than to fulfill Muhammad’s sexual desires. Just to make sure no one misunderstood Allah’s intentions, Qur’anic revelation was provided to make sure everyone knew this was the case.
Think about Tate’s lifestyle for a minute, and it’s not hard to see why he prefers Islam to Christianity.
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Well, I just like when people do an investigation and adopt a view because it’s true, then defend it. I don’t respect people who form beliefs the way he did.
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Tate is what Trump would have become had he been born in the late 80s or early 80s. Dude trolls the Left with his muscles rather than a comb-over and its hilarious. That’s his appeal.
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Hrm. I have to say that I find your view of Tate to be a little offensive. “Meathead behaviors”? “What knowledge do you gain by doing push-ups”? The world requires both scholars and warriors, friend, and to say you are “suspicious of people who have majored in muscles and self-defense” is a little odd. I think you put yourself at a disadvantage by not understanding their necessity, but also not understanding that they are simply wired differently and some likely find your obsession with knowledge to be weird and useless. I’m not trying to come down on you or anything, in fact I am more like you than Tate, though I certainly try to mix in physical fitness with what I do, but I really am kind of shocked at your take, given the thinker you are.
That being said, I’ve heard some of Tate’s takes on things over the past few years, and personally I feel he is like many ‘red-pill’ types who have found something pseudo-biblical, but because they are not followers of Christ the associate it to worldly things. We are called to be men, to be strong and unafraid. To be leaders in our homes and to raise up strong, christian families. The world tells men to be weak and effeminate, and that men are practically useless. When young men follow the words of the world they find they have no purpose, and they wander aimlessly. Tate has re-discovered the fact that men DO have purpose, and that purpose comes through the struggle of living and working and combat and surviving. Things men were made to do, but that have been pushed nearly into oblivion by technology. This leaves the gym as the replacement, but the gym isn’t required for survival so it becomes a battle just to get up and go. Where land and horses and a kingdom once were, evidence of prosperity, cars and fancy things have taken their place. These things appeal to young men, as they always have, Tate is just one of the few men out there who isn’t backing down from the pressure of culture, and proclaiming, rather loudly, that men are being sold a false bill of goods, and that they can reclaim their place by ignoring the system and doing the exact opposite. It will help a lot of young men turn into, at minimum, not-effeminate adults, and the drive Tate pushes, to get up and do things, will also spill over into learning. If you can master the body you can master the mind. Once you learn to focus and be consistent in one thing you can apply it to other things and see results. Overall I think he has a lot of good things to say, but any christians who listen to him need to pick out the meat from his words and discard the rest. I wouldn’t recommend any christian men I know make Tate the main course of their red-pilled intake, simply because he is not christian, but wisdom is wisdom, and take it where you find it.
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Thanks for your comment. Sorry if I upset you.
I also don’t like people who have a lot of tattoos and piercings. I like people who can solve problems that require study and planning. Scientistists, engineers, doctors, etc. People who know how to create value for others by their knowledge. Andrew Tate has no skills like that.
I do lift weights 2-4 times a week though.
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Nah, your opinion is your own, an it certainly didn’t upset me, it just seemed oddly…out of character, I guess. I can understand not liking Tate, but to say one doesn’t like or trust people who focus on physical fitness over academic study seemed odd. I mean no foul and take none either. 👍
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Sorry this video really made me very upset with Andrew Tate.
I don’t think we need to rely on the words of someone whose qualifications as a man are: 1) muscles, 2) tattoos, 3) whatever he is describing in that video.
I admire men who are leaders (by example) on moral and spiritual issues. I don’t think that whatever he is doing for money counts as moral and spiritual leadership.
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I certainly don’t agree with what Tate does, or has done, with regard to women, but as I used to tell my kids: You can appreciate parts of a person without appreciating the whole person. I don’t think Tate is a good person, but I can see things that other men can take from. I think men should be consistent in training their bodies and be fit, I think men should be more resistant to letting other people dig into them with words, and I think men should care less about what women say and do when it is not rational. None of these things are really being pushed by the current Western culture or even the church, and that’s sad. Wisdom permits us to pick the meat from Tate’s words and actions, while spitting out the bones. His cam-girl antics are nothing that interest me or that I wish to emulate, but I do wish I had his drive for fitness, because it is certainly as useful as my book knowledge in some situations.
Anyhow, just my thoughts. Again, no harm, no foul. I’m less defending Tate than wondering why the harsh words for non-academics, but to each his own. 👍
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