The coverage of the arrest of controversial influencer Andrew Tate in the worldwide news has been quite surreal. Certainly, Tate’s recent arrest has been met with an element of glee in a substantial section of the corporate media, whose delight in his apparent downfall is almost palpable. Despite Tate not being convicted on any criminal charges, a majority of media outlets seem to be competing with each other to see who can be more pejorative in their descriptions of Tate, who currently comes across like the villain of a bad James Bond movie.
Tate, his brother Tristan and two other women currently remain incarcerated in Bucharest, Romania, on charges of human trafficking and establishing an organized crime group. Romanian police charge that the group forcefully made victims produce pornographic content for social media. Tate lost his appeal against being held for 30 days at a detention center and prosecutors were seeking an extension of the brothers’ detention for up to 180 days whilst they continued their investigation into alleged charges.
Tate’s arrest came just hours after getting involved in an unseemly Twitter spat with the prominent climate change activist Greta Thunberg with both making implicit phallic references at each other. Tate, a climate change skeptic, was roundly ridiculed for his tweet by a chorus of establishment figures and media personalities who elevated Thunberg to semi-sainthood for her equally vacuous reply.
Although a significant portion of Tate’s messaging consists of regular ostentatious displays of his lifestyle and material possessions, there is no doubt that Andrew Tate poses a threat to mainstream ideologies such as liberalism and feminism. Tate has found huge success by calling men to a version of masculinity that is at odds with the general direction of Western culture.
The influence of Tate is seen as so pernicious that during a UK parliamentary session on 10th January, Alex Davies-Jones, the Labour MP for Pontypridd, urged the Prime Minister to take action. Davies-Jones called for the stamping out of Andrew Tate-style “misogyny” being spread in schools and demanded the prime minister to stop boys being “brainwashed” by the social media influencer. Davies-Jones referenced an article in The Times newspaper which recently reported that schools across the UK are in crisis as the effect of online influencer Andrew Tate’s vile misogyny infiltrates our classrooms and society. “Teachers are now having to develop their own resources to re-educate boys who are being brainwashed online by his deeply toxic messaging.”
Furthermore, numerous negative articles such as those published by the BBC, quote teachers who are struggling to curtail Tate’s influence. Secondary school teacher Charlotte Carson describes Andrew Tate, as a role model to many boys at her school in Belfast. Carson, in a crude equivocation, condemns Tate’s “Taliban beliefs” and describes him as ‘pathetic and insecure’. In another article on the BBC website, a mother complains of her son being ‘radicalized’ because he echoed many of the sentiments promoted by Tate on social media. All articles conclude by highlighting the need for action in curtailing Tate’s influence on ‘vulnerable’ young men.
Similarly, an article in The Telegraph, a newspaper with a history of anti-Islamic sentiment, reported how an Oxfordshire school was running workshops and lessons for students to respond to Tate’s online messages in an effort to counter his ideas. The Telegraph article goes on to depict Tate as an Islamic ‘Pied Piper’ figure, who has bewitched a whole generation of directionless young men to follow him on a journey of rabid patriarchy and misogyny. The article quotes author Yousra Imran who suggests that Tate may have been tempted by Islam because of ‘…the stereotype that Islam is religion that condones violence against women’ and ‘… how many “patriarchal, Salafi” Muslims lap up Tate’s rhetoric. Overall, Imran implies that Tate’s followers gravitate to his message because ‘misogynist men are willing to overcome their different beliefs and religions to ally themselves together in their hatred against women’. Imran further posits that philosophies embodied by the likes of Tate have overtaken ‘Islamic radicalisation’ as the primary threat to young men at college campuses.
Ironically, the same establishment outlets who fall over themselves to persecute the likes of Andrew Tate for promoting his brand of masculinity have nothing but positive things to say about more destructive lifestyles such as transgenderism, gender reassignment, LGBTQ, and wokeism being introduced to primary school children. They will also be the first to call for the cancellation and de-platforming of anyone who disagrees with their pestilent liberal agenda. Crucially, it is worth noting that the same outlets that are condemning the ‘toxic’ message of Andrew Tate have been absolutely silent on fatuous female celebrities such as Nikki Minaj, Cardi B, the Kardashians and many of their cheap clones, who have destroyed an entire generation of rudderless young women by encouraging sexual promiscuity, nudity, vulgarity and shallowness.
While many online personalities from alleged Muslim backgrounds have joined the media frenzy to wholeheartedly condemn Andrew Tate, other prominent voices in the Muslim world have called for a balanced approach when dealing with Andrew Tate. The prominent Muslim debater and influencer Mohammad Hijab interviewed Andrew Tate on 29 October on his YouTube channel just after Tate’s conversion to Islam. This interview has generated 2.2 million views so far. Hijab made a video on 11 January responding to the allegation made against Andrew Tate in which he called for Muslims to be more balanced in their judgment considering Tate has not yet been convicted of any crimes. Hijab stressed that Tate is at the beginning of his journey and will take time to be completely free of the influences and temptations of his previous hedonistic lifestyle. He called for people to show Tate the same patience they did with the singer Sinead O’Conner, who was embraced into the fold of Islam with no objections.
Ultimately, the non-stop media circus that surrounds Andrew Tate is unlikely to subside because it is controversy, not truth, that creates views and revenue. As the great French footballer Eric Cantona once remarked “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.”
Tariq Kurd
