"This Teacher Is Worried That Internet Grifters Are Brainwashing Your Sons"

Young men are clearly searching for guidance on how to “be a man” and a lack of interest from us in offering them a healthy image of manhood has encouraged them to seek this guidance online. This has resulted in the popularization of profoundly toxic values promoted by grifter influencers who are actively targeting young men a.k.a. our students and sons. In order to write this article, I watched around thirty videos from two of the above-mentioned influencers (apparently and ridiculously known as manfluencers).

The first one is called Andrew Tate, a self-described kickboxing fighter and entrepreneur who is also currently being investigated for several high impact crimes, most of them sex related. I also had the dubious privilege of reading not only his ideas, but also several short stories authored by him, all available on his website. He is extremely popular worldwide among young men.

The second one is called Luis Castillejo but he is popularly known as Temach and portrays himself as a relationship and life counselor/couch and musician. Temach is massively popular not only in our country but also across other Latin American countries. I refrained from analysing each and every quote separately, I believe there is more than enough of that content online, I also will not explain the history of these influencers, but I do encourage anyone concerned to search for the information online. In this article I attempted to summarize the “manfluencer” ideology and explain why we should be concerned.

There are some surface differences between the content promoted by both influencers. Andrew Tate’s content concentrates on selling courses oriented to money making and “being a man.” Temach on the other hand relies mostly on relationship advice from the point of view of a self-described “alpha[1].” However, both prescribe more or less the same ideology. This ideology presents a worldview centered around self-reliance, hyper-individualism, and a rejection of empathy, focusing on power dynamics, gender relations, and social ascent through personal transformation. Its values vary from harmless or acceptable to problematic and dangerous, and all the way into irrational and fascistic. Here is a summarized breakdown:

1. Lack of Empathy and Individualism: This ideology assumes that empathy is a weakness. Individuals are encouraged to solve problems independently, focusing on self-reliance and personal growth over communal support. The only acceptable support must come from within the “tribe”.

[1] According to Temach, Alpha is a man who has the qualities that make him a “high value” man, mainly dominance, strength, athleticism, and intensity.

2. A need for Conquest & Recognition: There is a deep desire for dominance and the need to be recognized for one’s achievements. Success, respect, and recognition must be earned through personal development, actions, and assertiveness.

3. Self-Improvement & Purpose: A strong insistence on working on oneself is central to the ideology, positioning personal growth and the search for purpose as the most important pursuits. Value is seen as linked to scarcity, one must become exceptional and rare to be of worth, especially when searching for a partner.

4. Generational Discontent: The ideology reflects dissatisfaction with a generation of men who feel unprepared for life’s struggles, particularly in a modern society that is perceived as lacking clear purpose or structure. Men are encouraged to “wake up” (through the "red pill[2]" concept) to the harsh realities of life, particularly regarding gender and power dynamics.

5. Gender Dynamics & Women: A controversial view is held regarding women, with the belief that in the absence of a male "master" or dominant figure, women will naturally rise to assume a dominant role. Women are believed to be attracted to and will respect only men who exhibit traits of dominance. The independence of women is seen as a form of deceit or manipulation. A sense of a current “war against men” is promoted.

6. Appeals to Biology & Evolution: The ideology leans heavily on evolutionary psychology, claiming that human behavior, particularly gender roles and dynamics, should be understood through biological imperatives. This creates a justification for power imbalances and hierarchical social structures.

7. Social Class & Employment: A critique of traditional employment, which is viewed as soul-crushing and limiting, is central to the ideology. The solution to this malaise is the pursuit of wealth and financial independence to escape the oppressive societal structures, with an underlying resentment towards the ruling elite.

 [2] A metaphor that implies becoming aware of political biases in society and becoming an independent thinker, quite common in “manfluencer” content.

8. War & Community: Society is depicted as a constant battlefield, and men are encouraged to form tight-knit communities of like-minded individuals who support each other in the pursuit of power and success. There is a strong emphasis on camaraderie and behaving like an "alpha" in this social structure.

9. Ideological Consistency & Propaganda: The ideology tends to reject doubt and complexity, favoring clear, black-and-white thinking. It often employs logical fallacies, like the appeal to nature and simplifications that present easy solutions to complex social issues. There is a reliance on repetition and simplistic arguments that reinforce the core beliefs.

10. Rejection of Conventional Wisdom & Convenient Beliefs: The ideology rejects mainstream values, offering instead an alternative narrative of how to succeed and live according to the “true” rules of life, which often involve rejecting societal expectations in favor of power, individualism, and self-assertion.

In summary, this ideology promotes a worldview based on individual self-building, the rejection of traditional norms, and a focus on power and self-improvement. It asserts that modern men must reclaim dominance, particularly in relationships with women, while advocating for wealth and autonomy as the ultimate goals to escape societal constraints.

Now, a number of these ideas are not nearly as harmful as others. There is nothing wrong with aiming to improve yourself, there is nothing evil about searching for community, there is nothing bad about a young man searching for advice on how to be a man.

However, some of these tenets are definitely dangerous. People reading this article might recognize the lack of empathy, need for conquest, a sense of victimhood, misogyny, appeals to nature, social Darwinism, glorification of war, rejection of intellectualism, and general warmness towards irrationality as classic principles of fascism. I am not saying that Andrew Tate and Temach hold swastika parties when nobody is watching, I am saying that if Andrew Tate and Temach were presented with the Nazi political platform, with some keywords altered, they would probably agree with quite a bit of what is being proposed.

This is not the young men’s fault; this is our fault. It is precisely because there is nothing else for them that they end up listening to these “manfluencers.” Gender equality has made some advancements, we now know that traditional masculinity as we have understood it before is something that we should not be proud of, but we left the younger generations with nothing to replace it. Of course there are other, much healthier, male figures that young men could follow but none of them are speaking directly to them, these “manfluencers” are. Some of the interactions seen on their videos clearly point to a population of adolescents that are in dire need of some sort of father figure, a role model. Furthermore this “manfluencer” discourse contains a high degree of resemblance to other reactionary ideologies that appear whenever an oppressed group demands or archives a degree of justice and equality, in this case said group is women in other cases its people of color or poor people for example. When poor people demand equality, rich people believe they are being attacked, when people of color demand justice white supremacists argue they are being discriminated against, and in this case the advancement of gender equality has resulted in an emergence of men who confuse men's privileges with men’s rights.

A first step to solve this is to offer young men in our community a new role model. Something must replace traditional masculinity in a way that is fair for all genders involved while at the same time allowing young men to feel comfortable and secure with their masculinity.

We also must accept that some of the success of these “manfluencers” comes from a few truths in their discourse. We do dehumanize people without money, we do value violence over reason, we do judge people by their looks, these influencers are not lying when they say that, and we do have the responsibility to create a better society not just for our young men but for everyone. A society in which they do not feel that only a bunch of grifter losers and their acolytes will see the worth in them.