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Here’s the Tate article, a bit long, but well worth reading in its entirety, some deep digging here. Wide implications that are applicable to other online “influencers”. Pinging the Substack ping list (freepmail to get on/off).

https://jordansather.substack.com/p/on-andrew-tate-and-truth-telling

On Andrew Tate and “Truth Telling” Cults of Personality
Identify narcissistic tendencies and guard yourself from predatory behavior of internet influencers

The first time I heard of Andrew Tate was a few months ago, a little late to the party since I couldn’t care less about nonsense internet trends. If you aren’t familiar with who this guy is, he blew up on social media this year in “motivation” and “mindset” circles with the controversial life advice he posts, along with sharing his extravagant lifestyle of private jets and Bugatti sports cars on his social media. He acquired a devoted following of young men who think that by following Tate’s advice they will become wealthy alpha males, and he also developed a following of social justice warriors who can’t stand him.

I was curious as to the fad around the guy, Tate fanatics saying that he’s “helping men become men again” and “destroying woke culture”, so I went to check out his Instagram. The first thing I noticed was that nearly every single picture posted for months was either him with his shirt off, his diamond Rolex, a pic of his Bugatti sports cars, or him on his private jet. I thought to myself, this is what all these dudes are fawning over? This materialism? This is what they think success is?

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Then a few days ago he got arrested in Romania over human trafficking and money laundering allegations. At first I wasn’t sure if this had been some set up to smear the guy, as I had seen some of Tate’s proponents suggest this theory online. “They’re trying to shut him up! It’s all untrue!” - yet a few researcher sent me information on how Andrew Tate actually made his money, at least at the beginning of his career. Turns out he and his brother ran a webcam porn business using cam girls that would work for them. Basically internet pimps. That answered a lot of questions about how this guy came to prominence. Then it appears he got into internet marketing, build an online course to sell, and used controversy to propel himself into viral stardom.

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I see this all too often in the patriot/truth telling world. Fake claims of having “insiders” or “secret sources” to build mysteriousness around the internet personality, making sure their audiences comes to them and only them for the “real intel”. They give false promises of knowing exactly when the “big bombs will drop!”, and fake intel that “something big has already happened! It’s going to come out!” (it never does). They clickbait with fake stories about new financial systems making everyone rich, of military arrests and globalists at GITMO, of children being saved in tunnels, of aliens saving humanity, I could go on and on with the insanity I’ve heard from tracking these influencers. Most of them are fairly new to the citizen journalism scene, only started their video channels within the last year or two, my guess is to capitalize on the wild west that is conspiracy theory research and the social media reporting scene. They see easy money, easy fame, and vulnerable people who feel lost and scared about the world are their easy prey. “Hopium” is a new term invented to describe what these con-artists peddle, as their followers are essentially addicted to their emotionally-driven misinformation. It’s a mockery that they call themselves truth tellers.

[Much more at link]