Andrew Tate may be facing a mounting number of international charges for alleged sex crimes, but this doesn't mean we've seen the end of "masculinity influencers" who make big bucks by preying upon the the insecurities of young men. On Tuesday, Ben Terris of the Washington Post profiled Nick Adams, a self-described "Alpha Male" who wins over young men with an is-he-kidding shtick focused on the ever-present threat of emasculation supposedly posed by everything from liberals to girlfriends to salmon entrées at restaurants.
Like most similar marketers of so-called masculinity, Adams targets young men's fears of loneliness or failure — which are no doubt both real and prevalent — with the false promise that embracing aggressive misogyny is the key to achieving your dreams. Adams has evidently cashed in because he's good at employing faux-irony in order to push his message. Terris, who has an eye for telling details, zeroes in on excellent examples of the "jokey but serious" rhetoric.
