Leftism is eager to destroy norms, from gender roles to traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity. But these assaults do not mean anyone should embrace equally toxic alternatives. There’s no better example of this than the urge to praise Andrew Tate.
Tate is a former kickboxer and online provocateur who brags about his womanizing, wealth, and fitness, among other things. He encourages young men to follow him and his equation to success. Tate stands opposite the woke Left, and unfortunately, this antiwoke mentality leads far too many impressionable men and women to believe he’s worth following. But Tate is not just assertive, unapologetic, and cruel. He’s not just a misogynist. He’s a self-described former pimp who made his money from a camgirl business.
He is on video talking about beating women before sex. He has been charged with multiple crimes, including human trafficking. He has children with multiple women and believes this behavior should be duplicated by other men. Just two weeks ago, he posted on X, “Fact. Women are sex workers,” and went on to explain this as if it’s a truth about women. His path to notoriety includes everything the Left hates. He should also be wholly rejected by the Right.
Partisan politics is all about winning the battle against the other side. However, the enemy of our enemy is not always our friend. The term “toxic masculinity” is used far too often to describe most anything disliked by the patriarchy-hating Left. But Tate and his abusive, sex-obsessed, controlling, arrogant, and superficial brand fall perfectly into the category of toxic masculinity. He is everything men, young and old, should renounce. This call to condemn Tate and his acolytes is a hard sell in a world that praises the effeminate. But turning away from progressivism to embrace someone such as Tate simply isn’t the answer.
Criticizing Tate is made even more difficult when personalities on the Right look to him as doing some good. Recently, popular online personality Benny Johnson interviewed Tate. He was roundly criticized for it and, in response, defended his decision. But Johnson didn’t grill Tate on his past or present. Instead, he fawned over him. On the show with Tate was Alina Habba, attorney and senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump. Habba praised Tate as well.
This public approval by well-known people on the Right only creates confusion. But Tate is in no way a role model, as commentator Ben Shapiro sharply argued in his Monday show titled, “The Right Should DUMP Andrew Tate.”
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It’s one thing to feel helpless as society lurches to the Left. Reclaiming culture is a worthy goal. But that problem is not solved by Tate, a man whose words and actions not only reject conservative ideals but very basic tenets of morality. There are far better examples both in the spotlight and out of it. Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, routinely calls out the Left without endorsing toxicity on the Right. Ross Douthat, a political analyst who writes for the New York Times, remains unapologetically conservative. Individually, we all know men — fathers, grandfathers, brothers, or friends — whose masculinity is a complement to those in their lives.
Anyone who applauds Tate is exchanging one type of extremism for another. He is the kind of person parents wouldn’t want their daughters around and the kind of person no young man should look to as a role model. Conservatives can and should reject Tate as an ambassador for masculinity. The Left and Right don’t agree on much. But when it comes to a misogynistic predator such as Tate, we can agree on this: We don’t need more like him.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a contributing freelance columnist at the Freemen News-Letter.