I keep seeing posts mentioning this phenomenon more and more often.

For instance:

More and more men are being sucked into parts of the internet that circulate misogynist content, leaving their families to deal with the wreckage

‘Andrew Tate phenomena’ surges in schools - with boys refusing to talk to female teacher

Like, why? Why now? Why even? I really wish I had a time machine where I could go to the future and ask them what the general reasons were for this social development. But I feel like I’m looking for the specific thorn on a cactus that popped my balloon.

  • SpongyAneurism@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz
    1·
    9 hours ago

    Very self-aware comment.
    I have to agree, we’re very easily swayed, especially as teenagers.

    I had to suffer through a lot of rejection by girls I was interested in as a teenager, and also pondered some very misogynistic ideas, that I ultimately rejected only because I couldn’t bring myself to extend that hate to the one girl that ever loved me back for a while. Otherwise I could have totally turned to a sort of incel (before I knew that term even existed), some of the ideas I came up with are shockingly close to what I later learned that they believe.

    I can only imagine how easy it would be to fall into that trap, when you’re feeling frustrated and are being bombarded by Tate and the likes through the self-enforcing ideology machinery that is social media.

    We really need to teach young men a healthier way to deal with the frustrations that occur in life and lead a better example of how to deal with negative emotions other than turning to hate like that.